INTERVIEW (TAMURT) – The Spokesman of the Union for the Kabyle Republic, Lyazid Abid, believes in this interview that the independence of Kabylia is inevitable. Optimistic, he strongly believes in the advent of a Kabyle state. Even exiled in Germany, he still remains active on the ground abroad in favor of Kabylie. On the international level precisely, Lyazid Abid, still hopes to obtain support from foreign countries, in particular Morocco, which has already defended the independence of Kabylia several times at the UN. For him, the world political situation is not fixed and Kabylie will exploit the slightest opportunity. “History is accelerating,” warns Lyazid Abid.
Tamurt.info: In your capacity as URK Spokesperson, what is your assessment of the current political situation in Kabylie?
Lyazid Abid: The seriousness of the situation that Kabylie is going through is alarming. Clearly, the Algerian power wants to punish the Kabyles. Their wrong is their historical commitment to democratize Algeria for the well-being of its peoples. The frontal confrontation with the Algerian power ended in the inevitable clash that we know today. On the one hand, an Arab-Muslim Algeria based on violence as a means of maintaining power, on the other hand, peaceful militant of Kabylia for alternation in power. Over time, this duality led to an irreversible divorce. The black spring and the memorable day of June 14, 2001 had sounded the death knell. The birth of several political movements to defend the exclusive interests of Kabylia, including two independence movements, make Algeria dizzy, which has erected the right to self-determination of peoples as an essential principle of its international policy.
Added to this is the immediate end of fossil fuels, the country’s only source of wealth. Everyone agrees that Algeria has begun a descent into hell that will disintegrate it. The beginning of this fall combined with Kabylia’s desire for independence, expressed by the triple zero vote during the last Algerian elections organized in Kabylia, Morocco’s position in favor of Kabylia’s right to independence and the support of USA to the latter in the Polisario conflict, the macabre zero Kabyle project of the Algerian services translated by the criminal setting on fire of Kabylie, the imprisonment and the death sentences of several dozen young Kabyles on the basis of false accusation , the closure of all spaces of expression and the international context unfavorable to Algeria explain the colonial behavior of the Algerian forces in Kabylie.
Tamurt.info: We have been talking insistently lately about possible support from Morocco for the Kabyle cause. On the ground, we see nothing concrete. Is Morocco really ready to help the Kabyles in their fight for independence?
Concretely, on the ground, Morocco’s recognition of Kabylia’s right to self-determination is a precedent as valuable as it is historic. Those who think this is fiction better wake up. Morocco certainly has its own reasons for supporting us. Whatever its motivations, we are grateful. Some Kabyles are skeptical and see in this recognition a lure extended by Morocco, because of the reciprocal link in the Polisario-Algeria, Morocco-Kabylia equation. I am not sure that Sahrawis are worried about this reciprocity. The Kabyle people will never find a country free from pretensions capable of recognizing their right to self-determination. This country simply does not exist. All countries act out of self-interest. This is the essence of diplomacy. There is nothing vexing or extravagant. Blessed are the peoples who have understood the difficulty of the path of existence. I think we have to go beyond the distorting prisms of Algerian diplomacy. Israel’s projects in the Moroccan desert, Morocco’s military alliance with Israel, geopolitical issues in North Africa, worry the Algerian power and push it to be wary of its neighbor. Algeria already feels destabilized by the fact that none of its foundations is built on reality.
Tamurt.info: Several Amazigh associations have invited you to conferences and other political activities and
cultural sites in Morocco, but you refuse to go there for the moment. Can we know why?
In general, I do not miss any opportunity to further the Kabyle independence claim. Contacts with Amazigh associations in Morocco are in progress. It is true that we have canceled some appointments, for security reasons due to the presence of Saharawi militants, in certain Moroccan universities, active and potentially aggressive.
Tamurt.info: And for the support of Israel, which you visited in 2012 in your capacity as Minister of International Relations of the GPK in the company of Ferhat Mehenni, the page has been turned?
The official visit to Israel of Anavad, composed of President Ferhat Mehenni and the Minister of International Relations, myself, made from May 20 to 24, 2012 is a historic visit. This page is being written in golden letters. Israel is a democratic, serious and reliable country. It is in the middle of Arab countries hostile to its existence. I understand the caution of his commitment to Kabyle and Kurdish causes. The time will come when history will accelerate. Relations between peoples sometimes obey slow and winding logics.
Tamurt.info: Some wonder why you created another Kabyle independence movement, the URK, when the MAK has already existed for years? They believe that it is not in the interest of the union of the Kabyle people.
