Jailed Turkish philanthropist awaits his fate under Erdogan's wrath

Issued on: 17/10/2021 -

Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala faces a barrage of charges, including espionage and attempts to topple the state Handout Anadolu Culture Center/AFP

Istanbul (AFP)

Jailed without a conviction since 2017, Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala says he feels like a tool in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attempts to blame a foreign plot for domestic dissent against his mercurial rule.

A gaunt and bearded intellectual who once patronised culture and the arts, the 64-year-old Kavala makes a striking foil for Erdogan, a promoter of political Islam who has governed Turkey with an increasingly iron fist since 2003.

While tens of thousands have been jailed or stripped of their jobs on tenuous charges since Erdogan survived a coup attempt in 2016, it is Parisian-born Kavala whose fate is creating particular tensions in Turkey's frayed ties with the West.

The Council of Europe, a human rights body Turkey joined in 1950, has warned it could launch the first infringement preceedings against Ankara if Kavala is not released by the end of the month.

Facing a barrage of alternating charges, including espionage and attempts to topple the state, Kavala does not expect to walk out of his Istanbul prison cell any time soon.

"I think the real reason behind my continued detention is that it addresses the need of the government to keep alive the fiction that the (2013) Gezi protests were the result of a foreign conspiracy," Kavala said in a written, English-language response to questions from AFP.

"Since I am accused of being a part of this conspiracy allegedly organised by foreign powers, my release would weaken the fiction in question and this is not something that the government would like."

Philanthropist Osman Kavala says he does not expect to walk free any time soon Handout Anadolu Culture Center/AFP

- 'Dreyfus and the Rosenbergs' -

Kavala was referring to spontaneous rallies that broke out against plans to pave over a little park near Istanbul's Taksim Square that morphed into the first serious challenge to Erdogan's rule.

Some Turkey watchers see the 2013 protests, which were violently suppressed, as the original source of Erdogan's authoritarian streak.

Kavala was acquitted of the Gezi charges in February 2020, only to be re-arrested before he could return home and thrown back in jail over alleged links to the 2016 coup plot.

Well-versed in history, Kavala compares the current case against him to the treason charges faced by French captain Alfred Dreyfus in the late 1800s -- long discredited as an anti-Semitic plot -- and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a US couple controversially executed for espionage in 1953.

"I suppose that the files on Dreyfus and the Rosenbergs were better prepared than mine," Kavala said.

Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala was acquitted in 2020, only to be re-arrested before he could return home over alleged links to a 2016 coup plot 

Handout Anadolu Culture Center/AFP

If convicted, he could be jailed for life without the possibility of parole.

- 'Political benefits' -

The Council of Europe has issued a final warning to Turkey to comply with a 2019 European Court of Human Rights order to release Kavala pending trial.

If not disciplinary proceedings could be launched and ultimately result in the suspension of Turkey's voting rights and even membership of the body.

But while such a step could further hurt Turkey's efforts to join the EU, Erdogan has given no indication that his views on Kavala have changed.

He calls him the "red Soros of Turkey" -- an agent of Hungarian-born US financier and pro-democracy campaigner George Soros -- a reference to Kavala's leftist views.

Kavala considers the Council of Europe his best hope for release.

"If the infringement procedure starts and if the damage this would cause is considered to outweigh whatever political benefits are expected from my continued detention, I might perhaps be released," he said.

President Erdogan calls Kavala 'the red Soros of Turkey', an agent of Hungarian-born US financier and pro-democracy campaigner George Soros 

Handout Anadolu Culture Center/AFP

- Eyeing 2023 -

Much of the focus in Turkey is shifting to June 2023, the last date by which Erdogan -- with approval ratings already at the lowest point of his career -- must call a general election.

Kavala, who has access to newspapers and a TV in his cell, watches the latest political developments with concern, questioning whether Erdogan is ready to accept a possible election defeat.

Erdogan and his ruling party "do not consider losing power as a normal consequence of economic problems and political competition," he said.

"They perceive a change of government as an extremely disturbing possibility.

"I am concerned that the political tension in the country might increase even more as the elections approach."

Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala says he believes his best hope for release is through the Council of Europe 

Handout Anadolu Culture Center/AFP

Kavala's next court hearing is scheduled for November 26.

© 2021 AFP

What hope is left for Turkish political prisoner Osman Kavala?

The businessman and philanthropist has been acquitted and re-arrested on spurious charges. Is it possible to free him?

DAVID LEPESKA

A poster featuring jailed businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala in 2018. AFP

To describe Osman Kavala’s journey into the Turkish justice system as Kafkaesque would be paying a compliment to the great Czech novelist.

Authorities first detained the businessman and philanthropist at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport in October 2017 as he returned from the south-eastern city of Gaziantep, where he had begun work on a project to help Syrian refugees.

Two weeks later, he was officially arrested on suspicion of attempting to overthrow the government by leading the Gezi Park protests of mid-2013, and also on suspicion of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order by taking part in a July 2016 coup attempt. Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) tends to view the former as a sort of trial run for the latter, and labels anybody linked to either as a terrorist.

