Madar (Algiers) - Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Friday, October 16, 2026, issued a message for National Emigration Day, which marks the 65th anniversary of the October 17, 1961 demonstrations in Paris, describing the curfew that colonial authorities imposed on Algerians at the time as "racist", according to the text published by the official APS news agency.
Tebboune said the measure reflected the "hatred" of the French police, then under the command of the man he called "the criminal Maurice Papon". Algerians, he wrote, marched peacefully through Paris to affirm their attachment to their homeland and to the armed struggle, facing live bullets "bare-handed", with dozens "drowned" in the Seine.
The president paid tribute to a generation of emigrant workers who stood by the revolution despite harsh living conditions, and said he was "proud" of the loyalty he said still drives Algerians abroad. He reaffirmed the state's "full commitment" to protecting its nationals, safeguarding their interests and easing travel for them and their families.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Moudjahidine carried by APS on Friday evening, a minute of silence is being observed on Saturday morning across the country and at all Algerian diplomatic and consular missions abroad in memory of the victims, under a presidential decision.
Memory remains a sensitive issue between Algiers and Paris. In March 2024, the French National Assembly adopted a resolution condemning the October 1961 crackdown, and in May 2026 Tebboune signed a law criminalising colonialism that limits Algeria's demand to French recognition.
