This Sunday, December 14, the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK) will declare its independence from Algeria through its founder and president, Ferhat Mehenni. “There is no going back”the latter confided to us a few days from this “historical event”. According to him, thehas “ continued repression inflicted byAlgeria in Kabylia since 1963 calls for a single solution: independence ».
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The MAK is a Kabyle independence political movement created on June 5, 2001 in the wake of the Kabylian Black Spring, a wave of protest against Algerian power marked by deadly repression. Originally called the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylia, it initially demanded a status of regional autonomy within Algeria. In October 2013, he changed his name and political line, officially opting for the demand for the right to self-determination, including the option of independence.
It is today led by Ferhat Mehenni, a figure in the Amazigh cultural movement, former singer and activist of the Berber Spring of 1980. Exiled in France, the septuagenarian also presides over a “provisional Kabyle government in exile”, proclaimed in Paris in 2010 (ANAVAD). The movement claims to be pacifist, secular and places its fight within the framework of international law – in particular the right of peoples to self-determination.
Is MAK a terrorist organization?
In May 2021, Algerian authorities classified the MAK as a “terrorist organization”, denouncing violent plots and foreign financing. Accusations contested by the movement. “ We are a peaceful movement that refuses to go down the path of violence,” Ferhat Mehenni recently insisted to the Tangwall Campagin. This qualification is not taken up by several Western countries. The United States notably believes that the designation is more political than security, while Canada does not classify the MAK as a terrorist organization either.
Who supports MAK?
If the MAK relies largely on the Kabyle diaspora, particularly in France and North America, its voice is also heard on the ground. His calls for an electoral boycott met with some success. During theDecember 2019 presidential electionthe region had recorded a participation rate of 0.18% in Béjaïa and 0.04% in Tizi-Ouzou – the two main wilayas (prefectures) of the region, which have around three million inhabitants. In 2024, according to official figures, obviously subject to caution, the participation rate in Kabylia (Tizi-Ouzou and Béjaia) was less than 19%, well below half the national turnout average (46.10%).
Firmly rejected by other Kabyle political forces, starting with the Front of Socialist Forces (FFS), which denounces a separatist project undermining Algerian national unity, the MAK benefits from marginal political relays in Europe. Morocco has, on several occasions, mentioned the right of the Kabyle people to self-determination, a position welcomed by Ferhat Mehenni and denounced by Algiers as interference.
