Mereja Forum

[sesame]

In May 1991, the TPLF rode to Addis and power on Shaebia mechanized and commando divisions. Everybody knew it; everyone who wrote about the end of the Derg said that the TPLF was at best the junior partner in the alliance that toppled the Derg. For years, the media in Addis, which at that time was free, said plainly that the TPLF was a Shaebia construct. For the TPLF leaders, who suffered from that well-known Tigrayan inferiority complex, it really rankled that they were not getting any respect. In fact, Ethiopians despised them and viewed them as harlots who sold themselves to Eritreans. What was to be done?

The TPLF started to fabricate a fake history about their role. Books were written to that end that initiated wild claims such as the generation that shook mountains. Tigrayan youth were brain-washed to believe the fantasy about the TPLF being a formidable force that defeated the Soviet Union. And in order to gain the respect of Ethiopians, the TPLF decided to back-stab Eritrea and started a full-scale war that lasted for 2 years. That war proved that the Tigrayans were not able to defeat Eritrea although they had the full support of Ethiopians. They lost over 150,000 lives, 50,000 of whom were Tigrayans, to Eritrea's 19,000. And when the final and binding decision came, it was found out that the TPLF used Ethiopian lives for nothing; Badme, the pretext of the war ended up being Eritrean after all.

Fast forward to Nov 3, 2010, when the same TPLF leaders who should have known their military deficiencies, decided to take on both Eritrea and the rest of Ethiopia. They were defeated, with the Tigray they had build by lies and theft disintegrating in just 17 days. They lost all the lands they stole. Most of them lost their lives. The aura of invincibility that they had created among their brain-washed Tigrayan new generation shattered for good.

They say that the worst that can happen to a parent is to lose the respect of his children. Tigrayans may be in deep denial, but the TPLF they believed in has turned out to a fraud. TPLF remnants are desperately trying to maintain a semblance of honor but the stain of the transition from እምበር ተጋዳላይ to እምበር ሃዳማይ can never be erased.