By Addissu Admas
By all indications, it appears that Ethiopia and Eritrea on one side, and the TPLF on the other, are heading towards a final show down. Ethiopian and Eritrean armies appear to be prevailing and heading towards victory. However, what this victory will look like no one is certain. Does it mean controlling the towns and letting go of the countryside and allowing the TPLF to regroup and roam around the countryside to plan another attack; allowing it in the process to resurge as a newer younger TPLF? Can the joint Ethiopian and Eritrean armies sweep clean the whole of Tigray of all TPLF members and supporters? Very unlikely, since the Derg with its vast seasoned army and very substantial support of the former Soviet Union had not only not been able to control completely Tigray, but had practically abandoned her to be run by the TPLF in the last years before its own demise. It is not that I am putting much credence in the organizational skill and military prowess of the TPLF. It is, instead, the conviction that this malign party has a powerful hold on the psyche of the Tigrean people. While it continues to recruit tens of thousands of Tigreans as young as 12 years old to be devoured by this hellish war, no rebellion of any significance to stop this carnage has come either from within or without Tigray. What we observe instead with utter despair and disgust is that non-combatant citizens on both sides are consumed by the desire to see the total annihilation of the other’s army. We are, whether we want to admit it or not, in a pitch fever of war that is rendering us not only blind to the suffering of the other side, but being filled with despicable vindictive feeling.
The people of Tigray need to understand – and most of them do understand – that the TPLF is using them like cannon fodder to realize its impossible dream of a “Greater Tigray”, since its ambition to return to power over all of Ethiopia has failed. And will fail forever because the Ethiopian people have rejected resolutely its ethnofascism, despicable corruption, and total lack of love of our nation. The Tigrean people sit at the heart of Ethiopiawinet [Ethiopian-ness], and yet the TPLF is demanding, nay exacting from them the ultimate price to repudiate it. For what? One may ask. Every Tigrean knows that Tigray is an indivisible part of Ethiopia and that she cannot form a viable and meaningful state on her own. Most importantly, how can one sever the part of Ethiopia that has been part of her identity and heredity? Yet this deranged party has done more to foment enmity and hostility among Ethiopians than any established power before it. I say that this war can come to a conclusive end only if the Tigrean people, convinced not only of the impossibility of TPLF’s dream (or better yet nightmare!), but of its callous disregard for human life to achieve its deranged goals, unite with their Ethiopian brothers to bring the TPLF to its final demise.
The Tigrean people must also be convinced, and again most do, that the USA and the EU do not have, never had, and never will have the interest of our peoples, but of their own strategic goals and advantages. The TPLF will continue to feed these powers with information that will not only benefit itself, but gives them the needed justification to meddle with our internal affairs, and impose their ill-designed policies for us. We must be aware that America and Europe have never been able nor willing to grant us the respect and dignity that comes with being a sovereign country. They will continue to treat us as “infantile nations” needing their guidance as long as we depend on their calculated charity. Their constant siding with the TPLF is not even a matter of loyalty to an old ally, but a very calculated move to thwart the influence of the other great powers, or to appease a regional ally. To this end, they will recruit so called “specialists of Ethiopia” – none of whom has a cursory understanding of our languages, cultures and religions – to “explain away” the very entangled puzzle that is Ethiopia. Some of them have even the indecency to use their positions and notability to take sides, no doubt, intentionally and calculatedly. We must not heed their voices but only of those who desire our peace, unity and well-being, since only through these we can achieve our “Greater Ethiopia”.
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‘Joint Ethio-Eritrean Operation’: NONE! TPLF threw a punch, EPLF threw a counter punch. Ethiopia should refrain from any “Ethio-Eritrea X, Y, Z” crap.
Ethio-Eritrea Relations: Eritreans held two referenda. 1952 – To rejoin Ethiopia. 1991- To secede from Ethiopia. Ethiopia is using Sudan’s and Djibouti’s ports while Eritrea’s ports are sitting idle! Let’s stop fooling ourselves!
