The Algerian president said that the massacres of dozens of Algerian independence protesters in Paris in 1961 are "heinous crimes committed by the sinful colonizer against the daughters and sons of the Algerian people in the diaspora," describing the day of the massacre as "a fateful day."
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune described Monday the massacres of dozens of Algerian independence protesters in Paris in 1961 as a fateful day.
On October 17, 1961, the French police, by order of its commander in Paris, Maurice Papon, attacked a peaceful demonstration of thousands of Algerians who came out to demand the country's independence.
According to historians, the French police deliberately killed dozens of demonstrators in the streets and subway stations, and threw a number of injured people from bridges into the Seine, which led to their death, which became known as the 1961 Paris massacre.
"We have mercy on the victims of that fateful day," Tebboune said in a message published by the Algerian presidency on the occasion of the 61st anniversary of the Paris massacres, stressing that it was "heinous crimes against the sinful colonizer committed against the daughters and sons of the Algerian people in the diaspora."
He added: "The martyrs of that heinous massacre joined the freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives to get rid of colonial oppression."
According to the official Algerian television, President Tebboune, accompanied by all presidential cadres, today (Monday) held a minute of silence for the lives of the victims of those massacres.
On Monday, Algeria commemorated this anniversary, locally called the "National Migration Day", in memory of the Algerian immigrants in France who participated in those demonstrations.
On Sunday, the majority party in Algeria called on the French authorities to recognize the historic massacres that killed dozens of Algerian demonstrators in Paris in 1961.
In a statement, the National Liberation Front (the former ruling coalition) demanded that the French authorities recognize the massacres as a "state crime" and apologize for them.