Agazianizing TPLF and Tigrayans - Isaias's Sneaky Goal in The War in Tigray
Posted: 19 Dec 2020, 13:36
Agazianizing TPLF and Tigrayans - Isaias's Sneaky Goal in The War in Tigray
By sarcasm at mereja.com 19 December 20
What is the Agazian movement?
Following the end of 50 years Italian colonization of Eritrea, the residents of the colony were openly promoting different ideas regarding the future political status of the colony. The Agazian movement, sometimes referred as Tigray-Tigrigni ትግራይ-ትግርኚ, was an aspirational movement of Tigrigna speakers in Eritrea to create a nation state for Tigrigna speakers of Eritrea and Tigray. Ras Tessema Asberom, Ato Woldeab Woldemariam and Degiat Haile Tesfamariam were the pioneers of the Agazian movement in the 1940s and 1950s. They met Ras Siyum Mengesh of Tigray and discussed their aspirations. But the idea did not gain traction partly because of the lukewarm interest by Tigrigna speaker aristocrats South of the Mereb River.
So, what has Isaias got to do with this?
Isaias's major achievement after he joined ELF was to create a breakaway organization for Tigrigna speakers in Eritrea. It was what we currently call a Tigrigna nationalist ብሔርተኛ organization. This organization was able to successfully mobilize Tigrigna speakers in Eritrea in a very short period of time in 1970s. The organization was built around Tigrigna speakers' values, language, culture and history. A French journalist who visited this organization in 1970s, René Lefort, witnessed that the leader of the organization telling his colleagues in one of their indoctrination sessions that they are the inheritors of the Axumite Kingdom while explaining the purposes of the struggle.
So, what has his desire to create a modern Axumite state got to do with fighting a war to destroy TPLF?
TPLF is another Tigrigna speakers' political organization that desires to rule the current Ethiopia rather than to establish a Tigrigna speakers' nation state. In other words, it is too Ethiopian / Ethiopianist. It used the Tigrigna speakers in Tigray as its power base to create a hegemony southwards. The late leader of TPLF once confided to Ambassador Abdella Adem (Eritrean) in 2003 that Isaias had repeatedly dispatched his closest friend and Minister, the late Naizghi Kiflu, asking him to agree to establish a nation state for Tigrigna speaking people (in 1990s before the Badme War). Meles told him that he repeatedly told them that he was not interested in the idea. The pull factor has failed. TPLF proved to be an obstacle in creating a nation state for Tigrigna people.
Following the end of Badme War, Isaias has tigrignized Eritrea but was not able to create a Tigrigna country as the “main” Tigrigna state with 3 times more Tigrigna speakers was already gaining prominence South of the Mereb River. With the ascent of anti-TPLF forces to power in Ethiopia in 2018, Isaias begun planning to take out the TPLF and to become the only force in the Tigrigna speaking world. At his first state dinner for Dr Abiy, he talked about golden opportunities. On his subsequent bimonthly meetings with Dr Abiy, he saw Dr Abiy’s desire to rule for decades and his skills in project management. He diligently worked to oversee him on the project of pushing TPLF from power (Dr Abiy’s goal) and the Ethiopian Tigrigna speakers out of Ethiopia (Isaias’s sneaky goal). In diaspora, the MYA – Mahber Yehwat Agaazian, led by former PFDJ agent Tesfazion was gaining momentum among Tigrigna speakers. This Agazian movement which claims to be established in 2011 in Asmara was different from the other Agazian movements because of its unique anti TPLF but pro PFDJ position while the other Agazian movements are generally devoted on people-to-people relations in bringing the Tigrigna speakers’ communities together.
