Algeria

الجمهورية الجزائرية الديمقراطية الشعبية Al-Jumhurīyah al-Jazā’irīyah ad-Dīmuqrāṭīyah ash-Sha’bīyah People's Democratic Republic of Algeria
Emblem of Algeria
Motto: من الشعب و للشعب (Arabic: "The Revolution by the People and for the People")
Anthem: Kassaman (Arabic: "The Pledge")
Location of Algeria
Capital		Algiers 36°42′N 3°13′E
Largest city		Algiers
Official languages		Arabic - French is the language of business - Tamazight is also spoken)
Government		Democratic Republic
Independence
Area
-	Total	2,381,741 km² (11th) 919,595 sq mi
-	Water (%)	negligible
Population
-	2005 estimate	32,854,000 (35th)
-	1998 census	29,100,867
GDP (PPP)		2005 estimate
-	Total	$237.684 billion (38th)
-	Per capita	$7,189 (86th)
Currency		Algerian dinar (DZD)
Time zone		CET (UTC+1)
-	Summer (DST)	CET (UTC+1 does not observe)
Internet TLD		.dz
Calling code		+213

The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, commonly referred to as Algeria is a nation in North Africa and is the second largest country on the African continent. It is bordered by Tunisia in the northeast, Libya in the east, Niger in the southeast, Mali and Mauritania in the southwest, and Morocco as well as a few kilometers of its annexed territory, Western Sahara, in the west. In the Constitution of Algeria, it is defined as an Islamic, Arab, and Amazigh (Berber) country. The name Algeria is derived from the name of the city of Algiers, and officially from the Arabic language Arabic word ,al-jazā’ir which translates as "the islands". These islands refer to islands which lie off that city's coast.

Algerian society has considerable historical depth and has been subjected to a number of external influences and migrations. Fundamentally Berber in cultural and racial terms, the society was organized around extended family, clan, and tribe and was adapted to a rural rather than an urban setting before the arrival of the Arabs and, later, the French.

Algeria has been dominated by several cultures, most recently, the French. Since it's independance Algeria has suffered internal strife from the many factions inside it's borders. While the economy is on the rise, due to increase in oil, and monetary policies of the International Monetary Fund, freedoms of society are restricted due to a repressive government and religious differences.

History

Algeria is rich in prehistoric memorials of human occupation, especially in megalithic remains, of which nearly every known kind has been found in the country. Numerous flints of palaeolithic type have been discovered, notably at Tlemcen and Kolea. Near Djelfa, in the Great Atlas, and at Mechra-Sfa ("ford of the flat stones"), a peninsula in the valley of the river Mina not far from Tiaret, are vast numbers of megalithic monuments. Notable among the prehistoric cultures of the area is the Capsian culture, whose shell-mounds are found throughout the north.

Algeria has been inhabited by Berbers or Imazighen since at least 10,000 B.C.E. From 1,000 B.C.E. onward, the Carthaginians became an influence on these peoples, establishing settlements along the coast. Berber kingdoms began to emerge, most notably Numidia. They seized the opportunity offered by the Punic Wars to become independent of Carthage only to be taken over soon after by the Roman Republic in 200 B.C.E. As the western Roman Empire collapsed, the Berbers became independent again in much of the area. The Vandals overtook parts of the area until later expelled by the generals of the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I. The Byzantine Empire then retained a precarious grip on the east of the country until the coming of the Arabs in the 8th century.

Roman arch of Trajan at Thamugadi (Timgad), Algeria

Algeria was brought into the Ottoman Empire by Khair ad Din and his brother Aruj. They established Algeria's modern boundaries in the north and made its coast a base for the corsairs. Acts of piracy committed upon American vessels in the Mediterranean resulted in the First Barbary War and Second Barbary War with the United States.

On the pretext of a slight to their consul, the French invaded Algiers in 1830. The intense resistance made for a slow conquest of Algeria, which was not technically completed until the early 1900s when the last Tuareg were conquered.

