Tigray, the Armenian Genocide and an Open Letter to Pres. Biden

Armenians and Ethiopia have a long history, one that goes back as far as the 13th century. Early in the 1900s, Armenians sought refuge and a safe haven from the massacres and persecution in the Ottoman Empire and emigrated to Ethiopia, an Orthodox Christian country. Many more followed after the Armenian Genocide in the 1920s.

Armenians significantly contributed to Ethiopian society over the last century, in particular in its capital of Addis Ababa from participating in government and owning businesses to working in various industries, including the fields of medicine, engineering, law and finance to being craftsmen and musicians. It is well known that 40 orphans of the Genocide were brought to Ethiopia in 1924 by Emperor Haile Selassie I to form a royal brass marching band. Leading the band was maestro Kevork Nalbandian who also happened to write the first Ethiopian national anthem. Following the 1974 revolution in Ethiopia which led to the fall of the monarchy and the installation of a Marxist government, many Armenians left the country.

Ethiopian refugees, fleeing clashes in the country’s Tigray region, cross the Tekeze river into Hamdayet, Sudan (Photo: © UNHCR/Olivier Jobard)

Today, the Tigray region of Ethiopia is facing a devastating humanitarian crisis, a situation that will feel familiar to many Armenians. In November 2020, the Ethiopian government, with its Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), adopted what appears to be a scorched-earth policy in the region, designed to eliminate Tigray’s ethnic population. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) are engaged in a war for survival.

Despite Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s announcement that “military operations” had ended at the end of November with the ENDF taking control of the regional capital of Mekelle, fighting persists with a relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing. Adding to the severity of the conflict is the involvement of the neighboring Eritrean government, which has aligned with the ENDF and is reportedly responsible for large-scale human rights violations.

On May 23, the US State Department announced restrictions against Ethiopia and Eritrea due to the ongoing atrocities after providing $52 million in assistance in response to the humanitarian crisis in the Tigray region back in March. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says more than two million people have been displaced by the conflict to date, with 5.2 million in need and more than 63,000 refugees fleeing the region.

Earlier this month, the Weekly received the following open letter to Pres. Biden from Dr. Goitom Aregawi, also known as activist Ztseat (meaning Exodus) on social media. The 36-year-old Aregawi is a medical doctor who worked at the Mekelle University Hospital and serves as chairman of the grassroots youth movement Seb-Hidri Civil Society of Tigray whose mission is “furthering democracy, justice and Civic Engagement for the rights of Tigreans.” Dr. Aregawi fled Mekelle in disguise and went to Nairobi, Kenya three weeks ago seeking asylum. His activism and outspoken criticism of the Ethiopian government’s actions in Tigray led to his detention and targeting by authorities. He says that the UNHCR offices and Kenyan immigration offices are closed and not registering migrants which has halted his appeal for asylum and could lead to his deportation. “I am assured I will not be deported to Ethiopia in the coming two months, at least,” Aregawi told the Weekly via email.

An Open Letter to His Excellency Mr. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. , 46th President of the United States of America

Tigray’s grandkids shall not wait for a century to even get recognition of what their forefathers went through, like what happened to the generations of Armenian survivors.

Mr. President,

I am writing this appreciating Your Excellency’s historic decision to recognize the Armenian Genocide, with hopes of appealing to your administration to stop the ongoing genocide in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray, a conflict with distinctively similar features to the Armenian Genocide.

Mr. President, 

Last year you promised Americans and the world that you will make human rights a central guidepost of your foreign policy. You said that you would pursue a values-based foreign policy.  You also said that failing to call the atrocities against the Armenian people a genocide would pave the way for future mass atrocities. Calling the atrocities on Armenians “Genocide” in your first 100 days in office shows your commitment to human rights. 

Tigrayan Americans show their solidarity with the Armenian community outside the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles, Calif., April 2021.

Mr. President, 

I salute you for this historic declaration and for your principled position, with hopes that it will right the wrong done to all those Armenians who perished in the state-sponsored genocide 106 years ago by the Ottoman Turks, which exterminated an estimated 1.5 million Armenians (more than 90-percent of the Armenian population, by then). I also hope this extends to all parts of the world. In fact, your action cannot be more timely than now when it comes to the ongoing genocide in Tigray, in the Horn of Africa.

