Editing Algiers (section)

===Independence===
Algeria achieved [[independence]] on July 5, 1962, with Algiers as its capital. Since then, despite losing its entire ''[[pied-noir]]'' population, the city has expanded massively. It now has about five million inhabitants, or 10 percent of Algeria's population—and its suburbs now cover most of the surrounding [[Geography of Algeria|Mitidja]] plain. Run by the FLN that had secured independence, Algiers became a member of [[Non-Aligned Movement]] during the [[Cold War]]. In October 1988, one year before the fall of the [[Berlin Wall]], Algiers was the site of demonstrations demanding the end of the single-party system and the creation of a ''real'' [[democracy]] baptized the "Spring of Algiers". The demonstrators were repressed by the authorities (more than 300 dead), but the movement constituted a turning point in the political history of modern Algeria. The [[1989 Algerian constitutional referendum]] took place and a new constitution was adopted that put an end to the one-party rule and saw the creation of more than fifty political parties, as well as official freedom of the press.