Meanwhile, however, the French made Algeria a colony of France, declaring it French Algeria in 1860. Tens of thousands of settlers from France, Italy, Spain, and Malta moved in to farm the Algerian coastal plain and occupy the most prized parts of Algeria's cities. They benefited from the French government's confiscation of communally held land, and the application of modern agriculture techniques that increased the amount of arable land. Beginning towards the end of the 19th century, people of European descent in Algeria (the so-called pied-noir), as well as the native Algerian Jews (typically Sephardic in origin), became full French citizens; by contrast, the vast majority of Muslim Algerians, even veterans of the French army, received neither French citizenship nor the right to vote.

Constantine, Algeria 1840

Algerian War of Independence

The Algerian War of Independence (1954–62) was one of the most important decolonization wars and a complex conflict. It was a period of guerrilla strikes, maquis fighting, terrorism against civilians on both sides, and riots between the French army, the European-Algerians (Catholics & Jews) — or the "colons" as they were called by the FLN — the loyalist Muslim Arab-Algerians Harkis (who had their political party French Algeria Front) against the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) (Front de Libération Nationale), the Algerian National Movement (MNA) — supported by the French Communist Party and Algerian Communist Party, Liberal Pieds-Noirs (European-Algerians), and some pro-independence Arab-Algerians. Eventually the conflict turned into a civil war between the French rebel faction Organisation armée secrète (OAS) who took the maquis in 1962 and turned against both de Gaulle's loyalist army and the FLN.

After nearly a decade of urban and rural warfare, the leader of the French forces, Gen. Charles De Gaulle, initiated a referendum in which the Algerian people could decide their own fate. In July, 1962 the Algerians voted for independance. Most of the 1,025,000 pied-noir, as well as 91,000 harkis (pro-French Muslim Algerians serving in the French Army), together forming about 10% of the population of Algeria at that time, fled Algeria for France.

Socialization

Algeria's first President, the FLN leader Ahmed Ben Bella, was overthrown by his former ally and defense minister, Houari Boumédiènne in 1965. Under Ben Bella the government had already become increasingly socialist and dictatorial, and this trend continued throughout Boumedienne's government; however, Boumedienne relied much more heavily on the army, and reduced the sole legal party to a merely symbolic role. Agriculture was collectivized, and a massive industrialization drive launched. Oil extraction facilities were nationalized, increasing the state's wealth, especially after the 1973 oil crisis. The Algerian economy became increasingly dependent on oil, bringing hardship when the price collapsed in the 1980s.

In foreign policy, Algeria was a member and leader of the 'non-aligned' nations. Dissent was rarely tolerated, and the state's control over the media and the outlawing of political parties other than the FLN was cemented in the repressive constitution of 1976. President Boumédienne died in 1978, but the rule of his successor, Chadli Bendjedid, was only slightly more open. The state took on a strongly bureaucratic character and corruption was widespread.

The modernization drive brought considerable demographic changes to Algeria. Village traditions underwent significant change as urbanization increased, new industries emerged, agriculture was substantially reduced, and education, a rarity in colonial times, was extended nationwide, raising the literacy rate from less than 10% to over 60%. Improvements in healthcare led to a dramatic increase in the birthrate (7-8 children per mother) which had two consequences: a very youthful population, and a housing crisis. The new generation struggled to relate to the cultural obsession with the war years and two conflicting protest movements developed: left-wingers, including Berber identity movements, and Islamic 'intégristes'. Both protested against one-party rule but also clashed with each other in universities and on the streets during the 1980s. Mass protests from both camps in autumn 1988 forced Benjedid to concede the end of one-party rule, and elections were announced for 1991.

Algerian Civil War

The Algerian Civil War was an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups which began in 1991. It is estimated to have cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives. The conflict effectively ended with a government victory, following the surrender of the Islamic Salvation Army and the 2002 defeat of the Armed Islamic Group. However, low-level fighting still continues in some areas.

The conflict began in December 1991, when the government cancelled Algerian National Assembly elections, after the first round results had shown that the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) party would win, citing fears that the FIS would end democracy. After the FIS was banned and thousands of its members arrested, Islamist guerrillas rapidly emerged and began an armed campaign against the government and its supporters.

