“I hate when people confuse education with intelligence, you can have a Batchelor’s degree and still be an idiot”
Elon Musk
By Wondimu Mekonnen, 02 January 2022
Introduction
Intellectuals are supposed to be men of great knowledge. An
intellectual possesses the ability to think in a logical manner. An
intellectual is guided by his own consciousness and knowledge, by means of
independent research output and not by emotions. An intellectual is an
independent thinker, who is capable of thinking outside the box. takes
pleasure in serious study and thought and is constantly critical of the
information he /she receives….with the sole intention of defending
a concrete proposition or to denounce an injustice. To
be called a scholar and a professional one needs to be governed and guided by
the code of ethics of that profession or defending a system of values.
One wonders how on earth the Tigray Liberation Front (TPLF) managed to create a bunch of zombie “scholars and professionals” thinking and acting in the same way as their creators, devoid of a gram of common sense. They do not seem to have an iota of elements that takes to become “intellectuals”. They are like brainless drones, distance operated by remote control by the TPLF. They are programmed like robots behaving in the way that the TPLF wanted them to behave. Just like the North Koreans are conditioned to blindly follow the Kim Il-sung dynasty, so do the predominant the so-called Tigrayan intellectuals obtain their directions from the TPLF. They are the TPLF worshippers devoid of their own thoughts and moral compass.
The Role of Tigray Intellectuals in the TPLF war on Ethiopia
When the TPLF was beating the war drum in 2020, mothers in tears[i] from all over Ethiopia travelled to
Tigray, going on their knees, begged Debretsion, the president of the Tigray
region, to avoid war and resolve the issues Tigray had with the central
government in a peaceful manner. The president ignored them. A team of elders,
including the Olympic legend Haile Gebrselassie and religious leaders, also travelled
to Tigray to convince the authorities of Tigray, to avert war, but the TPLF
ignored them too. Overconfidence/deceit is as dangerous as losing confidence.
Many mistakenly hoped that the Tigray intellectuals would talk the TPLF out of
their nightmarish madness. Instead, they became their beasts of burden, soon
beating the war drums in the chorus.
Journalist Abebech Kahsay
raised her observation of the role of Tigray “scholars and professionals” to
avoid the war with amazement[ii]. The TPLF invited so so-called Tigray intellectuals and
professionals from all over the world to lecture down to them what they were
going to do with the Abiy Government in their bravado quest to dismantle
Ethiopia and build the “Great Republic of Tigray”. The team of Tigray
intellectuals included within them Ph.D., master’s degree holders, doctors,
engineers you name it. Among them, one brave intellectual questioned the
possible negative consequence of starting the war with the Federal Government
on Tigray and proposed to settle the differences through peaceful means. His
fear was that, if the TPLF started the war, Abiy’s Government might cut off
electricity, telephone, transport, and other utilities putting Tigray in the
dark. Then one of the veterans “Tegadalay” known by her nom de guerre Monjorino
(Fetlework Gebreigziabher) barked back at the inquisitor with such authority:
“If Mekelle would be in the dark, just for one night, do you think Addis Ababa
would be in the light? If that happens, then we should be considered dead! That
would never ever happen!” The Tigrayan intellectual coiled back with shame for
undermining the TPLF and resorted to dancing to their tune. That is why we say
overconfidence is as dangerous as losing confidence.
While the TPLF was massacring civilians, raping, looting,
destroying infrastructure in Afar, and in Amhara from Northern Wello to
Northern Shewa, the Global
Society of Tigray Scholars and Professionals (GSTS) came up with a 7-point
position[iii]. In those 7 points, they were lamenting that a genocide
has been committed against the people of Tigray, which the United Nation did
not find a shred of evidence such a crime was committed against the civilians
on purpose. The genociders were crying “genocide on Tigray” to obscure their
own crime on Amharas (Mai Kadra, Chena, Haiq, Kombolcha, Dessie, Lalibela,
Northern Shewa…, on Afar, at Galicoma and Chifra. In fact, the term “genocide”
has become a national hymn of the TPLF, which they have been dancing to that
tune since 2005 when they stole electoral ballots and gunned down 100s of
protestors on the streets of Addis Ababa. They introduced for the first time
the term “Interhamwe” in Ethiopia, which forced Ethiopian intellectuals to run
to google to find out what that term was exactly meant. Anyway, the so-called
Tigrayan Scholars and professionals almost demanded the Amhara and the Afars to
surrender at their 6th position point. They demanded to lay
their arms while they were fighting, looting and, raping.
