What is Happening in Algeria? The Full Story Told by an Algerian Citizen
By: Mohamed Rafik
Tags: Algeria, Algeriacalling, Revolutionary, Revolution, Protests In Algeria

After the Ottoman empire lost its naval base in Algeria in the battle of Navarino in the year of 1827, Algeria became a land without a real defence force. In 1830, France declared a military campaign against Algeria, aiming to conquest the land. The campaign was successful and France set the sails for colonialism that lasted one hundred and thirty years (1830–1962).

During the French colonialism in Algeria, France suffered many losses since the Algerians kept fighting for their freedom. Perhaps the most famous resistance is the one which was led by Emir Abdelkader, but after years of fighting France was able to defeat him and imprison him in the year 1848. Many revolutions were declared by Algerian fighters and were embraced by the people, but the successful one was the revolution of November the first 1954 led by the National Liberation Front “FLN” party which was able to win the war against France and succeeded in gaining the independence on the fifth of July 1962.

After the independence, the National Liberation Front “FLN” became the authority. They were loved nationally by the locals and recognized internationally by the foreigners. The first few years were bloody, there were many conflicts within the party and outside of it. But at the end, the power came to the hands of Houari Boumediene, who became the second president of Algeria, after his military coup against the first president of Algeria Ahmed Ben Bella. Boumediene had many positives. many people, in fact, most of the Algerians consider him a man of magnanimity, but there are some people who blame him and held him the responsibility for the miserable state of Algeria today. But why? Well, Boumediene, who was the defence minister, and the one who build the Algerian army, had the idea of bringing the Algerian officers, who worked in the French army during the French colonialism, to be leaders and to hold sensitive positions in the Algerian army since they have more experience. Many people disagreed with him, some of them were powerful men in the military such as colonel Muhammad Chabani, who was responsible and the chief of region number III in the Algerian military divisions. Houari Boumediene and president Ahmed Ben Bella sought to convince colonel Muhammad Chabani but with no result, since colonel Chabani and many leaders with him considered the officers who worked with France during the Algeria war of independence traitors. The government had to get rid of him since Chabani started to have an impact in the Algerian army and many men in the military started to listen to him and to be convinced by his ideas concerning the officers. So, Chabani was persecuted on the third of September 1964. Later, Ahmed Ben Bella said to Aljazeera: “If we did not kill him, America would have killed him”.

The French officers took their positions in the Algerian military, and after few years, president Houari Boumediene died. His death is surrounded by many suspicions, some people say he was killed, some people say he died normally after he was infected with a weird disease. Anyways, after his death, the French officers became generals and they became the deep state of Algeria.