Mr. President,

As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated, “History teaches us that if we ignore its darkest chapters, we are destined to witness the horrors of the past be repeated;” so, your declaration was an important milestone in history and instilled the hope that similar crimes will be prevented before being repeated.

Unfortunately, the world has repeatedly failed to learn from its mistakes in the past, and has repeated them time and time again over the years.

Between 1941 and 1945, six million Jews were exterminated by Nazi Germany and its collaborators across German-occupied Europe in the Holocaust. Around two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population were exterminated.

In 1994, the world saw one of the most shocking human tragedies in Rwanda. Between April 7 and July 15, 1994 (100 days), members of the Tutsi ethnic group and some moderate Hutus were slaughtered by armed militias. The world acted as a ‘bystander,’ very much reluctant to act on time and stop the genocide before its devastation plagued the nation. On March 25, 1998, President Bill Clinton expressed “a deep regret” for failing to act on time and stop it.

After the tragic Rwandan Genocide, the international community in one voice echoed “Never Again.” Many of us hoped such horrors wouldn’t happen again – “Never ever, again!”

Tragically, 27 years after the Rwandan Genocide and 106 years after the Armenian Genocide, similar atrocities are being committed under Your Excellency’s watch in Tigray.

The genocide in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, a genocide that I have witnessed with my own eyes, could even be at a scale worse than that of the Armenians and Rwandans.

For more than six months now, Ethiopian and Eritrean armies, Amhara forces (Amhara Special forces, Amhara militias, Amhara Fano an armed youth squad) are committing a well-planned, deliberate, well-executed act of ethnic cleansing against the Tigrayan people. The international community once again appears to be embracing a spectator role, reluctant to act decisively and stop the genocide in Tigray, a genocide that is unfolding before your very eyes. Many, including your senior officials, are issuing statements of concern, yet to this point there is a total absence of concrete action on the ground that can put a stop to this atrocious genocide against the Tigrayan people.

Between the months of November 2020 and March 2021, more than 150 mass massacre sites have been identified by a team at the University of Ghent in Belgium. There have been numerous additional massacres since this study was conducted. Between 70,000 and 150,000 innocent Tigrayans are estimated to have been exterminated in these mass murders. The most notable massacres are as follows:

-The Mai-Kadra massacre which according to a report by Amnesty International took more than 600 lives

-Axum massacre tallying more than 800 civilian deaths, according to AP’s February 18 report of witness accounts

Dengelat Massacre (a March 22 report by the CNN put the figure at more than 100 casualties; Europe External Programme with Africa put the figure at 150; my witnesses have the figure to be 165)

Mahbere-Dego (a leaked graphic video and witness accounts collected by CNN and BBC Africa suggest 39-73 young men to have been killed between January 15 and 16; my witnesses estimated 193 civilians to have been killed, including on the subsequent days)

-Abi Addi: an April 7 report by The Telegraph shows that 182 civilians were killed on February 10 alone

-Bora (more than 160 civilian deaths occurred according to a March 19 witness report by the Los Angeles Times)

-The Zalambessa massacre killing 56-72 civilians according to reports by Tigray Television, Tghat.com and Jan Naysen

-Sheraro, Humera Dansha, Maykinetal, Selekleka, Irob, Debre-Abay, Idaga-hamus, Adwa, Shire, Humera, Idaga-Arbi, Adigrat, Hawzen, Edaga-Berhe, Miriena, Seglamen, Hagere-selam, Hitsats, Samre, Gijjet, Hiwane, Nebelet, Wukro, Workamba, Killele, Azeba etc. are just a few of the more than 150 massacre sites where Eritrean, Ethiopian and Amhara armies systematically slaughtered civilians of all age groups (as young as two years of age and up to 93 years old).

Like in the case of the Armenians, thousands of women and underage girls (as young as six years old) in Tigray have been gang-raped, in an intentional use of rape as a weapon of war; in some cases the rapists burn the victim’s vagina and uterus with hot iron rods and insert metals to make them infertile. Various media outlets, UN bodies including United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, in addition to other humanitarian organizations have talked extensively about such acts of crimes on humanity. Ethiopia’s government has even verified these claims.