Expect more surprises from “Tigray Intellectuals”. The purpose of
this article is to expose the extent of ignorance of the so-called Tigray
intellectuals thinking in line with the TPLF leadership.
The cart before the horse
To the amazement of millions of people across the world, “The Global Society of Tigray
Scholars and Professionals (GSTS)”, which claims to have more than 3500
members, recently surprised us on Twitter with “Position
Statement on the Vital interest of Tigray”[iv], which includes three
statements. Position 3e is the most bizarre statement. It reads:
“Equally essential and related to
the territorial integrity of Tigray is access to international borders, and the
right of access to and from the sea and freedom of transit as provided in
article 125 of the Law of the Sea. These constitutional and international
rights are non-negotiable vital interest of Tigray”
Doesn’t that sound like putting the cart before the horse? There
is an adage in the Ethiopian proverb: “Let the common duiker be meat first” (እስቲ መጀመሪያ ሚዳቋ ሥጋ ትሁን). These guys have no clue that Tigray has been an integral part
of Ethiopia for thousands of years and remains a territory of Ethiopia up until
this article is written. The border of Tigray is determined by the Ethiopia
Government and not by the United Nations or anybody else outside Ethiopia as a
matter of fact. This is common sense. These guys act as if Tigray is an
independent country. It is not. The TPLF is not in charge of the Government of
Ethiopia anymore, if they have forgotten, to determine the future of Ethiopia!
Even if they manage to defeat the Government forces and control
Tigray, the road to independence is bumpy and complicated as long as they
wouldn't overthrow the Federal Government and reseize power. For example, look
at Abkhazia, Somaliland, and
the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus. They have been de facto states for several decades now, but
they are not recognized by the United Nations, because they couldn’t obtain
recognition from the Governments of the countries they were trying to break
away from. The state of Eritrea was so lucky to have a traitor Government in
the image of the TPLF to oversee the Ethiopian Government by force, coming to
power through the barrel of guns in 1991. To the bewilderment of the
international community, they had to run on the corridors of the United Nations
and African Union with dossier to beg for the recognition of Eritrea, a
breakaway province of Ethiopia, making Ethiopia landlocked losing its the only two ports
built with the sweat and blood of Ethiopians. Ironically, the good news is, now the
independent state of Eritrea is fighting the treacherous TPLF to save Ethiopia
from further dismemberment. Therefore, the Tigrayan intellectuals must wake up
and smell the coffee before talking about the international border or an outlet
to the sea. They have no legal or moral authority to demand that. Only the
Ethiopian Government decides what to do with them, as Tigray is in Ethiopia and
Tigrayans are Ethiopians throughout the existence of Ethiopia for thousands of
years. They need to swallow the bitter pill.
There must be more than 3,500 Tigrayan season intellectuals,
perhaps in the tens of thousands. However, their silence makes them just as guilty
as the 3,500 clueless scholars and professionals as they are representing them.
The Genocide on
Amhara and Afar
Six days after they started the war, realising they were losing, on 9 November 2020, the TPLF soldiers fighter started going from house to house and began massacring Wolqaite Amharas. Within
a matter of hours, they hacked down 1,100 Amharas at Mai Kadra (Muchena,
2020) with the intention of cleaning hundreds of thousands of civilian
indigenous Amhara from Welqit, Tegede, and Humera. Luckily the arrival of the
Amhara militia and Fanno just in time stopped the massacre forcing the
murderers to flee. The genociders crossed the border into Sudan, from where
they are now attempting incursion to come back. Incidentally, they have now burned
down the UN refugee camp[v]
in Sudan and fully moved to training military camps, sponsored by the Egyptian
and Sudanese Governments. Therefore, the struggle of Tigrayan elites to get
back Welqait, Tegede, and Humera is a moot case to get access to Sudan. What
access to the international border are they talking about? They should learn
the history of Lesotho and Kingdom Swaziland, which are surrounded by South Africa
and landlocked.
