REGIONALISM TRIUMPHS OVER LOGIC IN CHOICE OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ALGIERS 000983

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/09/2018
TAGS: PGOV KISL SOCI AG
SUBJECT: REGIONALISM TRIUMPHS OVER LOGIC IN CHOICE OF
TLEMCEN AS "ISLAMIC CAPITAL"

Classified By: DCM Thomas F. Daughton; reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: The August 24 proclamation by Minister of
Culture Khalida Toumi that Tlemcen will be the 2011 "Islamic
Capital" was met with widespread cynicism, and appeared to
continue a trend of western Algerian regionalism trumping
common sense. Many were puzzled by the declaration, since
although Tlemcen does have a proud history, its Islamic
credentials pale in comparison to those of the eastern city
of Constantine and other credible sites in North Africa.
Since Abdelaziz Bouteflika became president in 1999, the
center of gravity within the Algerian government has
gradually shifted to the west. Bouteflika himself hails from
the west, 12 out of 34 cabinet ministers come from Tlemcen or
neighboring wilayas (provinces),and a majority of
Bouteflika's advisors come from Tlemcen or his official
hometown of Nedroma. Toumi's declaration, which came with
the blessing of UNESCO, also caused many to groan after two
previous cultural expositions turned into well publicized and
allegedly corrupt fiascoes: Algiers as 2007 Cultural Capital
of the Arab World, and the 2003 "Year of Algeria" exposition
in France. Those events, contacts say, cost loads of money,
were mismanaged and brought Algeria little tangible return.
END SUMMARY.

REGIONALISM REIGNS SUPREME
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2. (C) To Algerian analysts, the planned Tlemcen expo reeks
of politics. Fatma Oussedik, a sociologist at the Center for
Research in Economy Applied to Development (CREAD),told us
on September 1 that Tlemcen, "while a nice little city, has
benefited from special treatment ever since Bouteflika came
to power." Voicing what is obvious to most of the
population, she said that the trend over the past 15 years
has been a deliberate shift in the center of power, to the
point that many Algerians say today that a "Tlemcen gang"
runs the country. Oussedik recalled the 1980s and 1990s
influence wielded by the "BTS Triangle" -- a group of
civilian and military officials hailing from the eastern
region bordered by Batna, Tebessa and Souk Ahras -- and said
that beginning in the late 1990s, rival clans from the far
west sought to wrest control of the country away from the BTS
group. The most extreme examples of this, Oussedik said,
have occurred since 1999 when Bouteflika took office, and
include the ouster of Bouteflika rival Ali Benflis in 2004,
as well as the gradual strategic replacement of BTS civilian
and military leaders with Bouteflika loyalists from the
Tlemcen area.

THE 5.4 BILLION DINAR EXPO
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3. (C) Throughout 2007, Algiers was festooned with posters
trumpeting the city as "Cultural Capital of the Arab World."
According to El Watan journalist Salima Tlemcani, 1246 books
were published during the exposition, 18 festivals were
organized and 40 seminars were held. Although the total cost
of the 2007 expo was 5.4 billion dinars (approximately USD
88.5 million),there was no obvious central venue and many of
the events were poorly publicized and managed. According to
Tlemcani, most Algiers residents consequently viewed the expo
as "a fortune spent on an invisible event." Tlemcani went on
to say that she and her colleagues were surprised to see,
after all the criticism leveled at Culture Minister Toumi for
the expo, that Toumi was now embarking on "another journey of
the same kind." Mammar Farah, a journalist at
French-language daily Le Soir d'Algerie, noted that the
debacle surrounding the 2007 expo had "reopened the wounds"
of the 2003 Year of Algeria exposition in France. Farah told
us that Algerians were shocked to read that the 2003 expo
cost 900 million dinar (approx. USD 14.8 million),while only
"a tenth of the exhibitions were real attractions."

TLEMCEN OVERREACHES
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4. (C) According to University of Algiers history professor
Daho Djerbal, the relative merits of Tlemcen's Islamic
heritage do not justify its choice as a capital of the
Islamic world. Constantine, he pointed out, is the center of
Islam in Algeria, the seat of Algeria's ulema (Muslim

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scholars),and was once the capital of the entire Maghreb, a
rival of Rome. Tlemcen, in contrast, has a more muted
Islamic history: its status as the capital of a small kingdom
from the 12th to the 15th centuries gives it, in Djerbal's
view, legitimate historical credibility more than Islamic
importance. Commenting on Toumi's assertion that Tlemcen
"had the infrastructure" to handle an international
exposition, Djerbal scoffed and asserted there was no
substantive difference between the meager infrastructure of
Tlemcen and that of Constantine. Historian Sekfali
Abderrahim shared that view, accusing Toumi of "overreaching"
by expecting to showcase Tlemcen as a "jewel of Islamic
culture" by 2011. Toumi's public announcement featured her
intention to transform the Mansourah Palace in Tlemcen into a
replica of the Alhambra palace in Spain -- by 2011. Tlemcen,
Abderrahim said, was capable of hosting an international
seminar, but branding it an Islamic capital in the face of
sites in Egypt, Morocco, Syria and the Arabian Peninsula with
far stronger Islamic credentials was "bizarre."

COMMENT: THE TLEMCEN GANG
--------------


5. (C) The creeping domination of Algerian political life by
a clannish group of officials from western Algeria is very
real, the subject of cynical wisecracks and political
cartoons. Opposition leader Said Sadi of the Rally for
Culture and Democracy (RCD) has repeatedly described to us
the "Tikritization" of Algeria, comparing the dominance of a
group of leaders from the confined western region to the
situation in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Today, 12 out of 34
cabinet ministers hail from Bouteflika's home region of
Tlemcen or from neighboring regions such as Oran, or have
strong ties to western Algeria and towns across the border in
Morocco. The list includes several of the most powerful
ministers, whom Bouteflika appears to trust and rely on more
than others: Energy Minister Chekib Khelil is a native of
Oran, for example, and Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid
Zerhouni joined the National Liberation Front (FLN) in
northeastern Morocco in the late 1950s, alongside Bouteflika.
In addition to what our contacts describe as the blatant
regionalism behind the Tlemcen 2011 effort, they look at
Toumi's past two major debacles and simply do not believe she
is up to the task. Abderrahim the historian recalled a 2006
visit to Aleppo, Syria (then the "capital" of the Islamic
world),during which he was struck by the grandiose nature of
that city's presentation. "I doubt our Minister of Culture
can handle such standards," he concluded.
PEARCE