TPLF & Tigray: Degrade TPLF’s military/finance. Use Neighborhood Watch Scouts. Set-up robust intelligence network. Use high-tech mobile border patrols.
TPLF-EPLF Victory over Derg: EPLF-TPLF’s Derg-EPRP-Meison infiltrators did it. Even a pro-EPLF Eritrean general was living at the Hilton’s top floor.
Egypt-sponsored TPLF-EPLF Duo: Secessionists that co-looted Ethiopia from 1991 to 1998 and went for each other’s throats over the lion’s share of the loot.
Yep. That’s what I would call a realist’s analysis. Learn from history.
Tigray is one of the oldest and over-farmed areas of the world and the topsoil and most of the natural stuff is gone for the past few hundred years. Tigrayan priests and other people needed other areas to settle in and the frequent draughts caused a lot of agony there. Laureate Tsegaye Gebre Medhin would travel in the early 1960s there and write about it with bitterness. When blaming FETTARIE and Abune Aregawi wasn’t enough, some in the university came up with the idea of blaming Amhara tribe. It is still right there in the manifesto of TPLF to this day written in black and white. blaming Amhara for Tigre tribe begging and prostitution done to survive. But the truth is: not even one GASHA-MERET was owned by Amhara in Tigray. Not even an acre.
Because of the frequent draught that caused famine, lots of people moved around and rented land to farm until the rain came back in Tigray. Welqayit is an excellent example of that but not the only one. They came in droves again and again and some times the rain just won’t come back for years. By early 1980s EPRP which was using some areas to roam in was being lost to TPLF which was getting stronger. There were also lesser-known armed groups fighting against DERG in the same areas. So the folks there were used to armed rebels and thought nothing of TPLF but just one of them.
TPLF in the meantime was trying to get out of the beta position under alpha EPLF. For EPLF thought everything TPLF knew and how to get stuff from Arab countries being one of them. Welkait became a lifeline for TPLF and the volatile EPRP had opted to go to Sudan and eventually to USA, leaving the area to TPLF. That is except for the few who stayed behind and joined the very enemy TPLF that has killed their comrades in hundreds in Assimba and the rest of Tigray. The proximity to Sudan and the fact that trade flew that way and the farmers/merchants could also speak Sudanese Arabic was vital and MANA from heaven for TPLF. The militay gov’t of Ethiopia had a lot of other wars to fight at that time and EPRP or other ‘ethiopianist’ groups were not a priority to it. DERG ‘will come back to it once it dislodged EPLF from Nakfa’ which never happened but that was the plan.
TPLF’s boss Meles Zenawi aka Legesse Zenawi once told col Gadhafi of Libya that he was a Yemeni Arab being oppressed by Black Ethiopians. One can only imagine what he got from the late erratic guy. Meles is the name of a true terrorist guy who planted bombs in Addis in mid 1970s to blow up the national stadium and the high rise Shebele hotel but failed got himself killed. Legesse Zenawi took his name and became Meles Zenawi from there on. He also moved around with a Somalian passport provided by the tribalist Siad Bare that destroyed Somalia with his tribalism and cruelty.
Prince Mengesha Seyoum, great grandson of Yohannes IV and hereditary ruler of Tigray and Dr Aregawi Berhe, one of the handful founders of TPLF, were on record testifying Tigray’s border ends with Tekeze river. In their books and interviews as well. When Ras Mengesha’s kids in Canada were overwhelmed by life threatening hate from TPLF fanatics, they begged their grandfather to retract what he said on VOA but his book was already out and it says so in black and white TIGRE ENA AMARAN TEKEZE WENZ NEW YEMIYAWESINACHEW
Ethiopian nationalism took a lot of blows for 27 years by gov’t media. It was not unusual to read an article on ADDIS ZEMEN daily which praised fascist Italy’s brutal occupation of the late 1930s. Addis Ababa was brutalized on YEKATIT 12 in 1930s by fascist Italy’s savages and as much as 30 000 might have been massacred when the population was not even half a million. The Christians and the Amhara were picked out and some of them shipped to Genale. A lot of children and nursing mothers died on that trip and some survivors were forced into slave labors in banana plantations for years just b/c they were Amhara or speaking Amaharic. Abraha Deboch and Moges Asgedom, the pair who tried to kill Graziani, were Ethiopians of Eritrean origin though.