In February 2019, after 15 months of detention, Mr Kavala was finally indicted on the first count. A year later, an Istanbul court acquitted him of those Gezi-linked charges. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan quickly denounced that decision, and Mr Kavala was re-arrested and indicted in connection to the failed coup. He was acquitted on this charge the next month and again ordered to be released, but the court instead added a new charge of espionage, again linked to the failed coup, and Mr Kavala stayed in prison.

By this time the indictment against him ran to several hundred pages and hinged on random moments such as who he bumped into at an Istanbul restaurant. Despite the European Court of Human Rights (part of the Council of Europe, of which Turkey is a member) repeatedly finding no evidence to support the charges and calling for his immediate release, Turkish courts repeatedly approved Mr Kavala’s detention. In January 2021, an appellate court overturned the Gezi acquittal and that indictment was added to his espionage case.

The latest twist came this August. A Turkish court linked Mr Kavala’s Gezi-espionage case to a separate trial involving Carsi, the leading fan group of Istanbul football club Besiktas. Carsi members played a key role in the Gezi protests, but like Kavala they had previously been acquitted of any Gezi-linked crimes.

If all this has left you dizzy, you are not alone. Amnesty International has called Mr Kavala’s case a “shocking disregard for fair trial procedures”. Yet this three-legged trial resumed at Istanbul’s vast hall of justice last Friday, where a panel of judges called, yet again, for Mr Kavala to remain in custody.

From his cell in Silivri prison, 40km west of Istanbul, the prisoner issued a searing statement. “What is striking about the charges brought against me is not merely the fact that they are not based on any evidence. They are allegations of a fantastic nature based on conspiracy theories overstepping the bounds of reason,” he said, adding that many of his co-defendant Besiktas fans had no idea who he was. “The joinder with the Carsi case makes this even more surreal. When asked, ‘Do you know Osman Kavala?’ a supporter asked, ‘Which club does he play for?’”

2013's Gezi Park protests in Istanbul were a seminal moment for popular movements opposed to Turkey's President. AFP

If Kavala's case has left you dizzy, you are not alone

Few could have foreseen all this for Mr Kavala, who turned 64 last week. Having built their fortune in tobacco, his family moved from the Greek port city of Kavala to Istanbul in the population exchange of 1923. When his father died in 1982, Osman broke off his doctorate studies in New York City to take the reins of the family business.

He expanded into publishing, then environmental and civic activism. He founded Anadolu Kultur, an organisation that develops civic collaborations, such as a vast arts centre in the majority-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, and cultural preservation projects for Yazidis, Armenians and other minorities.

In 2008, he founded a Turkish chapter of the Open Society Foundation, the global pro-democracy organisation of Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros. It is this move, in addition to his prominent place among the country’s liberal elite, which seems to have put Mr Kavala in the authorities’ crosshairs. Turkey’s President has described him as a terror financier backed by “the famous Hungarian Jew Soros”. Asli Aydintasbas of the European Council on Foreign Affairs has described Mr Kavala’s case as a personal “vendetta” that is “unnecessarily cruel”.

Vendettas do make headlines. A recent study found more than 1,700 news articles on Mr Kavala's case over the past four years, in more than 40 countries. Yet his is merely the most prominent of hundreds of thousands of ongoing prosecutions in Turkey linked to the failed 2016 coup, the Gezi protests or other activist movements. Turkish courts are overwhelmed with such cases, and since thousands of judges were dismissed in post-coup purges, many are overseen by young, inexperienced judges.

Most appear to be susceptible to political pressure and thus lean toward guilty verdicts. As a result, Turkey’s prison population is today by far the highest among the 47 members of the Council of Europe. Nearly 1 per cent of Turkish citizens are in prison, compared to less than 0.27 per cent across Europe. The number of university-graduate prisoners has also increased sharply, from 4,400 in 2012 to more than 20,000 in 2019, suggesting increased politicisation. And despite a troubled economy, Turkey’s government has, since the failed 2016 coup, spent $1.4 billion on more than 130 new prisons, nearly doubling incarceration capacity from 180,000 to 320,000.

Next week, Mr Kavala will mark four years of incarceration, despite never having been convicted of a crime. The chances that he might soon gain his freedom remain slim, but one recent development may boost those odds. The Council of Europe last month warned that if Turkey fails to heed the European Court of Human Rights’ legally binding calls to release Mr Kavala, it will begin infringement proceedings.

The Council’s harshest enforcement mechanism was created in 2010 and could lead to the suspension of Turkey’s membership. It has been used just once before. In late 2017, the Council launched proceedings against Azerbaijan, another member state, for its detention of politician Ilgar Mammadov. Eight months later, Mr Mammadov was a free man.