The project of pushing Tigrayans out of Ethiopia reached it zenith in November 2020 when Tigray, the only oasis of peace in the current Ethiopia, was turned into a war zone; and Tigrayan cities and infrastructures were bombed by Ethiopian Air Force. The Tigrayans in the rest of Ethiopia and abroad were ethnic-profiled, discriminated and sacked from their jobs by the Ethiopian state and other fellow Ethiopians. The killings of Tigrayans, seizure of their land, individual and collective properties and wealth, while the rest of Ethiopia cheering triumphantly was triggering the desired feeling among Tigrayans. They felt the thread that united them with the rest of Ethiopians breaking at alarming speed. They kept saying: “We thought they see us as Ethiopians! They wouldn’t do this to us if they thought we’re Ethiopians!” The Tigrayans in Tigrayan cities under Ethiopian Federal Army or Amhara State Army felt exactly what we, the Tigrigna speakers in Eritrea, used to feel in 1960s to 1991 – occupied and invaded! They have been made to feel less Ethiopian by the gleefully cheering “real” Ethiopians. Consequently, they started to collectively visualize an independent state of Tigray where they would be free from occupation and realize their potentialities. Voila! The only people standing with Tigrayans are the Eritrean diaspora communities who are campaigning online and demonstrating in major Western cities. They are solidifying their relationships and filling the voids. The process of uniting the Tigrigna speakers is running at full speed.
Dr Abiy’s desire to remove the real competition to his power by force is helping Isaias to realise his dream of becoming the heir of the Axumite Kingdom. Isaias’s tough love administered by Ethiopian resources is helping the realization of the 80 years old dream of a Tigrigna speakers’ nation state. Tigrayan political parties such as Baytona and Salsay Woyane will not have any major reasons to stop them from merging with Mahari Yohans’s Tigray Independence Party. The Ethiopianist TPLF has no options rather than to align with the mainstream Tigrayan desire to become independent. Dr Abiy’s short-termism will help Eritrea to become a 3-thousand-year-old country soon.
References:
Ethiopia: An Heretical Revolution? by René Lefort, 1983
Interview with Ambassador Abdella Adem; Australia’s SBS Radio August 28
Professor Tesfatsion Medhanies’s discussion paper Eritrea ’’kem adebo’’ 2012
Agaiazian.tv YouTube Channel
J Studio interview with Aboy Habtemariam Abraha 11 October 2020
By sarcasm at mereja.com 19 December 20
What is the Agazian movement?
Following the end of 50 years Italian colonization of Eritrea, the residents of the colony were openly promoting different ideas regarding the future political status of the colony. The Agazian movement, sometimes referred as Tigray-Tigrigni ትግራይ-ትግርኚ, was an aspirational movement of Tigrigna speakers in Eritrea to create a nation state for Tigrigna speakers of Eritrea and Tigray. Ras Tessema Asberom, Ato Woldeab Woldemariam and Degiat Haile Tesfamariam were the pioneers of the Agazian movement in the 1940s and 1950s. They met Ras Siyum Mengesh of Tigray and discussed their aspirations. But the idea did not gain traction partly because of the lukewarm interest by Tigrigna speaker aristocrats South of the Mereb River.
So, what has Isaias got to do with this?
Isaias's major achievement after he joined ELF was to create a breakaway organization for Tigrigna speakers in Eritrea. It was what we currently call a Tigrigna nationalist ብሔርተኛ organization. This organization was able to successfully mobilize Tigrigna speakers in Eritrea in a very short period of time in 1970s. The organization was built around Tigrigna speakers' values, language, culture and history. A French journalist who visited this organization in 1970s, René Lefort, witnessed that the leader of the organization telling his colleagues in one of their indoctrination sessions that they are the inheritors of the Axumite Kingdom while explaining the purposes of the struggle.
So, what has his desire to create a modern Axumite state got to do with fighting a war to destroy TPLF?