TPLF managed to get Ethiopia out of most Tigrayans’ but wouldn’t even provide enough drinking water in Mekelle in the three decades it was in power. Ethiopia was a cow to milk for TPLF and milk it did in billions of dollars and hid that stolen money in foreign countries like USA. The kind of cars they drive, the beautiful condos they live in…the kind of money they make-rain at white strippers in American towns all came from Ethiopia’s poor people. Never in the history of Africa had just one tribe of a country’s students joined expensive schools of America and Europe like the Adwa subtribe of Tigre tribe of Ethiopia. The ADWA-tribe gets the best and the rest get some leftovers but still much better than what the Bereket Simone recruited Amhara ANDM.
At a lower level ANDM of a late former taxi driver of NYC speaker of the house Yohannes and Dr Dagnachew’s half sister or first cousin Genet Zewde that used to teach typing at AAU and Tefera Walwa and a lot of other ‘country’ were having a jolly good time in Addis Ababa town every weekend praising each other for what they have ‘accomplished’ with prime cut of meat and kitfo. They weren’t worried at all until 2005 and a ‘SHEQABA’ Berhanu Nega and the late Mesfin W/Mariam stirred trouble and helped form CUD/Kinijit within six months after their QESTEDAMENA. The mole Lidetu Ayalew within CUD was not exposed until too late but even in jail the KINIJIT political prisoners raised hell for them. The ANDM was found useless and Bereket Simon who is not Addisababan and his two cadres Shimelis Kemal and Ermias Legesse who were Addisababans replaced them. Ermias of Addis recruited the ‘spiritual’ Habtamu Ayalew ‘country’ to boss over Addisaba youth and everything seemed to be fine. Federal Offices old and new were filled up by TPLF members from Tigray and some other tribes were put in most visible places to fool the public but it was a purely ethnic-apartheid system being built up and reinforced.
For a strictly isolationist Albanian styled communism of MLLT within TPLF to multi billionaire society of a very few people from Adwa in Tigray for very few people of Adwa in Tigray paid by the blood and gore of mostly none-Adwan Tigray was there for all to see but even the opposition was too shy to point that out. Berhanu and Ginbot 7 won’t even say ‘Amhara genocide’ for there were a lot of others that were massacred by TPLF like the Ogaden Somales, the Gambelas and others and besides TPLF was accusing every opposition party to be NEFTEGNA. TPLF never recovered from the shock it got from losing all the seats to CUD in Addis in 2005. But it would never say the magic word ‘Ethiopia’ out of deep-rooted and unfounded hate that was consuming it alive. Amhara dominated gov’ts for hundreds of years might have harmed other language groups but never Tigray. When Tigre rulers couldn’t get along with themselves Ras Mikael/Mohammad Ali or Ras Mekonnen of Harar were appointed for short periods of times but never interfered in internal matters.
In desperation the late ‘history’ writer rose up and faked it all with his book. Tigrayan youth that were supposed to be communists were now being thought they were always superior to any other tribe in Ethiopia. And the prove is they ‘beat Derg’ in war. Of course the fact that Eritreans were the ones who did the fighting even before Derg came around was never mentioned in the brain-washing project. Most of them are under 30 and all they know is ‘Tigre-is-superior’ from all the TV and Radio propaganda. The rest of Ethiopia was being raised on ABABA TESFAYE’s beautiful TERET-TERET and the late old man Tesfaye on TV was from Bale province.
What did the victors of WWII do to Italian and German youth that was brain-washed?