The 1976 TPLF Manifesto TPLF’s “Republic of Greater
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Dec152011
“The Republic of Greater Tigray”
The Tigray People Liberation Front, TPLF had published their organization’s
manifesto in February 1976, the booklet was printed in Sudan. The TPLF
manifesto, clearly defined who a Tigryan is, the land that the TPLF
considers as Tigray, and the final destination of the TPLF. The following
comprises some important contents of the manifesto.
a) A Tigryan is defined as anybody that speaks the language of Tigrigna
including those who live outside Tigray, the Kunamas, the Sahos, the Afar
and the Taltal, the Agew, and the Welkait.
b) The geographic boundaries of Tigray extend to the borders of the Sudan
including the lands of Humera and Welkait from the region of Begemidir in
Ethiopia, the land defined by Alewuha which extends down to the regions of
Wollo and including Alamata, Ashengie, and Kobo, and Eritrean Kunama, the
Saho and Afar lands including Assab.
C) The final goal of the TPLF is to secede from Ethiopia as an independent
“Republic of Greater Tigray” by liberating the lands and peoples of Tigray.
This being the manifesto of TPLF in 1976,
the question is how much of this program is implemented so far?
Ethiopia Political Map pre-1991
TPLF’s Ethiopia Map post-1991
The implementation of the manifesto had two important stages classified as
a first stage of re-demarcating Ethiopian internal boundaries and a second
stage of acquiring Tigryan lands from Eritrea and secede as an independent
nation. Accordingly, the following important events took place;
• After TPLF succeeded in holding power in Ethiopia, they have been working
hard to change the internal regional administrations of Ethiopia at large
and of Tigray in particular. As a result, they have imposed dictation on
the Ethiopian parliament and succeeded in redefining the borders of
different nationalities within Ethiopia. The boundaries of Tigray were
defined exactly according to what was registered in their manifesto. They
did this by annexing the lands of Welkait Humera up to the borders of Sudan
from Begemidir province and Wollo’s Raya including Ashengie Alamata and
Kobo. In order to justify the demarcation, they had to give up something in
return and the lands closer to the Taltal and Afar regions of Ethiopia in
eastern Tigray were temporarily sacrificed until the second stage of the
project takes place. This important re-demarcation of Ethiopian internal
boundaries resulted in the successful completion of the first stage of
forming “Greater Tigray” later to be converged into the “Republic of
Tigray” after the second stage is completed.
• After completing the annexation of “Tigryan” lands from the provinces of
Begemidir and Wollo, they moved ahead to compIete the annexation of
portions of Eritrea to finalize the objectives of the manifesto in practice
as the second stage of their project. Zalambessa is the closest one can get
to the Eritrean Saho region and Adimurug in Bada. Obviously the temporarily
sacrificed eastern Tigray region would now be simultaneously acquired in
this second stage of the project since there would be no organized force
that could stop the Weyanes inside Ethiopia. By claiming these lands and
forcibly annexing them, the manifested “Democratic Republic of Tigray”
would be practically reaIized and then of course cessation from Ethiopia
would follow.
• AccompIishing the dream inside Ethiopia was easily performed by simply
dictating terms in the parliament since TPLF administrates Ethiopia, while
means to finish returning the port of Assab would be accomplished by the
Ethiopian army, financed and supported by the Ethiopian economic and human
resources. Patriotic Ethiopians are expected to side with TPLF in hope of
probable return of Assab to Ethiopia, while the truth is that the port
city, if recaptured, would not be Ethiopian but of the would be new nation
of “Greater Tigray”. This is so because the second stage of the project
would have been completed at this point, making it the right time for the
TPLF to secede. If there is anything that might delay the declaration of
the republic after this, it would have been the time required to
consolidate their control of Eritrean portions by sheer force, further
using and exploiting innocent and patriotic Ethiopian peoples expectations
and support. This support would again be betrayed in the final stages of
the creation of the republic.
• While the imaginary manifested program is completed this way, the
economic ploy had another direction. This direction was focused at
transporting capital and material as much as possible from the rest of
Ethiopia to Tigray for future use when the “Republic” is established. This
would require for TPLF staying in power in Ethiopia until the plan is well
implemented. The implementation of this economic program is crystal clear
for any body who has recently traveled to Tigray. The TPLF/Weyane regime
has been heavily investing Ethiopian capital in Tigray such that the region
and the city of Mekele are the fastest growing in the country. Mekele is
infested with so many new buildings which have no immediate contribution to
the Tigryan economy. These are empty high rises ready to be used in the
future when the republic which would include Assab is fully established.