Published: October 10th 2021, 8:00 AM

David Lepeska   a veteran journalist who has reported widely across the region and contributed to top outlets including the New York Times, the Guardian, and the Atlantic, is the Turkish and Eastern Mediterranean affairs columnist for The National

MORE FROM DAVID LEPESKA
Turkey could be on the cusp of a new era
Turkey and Russia zero in on Idlib
Why Turkey and Greece are at it again

The Beirut blast probe needs to go on – and the world can help

Iranian-backed elements trying to scuttle the Beirut blast probe must be held to account

RAGHIDA DERGHAM
Published: October 16th 2021


Demonstrators wave Lebanese flags during protests near the site of a blast at Beirut's port area. Reuters

It is welcome news that Iran wants to restore ties with Saudi Arabia, and that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council are reaching out to Tehran to urge it to play a constructive role in ending the war in Yemen. The Saudi-Iranian talks in Iraq must also continue beyond the recent fourth round, with the aim being to begin a new chapter in Arab-Iran relations. One can only hope that these developments mark a serious and positive shift for the region.

However, the policy being pursued by the world’s major powers of separating the start-stop Vienna talks to strike a new nuclear deal with Iran from its destabilising activities in the Arab world will continue to have profound implications for the region. Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen are all run by weak governments, with Tehran-sponsored proxies wielding outsized influence in all three countries.

Last week’s parliamentary election in Iraq produced a surprising outcome, with Iran-backed political parties faring poorly – and, therefore, revealing the resentment ordinary Iraqis bear towards the neighbouring country’s influence in their affairs. The announcement of the results was followed by threats from Tehran’s allies to undo the results, thereby risking a security crisis in the country. It also proved that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in charge of Tehran’s overseas military activities – and which has been emboldened by the global powers’ decision to isolate the nuclear talks from Iran’s regional activities – does not have a stomach for genuine elections.

MORE FROM RAGHIDA DERGHAM
Why Russia is treading on tricky terrain in the Middle East

It is a similar story in Lebanon. Believing that it doesn't need to account for its destabilising activities there, Iran’s Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, is working hard to undermine the judiciary’s remit to deliver justice, in cases in which the group is implicated. It is currently trying to derail the investigation into last year’s Beirut Port explosion that left more than 200 people dead and over 7,000 injured. It has even threatened to topple the newly installed federal government if the latter refuses to give in to its diktats. Such an outcome could lead to street battles in a country that continues to have strong memories of its 15-year civil war, even though it ended more than three decades ago.

Hezbollah and the Amal Movement party, its ally in Parliament, are targeting Tarek Bitar, the judge probing the port blast by accusing him of politicising the investigation, simply because he has refused to tolerate their interference. Both parties have targeted other officials in similar fashion before, but this time, they are doing so feeling confident that no foreign power will do anything to intervene, beyond making denunciations.

It is increasingly evident that Hezbollah wants to shut down the probe into the August 2020 blast, which has a complicated backstory allegedly involving corrupt politicians, international shell companies and – most crucially – Hezbollah, which controlled the port at the time of the explosion.

Many questions over the explosion remain unanswered: was it an act of terror or simply an accident? Either way, how did it happen and who was responsible for it? The investigation has yet to arrive at any conclusions, because the judiciary has so far been hamstrung by Hezbollah’s politicking and, allegedly, due to a lack co-operation from other countries. Again, the question is why.

One theory is that illicit imports and exports were transiting through the Beirut Port to and from Syria and Iran. Could these products have included chemicals, spare parts, chips and electronics, or any sensitive material that Tehran would need for its nuclear and missile development programmes? Any evidence to back such claims would set not only the Vienna talks back but also the prospect of the US lifting its sanctions on Iran. Mr Bitar’s investigation, it seems, has been a source of great discomfort to Hezbollah and its patrons in Tehran.

What gives Hezbollah some of its clout, which it uses to try and push officials around, is its alliance with Lebanese President Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement party. Mr Aoun currently finds himself having to choose between yielding to Hezbollah's demands and listening to his own political base, which seems increasingly impatient with the slow pace of the investigation.

Michel Aoun is not a victim who lacks agency. He can act in Lebanon’s interest

Mr Aoun, however, is not a victim who lacks agency. He can act in Lebanon’s interest by upholding the principle of the separation of powers. He must show wisdom and courage based on a profound reading of the outcome of his party’s alliance with Hezbollah, which has allowed the latter to seize key levers of the Lebanese state, put the presidency in an awkward spot, and threaten to pull down the government.

The president can take positive action by permitting Mr Bitar to question Maj Gen Tony Saliba, the head of state security. Prime Minister Najib Mikati, meanwhile, can ask the interior ministry to allow Mr Bitar to question Maj Gen Abbas Ibrahim, the head of general security. By doing so, both the president and prime minister can prove they are protectors of the judiciary and can, thereby, set a positive example for other leaders.

The current crisis in Lebanon is one involving the purportedly independent judiciary on the one side and the political class that considers itself above the law on the other. Internal matter or not, however, the international community must throw its support behind the judiciary. For, this branch of the government is in grave danger and its officials need international backing and protection. The US and the European powers, led by France, can move to deploy sanctions against those mutinying against the judiciary, as the Lebanese security services fail to act fearing political recriminations.

