The General Assembly debated a motion to recognize and condemn the “massacre” of more than 300 Algerian demonstrators in Paris on October 17, 1961.
The one-article motion was adopted with 67 “yes” votes against 11 “no” votes.
In the non-binding motion, it was stated that on October 17, 1961, Algerian families organized a peaceful demonstration against the curfew imposed by the Paris Police only on “Algerian Muslim Frenchmen”.
In the motion, the “1961 Paris Massacre” was condemned, reminding that Algerian demonstrators faced harsh and deadly police repression on the orders of Maurice Papon, then Chief of Police of Paris.
The motion also requested that a commemoration day for the “1961 Paris Massacre” be included in the scope of national days and official ceremonies.
The proposal is expected to be discussed in the Senate, the upper house of Parliament.
The process leading to the “Paris 1961 Massacre”
On October 5, 1961, a curfew was imposed in France for Algerians living in and around Paris.
Nearly 30,000 Algerians held a peaceful demonstration on October 17, 1961, in reaction to the curfew in Paris and in support of their country’s struggle for independence.
However, the protesters were met with a harsh police intervention on the orders of then Paris Police Chief Papon.
Although it is not officially known how many people were killed in the incident in which thousands of people were injured and about 14,000 people were detained, witnesses and independent sources state that most of the more than 300 Algerians were shot dead by French police.
Witnesses say that some of the demonstrators were killed in the garden of the Paris police headquarters or in metro stations.
France acknowledged the deaths of 40 people in 1998 but has yet to recognize the massacre as a “state crime”.
