By Aschalew kebede Abebe
The Triangular Entanglement
It had been more than a century since the foundation of the conspiracy theory had lain down. It had begun when Theodore Herzl proposed to the British government to transfer water from the Nile River through the Suez Canal into Palestine or the future created Israel. By then Theodore Herzl was the founder of World Zionist Organization, Egypt was under the British colony and Ethiopia is the source of Blue Nile and the only African independent nation, here arose the triangular entanglement.
After the Camp David Accord that was signed between Egypt and Israel in 1978
president Sadat’s ambition was to bloom the Sinai desert using the water of the Nile. Even he suggested transferring some Nile’s water to Israel. And this triggered anger from the Ethiopians side. It was President Mubarak in 1997 at the opening of El-Salam canal that he announced that water is too scarce to share with others, that means with Israel.
In the recent interview; Eritrean president Isaias Afewerki mentioned two key points regarding the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam that has been built on the river Blue Nile. He stated that the idea of building this dam came out of hurting Egypt and it is a continuation of the Tana Beles project which had been launched by the Derg regime from 1986 – 1992.
Tan Beles was a multi-purpose project that planned to settle over half a million people from different parts of Ethiopia; Kambata, Hadiya, Tigray and Amhara regions over 1600Km2 area and people from these areas were moved there. The project involved building a dam, irrigation, hospitals, airport, roads, schools, villages…The place was Pawe which is part of the former Gojam region and now Benishangul-Gumuz regional state.
Both Tana Beles and the Grand Renaissance Dam have been built by an Italian construction company called Salini. The Ethiopian government got the 300 million lira loan for Tana Beles from the Italian government. President Isaias also said that both projects were intended to serve the purpose of foreign agenda. It was never intended to alleviate the living condition of Ethiopians, Had it been for that case of Ethiopian needs, more than 30 thousand MW hydroelectric power is needed, not five thousand or six so that every household gets electrical light. . The question here to be raised is that how is Salini involved in this foreign agenda? And on whose behalf was it acting?
In his interview president Isaias also mentioned that the late Prime Minister Melse went farther to challenge the Egyptian in 1993 African Union summit in Cairo that they should never consider sharing water from river Nile to Israel. And he also stated that Melse’s suspicion was based on the rumours he heard. After getting a bad response from the Egyptian side, president Isaias remarked that Meles himself told him that He will show them and do something about it as revenge. Later after almost two decades, in March 2011 PM Melse laid the foundation stone for the Grand Renaissance Dam.
It was EPDRF led by President Merles that dismantled the Tana Belese project and looted the machinery, hospital appliances, pipe lines… soon they took control of the country in 1991. If this doesn’t serve the purpose of reassuring Egypt untouchable right of possessing river Nile alone, then what purpose did it serve? Since this was done in the honeymoon time of TPLF/EPDRF and Eritrean EPLF, and EPLF had access to the inside secret of TPLF by then, a question paused for President Isaias is that, was there an arrangement between TPLF and Egypt to pause the threat from Ethiopian side because of Tana Beles?
Egyptians were questioning during the Arab spring about the gas deal between Israel and Mubarke’s Egypt in 2011, and eventually President Mubarak resigned, and following that he was arrested. During Ariel Sharon’s time Egypt was exporting gas to Israel with a price which is eight times less than the international market and this scandalous low price cost Egypt $11 billion lost in revenue. After Hosni Mubarak was removed from power the Egyptians blown up the pipe lines carrying gas to Israel more than a dozen of times until 2012 and demanded their money.
The conspiracy theory on the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam from Egyptians side says that Israel helped Ethiopia to constrict the dam on the river Nile because of the ever-increasing hatred of the anti-Jewish state. It is widely circulated in Egypt that Israel is equipping Ethiopia with an air defense system for the Grand Renaissance Dam. According to President Isaias, Ethiopia tried to strengthen its air defense by buying some weapons from Romania and Bulgaria, and in this respect, he doesn’t go with conspiracy theory with the Egyptian one about how Israel goes about it.