Failing to do so will give Hezbollah – with support from Tehran – and Amal the space to do what they can to foil the investigation. The fate of the court case could prove consequential for Lebanese politics and the stakes Hezbollah, and by extension Iran, will continue to have in it.

Raghida Dergham  is the founder and executive chairwoman of

the Beirut Institute and a columnist for The National (UAE)

LEBANESE CHRISTIANS REMEMBER PORT BLAST

Syria government and opposition to begin drafting charter, says UN

Thirty representatives and 15 members of society will meet UN's Syria envoy in Geneva


Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, announces the sixth session of the Syrian constitution committee from the UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Sunday. EPA

Soraya Ebrahimi
Oct 17, 2021

Syria’s government and opposition have agreed to start drafting constitutional reforms, the UN envoy to Syria announced on Sunday, in a major step after a nine-month hiatus in talks.

UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen did not say what was behind the agreement or offer details of what comes next. The drafting sessions formally begin on Monday.

Mr Pedersen on Sunday met the co-chairs of a committee that includes figures from President Bashar Al Assad’s regime, the opposition, exiles and civil society representatives.

They sat together for the first time to discuss how to proceed and plans for the week ahead, he said.

READ MORE
The questions around Rifaat Al Assad's return to Syria

Thirty representatives divided between the two sides, along with 15 members of civil society, will be meeting with Mr Pedersen in Geneva until Friday.

“I have been negotiating between the parties to establish a consensus on how we are going to move forward," he said. "I am very pleased to say we have reached such consensus.

“My appeal for the 45 is that we work as we have agreed to, and that we now start the drafting process of the constitutional committee,” he said.

The last round of talks ended in January without progress. Mr Pedersen announced late in September an agreement on “methodology” for a sixth round.

It is based on three pillars: respect for rules of procedure; the submission of texts of “basic constitutional principles” before the meeting; and regular meetings of the co-chairs with him before and during the meeting.

Syria’s 10-year conflict has killed more than 350,000 people and displaced half of the country’s 23 million population, including more than 5 million refugees now mostly in neighbouring countries.

At a Russia-hosted Syrian peace conference in January 2018, an agreement was reached to form a 150-member committee to draft a new constitution.

The 2012 UN road map to peace in Syria calls for the drafting of a new constitution and ends with UN-supervised elections with all Syrians, including members of the diaspora, eligible to participate.

After the fifth round of negotiations failed late in January, Mr Pedersen hinted that the Syrian government delegation was to blame for the lack of progress.

The US and other western allies accused Mr Al Assad of deliberately stalling and delaying the drafting of a new constitution until after presidential elections, to avoid a UN-supervised vote as called for by the Security Council.

Late in May, Mr Al Assad was re-elected in what the government called a landslide for a fourth seven-year term. The West and his opposition described the election as illegitimate and a sham.

Mr Pedersen said the need for “a genuine intra-Syrian dialogue” was reportedly discussed by Mr Al Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin recently in Moscow, “and through this, a genuine process of Syrian political reform".

Updated: October 17th 2021

China slams US, Canada for sending warships through Taiwan Strait


Issued on: 17/10/2021 - 

This US Navy photo obtained October 23, 2018 shows the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54)as it pulls in to port at the Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy base in Jeju, South Korea on October 12, 2018.

 © William Carlisle, US Navy, AFP
Text by:NEWS WIRES
1 min
Listen to the article

The Chinese military on Sunday condemned the United States and Canada for each sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait last week, saying they were threatening peace and stability in the region.

China claims democratically-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, and has mounted repeated air force missions into Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) over the past year, provoking anger in Taipei.

China sent around 150 aircraft into the zone over a four-day period beginning on Oct. 1 in a further heightening of tension between Beijing and Taipei that has sparked concern internationally.

The U.S. military said the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Dewey sailed through the narrow waterway that separates Taiwan from its giant neighbour China along with the Canadian frigate HMCS Winnipeg on Thursday and Friday.

"Dewey's and Winnipeg's transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the commitment of the United States and our allies and partners to a free and open Indo-Pacific," it added.

China's People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theatre Command said its forces monitored the ships and "stood guard" throughout their passage.

'Provocations'

"The United States and Canada colluded to provoke and stir up trouble... seriously jeopardising peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait," it said.

"Taiwan is part of Chinese territory. Theatre forces always maintain a high level of alert and resolutely counter all threats and provocations."

U.S. Navy ships have been transiting the strait roughly monthly, to the anger of Beijing, which has accused Washington of stoking regional tensions. U.S. allies occasionally also send ships through the strait, including Britain last month.

While tensions across the Taiwan Strait have risen, there has been no shooting and Chinese aircraft have not entered Taiwanese air space, concentrating their activity in the southwestern part of the ADIZ.

While including Taiwanese territorial air space, the ADIZ encompasses a broader area that Taiwan monitors and patrols that acts to give it more time to respond to any threats.

Taiwan's defence ministry said on Sunday that three Chinese aircraft - two J-16 fighters and an anti-submarine aircraft - flew into the ADIZ again.

