Algeria

As my father was born in Algeria and I never had the opportunity to visit this country, this journey was very interesting for me. My father left Algeria in the late seventies. He grew up in a military school in Laghouat, 400 km south of the Algerian capital Algiers. My father always loved being artistic, he made paintings and sculptures but after Algeria gained independence from France( Algeria was colonized by France from 1830 to 1962) Islamic groups such as the Front Islamique du Salut gained power. Therefor my father felt Algeria was no longer safe for open minded people and he came to Belgium. First he went to school in Belgium during which he met my mother. They married and my sister and I were born so my father kept living in Belgium.

Algeria’s black decade

When I was a young child my mother wouldn’t let us visit Algeria and starting 1992 there was a civil war in Algeria so we couldn’t go even if we wanted to. The Algerian government and various Islamic armed groups( such as the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) clashed. when the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) party gained popularity amongst the Algerian people the military took over control of the government. The Islamic groups first targeted the army and the police but soon they started targeting civilians such as journalists and other high educated people. During this period entire villages were attacked and butchered (List of masacres in Algeria). In some cases government involvement was suspected as there were military posts nearby who didn’t intervene during these actions. Legitimate self-defense groups arose and the government gained the upper hand by the late 1990’s.
The AIS (Islamic Salvation Army), under attack from both sides, opted for a ceasefire with the government in 1997 while the GIA was torn apart by internal splits leading to a victory for the government. In 2007 a splinter group of the GIA made a union with Al-Qaeda and changed their name into ‘Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’ they dissociated themselves from the previous killings of civilians and only targeted military forces.
In response to the Arab spring the government introduced some political reforms in 2011, such as lifting the 19-year-old state of emergency restrictions and increasing women’s quotas.
Nowadays Algeria economy is dominated by the state. Its main challenge is to reduce the high youth unemployment rates by encouraging the private sector, attracting foreign investment, and providing adequate jobs for younger Algerians.
Unlike other Arab countries the tempers in Algeria remained quite calm during the Arab spring. The government immediately promised political reforms and in my opinion after years of war with the French and afterwards the civil war, the Algerian people are not interested in new conflicts.

Sources:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ag.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algeria
http://wikitravel.org/en/Algeria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_Civil_War
http://mondediplo.com/1997/10/alger1
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135376589/algerias-black-decade-still-weighs-heavily