This group of the
so-called Tigrayan intellectuals had completely forgotten how their leadership
persecuted Ethiopian intellectuals such as Hailemariam (Hailemariam, 2018), Kahsay (Kahsay,
2007) who were demanding the right of Ethiopia to the sea outlet based on
the very article 125 of United Nations, that she lost in 1991 when the TPLF
came to power. The Tigrayan Scholars and Professionals were vilifying them
then. Now, the same intellectuals are demanding for the tiny renegade province
of Ethiopia, Tigray, to have an international border and sea outlet which they
denied to the bigger Ethiopia for 27 years. Do they know what shame means?
Is that reason why
they invaded Afar, to incorporate into Tigray? Still, had they succeeded in
defeating the Afars, they need either to defeat Eritrea to grab Port of Assab,
or invade and defeat Djibouti, to annex the port and incorporate it into
Greater Tigray. Tigrayan “intellectual” daydreamers are devoid of intellectual
common sense, blinded by TPLF propaganda, and make themselves a laughingstock.
Conclusion
Let the so-called
Tigray Scholars and Professionals understand this! There is no international
law that would take land from an independent country to let a province of a
country have a sea outlet. Eritrea is an independent country since 28 May 1993,
thanks to the TPLF. They lost the chance in 1993. No one has the right to award
Assab to Tigray or no legal means to allow them to annex Djibouti. As for the
international borders, if Tigray remains an integral part of Ethiopia, they
will never ever have the legal power to claim any of those demands because the border within internal territory is defined by the authorities of Ethiopia and not an international
body. There is an international law that prohibits interference in the internal
affairs of any country. Ethiopia is not an exception. If they succeed to become
independent, then Eritrea and Ethiopia will be their international borders! There
they would have their international borders! What is the fuss about?!
In 1991, when the
TPLF became the Government of Ethiopia, they took by force the historical
territories of Gondar Province, Welqait Tegede, and Humera incorporating them into
Tigray, so that Tigray would stretch to the border with Sudan. However, for 27
years, the people of Welqait and Humera were fighting for their rights
demanding to be back with their natural blood relatives, the Amhara. The
residents have gone through ethnic cleansing and suffered linguistic and
cultural genocide. It is a different time now. The dream of Welqaites became
the reality when the TPLF deliberately started the war and got kicked out of
Welqait Tegede, Humara, and Raya. Without violating international law, no power
under the sun has the right to reverse that. They have lost! They need to face
the reality. Just to serve the interest of the TPLF, the people of Tigray
should not be subjected to more suffering. The criminals need to be
apprehended. The Tigray intellectuals need to save their place in history by
trying talking sense to the TPLF rather than being considered ordinary cadres of the war
criminals.
Case closed!
References
Hailemariam, Y., 2018. Borkena. [Online]
Available at: https://borkena.com/2018/05/09/dr-yacob-haile-mariam-peaceful-settlement-of-the-ethio-eritrean-conflict-is-an-idea-whose-time-has-come/
[Accessed 2 January 2022].
Kahsay, A. T., 2007. Ethiopia's Sovereign Right of Access to the Sea
under International Law. University of Georgia Law.
Muchena, D., 2020. Amnesty International. [Online]
Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/11/ethiopia-investigation-reveals-evidence-that-scores-of-civilians-were-killed-in-massacre-in-tigray-state/
[Accessed 2 January 2022].
[i] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni4bGOU6I6M
[ii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y62IopI-pU8
[iii] https://twitter.com/GlobalGsts/status/1477017800501829642
[iv] https://mobile.twitter.com/globalgsts/status/1474404089719099398
[v] https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/fire-breaks-out-in-refugee-camp
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