According to president Isaias from Tana Beles to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam; forty years old triangular entanglement between Ethiopia, Egypt and foreign bodies is still unsolved. He also expressed his view that Ethiopians have a right to develop whatever their own without carrying foreign agenda.
The other point he denied in his interview is that the new alliance created between Eretria, Somalia and Egypt isn’t anti – Ethiopia. The Israeli Pr. Haggai Erlich in his book The Cross and the River: Ethiopia, Egypt and the Nile well dealt with the Ethiopian concept of Egypt and the Egyptian concept of Ethiopia from 1959 – 1991.
The Egyptians who consider the river Nile as their natural and historical right were using Somalia and Eritrea as proxy for the war on water; from 1960 – 1971 when the high dam of Egypt Aswan was under construction. Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) were in Cairo and its fight against the Ethiopian government was taken as parallel to Palestinian fight against Israel for the fight was against the black Jews of the lion of Judah, Emperor Haile Selassie I.
Egypt came to the aid of Somalia when a war between Ethiopia and Somalia broke out twice. They even want to take it to the Arab League to act together against Ethiopia if there was further advancement from the Ethiopian side into the interior of Somalia. Given the Egyptian support in the formation of EPLF and ELF Derg was accusing Egypt as a main actor in equipping with armaments and supporting EPLF and other organizations like Oromo Liberation Front.
The Egyptian president Gemal Abdul Nassir was using the notion of Eritrean Arabs and the Ethiopian and Somalis Muslims Arabization as a means to stop Ethiopia from asking its sovereign ownership over river Nile. Considering the Red Sea as an Arab lake was the then slogan of Egypt.
Abiy’s endeavour to have access to the sea and looking for a military naval base in Somaliland is now concluded with his diplomatic defeat with Ankara’s declaration. So, the alliance Eretria created with Somalia and Egypt is flagging red to Ethiopian regional politics that is what the country’s track record implies. And who brought this political misfortune to Ethiopia? The answer is none other than the infant and short-sighted leader, PM Abiy Ahmed.
The Eritreans can align themselves with others under the motto “An enemy of my enemy is a friend” because Abiy’s regime trespassed their fear and flight distance. When the president of Oromia region Mr. Shimelis Abdisa claimed that the Oromos will celebrate Erecha (Oromo’s people New Year celebration) in the Red Sea, this was a clear message of the Prosperity Party’s expansionist view. And the result of such a diplomatic chaos ended up in calling the sprite of Nasser’s Egypt. And also serves as a spring board for Al – Shabab to strengthen itself.
H2O
It is true that H2O (water) isn’t only colorless but also colorblind. Unfortunately, many of Ethiopia’s rivers are transboundary. The ones in the Nile basin are highly utilized by Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. There are so many transboundary rivers in the world, where water is scarce, they are the sources of conflict and disputes.
What makes Ethiopia special in this regard is that the course of these rivers flow mostly from the high land area of Ethiopia to the semi desert and desert areas. So, despite the area of their origin, or whatever language the inhabitants speak, or the color complexion difference they have, or root of their origin, it is just a question of precedence that they all are at stake
Emperor Haile Selassie I in his regnant time in 1927 as Ras Teferi had a great ambition to build a dam on Lake Tana. He even went farther to secure a loan from Americans. But later, this project was declined because the British and Egypt went against it. Following an attempt building a dam on the Blue Nile River Ethiopia was invaded twice by the Somalis.
Elrich Haggay in his book, Haile Selassie Rise and Fall, wrote that the reason for Emperor Haile Selassie to be overthrown was Ethiopia expulsion of Israelis and its embassy from Ethiopia. For the emperor bringing OAU into existence in 1963 was a kind of an assurance for the Ethiopians to take any disputable matter bit it is on the river Nile or colonial board issues or any aftermath in the hands of the African free people.