Many of the thousands killed were often in unprovoked massacres of civilians. The question of who was responsible for these massacres remains controversial among academic observers; many were claimed by the Armed Islamic Group. After 1998, the war waned, and by 2002 the main guerrilla groups had either been destroyed or had surrendered. Even though amnesty was an option, sporadic fighting continued in some areas. Elections resumed in 1995, and on April 27, 1999, after a series of short-term leaders representing the military, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the current president (as of Dec. 2006), was elected.

The issue of Berber language and identity increased in significance, particularly after the extensive Kabyle protests of 2001. The near-total boycott of local elections in Kabylie caused the government to respond with concessions, including naming of Tamazight (Berber) as a national language and teaching it in schools.

Government

The Algerian head of state is the President of the Republic, who is elected to a 5-year term, renewable once. Algeria has universal suffrage. The President is the head of the Council of Ministers and of the High Security Council. He appoints the Prime Minister of Algeria who is also the head of government. The Prime Minister appoints the Council of Ministers.

The Algerian parliament is bicameral, consisting of a lower chamber, the National People's Assembly (APN), with 380 members, and an upper chamber, the Council Of Nation, with 144 members. The APN is elected every 5 years.

Military

Algeria is a leading military power in North Africa and has its force oriented toward its western Morocco and eastern Libya borders. Its primary military supplier has been the former Soviet Union, which has sold various types of sophisticated equipment under military trade agreements, and the People's Republic of China. Algeria has attempted, in recent years, to diversify its sources of military material. Military forces are supplemented by a 45,000-member gendarmerie or rural police force under the control of the president and 30,000-member Sûreté nationale or Metropolitan police force under the Ministry of the Interior.

The Armed forces of Algeria are comprised of:

• The People's National Army(ANP)
• Algerian National Navy (MRA)
• Algerian Air Force(QJJ)
• Territorial Air Defense Force

Foreign Relations

Algeria has traditionally practiced an activist foreign policy and in the 1960s and 1970s was noted for its support of Third World policies and independence movements. Algerian diplomacy was instrumental in obtaining the release of U.S. hostages from Iran in 1980, and in ending the Iran-Iraq War. Since his inauguration, President Bouteflika worked to improve Algeria's international reputation, traveling extensively throughout the world. In July 2001, he became the first Algerian President to visit the White House in 16 years. He has made official visits to France, South Africa, Italy, Spain, Germany, the People's Republic of China, Japan, and Russia, among others, since his inauguration.

Algeria has taken the lead in working on issues related to the African Continent. Host of the Organisation of African Unity Conference in 2000, Algeria also was key in bringing Ethiopia and Eritrea to the peace table in 2000. It has worked closely with its African neighbors to establish the New African Partnership. Algeria has taken a lead in reviving the Union of the Arab Maghreb with its regional neighbors.

Since 1976, Algeria has supported the Polisario Front, a group claiming to represent the population of Western Sahara, which is based among the 160,000 Sahrawi refugees who reside in refugee camps in Algeria. Contending that the Sahrawis have a right to self determination under the United Nations Charter, Algeria has provided the Polisario with material, financial, and political support and sanctuary in southwestern Algeria's Tindouf Province. U.N. involvement in the Western Sahara includes MINURSO, a peacekeeping force, and UNHCR, for refugee assistance and resettlement. Active diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute under the auspices of the Special Representative of the Secretary General are on-going. Although the land border between Morocco and Algeria was closed in the wake of a terrorist attack, the two have worked at improving relations. Algeria has friendly relations with its other neighbors in the Maghreb, Tunisia and Libya, and with its Sub-Saharan neighbors, Mali and Niger. It closely monitors developments in the Middle East and has been strong proponent of the rights of the Palestinian people, calling publicly for an end to violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Algeria has diplomatic relations with more than 100 foreign countries, and over 90 countries maintain diplomatic representation in Algiers.

International disputes: part of the southeastern region is also claimed by Libya; Algeria supports exiled Western Saharan Polisario Front and rejects Moroccan administration of Western Sahara; some countries question its use of capital punishment.[4]

Geography

The Hoggar Mountains.

