No Similarities Between Polisario Separatists and Kabylia Activists, MAK Leader

There are no similarities between the polisario separatists and the Kabylia activists, only contrasts, said activist of the Kabylia Self-Determination Movement (MAK) Aksel Bellabbaci.
In an exclusive interview with BarlamanToday, Aksel, who is also advisor to MAK president Ferhat Mehenni, said that Kabylia movement is peaceful and popular, and has never resorted to violence, unlike the polisario armed group which was fabricated by very known parties.
“Politically and diplomatically speaking, Algeria has done all the work and has always backed those separatists. Even at the military level, it was Algeria who armed them. So there is no way to compare the two,” he explained.
Aksel went on to say that the Kabylia people have a deeply-rooted history and a cultural legacy. There is a map, dating back to 1839 and kept at the French archives, which shows a France-established district named Algeria and the independent Kabylia region. “The two were separate and this is an irrefutable proof that our country has always existed, even before Algeria”
These specific characteristics do not apply to the phony entity in the Moroccan Sahara, he explicated. “The conflict over the Sahara issue is fake. The Sahara exists in Morocco as well as in Algeria, Libya, Tunisia…It is a shared geographical characteristic among north African countries and nomadic tribes have always resided there. Pretending that there are people in the Moroccan Sahara is nonsense.
Aksel affirmed that such groundless claims cannot be substantiated by some historical records or documents. “On the contrary, Sahrawi tribes living in the Moroccan southern provinces have always pledged allegiance to Moroccan Sultans and there are written documents testifying to that.”
Going over the differences between the Kabylia people and the population in the southern provinces of Morocco, Aksel pointed out that as he was traveling south of Morocco, he could not distinguish between the inhabitants in Laayoune, Guelmim or Tan Tan, All are the same. “When you enter the Kabylia territory, you can see for yourself that you have accessed another country, a country colonized by Algeria but still a different country.”
He recalled that, in 2002, Algeria withdrew its military forces from Kabylia due to the locals’ uprising. “This is a proof of Algerian colonization!”
Aksel also gave the example of elections. “The turnout of Kabylia people in the latest Algerian elections was zero, no body from us voted for Tebboune while Algerians were taking part in the elections in a normal way. When classes were suspended in Kabylia schools, courses were taking place in Algerian educational establishments as usual.”
These happenings, which never occurred in Morocco, show that the Kabylia people, country and identity are here to stay, he concluded.