Algerian opposition supports Turkey on massacre claims

Anatolia News Agency

A slogan "We drown Algerians here" is painted on the wall of the Seine river banks near the Pont des Arts in Paris October 17, 2011 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Paris massacre of 1961. REUTERS photo

The leader of Algerian opposition Ennahda Party Fatah Rabiai said they stood by Turkey's claims of massacre of Algerian people by the French today. 

Rabiai criticized Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia who had asked Turkey to stop making "political capital" out of French colonial rule in Algeria yesterday. 

Rabiai said "I wonder why those who say these things to Turkey have no courage to speak up against France?" Turkey's claims of killings in Algeria did not amount to meddling with the country's internal affairs or trying to make political capital over the blood of the Algerians, he added.  

"Turkey showed it stood by the Algerian people by its stance against France," Rabiai said. They will support Turkey until France admits to committing massacres in Algeria and officially apologizes for them.  

Rabiai  made references to Turkish rule in Algeria and said Algeria would have been long invaded by Spain, and its people converted into Catholicism, if the Ottomans had not been there.