Mereja Forum

[Axumezana]

The recommended scenario has to meet the aspirations of the Tigray people, most feasible and strategically rewarding path without disintegrating Ethiopia. Generations of Tigrayans and all other Ethiopians have died and invested all their life for the territorial integrity and development of Ethiopia and it is my strong conviction and advise to all key stakeholders including TPLF to work toward a new structure that maintains or expands the existing territory of Ethiopia by converting most of the existing federal states to sovereign states and willingly integrate them under one Union(Ethiopian Union modeled after the European Union, to the extent it is relevant). Thinking only about the independence of Tigray and ignoring the rest of Ethiopia is like throwing the baby with the bathwater and TPLF has to allocate the required resources to help the “Tigray minus Ethiopia” remains peaceful with itself and its neighbors. Ethiopian Union could progressively include willing countries in the Horn of Africa such as Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and Djibouti.

Therefore, the following is recommended:

A sovereign Tigray confederated with Ethiopia and with unconditional right to leave the confederation whenever it wants. Tigray will ultimately become the political/democratic, cultural, economic and a technology center of the Horn of Africa within the next 20 to 30 years and one of the anchors and pillars of the Ethiopian Union. Tigray as a sovereign country but confederated with Ethiopia stays armed and united to defend itself and have a MOSSAD like intelligence unit that safeguards Tigrayans and their interests both in Tigray and elsewhere. The confederation could have a fully integrated & liberalized boundary, economy, monetary policy and common currency & passport and cross utilization and joint development of strategic infrastructure like electric power, multimodal transportation, education, etc. Since Oromos have similar dream of establishing a sovereign state, Tigray and Oromia could play the leading role in transforming Federal Ethiopia to Confederated Ethiopia.