The emperor wrongly accessed Anwar Sadat unlike his predecessor Gemal Abdul Nasser. He further noted that the expulsion was done after the emperor had a meeting with King Feisal and Anwar Sadat in Algeria.
The Saudi king Feisal promised to give Haile Selassie $200 million dollars if he broke ties with Israel and sent them away from Ethiopia. On the other hand, the Libyan president Gadhafi was accusing Ethiopia for being a friend of colonialists and helping America and Israel. And because of this OAU’s headquarters have to move out from Ethiopia.
Listening to the advice of Akllilu Habtewold, Haile Selassie cut tie with Israel following the 1973 war that broke out between Arabs and Israel. And the emperor was overthrown after one year of Israel’s absence in Ethiopia. After the expulsion of Israelis when Haile lassie asked for the promised $200 million which was intended to spend half of it for the military and the other half for “development”, King Feisal responded that he remembered only $ 35 million dollar of which $15 million to go for establishing Islamic Center in Addis Ababa.
Why Haile Selassie was looking for $100 million dollars for development? Some historians suggested that he needed it for the failed Lake Tana dam. His appeal to get $20 million dollar from the USA in 1927 to build a dam on Lake Tana, in 1970 currency was tantamount to nearly 51,157,967 dollars. So, he was looking for an alternative loan or aid, and he failed again.
Now that Abay (Blue Nile) continues to be in a recycling myth of conspiracy theory even the government propagandist and Abiy Ahmed’s mouthpiece, Syum Teshome, is entertaining it time and again. Syum in his mass media show tried to assert that Egypt already started transferring Nile water to Israel through the el – salaam canal. And his proof is entirely based on Google map analysis. He took it farther and said that the coming back of river Zin 2014 in Israel Negev desert is none other than water transferring through the canal.
The truth is that the flooding of river Zin is the result of the rain in the mountainous region several miles away from the arid land. The same thing happened recently in Saudi Arabia and the Sahara deserts too. If there is an arrangement between Egypt and Israel to transfer water, this couldn’t be invisible from the international community. Now there are satellites which orbit planet earth with the capacity of measuring earth’s gravity that help them to detect any change in the underground water flow. So, there is no way Israel can have such a secret deal with Egypt.
A shape shifting Demon by the Bank of the Blue Nile River
The other keynote interview of president Isaias is about the Ethiopian constitution and how he objected to it when the late PM Melese showed him in 1993. President Isaias also expressed his belief that the root cause of all the political turmoil in Ethiopia is the ethnic based constitution.
Six years ago when PM Abiy came to power there was a question to change this constitution. There was even hope that Abiy will consider it, but Abiy stopped that movement with one sentence, “We don’t change the constitution just for the sake of one region.” That region is definitely the Amhara region.
The june 2019 Amhara region incident was unfortunate one that we have lost promising highly educated political leaders like DR. Ambachew Mekonnen, Migbaru Kebede and Ezezew Wase and also military personals like the army chief General Staff of Ethiopian National defense General Seare Mekonnen, Major General Gezae Abera and Brigadier General Asamnew Tsige. Dr. Ambachew couldn’t stay in the office as a president of the Amhara region for more than three months. The only thing we heard him speaking about the Nile River was at the 8th Tana Forum held at Bahrdar one month ago before he died. In his opening speech on the forum he said, “Welcome to Bahrdar to the source of the Blue Nile.”
Dr. Ambachew’s reaction to Abiy Ahmed’s speech about the constitution was, “It isn’t correct to say that for the sake of one region we don’t change the constitution. Even though it is one region millions of people leave in it. And other regional states have the same concern too. ” Yohanis Boayalew, the then advisor to the president office of Amhara region, and now suffering in the brutal prison of Abiy Ahmed, made a keynote interview about the so-called failed coup attempt on June 22, 2019.
