Because of regional developments ... will Algeria give up its military tradition?

Fatima Hamdi - Algeria

The announcement by the Algerian presidency of the meeting of the Supreme Council of Security of the country, chaired by the new president Abdel Majid Taboun, and the presence of the acting army chief of staff, Said Chnq, the honorable passage of Algerian and international opinion, did not pass.

The announcement came many years after the last announced meeting of the Supreme Council, which came out with the decision to reactivate the Algerian role regionally and internationally, immediately after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's invitation to Tunisia, Qatar and Algeria to attend the Berlin conference to discuss the Libyan situation.

Observers asked about the background of the decision that the council came up with, and whether it aims to take Algeria off the cloak of non-interference externally and adopt the requirements of the regional role that it has been searching for since independence, or is it merely a move towards new dialogue and media tools away from "engaging" its army in internal conflicts? To the neighboring countries.

Military doctrine
With the mentality of the observer and the reformed man, Algeria has, since its independence independence 58 years ago, satisfied itself with the policy of self-sufficiency and not leaving its circle except for mediation, to contribute to resolving crises and its name is linked to peace, while some criticize its neutrality.

The historic “Algiers Agreement” that resolved the oldest and fiercest fighting in Africa between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the mediation it played to resolve the crisis in Mali along with endeavors in Libya and the Sahelian Sahel states, and other initiatives did not help Algeria in front of those who wanted it to prove the title of “regional power.”

Algeria has been keen over the past decades to adhere to the logic that "its army is a force of peace and security", and it does not participate in any "war" outside the borders, retaining its role in terms of supporting liberation movements in several regions of the world.

It does not concede for nearly six decades and does not negotiate its strategic choice not to send its forces to fight outside the borders, even in the worst conditions it has gone through, such as the storming of its consulate in Mali and the kidnapping of 7 diplomats by a terrorist group.

The storming of an oil base in the far southeast of the country in early 2013 did not drive Algerian diplomacy to change its strategy, but rather stuck to its conservative approach, committed to staying the same distance from all sides and resolving any conflict by peaceful and soft methods.

Regional and international role
Observers are pushing the idea that it is time for Algeria to play roles appropriate to its size, while refusing to deviate from its principles, and it was against foreign interference in Mali and Libya, and even Arab intervention in the Yemeni crisis.

Despite the international pressure faced by Algeria to be part of the regional and international transformations that the Middle East region has witnessed since 2011 and the high voices calling for it to move in its army, Algerian diplomacy has remained in its place, sticking to its first position.

Algeria committed options that the follower of the Algerian political scene considered "more effective and less expensive," as a break from what some call the principle of isolation, without betraying the military doctrine.

Not a single Algerian soldier has participated in any operation outside his country for nearly six decades, and the country's collective memory has retained twice the army’s exit in its history (borders 67 and 73) against the Israeli army.

commitment
The expert on the constitution, Dr. Nasser Boughazala, returns that Algeria adheres to that principle despite pressures "to comply with the UN regulations, unlike some member states that invoke false arguments to send their armies to deepen conflicts instead of suppressing them as they claim."

Boughazala added in a statement to Al-Jazeera Net that the announcement of the presidency of the meeting of the Supreme Council for Security was not a spontaneous matter, but rather "intended, because this type of meeting is not announced but is hidden, and its announcement carries a goal and a message abroad."

The spokesman considered that the announcement of the meeting during this particular period "bears a message for the invitation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan," explaining that "one of the most prominent goals of the meeting of the President of the Republic with military leaders and the Prime Minister was aimed at" to announce the danger of what is approaching Algeria.

You will not interfere militarily
On the other hand, Former UN international observer Ahmed Kroucheh ruled out Algeria's response to the invitation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, indicating in his statement to Al-Jazeera Net that it was "impossible for Algeria to enter a party against its Libyan brothers."

The spokesman added that "what happens in Libya will affect Algeria, and the latter will not send its army outside the borders, and even the presidential statement stated that Algeria will take security measures to protect its borders, and will do its foreign policy in order to find solutions in it."

The security expert, Ahmed Kroucheh, considered that "the geographical borders that unite Algeria in Libya, which extend over more than 1,000 km, make the instability of one of them necessarily affect the other."

The security expert predicted that "a war will break out over the next few weeks on Libyan soil, and there will be a mini-war and it may be regional, which made Algeria feel the seriousness of the matter and speed up the conduct of its Supreme Security Council meeting."