Political plurality is a guarantee against any authoritarian drift. Some of our compatriots like to say that now is not the time and that diversity is more of an obstacle than a solution. I just want to remind you that in politics too there are principles with which we do not trifle. A people in love with freedom and justice will never agree to mortgage their freedom whatever their situation. Otherwise, he proves that he is not ripe for freedom. The history of the Algerian movements before 1954 proves it to us. The FLN, which had promised a return to pluralism after independence, remains alone in command of Algeria, 60 years after the departure of France.
The Union for the Kabyle Republic (URK) campaigns for the independence of Kabylia. Its existence reinforces the image of a plural Kabylie, serene and determined to wrest its independence. He is no one’s competitor. He reaches out to all goodwill who aspire to the liberation of the Kabyle people and for the advent of an independent, democratic and social state. The Catalans are active in 5 independence political movements that fight for their liberation in harmony and brotherhood.
At the URK, we are convinced that our liberation will come one day, but this will not happen without the consent of the Kabyle people. Our liberation will not happen by introducing us into the system to change it from within, nor by a special status for Kabylia, a disastrous strategy for minority peoples, when we know the Jacobin foundation and the pan-Arabist links of the Algeria. Accompanying a people, who above all adore their freedom, in their quest for independence, is a difficult task. And it is precisely at this level that the role of politicians comes into play, which consists in preventing his people from falling apart and showing them the way to victory, by pulling them upwards, towards more freedom and not by depriving him of the little freedom he has left. The art of converging the different political currents towards the desired goal puts politicians to the test and ends up making possible what seemed impossible. It is in this perspective that we believe that the President of the Kabyle Provisional Government must imperatively be the President of all those who identify with this Provisional Government. This is the meaning of the friendly and fraternal missive of the URK addressed to the 5th congress of MAK-ANAVAD. There are principles which are not, at the risk of trampling on them, negotiable. The risk of infiltration must be controlled instead of leading us to mistakes that can prove fatal.
Tamurt.info: What are the relations of the URK with the MAK?
Currently non-existent. In the future, the URK is convinced that a close collaboration of all independence movements and Kabyle personalities is essential for the liberation of Kabylie. The URK formulated general proposals in its missive addressed to the 5th congress of MAK-ANAVAD. We have no choice but to help each other. This can only be done by facing all the problems that prevent us from moving forward serenely towards our liberation. We remain optimistic about the future. For the URK, political pluralism in Kabylie is a fundamental reality that must be encouraged.
Tamurt.info: For independentists leaders in exile wanted by the Algerian colonial justice, is there a risk of being handed over to Algiers?
Judges in France, Belgium, Germany, in Europe in general, are independent. They apply the law and nothing but the law. The executive power has an interest in not interfering in their work at the risk of being publicly denounced. I know something about it for having had to deal with French justice in the case which opposed the newspaper Tamurt to Mrs. Boumediene who had asked us for 250,000 euros in damages for having harmed her late husband Houari Boumediene. With the help of the brilliant lawyer Maître Ahcène Bozetine, we had won the case. French justice is impervious to any outside influence.
Tamurt.info: You yourself Mr. Abid, you have not set foot in Kabylia since 2017, can we know why?
Because I am Kabyle, I am guilty in the eyes of Algeria. My case is that of hundreds of Kabyles in the diaspora. We are condemned because we refuse the injustice and tyranny of colonial Algeria. It reminds me of the bitterness of the forced exile of our elders. This tragedy began with the deportation of thousands of Kabyles by colonial France to distant islands. At independence, Algeria, which replaced France, did worse. Slimane Azem, Lhasnaoui, Bessaoud Mohand Aarav, Muhia, Ait Ahmed, Ali André Mécilie, Boudiaf, to a lesser degree, They were the first to suffer this humiliation. Today, because we have not been able to correct our strategic errors, the bitterness of exile awaits us all, without any exception. This tragedy also reminds me of the millennia-old step-by-step exile of the Hebrews to Babylon.
Tamurt.info: Some think that the independence project for Kabylia is utopian. They say that the Kabyles themselves are in majority against this project and no country in the world supports the independence movements of Kabylie? How do you respond to these?
Peoples are capable of meeting challenges that were thought impossible. The overwhelming majority of Kabyles reject Algerian tyranny. They seek to live free and with dignity. Kabyle activists are numerous but do not constitute the majority of the Kabyle people. If this is the meaning of your question, I would remind you by way of example that the Algerians were, according to the historian Mohamed Harbi, in their vast majority, against the independence of Algeria. Alas, the struggles are thus made. For the support of foreign countries, it is necessary to know that the world order is in full mutation. The President of Russia, whose country is a member of the UN Security Council, is now wanted for crimes against humanity. This calls, as we said, a few years ago, for a new world order which, we are convinced, will see Kabylia and other people like the Kurds recognized by all the countries of the planet. , let’s be numerous tomorrow at the Place de la Bastille, Paris, for the march of Tafsut and to tell the world that we are independentists but not terrorists.
Interview by Akli F.
