In a message sent on the eve of National Emigration Day, which commemorates the 65th anniversary of the 17 October 1961 demonstrations, the President of the Republic voiced pride in "the spirit of loyalty and national commitment that continues to inspire every Algerian woman and man in our community around the world," extending his greetings to all members of the disapora, wherever they may be.

President Tebboune stressed "the State’s full resolve to ensure their protection and look after their interests," and to "facilitate the travel of our citizens and their families, guaranteeing their constant connection to their homeland and their attachment to the land of pride and dignity."

He recalled the mass turnout of Algerian men and women in the French capital, Paris, in protest against a racist curfew imposed on them by the colonial authorities to restrict their freedoms, "a move that reflected the hatred of the French police, under the command of the criminal Maurice Papon, toward a rebellious, struggling Algeria."

The President of the Republic emphasized that "Algerians, who at the time were an extension and a pillar of support for the glorious Liberation Revolution, did not yield to an unjust, arbitrary measure through which the French police deluded itself into believing it could cut the Revolution off from its extension on its own soil; instead, they exercised their right to take to the streets of Paris in peaceful demonstrations, affirming their solidarity with the homeland and their attachment to the armed struggle, which was at its height at the end of 1961, when the first signs of victory and liberation were drawing near."

He added that the national community "in that difficult period of Algeria’s modern history, as it stood up to vicious colonial police repression, faced live bullets with bare chests and lost dozens of demonstrators who were brutally drowned in the Seine, affirming its belonging to a genuine, ancient, proud, and free people, and to a civilization and history deeply rooted in the soil of dear Algeria."

President Tebboune noted that the occasion serves as an opportunity to recall "the sacrifices of the leaders of the national struggle abroad and the patriotism of a generation of workers who, despite the harsh conditions of that era, demonstrated their attachment to the Revolution with a spirit of defiance against all forms of abuse and an insistence on full integration into the bitter struggle Algeria was waging, paying a heavy price in the blood of martyrs to recover independence and national sovereignty."

National Emigration Day

President Tebboune commends enduring spirit of loyalty among Algerian diaspora