By Manal El Warraky
the Moroccan people celebrate with feelings of pride and honor the forty-ninth anniversary of the announcement by the late King Hassan II, may God bless his soul, of the organization of the Green March as an unprecedented event at the international level, which was considered a major turning point in completing the territorial integrity of the Kingdom and recovering its southern regions in a peaceful manner.
This event, rooted in the history of Morocco, represents a decisive turning point in the path of the struggle to complete national independence and achieve the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Morocco, and an occasion for the renewed collective affirmation of all segments of the Moroccan people on the Moroccanness of the southern regions of Morocco, and a bright and pivotal station in the history of the Kingdom, where the Moroccan people were able to liberate part of their usurped lands, and put an end to about 75 years of occupation of an important part of their land.
The Green March event dates back to October 16, 1975, when King Hassan II, may God have mercy on him, announced the organization of a march to recover his lands in a peaceful manner that dazzled the entire world and constituted a precedent in the history of liberation from colonialism. The announcement of the march coincided with the issuance of the International Court of Justice in The Hague of its advisory opinion on the Sahara, in which it confirmed, in an international recognition that does not accept interpretation or interpretation, the legitimacy of Morocco’s demands to recover its lands. It clarified in this historic decision that the southern regions are part of the Kingdom’s territory and were never empty land, and that there were legal ties and proven bonds of allegiance that brought together the Sultans of Morocco and the inhabitants of the Sahara.
The opinion of the aforementioned court marked the beginning of the Moroccan movement to recover its lands from Spain, as King Hassan II announced in his speech to the nation on this occasion the following: “All that remains for us is to go to our land, the Sahara has opened its doors to us legally, the entire world has recognized that the Sahara has been ours since ancient times.
The world has also recognized that there were ties between us and the Sahara, and those ties were not automatically severed but were severed by colonialism (…) My dear people, there is only one thing left, we must carry out a green march from the north of Morocco to its south and from the east of Morocco to its west.”
The Green March, which began on November 6, 1975, embodied the principles of Moroccans’ attachment to their national soil and the people’s solidarity with the throne, and the consensus of all classes and segments of Moroccan society on unity, and an example to be followed in rejecting violence and immersing themselves in the values of peace.
King Hassan II, the architect of the Green March, was keen to spare Morocco and the region a devastating war, so he made his decision to resort to a peaceful march and the approach of dialogue to settle this conflict in order to liberate his southern provinces.
