{"id":279989,"date":"2019-06-26T13:15:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T17:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiWmh0dHBzOi8vYm9ya2VuYS5jb20vMjAxOS8wNi8yNi9oZXJtYW4tY29oZW5zLXNlY29uZC1jb3VwLWluLWV0aGlvcGlhLXdlLWRlbWFuZC1hbi1hcG9sb2d5L9IBAA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-10-03T11:15:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T15:15:29","slug":"herman-cohen-amhara-hegemony-tweet-sparks-demand-for-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/279989","title":{"rendered":"Herman Cohen\u2019s Amhara hegemony tweet sparks demand for an apology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former United States assistant secretary of state Herman Cohen tweeted that the failed Amhara coup was an attempt by ethnic nationalists to restore Amhara hegemony that existed before 1991. He wrote that the dream was \u201cnow permanently dead.\u201d Borkena republished a fierce reply by Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam calling the framing hate speech against an entire people.<\/p>\n\"Herman\n

Al Mariam argued that branding Amhara as historic hegemons echoed old propaganda and would be intolerable if aimed at a group inside the United States. He reviewed Cohen\u2019s past comments on Ethiopian politics and demanded an apology. Borkena\u2019s editor\u2019s note recalled Cohen\u2019s earlier critiques of Tigrayan domination and \u201cfake federalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exchange mattered because a well-known American Africa hand shaped how outside audiences read the Amhara crisis. Ethiopian writers insisted the violence could not be reduced to a simple restoration plot. The archive captures that argument in the week of the killings.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong> Borkena<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Herman Cohen’s Second \u201cCoup\u201d in Ethiopia? We Demand an Apology!  borkena.comHerman Cohen tweet on recent political development which he described as Amhara attempt to return to power has outraged Ethiopians. Almariam responds to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":601434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/amhara-lalibela-1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1aPX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279989"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":755396,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279989\/revisions\/755396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}