According to him Dr. ambachew and Brigadier General Asamnew Tsige weren’t on different boats when it comes to the Amharas cause, Amhara’s genocide, Amhara’s eviction from different regions, Amhaea’s unrest…He questioned, how could all the killings have happened so fast? And what was the reason?
Many Amhara’s elites and others think that during that time Abiy’s hit men (Kore Negagnas) infiltrated the Amhara region security force that was led by Brigadier General Asamnew Tsige. As Abiy didn’t like DR. Ambachew’s reaction to his speech about the constitution, something had to be done and that was exactly what happened on June 22, 2019. Anyways all the diseased ones on that bloody day both the Amhara and Tigrian military personals and politicians were on Abiy’s hit list as they were old wineskins for his so-called new wine.
There is one Orthodox Christian’s monastic tell which I presumed shared by both Egyptian and Ethiopian Orthodox churches that best describes PM Abiy Ahmed and his grass snake’s move. It was about a shape-shifting demon.
Once upon a time there were two monks whose spiritual love surpasses all the world scales. One day a demon determined to get between their loves. One of the monks was one eyed man and the other one lost one leg. The demon appeared to both monks as a deer. For the one-eyed monk he appeared to be like a deer that lost its leg and to the monk who lost his leg he appeared to be a deer with one eye.
Trying to explain to each other what they saw there aroused a disagreement. And soon they started to feel one is mocking the other. Then the question why he is trying to humiliate me took over their dialog. But later they figured out that it was the work of the spiritual adversary. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen to the Amhara and Tigrian politicians and military personnel.
Abiy was working hard in eliminating rivalries who he thought could potentially stand in his way. So far he could manage to create the hate triangle between Amhara, Tigre and Eritrea forces given their history.
When four years ago Abiy withdrew Ethiopian soldiers from Tigray without notifying Eritreans, the calculation was for them to finish each other. In the process Eritreans paid a heavy price pulling their force backward to Eritrea. And Abiy deliberately pulled back the Ethiopian army to Wello allowing TDF to advance and destroy the Amhara’s hub cities and he succeeded. Turning the northerners to be arch enemies to each other was what we have witnessed as Abiy’s accomplishment for the past six years and shape shifting is his means to the end.
Upon the ashes of destroying the northerner culture and heritage and creating turmoil in the country at large Abiy Ahmed wants to build his dream kingdoms. His motto as always they say it is “Convince or confuse”. It is a high time for all concerned bodies to stand together to cast out this demon from Ethiopian politics. And then we can build fraternal Ethiopia based on equity, mutual respect and real prosperity.
Aschalew Kebede Abebe
Metro Vancouver, Canada
አዎ ዛሬም ቀጥሏል የአብይን ጥቁር ጣልያን ተቃውሞ ቀጥሏል pic.twitter.com/upOEv9ixdH
— Kusura Baro (@BaroKusura) December 21, 2024
የአለምን_ትኩረት_የሳበው_ፋኖ
DNE-AFRICA የተሰኘ የአፍሪካ ሚዲያ “አስፈሪው የምስራቅ አፍሪካ አማፂ ኃይል” በሚል ርዕስ ለመጀመሪያ ጊዜ ከተለያዩ የአማራ አካባቢዎች ተውጣጥተው ሰልጥነው የተመረቁ የፋኖ ኮማንዶዎችን በቦታው ተገኝቶ ቀርፆ አለምአቀፉ… pic.twitter.com/XOKOHRKVem
— Elizabeth Altaye (@AltayeEthiopia) December 22, 2024
Good morning #Amhara.
የአማራ ወጣት ውድ ህይወቱን የሚገብረው የሱፍ ተኳሽ መረማመጃ ለመሆን ወይም በዶላር ለመገዛት ሳይሆን አማራን ለማዳን ነው።
ሰናይ ሰንበት💚💛❤️🦅#AmharaFirst #AmharaFano #AmharaGenocide
pic.twitter.com/0LPlIgEzvp— JusticeIsNotFree (@Amharafirst88) December 22, 2024