(Reuters)

Hundreds pose nude for Tunick shoot in Israel near Dead Sea

Issued on: 17/10/2021 - 

Models pose nude for American art photographer Spencer Tunick in the desert landscape surrounding the southeastern Israeli city of Arad, near the Dead Sea 

Menahem KAHANA AFP


Arad (Israel) (AFP)

Hundreds of models wearing only white body paint walked Sunday across a stark desert expanse in southern Israel near the Dead Sea, part of the latest photography project of American artist Spencer Tunick.

As for Tunick, dressed, in black, he stood on the roof of a recreational vehicle and issued commands on a megaphone.

"Everyone put your feet together," he said. "Hands down."

The 54-year-old photographer visited Israel as a guest of the tourism ministry to portray for the third time the shrinking Dead Sea via nude subjects.

"For me the body represents beauty and life and love," said Tunick, who has staged dozens of large-scale nude shoots around the world.

Tunick depicted more than 1,000 nude models a decade ago on the shores of the salty Dead Sea, which is receding at about a metre (yard) a year.

Israel and Jordan have diverted much of the upstream water for agriculture and drinking water, while mineral extraction and evaporation accelerated by climate change have made the problem worse.

By the time Tunick returned five years later, the placid waters of his first shoot had receded, leaving behind crusty sand and gaping sinkholes.

On Sunday, Tunick posed his subjects on stony brown hills overlooking the turquoise lake. About 200 people followed his directions, both men and women, standing straight and stooped, some thin and some rotund.

He said he chose to cover the models in white paint to evoke the Biblical story of Lot's wife, who was said to have turned into a pillar of salt.

Doctoral student Anna Kleiman, 26, said she joined the shoot to bring awareness to the environmental crisis.

"It feels really natural, once you take your clothes off," she said. "You kind of don't want to put them back on. I think we just struggled with the rocks a little bit."

American art photographer Spencer Tunick during the shooting of a photo installation in the desert landscape surrounding the southeastern Israeli city of Arad, some 15 kilometre west of the Dead Sea Menahem KAHANA AFP

- 'Lucky... it's not too hot' -

Israel's tourism ministry bankrolled Tunick's flight and ground expenses, said Hassan Madah, the ministry's director of marketing for the Americas.

The city of Arad contributed staff and other expenses, said mayor Nisan Ben Hamo.

Some conservative leaders in Israel opposed Tunick's project, with one lawmaker demanding the tourism ministry withdraw its sponsorship of the "event of mass abomination"

The nude photo installation was designed to draw world attention to the importance of preserving and restoring the Dead Sea, a unique natural resource 

Menahem KAHANA AFP

Ben Hamo said he saw the project as an affirmation of Arad "as a liberal city".

He hopes the shoot might bring more visitors and help raise funds for a new museum about the Dead Sea.

Engineer Gil Shavit, 63, spoke to reporters after the shoot, photographers carefully filming from his shoulders up to avoid his painted private parts.

"We're lucky to have clouds today so it's not too hot," Shavit said.

He said he posed for Tunick's 2011 Dead Sea project and was grateful to return.

"It's fascinating to see," he said, adding, "Spencer can't do his work without us."

© 2021 AFP

UPDATED

How a massacre of Algerians in Paris was covered up

By Ahmed Rouaba
BBC News

The words "Here we drown Algerians" were scrolled on the embankment of the River Seine

"It was a miracle I was not thrown into the Seine," Algerian Hocine Hakem recalled about an infamous but little-known massacre in the French capital 60 years ago.

Around 30,000 Algerians had taken to the streets of Paris in a peaceful protest against a curfew, and calling for independence nearly seven years into the war against French rule in North Africa.

The police killed hundreds of protesters and dozens of others were thrown into the River Seine, making it one of the darkest pages of France's chequered colonial history.

Mr Hakem was 18 at the time and was telling his story to the L'Humanité newspaper decades after the event, which was little reported at the time. He was among about 14,000 Algerians arrested during the operation.

The government of the day censored the news, destroyed many of the archives and prevented journalists from investigating the story. Contemporary news bulletins reported three deaths, which included a French national. It was not covered in the international press.

Brigitte Laîné, who was a curator at the Parisian archives, said in 1999 that some official documents survived revealing the extent of the killings. "There were a lot of bodies. Some with the skulls crushed, others with shotguns wounds," she said.

One photo captured the chilling sentiments of the time, showing graffiti scrawled along a section of the Seine's embankment saying: "Here we drown Algerians."

This is the title of French historian Fabrice Riceputi's new book which details how one man - researcher Jean-Luc Einaudi - tirelessly sought to gather eyewitness testimony, publishing his account 30 years after the police massacre.

It is now believed that between 200 and 300 Algerians were killed that day.

A total of 110 bodies washed up on the banks of the River Seine over the following days and weeks . Some were killed then dumped, while others were injured, thrown into the cold waters and left to drown.

The youngest victim was Fatima Beda. She was 15 and her body was found on 31 October in a canal near the Seine.