Most of the coastal area is hilly, sometimes even mountainous, and there are few good harbours. The area just south of the coast, known as the Tell is fertile. Further south is the Atlas mountains range and the Sahara desert. Algiers, Oran and Constantine, Constantine are the main cities.

Algeria's climate is arid and hot, although the coastal climate is mild, and the winters in the mountainous areas can be severe. Algeria is prone to sirocco, a hot dust- and sand-laden wind especially common in summer.

Economy

Algiers is the capital and economic hub of Algeria.

The fossil fuels energy sector is the backbone of Algeria's economy, accounting for roughly 60% of budget revenues, 30% of Gross domestic product, and over 95% of export earnings. The country ranks 14th in Petroleum reserves, containing 11.8 billion barrels of proven oil reserves with estimates suggesting that the actual amount is even more. The Energy Information Administration reported that in 2005, Algeria had 160 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven natural gas reserves, the 8th largest in the world.

Algeria’s financial and economic indicators improved during the mid-1990s, in part because of policy reforms supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and debt rescheduling from the Paris Club. Algeria’s finances in 2000 and 2001 benefited from an increase in oil prices and the government’s tight fiscal policy, leading to a large increase in the trade surplus, record highs in foreign exchange reserves, and reduction in foreign debt. The government's continued efforts to diversify the economy by attracting foreign and domestic investment outside the energy sector has had little success in reducing high unemployment and improving living standards. In 2001, the government signed an Association Treaty with the European Union that will eventually lower tariffs and increase trade. In March 2006, Russia agreed to erase $4.74 billion of Algeria's Soviet Union-era debt during a visit by President Vladimir Putin to the country, the first by a Russian leader in half a century. In return, president Abdelaziz Bouteflika agreed to buy $7.5 billion worth of combat planes, air-defence systems and other arms from Russia, according to the head of Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport.

Algeria also decided in 2006 to pay off its full $8bn (£4.3bn) debt to the Paris Club group of rich creditor nations before schedule. This will reduce the Algerian foreign debt to less than $5bn in the end of 2006. The Paris Club said the move reflected Algeria's economic recovery in recent years. Rich in oil and gas, it has benefited from high energy prices.

Demographics

Algiers coast.

The population of Algeria was 32,930,091 according to a July 2006 estimate.. About 70% of Algerians live in the northern, coastal area. This includes the area along the Mediterranain Sea. The minority who inhabit the Sahara desert are mainly concentrated in oasis, although some 1.5 million remain nomadic or partly nomadic.

During the colonial period there was a large European, primarily French pied-noir population. They were concentrated on the coast and formed a majority in certain cities. Almost all of this population left during or immediately following Algeria's independence from France.

Over 90% of the Algerian population adhere to Islam, mostly the Sunni branch. Other religions are restricted to extremely small groups, mainly of foreigners. The Jewish population is approximately one thousand.[5] Nearly all of Algerias population (99%) is classified ethnically as Arab/Berber. Europeans account for less than 1% of the population. [6]

Most Algerians are Arab by language or identity, and of mixed Berber-Arab ancestry. The Berbers inhabited Algeria before the arrival of Arab tribes during the expansion of Islam, in the 7th century. The issue of ethnicity and language is sensitive after many years of government marginalization of Berber (or Imazighen, as some prefer) culture.

Today, the Arab-Berber issue is often a case of self-identification or identification through language and culture, rather than a racial or ethnic distinction. The 20% or so of the population who self-identify as Berbers, and primarily speak Berber languages (also termed Tamazight), are divided into several ethnic groups, notably Kabyle (the largest) in the mountainous north-central area, Chaoui in the eastern Atlas Mountains, Mozabites in the M'zab valley, and Tuareg in the far south.

