Ketchaoua Mosque A Witness to French Crimes against Algerians
In an interview with local media on Oct. 11, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune gave an official account of the French massacre of nearly 4,000 worshipers early on during the colonial era that spanned 1830-1962.
"France colonized us for 132 years, years which saw heinous crimes that cannot be erased with fine words. There are families and tribes that were completely wiped out such as the Zaatcha (southeastern Algeria), and not even babies were spared," said Tebboune.
He added that in Ketchaoua "they killed 4,000 worshipers, who were martyred after being surrounded by cannons and exterminated."
The Ketchaoua Mosque was commissioned in 1520 by Hayreddin Barbarossa, then-Ottoman ruler of Algeria, in the famed Casbah quarter of the capital Algiers.
"France colonized us for 132 years, years which saw heinous crimes that cannot be erased with fine words. There are families and tribes that were completely wiped out such as the Zaatcha (southeastern Algeria), and not even babies were spared," said Tebboune.
He added that in Ketchaoua "they killed 4,000 worshipers, who were martyred after being surrounded by cannons and exterminated."
The Ketchaoua Mosque was commissioned in 1520 by Hayreddin Barbarossa, then-Ottoman ruler of Algeria, in the famed Casbah quarter of the capital Algiers.
Algerian historian Amir Rahile told Anadolu Agency (AA) that France promised to respect the teachings of Islam after entering Algeria in the 19th century, but the French did not keep the promise. Reiterating that France committed a crime against the Ketchaoua Mosque and Algerians on Dec. 18, 1832, Rahile said, "The French army decided to turn this place into a cathedral. Algerians marched to the capital and held a sit-in protest in the mosque to deter the colonialists from implementing this decision. But the French killed them when they were defenseless."
Rahile also referred to the Ottomans and said, “Ottomans did not eliminate the Algerian identity, unlike the French, who did. If the Ottomans had not come and liberated Algeria from the Crusades in 1515, France's colonization of the country would not have been delayed until 1830 and the country would have been shared between Italy, France and Spain.”
Source: Daily Sabah
