News
MAK to step up efforts on Kabyle sovereignty
Party "mission", Ferhat Mehenni says, is to "provide Kabylia with all the attributes of a sovereign nation" irrespective if Algeria agrees or not
In an interview to Matin DZ, Mehenni argued MAK's and Anavad's "mission" is to "provide Kabylia with all the attributes of a sovereign nation. The proclamation of the independence of Kabylia will be the culmination of this."
Mehenni said the Kabyle movement should now establish a "Consultative Council, a sort of Parliament," that forges "as broad a consensus as possible on the right to self-determination" and that "proposes a draft Constitution" for Kabylia.
MAK says its ultimate goal is to hold a referendum on self-determination with international guarantees, in order to create a Kabyle sovereign state. At the party's 3rd Congress, held on 26th February, MAK leaders insisted on that idea.
In the document summarizing the Congress' debates, MAK also stressed its desire to "rehabilitate and modernize the democratic structures of ancient Kabylia," as is the case for traditional tribal councils, or Aarch. In any case, the party said that such a process "should give Kabyle women back their full place [in those structures], equal in rights and duties, at the same level as Kabyle men."
But MAK documents do not shed light on what the specific procedures to achieve or implement the referendum should be. At the international level, Kabyle self-determination has received support from the European Free Alliance (EFA) and also from Morocco, Algeria's main regional foe, which uses the Kabyle dossier as a political weapon against Algerian support to the right of self-determination of Western Sahara.
Kabylia is an Amazigh-majority coastal territory to the east of Algerian capital Algiers.