Bangladesh and Algeria's histories inscribed in the same ink of courage
Algerian ambassador in Dhaka Abdelouahab Saidani has said the histories of the people of Bangladesh and Algeria are inscribed in the same ink of courage though those are written on different lands.
He made the remarks on Friday morning at an event organised at the Algerian Embassy in Baridhara on the occasion of the country’s National Emigration Day.
The Embassy of Algeria in Bangladesh organised the event to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the 17 October 1961 massacre. The day of the massacre, which recalls the bloody repression carried out against Algerians in Paris in 1961, has also been observed in Algeria as National Emigration Day since 2021.
Remembering the historic day of Paris, Abdelouahab Saidani said this day is not only about looking back with sorrow — it is also about honouring courage, reclaiming truth, and reaffirming our shared humanity.
On that cold Paris night, over 30,000 Algerian men, women, and even children walked peacefully through the city’s boulevards. They had taken to the streets of Paris at the call of the French Federation of the National Liberation Front (FLN), to protest the discriminatory curfew imposed on Muslims in France, as well as to draw attention to Algeria’s demands for independence. They carried no weapons, only dreams of justice, dignity, and freedom, he added.
What awaited them however was not dialogue, but darkness. The France state met peace with violence; humanity with hatred. Many were tortured, shot, or thrown into the River Seine, their cries swallowed by the night, their courage shining through the silence, Abdelouahab Saidani said.
The Algerian envoy said it was one of the most brutal acts of French colonial repression — an episode that revealed both the cruelty of injustice and the unbreakable will of a people who refused to be erased.
According to Abdelouahab Saidani, the massacre of 17 October did not break the Algerian spirit — on the contrary, it ignited it. It became a spark that lit the final path to independence, a testament to the power of unity over fear.
Though the world was slow to speak, history remembered. The Seine river carried away their bodies, but not their story. Their courage flowed onward — into the soul of a nation, and into the conscience of humanity, he added.
“This day of remembrance also speaks deeply to us in Bangladesh,” said Abdelouahab Saidani. “We, too, have known the price of freedom — the weight of sacrifice, the pain of loss, and the triumph of resilience. Our histories, though written in different lands, share the same ink of courage.”
“The people of Algeria and Bangladesh both rose against oppression — guided by faith in justice and belief in the dignity of every human life. We stand today as brotherly nations, bound not only by diplomatic relationships but also by the spirit of struggle and solidarity.”
“Let us draw strength from these memories — not to dwell in pain, but to move forward with purpose. Let us stand together so that the tragedies of the past never return, and the lessons they left behind guide us toward a world rooted in justice and peace,” he added.
Abdelouahab Saidani hoped Bangladesh and his country would continue to walk side by side — building bridges of cooperation, nurturing prosperity, and upholding the timeless values of freedom and humanity.