Anti-Arab racism

One of the earliest descriptions of the event was published in 1963 by African-American writer William Gardner Smith in his novel Stone Face - though it is a fictionalised account, which has never been translated into French.

It shows the stark anti-Arab racism of the day.

About 30,000 Algerians came into Paris to protest about the curfew which they said was racist

Mr Riceputi believes the French state is still refusing to face up to this racist heritage.

As the 60th anniversary of the killing approached, the often testy relations between France and Algeria - which had been undergoing a slow rapprochement - have once more hit the buffers.

The spat began last month when France slashed the number of visas granted to Algerians, accusing its former colony of failing to take back those denied visas.

But it was an audience President Emmanuel Macron held with young descendants of those who had fought in the Algerian War that has prompted the most anger.

He questioned whether the Algerian nation would exist if it hadn't been for French colonisers.

It may have been meant in the spirit of debate but it has provoked a backlash from Algerians who see it as symptomatic of France's insensitivity and the cover-up of colonial crimes.

No apology

When it comes to the Paris massacre, the state has done very little.

In 2012 François Hollande recognised that it had happened - the first time a French president had done so.

A commemorative plate dedicated to the victims of the massacre was unveiled in 2019 on the banks of the Seine

In a statement to mark the 60th anniversary of the massacre, President Macron said that crimes committed under the authority of the police chief were "inexcusable".

Yet both have fallen short of the expectations of those who have been calling for an apology and reparations - and neither acknowledged how many people died or the state's role.

French left-wing parties, who were in opposition at the time, have also come in for criticism for not condemning the massacre. They have been seen as complicit in the cover-up given that they filed a law suit against the police for opening fire on mainly French anti-war protesters, killing seven, a few months later, and yet remained silent about the massacre of Algerians.

Mr Riceputi says the racist nature of the operation cannot be ignored - every person who looked Algerian was targeted.

Thousands of Algerians were rounded up and illegally deported

The campaign waged against Algerians in Paris was unofficially called the "ratonnade", meaning "rat-hunting".

The search for Algerians continued for days after 17 October, with the police making arrests on public transport and during house searches.

It was reported that Moroccans had to put up the sign "Moroccan" on their doors to avoid being harassed by repeated police raids.

Portuguese, Spanish and Italian immigrant workers with curly hair and dark complexions complained about systematic stop and searches as they were mistaken for Algerians by the police.

Researchers also say that it was not only the police and security forces who took part in the operation - firefighters and vigilantes were also involved.

Thousands were illegally deported to Algeria where they were detained in internment camps despite being French citizens.

Fearsome reputation

At the time President Charles de Gaulle was in advanced negotiations with Algeria's National Liberation Front (FLN) to end the war and agree to independence. The war ended five months later and independence followed in July 1962.

But in 1961, tensions were running high and on 5 October the Parisian authorities banned all Algerians from leaving their homes between 20:00 and 05:30.

It is only in the last 30 years that details about the massacre have come to light

The march was called in protest at the curfew. The organisers wanted to ensure it was peaceful and people were frisked before boarding trains and buses from the run-down suburbs to go into central Paris.

It has not yet been established what exact instructions were given to the security forces, but the Paris police chief at the time, Maurice Papon, had a notorious reputation.

He had served in Constantine in eastern Algeria where he supervised the repression and torture of Algerian political prisoners in 1956.

He was later convicted in French courts of overseeing the deportation of 1,600 Jews to Nazi concentration camps in Germany during World War Two when he was a senior security official under the Vichy government.

It was this prosecution - that took place between 1997 and 1998 - that lifted the lid on some of the classified archives relating to the 17 October massacre, and paved the way for extensive research into the extraordinary cover-up.

Preliminary official inquiries into the events were made - and a total of 60 claims were dismissed.

No-one was tried as the massacre was subject to the general amnesty granted for crimes committed during the Algerian War.

For Mr Riceputi the hope is that this 60th anniversary will help with efforts to establish the truth and determine the responsibility for one of the bloodiest police massacres in France's history.

More on Franco-Algerian relations:

VIEWPOINT: What Macron doesn't get about colonialism

BACKGROUND: The tale of Algeria's stolen cannon and France's cockerel

Macron’s condemnation of 1961 massacre in Paris ‘not enough’, historians say


Issued on: 17/10/2021 - 

French President Emmanuel Macron lays a wreath of flowers near the Pont de Bezons (Bezons Bridge), on October 16, 2021 in Colombes, near Paris. 

© Rafael Yaghobzadeh, Pool/AFP

Text by: FRANCE 24Follow|

Video by: Luke SHRAGO

Historians and activists in France have expressed disappointment that President Emmanuel Macron did not go further in his condemnation of the deadly crackdown in 1961 by Paris police on protest by Algerians, the scale of which was covered up for decades.

The president “recognised the facts: that the crimes committed that night under [Paris police prefect] Maurice Papon are inexcusable for the Republic," said a statement from the Elysée Palace.

