Algeria summons Tunisian envoy over ‘communist’ comments

The Algerian Foreign Ministry summoned Tunisia’s ambassador on Sunday to protest against recent comments made by a Tunisian minister referring to Algeria as “a communist state”.

Abdelmajid Ferchichi was summoned to the Algerian Foreign Ministry to provide clarification over the remarks on Algeria made by Minister of Local Affairs and Environment Riadh Mouakhar in Rome last week.

Mouakhar made the comments in regards to Tunisia’s geographical position “between Algeria, a communist country, and Libya, another scary country.”

Read More: Tunisian Minister creates diplomatic crisis with Algeria

Algiers has condemned the comments made by the Tunisian official who affirms the comments were taken out of context whilst he was telling the Italian minister of foreign affairs an ancedot last week.

While he was a student in the United States, Mouakhar said he was forced to explain his country’s geographical situation by stating that it was “under Italy”.

This was due to the fact that the Americans knew Algeria only as a communist country and Libya as a terrifying country during the reign of Muammar Gaddafi.

This is not the first time that a Tunisian minister has mentioned the geographical position of his country to explain its difficulties. On 11 October 2015, the Tunisian Minister of Defence, Farhat Horchani, expressed concerns that the country was a victim of its geographical location. “Terrorism comes to us from Algeria and Libya,” he said.