48 Facts About Abdelaziz Bouteflika

Abdelaziz Bouteflika was an Algerian politician and diplomat who served as President of Algeria from 1999 to his resignation in 2019.

In 1999, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected president of Algeria in a landslide victory.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned on 2 April 2019 after months of mass protests.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika was born on 2 March 1937 in Oujda, French Morocco.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika was the son of Mansouria Ghezlaoui and Ahmed Bouteflika from Tlemcen, Algeria.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika had three half-sisters, as well as four brothers and one sister.

Unlike Said, who was raised mostly in Tlemcen, Abdelaziz Bouteflika grew up in Oujda, where his father had emigrated as a youngster.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika successively attended three schools in Oudja: Sidi Ziane, El Hoceinia, and Abdel Moumen High Schools, where he reportedly excelled academically.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika received his military education at the Ecole des Cadres in Dar El Kebdani, Morocco.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika became one of his closest collaborators and a core member of his Oujda Group.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika was a prime mover in the military coup led by Houari Boumediene that overthrew Ben Bella on 19 June 1965.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika continued as Minister for Foreign Affairs until the death of President Boumedienne in 1978.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika served as president of the United Nations General Assembly in 1974 and of the seventh special session in 1975, becoming the youngest person to have done so.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika had discussions there with Henry Kissinger in the first talks between the United States and Algerian officials since the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

On 8 August 1983, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was convicted by the Court of Financial Auditors and found guilty of having fraudulently taken 60 million dinars during his diplomatic career.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika was granted amnesty by President Chadli Bendjedid, his colleagues Senouci and Boudjakdji were jailed.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika never paid back the money "he reserved for a new foreign affairs ministry's building".

Abdelaziz Bouteflika was thought to represent the party's "right wing" that was more open to economic reform and rapprochement with the West.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika was reassigned the role of Minister of State, but successively lost power as Bendjedid's policies of "de-Boumediennisation" marginalised the old guard.

In January 1994, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was said to have refused the Army's proposal to succeed the assassinated president, Mohamed Boudiaf; he claimed later that this was because the army would not grant him full control over the armed forces.

In 1999, after Zeroual unexpectedly stepped down and announced early elections, Abdelaziz Bouteflika successfully ran for president as an independent candidate, supported by the military.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika subsequently organised a referendum on his policies to restore peace and security to Algeria and to test his support among his countrymen after the contested election.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika presided over the Organisation of African Unity in 2000, secured the Algiers Peace Treaty between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and supported peace efforts in the African Great Lakes region.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika secured a friendship treaty with nearby Spain in 2002, and welcomed president Jacques Chirac of France on a state visit to Algiers in 2003.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika aimed to bring down the external debt from $21 billion to $12 billion in the same time.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika obtained from Parliament the reform of the law governing the oil and gas industries, despite initial opposition from the workers unions.

In 2004 Abdelaziz Bouteflika organised the Arab League Summit and became President of the Arab League for one year; however his calls for reform of the League did not gain sufficient support to pass during the Algiers summit.

President Triet and Abdelaziz Bouteflika agreed that the two countries still have great potential for development of political and trade relations.

In March 2016, the foreign ministers of the Arab league voted to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization, Abdelaziz Bouteflika voted with Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq to reject the motion.

In sub-Saharan Africa, a major concern of Abdelaziz Bouteflika's Algeria had been on-and-off Tuareg rebellions in northern Mali.

In 2010, journalists gathered to demonstrate for press freedom and against Abdelaziz Bouteflika's self-appointed role as editor-in-chief of Algeria's state television station.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika met the electoral law requiring a candidate to collect over 60,000 signatures from supporters in 25 provinces.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika cabled his congratulations to freshly-reelected Bashar al-Assad on 19 April 2014.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika was admitted to a clinic at Grenoble in France in November 2014.

On 20 February 2017, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel canceled her trip to Algeria an hour before takeoff, reportedly because Abdelaziz Bouteflika had severe bronchitis.

In June 2017, Abdelaziz Bouteflika made a rare, and brief, appearance on Algerian state television presiding over a cabinet meeting with his new government.

On 10 February 2019, a press release signed by the long-ailing Abdelaziz Bouteflika announcing he would seek a fifth consecutive term provoked widespread discontent.

On 11 March 2019, after sustained protests, Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced that he would not seek a new term.

The next day, Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced that he would resign by 28 April 2019.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika spent his final years in a medicalised state residence in Zeralda, a suburb of Algiers.

In November 2005, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was admitted to a hospital in France, reportedly had a gastric ulcer hemorrhage, and discharged three weeks later.

However, the length of time for which Abdelaziz Bouteflika remained virtually incommunicado led to rumours that he was critically ill with stomach cancer.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika checked into the hospital again in April 2006.

On 17 September 2021 Abdelaziz Bouteflika died at his home in Zeralda from cardiac arrest at the age of 84.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika's death was announced on state television by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika had been in failing health since he had a stroke in 2013.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika's rule was marred by allegations of fraud and vote-tampering at elections from 1999 to 2019.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika had already been convicted in 1983 of corruption.