“It’s not enough", lamented Rahim Rezigat, 81, former member of the France federation of the National Liberation Front (FLN).

Macron “is playing with words, for the sake of his electorate, which includes those who are nostalgic for French Algeria", said Rezigat, who attended an event organised in Paris on Saturday by the anti-racism NGO SOS Racisme, bringing together activists and youths from the Ile-de-France region to commemorate that deadly night.

On October 17, 1961, some 30,000 Algerians demonstrated peacefully at the call of the FLN resistance movement in response to a strict 8:30pm curfew imposed on Algerians in Paris and its suburbs.

Ten thousand police and gendarmes were deployed ahead of the demonstration. The repression was bloody, with several demonstrators shot dead, some of whose bodies were thrown into the River Seine. Historians estimate that at least several dozen and up to 200 people were killed, but the official toll is three dead and 11,000 wounded.

>> Webdoc - October 17, 1961: A massacre of Algerians in the heart of Paris

‘A state crime’

Critics of Macron’s declaration Saturday say it did not go far enough and that pinning the blame solely on Papon is downplaying the state's in the massacre.

“Believing or expecting others to believe for one second that Maurice Papon could have acted of his own initiative throughout the month of October 1961, and especially on October 17, 1961, and that then interior minister Roger Frey and the entire government headed by Michel Debré were not responsible, is a fairy tale, and a bad one at that,” political scientist Oliver Le Cour Grandmaison, told FRANCE 24 on Sunday.

Knowing that power is exercised vertically in France's Fifth Republic, Le Cour Grandmaison said, “we consider that this was a state crime and therefore, we could have expected Emmanuel Macron’s declaration to reflect that. But there was no recognition, no law, no reparations. There wasn’t even a declaration. Macron didn’t speak,” he said, referring to the fact that the declaration was issued as a statement from the Elysée.

Gilles Manceron, a historian specialising in France’s colonial history agrees.

“This is a state crime, it is not a prefectural crime. It was a state crime that implicated a number of state officials and General De Gaulle, even though he did not direct the events himself and would also express his dissatisfaction with them, reportedly saying they were inadmissible – though secondary,” Manceron told FRANCE 24. “He didn’t direct the violence, and regretted it, but he covered it up with silence. Which contributed to the decades of silence that followed.”

Access to archives restricted

Human rights and anti-racism groups and Algerian associations in France staged a tribute march in Paris on Sunday afternoon. They called on authorities to further recognise the French state's responsibilities in the “tragedies and horrors” related to Algeria's independence war and to further open up archives from that period.

Earlier this year, Macron announced a decision to speed up the declassification of secret documents related to Algeria’s 1954-62 war of independence from France. The new procedure was introduced in August, Macron's office said.

The move was part of a series of steps taken by Macron to address France's brutal history with Algeria, which had been under French rule for 132 years until its independence in 1962.

But Le Cour Grandmaison, who heads an association for the commemoration of the October 17, 1961 events, said the archives were still very difficult to access.

“If you want to access the police archives, you have to ask the police prefecture, who is both judge and party to the events,” he told FRANCE 24. “Access to archives in France, compared to other democratic countries, is extremely restricted.”

Mancheron explained that “theoretically, French law dictates that archives should be communicable after a period of 50 years. But when the 50-year period was about to end concerning the archives of 1961, an interministerial directive was issued, saying a specific green light would be needed in order to open up certain archives. Which resulted in access being limited, even though it was permitted by law.

“Hence the mobilisation of historians and archivists and of a certain number of associations which last July led to the highest French court ruling that the interministerial directive of December 2011 was illegal, illegitimate, that it should not have been allowed, and it was canceled.”

>> Interview - 'We did our job, nothing more': The archivists who proved 1961 Paris massacre of Algerians

During the commemoration event Saturday night, SOS Racisme put on a pyrotechnics display at Pont Neuf, a bridge crossing the River Seine in the centre of Paris. The fireworks mimicked the bullets fired by the police 60 years ago as the Seine lit up and Algerian irises were thrown symbolically into the water.

On Sunday morning, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo attended a tribute ceremony at the Saint-Michel bridge, in the capital's centre, and the Paris police prefect, Didier Lallement, laid a wreath of flowers at the site.

It was the first time a Paris police prefect paid tribute to the victims of October 17, 1961. Though he did not speak at the event, bells tolled and a minute of silence was observed.

Criticised on the right

Macron's political opponents from the right also criticised his declaration – this time for going too far.

“While #Algeria insults us every day, Emmanuel #Macron continues to belittle our country,” far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen tweeted on Saturday.

The sentiment was echoed by another far-right presidential hopeful, Nicolas Dupont Aignan, who tweeted, “Algeria spits on France and Emmanuel Macron does penance. The head of state must inspire pride, not shame in being French. Otherwise, how can we be surprised that immigrant populations do not wish to assimilate?”

And centre-right Les Républicains MP Eric Ciotti tweeted, “President Macron’s vicitimised anti-French propaganda is indecent. We’re still waiting for the president to commemorate the July 5, 1962 Oran massacre, when the FLN massacred several hundred pieds noirs and harkis [pro-French Muslims] loyal to France.”

