Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Algeria shuts southern borders to Syrians over security fears

According to Al Jazeera's news on January 02, 2019, Algeria shuts southern borders to Syrians over security fears. Algeria banned all Syrians from entering the country via its southern borders, hours after a rights group reported that 50 Syrians and Palestinians had been deported to neighbouring Niger before new year.


So what are the reasons behind that?

In my opinion there are two main reasons behind this policy. First reason is related with country's Arabization policy history. When Algeria gained its independence in 1962, it was established based on the nation-state model. The cornerstone of this model was Arab nationalism and socialism. In this respect, the Algerian regime initiated a number of cultural and linguistic policies, which are called Arabization policy.

However, the country was under French control for a period of 100 years and there were few teachers who could give Arabic education after independence. For this reason, many Arabic teachers from Egypt, Syria and Gulf countries were brought to Algeria to teach Arabic. However, these teachers who came to Algeria were Muslim Brotherhood members. This was the first time that political Islam came to the country. 

The following process led to the rise of an Islamic party, Front Aslamique du Salut in 1989, and a civil war in 1992. The Algerian government does not want this situation in 1970s to be repeated again. In addition, the Algerian government considers these immigrants to have an uprising culture. 

The second reason is that the Algerian government does not want the demographic balances in the country to change much. There are still problems with the Berber ethnic minority in the country and Algerian regime does not want the problems of ethnic minorities crisis to increase and deepen.  


In conclusion, after the civil war between 1992-2002, Algerian regime tries to prevent the rising of Islamic movements and uprising culture in Algeria.


RELATED LINK: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/algeria-shuts-southern-borders-syrians-security-fears-190102185943986.html

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