Tue. Oct 15th, 2024

Over 2 Million Algerian Documents, Stolen Property To Be Restituted Soon

The Algerian Committee for History and Memory revealed, on Monday, its agreement with its French counterpart to restitute two million digitized documents related to the colonial period, in addition to several looted properties, including 29 scrolls and 13 records, which constitute five “linear meters” from the remaining archive of the Ottoman empire.

This step came as a culmination of the meeting of the Algerian Committee for History and Memory with its French counterpart on November 22 in the city of Constantine (eastern Algeria), where archive files, bibliography, chronology, and looted property were discussed.

In a statement signed by coordinator Mohamed Lahcen Zeghidi, it was reported that it was agreed to continue completing a joint bibliography of research and printed and manuscript sources about the nineteenth century to publish, digitize and translate the most important ones into Arabic and French and work to retrieve what can be recovered.

The chronology of colonial crimes during the nineteenth century will continue to be completed, in addition to the restitution of all property that symbolizes state sovereignty and belongs to Emir Abdelkader and the leaders of the Algerian resistance, as well as the remaining skulls, and the identification of remains dating back to the nineteenth century will continue while counting the presence of the graves of Algerian missed hostages and prisoners and prepare a nominal list.

In the academic scientific field, the Algerian-French mixed committee agreed to implement a scientific exchange and cooperation program that includes Algerian student and research missions to France, and French missions to Algeria to view the archive, in addition to removing French administrative obstacles to Algerian researchers, and organizing joint scientific activities during the academic year 2024-2025.

Among the outcomes of the aforementioned meeting was the opening of a joint electronic portal for the colonial period 1830-1962, beginning in the nineteenth century and it was agreed to continue periodic meetings between the two parties.

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