In a message marking the 60th anniversary of the deadly crackdown, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called Saturday for an approach free of "colonialist thought" on historical issues between his country and France.

"I reaffirm our strong concern for treating issues of history and memory without complacency or compromising principles, and with a sharp sense of responsibility", free from "the dominance of arrogant colonialist thought", he said.

The message came shortly after Tebboune declared that Algeria would observe a minute's silence each October 17 in memory of the victims.

Relations between Paris and Algiers have been strained amid a diplomatic spat fuelled by a visa row and comments attributed to the Macron describing Algeria as ruled by a "political-military system" that had "totally rewritten" its history.

Algeria has recalled its ambassador from Paris and banned French military planes from its airspace.

Tebboune has demanded France's "total respect".

"We forget that it (Algeria) was once a French colony ... History should not be falsified," he said last week.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)

  

Blood and beatings: 1961 Paris Algerian massacre recalled

Issued on: 17/10/2021 - 

Rabah Sahili, who lived through the events of October 17, 1961 when dozens of Algerians were massacred in the middle of Paris, is pictured during an interview in Algiers on October 16, 2021 

Ryad KRAMDI AFP

Algiers (AFP)

Rabah Sahili had just turned 19 when he arrived in central Paris for a peaceful demonstration by Algerians 60 years ago.

What he witnessed, he told AFP in an interview, was police savagery in a crackdown which killed dozens and perhaps as many as 200, according to historians' estimates. The official death toll at the time was three.

President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday condemned as "inexcusable" the crimes committed on October 17, 1961.

"The police and gendarmes showed atrocious brutality. They were raging to inflict harm," Sahili said, his voice breaking.

More than 30,000 Algerians had gathered to protest in Paris a decision to impose a curfew solely on the country's French Algerian minority.

The rally was called in the final year of France's increasingly violent campaign to retain Algeria as a north African colony. This coincided with a bombing campaign targeting mainland France by pro-independence militants.

On Saturday, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced that a minute of silence would be held the following day -- and each October 17 to commemorate the "martyrs" of the 1961 events.

Some were shot dead. Others had their bodies thrown into the River Seine.

The pro-independence National Liberation Front (FLN) had called on Algerian migrants from the capital's working class western suburbs to rally at a landmark square in Paris.

Other demonstrations were planned elsewhere in the city, and 10,000 policemen and gendarmes were deployed.

Sahili was arrested as he stepped off a train that arrived in Paris from Hautmont in the north, where he and his parents had lived for years.

"We had to meet at the Place de l'Etoile to start our peaceful demonstration. We had a single task: to make sure none of the demonstrators had any blunt instruments," he said.

Rabah Sahili said his cousin suffered a broken leg from police blows, while trying to protect him

 Ryad KRAMDI AFP

- 'It was savage' -

"I was with a cousin when the police descended upon us. Because he was stronger, he tried to protect me, but he received an avalanche of blows using the butts of guns and batons that caused his leg to break," Sahili recalled.

He said that people were being detained based solely on whether they appeared to be Algerian.

"All the Algerians coming out of the metro were arrested... even some Italians, Spanish people and South Americans" were held, he continued.

He noted that police and gendarmes were acting on firm instructions to target French Algerians.

Sahili said they were all driven "using batons" to a nearby car park, while trying to avoid being struck on the head.

"They had such a ferocity... It was savage, no more, no less," said the former FLN member.

"At midnight, we were moved to the Palais des Sports, where we remained for three days, under the watch of the police and harkis (auxillary forces)," he recounted.

The 9,000 people who, according to Sahili, were held in the sports dome were offered no more than a bottle of water and a snack.

Then they were taken to a "sorting facility" in the suburbs.

- 'Freezing cold' -

"The camp was devoid of absolutely all services: no beds, no toilets. We slept on the floor in the freezing cold," Sahili said.

"I stayed there for a fortnight before I was allowed to return home."

"During the arrests, I saw about 20 people lying on the ground bleeding near the Place de l'Etoile. There were many police and they behaved like ferocious beasts," he said.

Bodies were thrown into the River Seine, here illuminated in red after a ceremony to commemorate the brutal repression of October 17, 1961

 JULIEN DE ROSA AFP

"Algerians were also thrown, some alive, into the Seine by the police, but we will never know the exact number of bodies taken by this river," Sahili recalled.

According to him, even before the events of October 17 a good number of Algerian activists "ended up in the waters of the Seine" during police raids.

He recalled participating in the rescue of a young activist thrown into the Seine, saying he was found "at the last minute" and would have died were it not for his youth and health.

Following the independence of Algeria in 1962, Sahili remained in France for another two years before returning to his home country, where he built a career with national airline Air Algérie.

For decades, French authorities covered up the events of 1961 but Macron was the first president to attend a memorial for those who died on the day that Sahili cannot forget.

© 2021 AFP

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/10/macron-marks-60-years-since-paris.html