Besides the fact that numerous buildings have been built in Tigray at the
expense of the Ethiopian economy, the following are few indicatives to that
effect as to how much has so far been done in last 15 years of their power.
Economically
A• An international airport in Mekele with no immediate importance in terms
of accommodating international guests and travelers since the city has yet
to grow both financially and infrastructurally. Being this the fact,
however, the erection of this new and expensive airport was based on two
objectives. The short term objective is to help the TPLF’s war efforts
against Eritrea by bombarding the same into submission without having to
worry about air distance using the Ethiopian air force from Tigray. The
long term objective was to move the entire Ethiopian air force to Mekele
and convert it to the air force of the republic, and at the same time to
use the international airport for civil aviation of the Republic of Greater
Tigray after declaring independence from Ethiopia. Two more international
airports have been completed in Tigray, again with no immediate importance
in terms of accommodating international travelers.
B• Three colleges in Mekele namely Engineering, Medical, and Business.
These colleges are complete in terms of infrastructure for future use when
the republic is established.
C• The Cement, Textile, Electricity Dam, Marble, and Pharmaceutical
factories in Tigray which costed hundreds of millions/billions of clean
Ethiopian money. The port of Massawa was used to sneak materials inside
Tigray in the name of “Ethiopian imported goods”, and used exclusively for
Tigray without the knowledge of government offices in Addis Ababa.
D• The multiple high rising office buildings empty for now but to be soon
filled by the Weyane bureaucrats in independent Tigray.
E• The luxury residential homes and spacious buildings such as those known
by “Debri Hills” in the out skirts of Mekele for possible embassy offices
and residence of diplomats.
D• Refer to the extensive list of companies owned by TPLF with the majority
having their head office in Tigray.
Politically and Strategically
The above being few of the massive investment of Ethiopian economy in
Tigray, their political and strategic plans were made to be effective when
the group of top TPLF leaders moved their offices from Addis Abeba to
Mekele. The movement coincided with the completion of the first stage of
implementing the manifesto so they can closely monitor and design the
implementation of the second stage of the project. In the process, they
have been effectively preparing a “strong army” from within Tigray. The
same TPLF group (the TPLF Coalition Committee) dictates terms on the entire
Ethiopian issues. The central government of Ethiopia listens to the central
committee of the TPLF residing in Tigray which has been working under the
confusing philosophical banner of the “Marxist Leninist League of Tigray”.
This group is instrumental in the process of completing the second stage
and the frame work for the future government of the “Republic of Greater
Tigray”.
After controlling Assab and other planned lands at the expense of Ethiopian
human and material resources, the TPLF group would only then complete the
goals of their impractical manifesto fully. As easy as it seemed to them,
they will finally move towards seceding from Ethiopia as an independent
nation, leaving Ethiopia in confusion, uncertainty, and extreme danger of
ethnic conflict, and Eritrea under a government that can be easily
controlled by their authority. Some experts say they had planned to leave
Ethiopia without a central government for Ethiopian major ethnic groups
such as the Amharas and the Oromos to figure it out, and for them, gaining
time to consolidate their “Republic”. At this point, the dream “the
Republic of Greater Tigray” would have been put in practice and Tigray
would secede from Ethiopia with Assab. In their plan Assab would be Tigryan
and never Ethiopian.
Finally
We encourage all Ethiopians to prove the validity of the contents in this
article by requesting the manifesto from other political organizations.
This dangerous manifesto has been revealed by the TPLF leaders in February
1976 during the initial stages of the organization. It is important for
every Ethiopian to be informed about this issue and also raise the level of
awareness and know what exactly is going on in our beloved country.
Insecure and completely disorganized Ethiopia would be the result of this
crazy manifesto if implemented. Materially, the north eastern Ethiopia
including the entire Afar and Taltal regions and the already taken portions
of Wollo and Begemidir, and politically, a chaotic and uncertain future
that can lead to any thing one can possibly imagine are the results of the
TPLF/Weyane’s manifesto for Ethiopia. It is important to point the fact
that the Tigryan people are as victims of this plot as any other Ethiopian.
The responsibility of this mess is directed towards few fascist TPLF
leaders who recklessly and selfishly betrayed their own people’s struggle
of 17 years. They forgot the bitter struggle in the past and became the
same type of chauvinists and oppressors they fought against in the past.
Article by Dereje Tariku.
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Received on Thu Dec 22 2011 - 10:17:43 EST