Like in the case of the Armenian Genocide, tens of thousands of Tigrayan members of the Ethiopian Defense forces are disarmed and detained arbitrarily in various unknown concentration camps. Many among them are feared to have been executed. Likewise, Tigrayans throughout Ethiopia are profiled and indiscriminately arrested for months; Tigrayan civil servants in federal government bureaus are fired from their jobs; and Tigrayan businesses have been shut. Tigrayans in Ethiopia are enduring all kinds of humiliation and harassment for who they are. On April 29, the Associated Press released a report detailing this ethnic profiling, arbitrary detention, and purging of Tigrayans.

With the same method employed in the Armenian Genocide, one to induce mass starvation and destitution of Tigray, Ethiopian and Eritrean armies and Amhara forces are burning crops, seeds, cutting trees, destroying agricultural materials, burning grasses (food for the cattle), killing livestock, especially targeting oxen and donkeys, as well as destroying small dams and irrigation canals in a systematic campaign of crippling the agricultural sector. The World Peace Foundation produced a 58-page comprehensive report about such targeted attacks. According to reports by UN agencies and Tigray’s interim government, currently more than 2.3 million people in Tigray are internally displaced and 4.5 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. 50-100 people have already died of hunger. Like the Turks, the Ethiopian government, Eritrean Army and Amhara forces have tried everything they can to block humanitarian aid from reaching the people that they have systematically starved with the intent of decimating the entire Tigrayan population.

Like the Turks, the three governments are utilizing starvation as a weapon of war, and they want the effects to endure for years to come in case the international community steps up and provides life-sustaining humanitarian aid.

In addition, like in the Armenian Genocide, Ethiopia’s government and Eritrean and Amhara allies have enabled rape, sexual slavery, starvation and the destruction of civilian livelihood as a weapon of war.

The Ethiopian and Eritrean armies and Amhara forces are destroying health facilities, clean water infrastructure and water pumps so greater numbers of Tigrayans will die of water-borne illnesses and other communicable diseases, gun-inflicted injuries and non-communicable diseases; this is a damage maximization strategy to decimate the Tigrayan civilian population. For months, Tigray was left in the dark with electricity and telecommunication services cut, banking services stopped, business transactions placed on hold and roads blocked with much of these grave atrocities against humanity hidden from the world. By blocking access to the media and to human rights organizations, these horrific crimes have been successfully committed in the dark. The Internet remains cut, telephone service only limited; and, most of Tigray remained inaccessible. The Turks also tried to finish the Armenians in the dark.

Ethiopia’s government and its allies are destroying schools, roads, a variety of civilian infrastructures, heritages (including AlNejashi Mosque, Debre Damo monastery, the Maryam Dengelat monastery etc.), private houses and factories for the sake of destroying Tigray, including its history and identity, and leaving it in indefinite destitution and humiliation. In order to erase Tigray, entire villages and small towns are indiscriminately shelled with heavy artillery and bombarded with missiles from drones; private houses ransacked, systematically burnt and destroyed; some villages and small towns completely turned to ashes, erased.

Amhara militia, Fano, Amhara special forces are also committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Western Tigray. There is an estimated one million (a study by the Ethiopian Ministry of Health puts it at 1.2 million) Tigrayans who used to live in Western Tigray who are no longer there. They are either killed, forcibly displaced or kept in concentration camps. Some 700,000 Tigrayans accounted for so far have been forcibly evicted from their lands and homes empty-handed, now sheltered in many towns in Tigray and in Sudan. Tens of thousands are feared to be dying in concentration camps there. Their prosperities, their lands and their houses are confiscated by the Amhara regional forces.

Ethiopian refugees, fleeing clashes in the country’s northern Tigray region, cross the border into Hamdayet, Sudan, over the Tekeze river. (Photo: © UNHCR/Hazim Elhag)

After committing 100-percent ethnic cleansing of Tigrayans in Western Tigray, which Secretary Blinken also repeatedly stated, the Amhara have brought hundreds of thousands of ethnic Amhara from Gojjam and Gonder, transferring them into the houses and places originally inhabited by ethnic Tigray for generations, making Western Tigray a “homogeneously Amhara” land. Men are not spared no matter what; thousands of women and children under the age of seven are forced to take the Amhara identity in order to remain in their homes. The women must be willing to be a concubine to an Amhara militia, though. Tigrayan traces have been erased.

