By: Afrasa Zamanel (Ph.D.) and Messay Dejene (Ph.D.)
The horrendous atrocities the terrorist organization, TPLF, has meted out against Ethiopians, particularly Amaras is unparalleled in history, save the Jewish holocaust. Emboldened by the overt and covert support it received from its handlers, the ethnocentric outfit that represents a mere 5% of Ethiopia’s population invaded Ethiopia in the wake of the collapse of the resented junta which was at the helm of power. Woyanes have perpetrated gruesome atrocities including spates of genocides across the length and breadth of the country with impunity. Kidnapping and assassination even beyond our borders, has been its national pastime. The recent murders of a two patriotic Ethiopians, one, a refugee in South Africa, the other, the distinguished engineer in-charge of the construction of what is touted as the largest dam on the Nile, attest to this fact. The flight of the chief of Woyanes security implicated in the grenade attack to assassinate premier Abiy, speaks volumes about them.
It would be tedious to catalogue the atrocities which the members of this terrorist organization have unleashed against Ethiopians. TPLF/Woyane is perhaps, the first terrorist organization in the world that has concocted a constitution legitimizing the extermination of an entire race, the unsuspecting Amara people. Consequently, it has done away with six million of them.
The threat of secessionists was the very reason why Ethiopians endured the horrible former military regime. They tolerated the brutalities of the military regime which was fighting the dreaded secessionists including Woyanes. As fate would have it, what Ethiopians had dreaded most and have sacrificed much to avert, came to pass. The junta collapsed after 17 years of mismanaging the country, having prepared the ground for the contemptible breed of Yemeni Tigres to invade it.
Ethiopia, thus fell into the hands of secessionists namely, the Eritrean Liberation Front, its brainchild the Tigre Liberation Front and the subservient junior partner, the Oromo Liberation Front.
Ignoring the backgrounds of these constitutionally treacherous people who were brought from Yemen as indentured labourers over a thousand years ago, we allowed them to fester in our midst. We let them entrench so that these virtual aliens could undo our county by ceding Eritrea, dismantling the armed forces, the educational system, the civil service and wreak the fabric of the society by pitting one group against another, and all against Amaras, their former masters. No Ethiopians, ever suspected that the horde of Tigres would prove to be so inimical to everything Ethiopian. Their deliberate and malicious barring of millions our Oromifa-speaking children from learning Amharic, was one of their wanton acts of destruction.
As injustice will always be challenged, the nation’s resolve to deal with the mortal enemies, has begun in earnest. Unbeknown to them, poor Woyane Tigres, have disturbed the hornet’s nest.
Indeed, the brave children of the aggrieved nation are up in arms to liberate their country from these wicked mercenaries who in any other country would be consigned to the gallows for high treason. That is why the struggle to rout out the incorrigible enemies is poised to proceed unrelentingly.
The Amaras, of whom some 6 million have quietly been exterminated at the behest of Tigre Woyanes, are certainly in no mood to brook such incomprehensibly brutal, cowardly and cold-blooded atrocities any longer. Their conduct has shown them to be nothing but an inferior breed of third rate humans, no better than inebriated animals.
Woyanes annexation of neighbouring territories
The greedy horde had no qualms when they invaded others’ lands by violating the inviolable natural boundary, like the Tekezie River. The fascist Tigre Woyane occupation forces in their insatiable desire to plunder, have also annexed territories ranging from the lowest place on earth in Afar, to the highest, in the Amara heartland. And of course, they have not spared regions in between including a big swathe of Wollo.
The Tigre clergy which has desecrated holy institutions, is as Godless, corrupt and rotten as the Woyane thugs themselves. The appointment of the lecherous, late patriarch who ordered the cold-blooded massacre of 29 clerics in Gondar was followed by the murder of some 11 innocent Muslim worshippers in the grand Anwar Mosque. The more recent desecration of Waldiba monastery where its nuns and monks were molested by Tigre rapists, speaks volumes about the nature of these creatures. Their beastly conduct defies description.
Who said Axumite Civilization had anything to do with Tigres?
