Algeria is celebrating 60 years of independence from France on July 5, but rivalry over the atrocities committed during the centenary of the colonial era is still causing tensions between Paris and Algiers.
Algeria gained its independence after a fierce eight-year war that ended with the signing of the Evian Accords in March 1962.
On July 5 of that year - just days after 99.72 percent of the people voted for freedom from the polls - Algeria finally broke free from colonial rule. But memories of 132 years continue to haunt his relationship with France.
Algerian authorities are planning to celebrate the annual commemoration with a magnificence and an event surrounded by a huge military exhibition - the first of its kind in 33 years - in Algiers.
An exhibition is also being organized at the opera headquarters "which casts a long history of Algeria," said Liberation Army Minister Laid Rebiga.
The government has already approved a 60-star sign containing military personnel and equipment to mark "glorious history and a new era".
Conflicts
The Algerian independence war left hundreds of thousands dead. The crisis at the end of last year underscored the seriousness of the issue over the past six decades.
In October, Algeria remembered its ambassador to Paris and shut down French military planes in its airspace, France often using access to its anti-jihadist forces in the Sahel region.
That came after a bitter debate over visas, followed by media reports that Macron told generations of the Algerian liberation war that the North African country was ruled by a "political and military system" that had "completely rewritten" its history.
But the French government did try to improve the situation.
France opens secret secret archives from Algeria's liberation struggle
French Parliamentarians give green light to restore Algerian war 'harki'
Macron condemns 'unforgivable' attack on Algerian 1961 protests in Paris
France issued any kind of apology during the colonial period. But Macron also made many touches aimed at repairing relations with the former colony.
Visiting Algiers in his first presidential campaign in February 2017, he described colonialism as "a crime against humanity".
He acknowledged that French troops were responsible for the deaths of Algerian diplomat Ali Boumendjel and French anti-colonial mathematician Maurice Audin.
France reclaimed the skull of 19th-century Algerian resistance fighters and opened up a state repository with the Algerian war.
And both sides seem to have moved away from the recent crisis. Macron and his Algerian counterpart, Adelmadjid Tebboune, confirmed in a telephone call on June 18 their desire to "deepen" the relationship.
Tebboune even congratulated Macron on his new "smart" election and invited him to visit Algeria.
Historian Amar Mohand-Amer said it was time to "return to normalcy", adding: "Sixty years after independence, isn't it time to take the heat out of this debate?
'Unstable Geopolitics'
But the annual celebrations come at a time when tensions are running high in the vast area around Algeria. The country severed ties with regional rivals Morocco, last August, accusing it of "hostile actions".
In early June, Algiers suspended a 10-year partnership agreement with Madrid after Spain backed Morocco's stand on a long-running dispute over Western Sahara.
Western Sahara is closing in on clouds over Morocco's return to the African Union
In the east, Libya, the emergence of two rival governments has raised fears of a return to arms deals after a two-year deal.
And in the south, Mali is in trouble after military officials, unhappy with the government's failure to call off a jihadist protest, ousted president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in 2020.
Violations of rights
Meanwhile, human rights activists are still criticizing Algeria.
According to Amnesty International, in May 2022 local security forces reported that at least 266 activists were "suffering in Algerian prisons for exercising their right to freedom of speech and association".
Sixty years after Algeria gained independence, "fundamental freedoms and human rights are still being ignored, trampled on or diminished".