TPLF is another Tigrigna speakers' political organization that desires to rule the current Ethiopia rather than to establish a Tigrigna speakers' nation state. In other words, it is too Ethiopian / Ethiopianist. It used the Tigrigna speakers in Tigray as its power base to create a hegemony southwards. The late leader of TPLF once confided to Ambassador Abdella Adem (Eritrean) in 2003 that Isaias had repeatedly dispatched his closest friend and Minister, the late Naizghi Kiflu, asking him to agree to establish a nation state for Tigrigna speaking people (in 1990s before the Badme War). Meles told him that he repeatedly told them that he was not interested in the idea. The pull factor has failed. TPLF proved to be an obstacle in creating a nation state for Tigrigna people.
Following the end of Badme War, Isaias has tigrignized Eritrea but was not able to create a Tigrigna country as the “main” Tigrigna state with 3 times more Tigrigna speakers was already gaining prominence South of the Mereb River. With the ascent of anti-TPLF forces to power in Ethiopia in 2018, Isaias begun planning to take out the TPLF and to become the only force in the Tigrigna speaking world. At his first state dinner for Dr Abiy, he talked about golden opportunities. On his subsequent bimonthly meetings with Dr Abiy, he saw Dr Abiy’s desire to rule for decades and his skills in project management. He diligently worked to oversee him on the project of pushing TPLF from power (Dr Abiy’s goal) and the Ethiopian Tigrigna speakers out of Ethiopia (Isaias’s sneaky goal). In diaspora, the MYA – Mahber Yehwat Agaazian, led by former PFDJ agent Tesfazion was gaining momentum among Tigrigna speakers. This Agazian movement which claims to be established in 2011 in Asmara was different from the other Agazian movements because of its unique anti TPLF but pro PFDJ position while the other Agazian movements are generally devoted on people-to-people relations in bringing the Tigrigna speakers’ communities together.
The project of pushing Tigrayans out of Ethiopia reached it zenith in November 2020 when Tigray, the only oasis of peace in the current Ethiopia, was turned into a war zone; and Tigrayan cities and infrastructures were bombed by Ethiopian Air Force. The Tigrayans in the rest of Ethiopia and abroad were ethnic-profiled, discriminated and sacked from their jobs by the Ethiopian state and other fellow Ethiopians. The killings of Tigrayans, seizure of their land, individual and collective properties and wealth, while the rest of Ethiopia cheering triumphantly was triggering the desired feeling among Tigrayans. They felt the thread that united them with the rest of Ethiopians breaking at alarming speed. They kept saying: “We thought they see us as Ethiopians! They wouldn’t do this to us if they thought we’re Ethiopians!” The Tigrayans in Tigrayan cities under Ethiopian Federal Army or Amhara State Army felt exactly what we, the Tigrigna speakers in Eritrea, used to feel in 1960s to 1991 – occupied and invaded! They have been made to feel less Ethiopian by the gleefully cheering “real” Ethiopians. Consequently, they started to collectively visualize an independent state of Tigray where they would be free from occupation and realize their potentialities. Voila! The only people standing with Tigrayans are the Eritrean diaspora communities who are campaigning online and demonstrating in major Western cities. They are solidifying their relationships and filling the voids. The process of uniting the Tigrigna speakers is running at full speed.
Dr Abiy’s desire to remove the real competition to his power by force is helping Isaias to realise his dream of becoming the heir of the Axumite Kingdom. Isaias’s tough love administered by Ethiopian resources is helping the realization of the 80 years old dream of a Tigrigna speakers’ nation state. Tigrayan political parties such as Baytona and Salsay Woyane will not have any major reasons to stop them from merging with Mahari Yohans’s Tigray Independence Party. The Ethiopianist TPLF has no options rather than to align with the mainstream Tigrayan desire to become independent. Dr Abiy’s short-termism will help Eritrea to become a 3-thousand-year-old country soon.
References:
Ethiopia: An Heretical Revolution? by René Lefort, 1983
Interview with Ambassador Abdella Adem; Australia’s SBS Radio August 28
Professor Tesfatsion Medhanies’s discussion paper Eritrea ’’kem adebo’’ 2012
Agaiazian.tv YouTube Channel
J Studio interview with Aboy Habtemariam Abraha 11 October 2020
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