Axum’s history by the way, is Ethiopia’s history before the advent of Tigres who came from Yemen. On the few occasions TPLF/Woyane’s half-witted Meles Zenawi, spoke the truth, he had admitted Tigres’Yemeni heritage. Yet, he had the audacity to bluntly tell the nation that the glory of Axum had nothing to do with non-Tigreans. This innately perverted grandson of a mercenary cannot be expected to relent to truth. For that matter, Amaras, Agaws, Gammos, Keffas, Sidamas, Somalis, Afars, Wolaita, Kembata, Gurages and other ancient Ethiopians have got a lot more to do with Axum than the Meles’s ‘golden race’, the slaves from Yemen. There is absolutely no reference to Tigres in old Axum or anywhere in the region they now live in
Not that it matters much, but the fact remains that Tigres, have nothing to do with old Axum. For the record, even the appellation, Axum is derived from two Amharic words ‘Ager’ and ”Shum”, meaning the governor of a country. It was our Agaw forebears and Amaras who founded Axum several thousand years before migrant Tigre tribes from Yemen were imported to serve the Ethiopian nobility. In other words, the ancestors of Tigres migrated from Yemen as domestics of Ethiopian kings, several centuries after the Axum obelisks were erected. Therefore, TPLF’s claim to Axumite civilization is a figment of their sterile imagination. Indeed, Tigres are carbon copies of their Yemeni cousins in many ways.
Yemenis and Tigres are the only people in the world who relish locust, that voracious insect, pretty objectionable to people with civilized sensibilities. Both are noted for their brashness, greed, vulgarity and condescending attitude towards women. One of the writers, (AZ) has a first-hand experience, having worked in Yemen for a close to a decade.
Indeed, Meles too had asserted the Yemen origins of Tigres every time he knelt in front of his Arab overlords with his begging bowl during his days as a rebel leader.
Woyanes, the reviled descendants of indentured slaves
Besides, Meles and his TPLF officials are all descendants of unrepentant mercenary Tigres who fought Ethiopians alongside Italians, twice in forty years. The venal lot have also been instrumental in the British invasion of Ethiopia some 150 years ago where they served as porters, spies and guides. True to his uncompromising spirit, the brave Emperor Tewedros, turned his gun on himself instead of surrendering to the contemptible imperialists who entered his empire with the support of Tigres.
Demeqe Zewdu, a reincarnation of Tewedros, is cognizant of this history when he gunned down a host of terrorist Tigres who had come to Gondar in disguise to abduct him two years ago.
Woyane Tigres, according to Gebremedhin Araya, a former member of TPLF, are a repugnant lot sired by despised mercenaries. It is perhaps this blight in Woyane’s past that has created a profound sense of inferiority in them.
The crude, rude and seemingly supremacist outbursts which the rank and file Woyanes used to make until they were recently deflated, emanates from the deep-seated and irrevocable sense of inadequacy. So, no wonder that Meles glibly bragged publicly that he prided himself for having been born to the ‘golden Tigre race’. Although his repugnant utterances have no merit, no Tigre ever rebuffed him.
Woyanes ludicrous claim that Adwa’s victory was theirs alone
The Woyanes are capable of denying even the very obvious. Yes, they had the courage to claim that the victory of Adwa was theirs’s alone. The facts however, are different. We need look no further than just consulting Italian archives to debunk such ludicrous claims.
Ras Mengesha, the leader of Tigray, could not muster to field more than 3,000 men at the battle of Adwa. Yet, at least 70,000 Tigres had been in Italian uniform to fight the motherland. Empress Taitu alone had managed to garner 5,000 men under her command.
In essence, the combat role of Tigres in Adwa was negligible. Of course, the great Ras Alula Abba Negga and Awalom, were more of an exception. The latter, who provided decisive intelligence and Alula will always be remembered in the annals of Ethiopia’s history.
A quick glance at the manpower strength of the combatants, is illustrative. Ras Mekonen of Harar fielded a formidably trained army of 25,000. Wollo’s Ras Michael’s battle-hardened army was in upwards of 16,000 men, including his 5,000 horsemen who mesmerized the Italians with their dazzling display of gallantry.
