Algeria’s 60 years of complex ties with France

Paris: In the 60 years since Algeria won independence from France, it has gone through multiple crises with its former occupier, often fuelled by domestic politics.

Yet experts say the two sides had surprisingly good relations for four decades, and it was only in the 1990s that things started to fall apart. "Generally, despite appearances and criticism, there has been a stable, very balanced relationship," said Luis Martinez, a Maghreb researcher at Sciences Po university in Paris.

That is despite the devastation caused by the eight-year war of independence that finally ended after the signing of the Evian accords on March 18, 1962. French historians say half a million civilians and combatants died -- 400,000 of them Algerian -- while the Algerian authorities insist 1.5 million were killed.

Under French General Charles de Gaulle, whose administration signed the accords, and his successor Georges Pompidou, Paris had good relations with Algiers. The same was true of the administration of Francois Mitterrand, even though he had been interior minister when Algeria’s armed independence struggle began in 1954 and remained opposed to the country’s independence.

"Mitterrand was surrounded by Socialist Party people, who were all pro-FLN," said historian Pierre Vermeren, referring to the National Liberation Front which led the revolt and has dominated Algerian politics ever since.

"(Mitterrand) was able to take a back seat" and let others deal with Algeria, said Vermeren, a professor at the Sorbonne University. France was allowed to continue its nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara until 1967, and de Gaulle managed to negotiate a secret deal with the new Algerian state to allow for chemical weapons tests until 1978.

But in 1992, Paris raised hackles by criticising Algiers for suspending elections after Islamist parties had won the first round. Algeria withdrew its ambassador in response.

The cancellation of the polls sparked another decade of devastating conflict, only ending after an amnesty offer by Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who became president in 1999. Despite being close to France, Bouteflika made use of anti-French discourse, primarily for domestic consumption, Vermeren said.