Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of Libya's conference in Germany. (AP)
The Algerian presidency said it was surprised by the recent statements of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing him of taking Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s statements out of context.
The Algerian presidency said in a statement on Saturday, that all the complicated issues related to the national memory have its sanctity, and it was sensitive for the Algerian people.
The statement pointed out that Erdogan’s statements do not contribute to the efforts made by Algeria and France to resolve the historical issues.
On Friday, Turkish media reported that Erdogan had asked Tebboune to hand over documents pertaining to the French massacres during its colonial occupation of Algeria.
The media quoted Erdogan from a speech he delivered on Friday to the leaders of the Justice and Development Party in the Turkish capital, Ankara: “I have informed the Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune that the President of France doesn’t know anything about these massacres, and I will present him with these documents because they have carried out these massacres in the past in Algeria.”
“The Algerian President told me France killed five million Algerians… We have to publish these documents to remind the French President Emmanuel Macron that his country killed five million Algerians,” Erdogan added.