In short, the victory of Adwa was the sum total of the valour of our ancestors who converged in Adwa from across the whole nation, rallying behind their beloved leader, Menelik. They came from Afar, Arsi, Balle, Benshangul, Gammo Gofa, Wolaita, Gurage, Harar (including Ogaden), Keffa, Begemdir, Simeien, Wollo, Gojam, Welega, Sidamo, Hadiya, Illubabor, Keffa, Kembatta, the mighty Shoa contingent consisting of Amara, Oromo, and Gurages. It was this army of fierce patriots who mowed down the 14,000 or so imperialist invaders in a day. Having done so, they brought glory to the motherland, a glory never ever bestowed upon any people of colour before. Despicable Woyanes have dared to appropriate our glorious victory at the battle of Adwa in which their ancestors had a shameful history. Italian archives reveal that almost all of the Italian black army consisted of treasonous Tigres.
The gallant patriots who fought at Adwa with such courage and valour were none other than Ethiopians whom Menelik had just reunited, some forcefully. Had there been any hostile sentiment towards him, our brave ancestors, the Mekonens, the Gobenas, the Balchas, the Habte Abba Mellas, the Gebeyehus, the Kawo Tonas, the Shogeles, the Morodas, etc would have rebelled against Menelik. But, their loyalty to their monarch was total contrary to renegade Woyanes’ claim.
It is in spite of such glaring evidence that Woyane Tigres and some semi-literate OLF elites like Negaso, the Lencho Lettas etc unjustly demonize the blameless Menelik today.
Tigres’ secession, should be blessing in disguise.
Finally, an honest interrogation of our recent past is necessary to chart our future. Ethiopia’s last fifty years reveals a horrible history riddled with turmoil largely stemming from arid Tigrai although Tigres had been the most privileged entity, judging by all conventional development indices.
Over the last 44 years alone, millions of lives were lost and our country turned destitute. Some of the nation’s brightest sons and daughters perished under the guise of fighting for EPRP, itself, the brainchild of secessionist Tigres. The decades of war which Ethiopia waged to counter the secessionists, has brought the nation nothing but misery. If Ethiopians indeed, knew the horribly vile nature of Woyanes Tigres, they would have said, ‘’good riddance’’, long ago. We hope, Yemen welcomes them!
Woyanes are a perfect enemy. And like their Italian masters they divided our country along spurious linguistic lines, annexed a vast swathe of Afar, Gondar, Wollo and imposed a violent brand of Tigre apartheid.
The TPLF never relented from pursuing its goal of fragmenting a nation of over 100 million Ethiopians, until the current uprising halted it.
Woyanes thrived mainly on the contrived differences of Amaras and Oromos who are in the main, the architects of modern Ethiopia. To galvanize the concocted inter-ethnic hostility, Woyanes conducted a spate of massacres across the whole county. Even on their deathbed, they are busy spilling the blood of Ethiopians through their agents by fanning inter-communal violence. The latest massacre of over 120 Amaras, Oromos, Gurages and others in Ogaden, the destruction of 10 churches and monasteries, as well as the flight of over 10,000 Ethiopians to neighbouring countries in the last couple of days, is a case in point.
At long last, the collapse of the artificial wedge which the enemy Woyane laid between the two largest linguistic groups, the main architects of modern Ethiopia, has fomented the wave of national upheaval. that brought the likes of Abiy Ahmed to the fore. The enemy that has confiscated the lives of many Christians to blame it on Muslims and declared war on our two major religions, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Islam, is now on the brink of collapse.
As Ethiopia’s liberation is in the offing, we need to think of the destiny of our country, our children, their children and their grandchildren.
Let us muster the courage to envisage our country, Ethiopia without the racist Woyane Tigres. Tigres have literally seceded in form and substance, as the past 27 years have demonstrated. We believe, Ethiopia’s best interest is served better if Ethiopians humbly bid the ‘golden race’, a gracious farewell.
If 99% of Tigres outside Ethiopia lend support to the Woyanes, it is ludicrous to assume that Tigres living in Ethiopia would be any different. We are not in any way questioning the boundless patriotism of the suppressed minorities in Tigrai such as Kunamas, Erobs etc.
Our plea to fellow Ethiopians is one of realism. We should delightfully accede to TPLF and its constituency, their wish to hoist their own flag, wherever that may be. Of course, the territory they call Tigrai, is the home of the indigenous people of northern Ethiopia, the Agaws, Amaras, the Bejas, as are the recently annexed territories in Afar, Benshangul, Gondar and Wollo.
Long live the motherland!!
The authors are consultant engineers.