Language

Algeria's only official language is Arabic. Amazigh language is still not recognized as official even though it is spoken natively by more then 35% of the population and is the oldest language in North Africa. The most widely spoken language is a dialect called "Darja" (Algerian Arabic), which is spoken by some 80% of the population. The Modern Standard Arabic variant is used by the media and on official occasions. Some 35% of the population, identified as Berbers or Imazighen, are native speakers of some dialect of Tamazight, not of Arabic. Many Algerians are however, fluent in both languages to some degree. The Arabic language remains Algeria's only official language, although Tamazight has recently been recognized as a national language alongside it. The Ethnologue counts 18 living languages within Algeria, splitting both Arabic and Tamazight into several different languages, as well as mentioning the unrelated Korandje language.

The language issue is politically sensitive, particularly for the Berber minority, which has been disadvantaged by state-sanctioned Arabization. Language, politics and Arabization have partly been a reaction to the fact that 130 years of French colonization have left both the state bureaucracy and much of the educated upper class completely Francophone. There has also been an influence of Arab nationalism which was promoted by successive Algerian governments.

French is still the most widely studied and spoken foreign language. English is also spoken but not commonly. Since independence, the government has pursued a policy of linguistic Arabization of both its education and bureaucracy, with some success. Many university courses continue to be taught in French.

Culture

Mosque in Algiers.

Modern Algerian literature, split between Arabic and French, has been strongly influenced by the country's recent history. List of Famous Algerian novelists of the 20th century include Mohammed Dib, Albert Camus, and Kateb Yacine, while Assia Djebar is widely translated. Important novelists of the 1980s included Rachid Mimouni, later vice-president of Amnesty International, and Tahar Djaout, murdered by an Islamist group in 1993 for his secularist views.

In philosophy and the humanities, Malek Bennabi and Frantz Fanon are noted for their thoughts on decolonization, while Augustine of Hippo was born in Tagaste, (about sixty miles from the present day city of Annaba), and Ibn Khaldun, though born in Tunis, wrote the Muqaddima while staying in Algeria.

The Algerian music genre best known abroad is raï, a pop-flavored, opinionated take on folk music, featuring international stars such as Khaled and Cheb Mami. However, in Algeria itself the older, highly verbal chaabi style remains more popular, with such stars as El Hadj El Anka or Dahmane El Harrachi. The tuneful melodies of Kabyle music, exemplified by Idir, Ait Menguellet, or Lounès Matoub, have a wide audience. For more classical tastes, Andalusian classical music, brought from Al-Andalus by Morisco refugees, is preserved in many older coastal towns.

In painting, Mohammed Khadda and M'Hamed Issiakhem are notable in recent years.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Algeria

The Arch of Trajan in a late 19th century postcard.

There are several UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Algeria:

• Al Qal'a of Beni Hammad
• Casbah of Algiers
• Djémila
• M'Zab Valley
• Tassili n'Ajjer
• Timgad
• Tipasa

Films about Algeria

• Battle of Algiers
• Dimanche
• My Land Zion
• Woman in Struggle [7]

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

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• This article contains material from the US Department of State's Background Notes which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain.

External links

Government

• El Mouradia official presidential site (in French and Arabic)
• National People's Assembly official parliamentary site
• The Embassy of Algeria in Washington, DC

News

• Algeria News & Events
• Algerian Press Service
• allAfrica.com - Algeria news headline links
• The North Africa Journal business news
• Algerian websites and news in Arabic news

Overviews

• CIA World Factbook entry on Algeria
• Library of Congress - Country Study: Algeria data as of December 1993
• OECD DEV/AfDB - Country Study: Algeria
• Open Directory Project - Algeria directory category
• Algeria: The Psychos Will Inherit the Earth - an irreverent look at Algeria's military situation

Tourism

• Travel guide to Algeria from Wikitravel

Other

• Algeria Watch human rights organization critical of widespread torture practiced by the régime (in French)
• Algeria’s past needs opening, not closing Analysis on the public referendum held September 29, 2005 by Veerle Opgenhaffen and Hanny Megally
• all City of Algéria
• Algerian-English Online Dictionary

Cultural Heritage

• Fabio Maniscalco (ed.), Protection of cultural property in Algerie, monographic series "Mediterraneum. Protection and valorization of cultural heritage", vol 3, Naples 2003, ISBN 88-87835-41-1

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