These are the same methods employed by the Turks against the Armenians 106 years ago.

[N.B: The 1994 Housing and Population Census and the showed 96.3-98.1 % of people in the various districts in Western Tigray spoke Tigrigna, so were Tigrayans; the 1978’s ‘Nationalities in Northern Ethiopia’ map also show these areas to be “Tigrigna speakers”.]

Mr. President,

Today’s genocide against Tigray is the same as the hundred-year-old genocide against Armenia.

Our kids shouldn’t wait 106 years to get recognition of what their forefathers went through, like what generations of Armenian survivors endured.

Mr. President, with the cumbersome evidence in your hands, it must by now be clear to you and the international community that Ethiopia’s government and allies are on a campaign of completely destroying the Tigrayan population, erasing Tigray altogether, just like what the Turks did against the Armenians.

The international community has repeatedly witnessed the untrustworthiness and the genocidal appetite of the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments and allies.

Unfortunately, what we have witnessed over the past six months is an international mechanism failing to do anything tangible to avert the situation in Tigray.

Mr. President,

While the courageous decision you took to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide is to be commended on its own, what is the use of acknowledging historical genocide if it cannot stop an ongoing genocide under your watch?

I urge you, Mr. President, to name an investigative commission composed of the experts that studied genocides including that of Armenia and Rwanda, and deploy these same experts to Tigray. I urge your administration and the western world to name the Ethiopian and Eritrean state-sponsored campaign of decimating Tigrayan population in Ethiopia with the proper descriptive name “genocide.” In the meanwhile, Your Excellency needs to do everything in your capacity to stop the ongoing genocide in Tigray. The United States of America is more than equipped to stop it. What it needs is your attention and your strong leadership.

Mr. President,

Now that the war is in its seventh month, Tigrayans do not think a solution will come from the UN Security Council given China’s transactional politics and Russia’s soft heart for dictators. Over six million people in Tigray are in imminent danger of extinction due to a paralyzed international mechanism of dealing with grave situations like this. We rather look to you, the free world you lead and the institutions of the free world, for a decisive action to stop it.

Therefore, I appeal to you, Your Excellency,

  1. America and the western world should be bold enough to categorize the atrocities as “genocide” and “famine” with regards to the crisis in Tigray.
  2. America shall mobilize the western world to use all the leverage and the existing diplomatic, economic and military machineries at its disposal to put palpable necessary pressure on the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments to put a stop to the ongoing genocide on Tigray.
  3. The United States government and western allies, like the European Union, the United Kingdom government and the governments of Canada, Australia and New Zealand shall sanction the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea for the continued civilian massacres, use of sexual violence, induced hunger and destruction of civilian infrastructures and livelihood as weapons of war.
  4. A US commission should be put in place to determine the genocide committed against Tigrayans.
  5. It is time for AFRICOM and NATO to militarily intervene (by triggering Article 5) in Tigray.
    a. To provide rapid, unconditional, unfettered and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid and items essential to survival, including establishing a “lifeline humanitarian corridor” from Sudan to Tigray under a demilitarized route designated for safe passage of humanitarian supplies;
    b. To ensure the immediate and verifiable cessation of all forms of hostilities;
    c. To ensure total withdrawal of all internal and external forces, including Eritrean armed forces and Amhara Special Forces and militia from all Tigray parts to their deployment lines before the November 4, 2020
    d. To enforce a “no fly zone” across the skies of Tigray.
  6. An immediate joint UN-US-EU independent investigation into the war crimes and grave crimes against humanity in Tigray and for the perpetrators to be held accountable.
  7. America and all developed countries shall scale up the humanitarian aid to a point that is necessary to avert the impending humanitarian catastrophe.
  8. The US and other western powers shall press the United Nations with all the leverage they have to put Tigray under a UN-mandated international interim civil and security administration (using the Kosovo model).

35 Comments

  1. It is sad this platform is being used to spread twisted narratives from Tigray Liberation People’s Front (TPLF) cadres. Most of those narrated by Goitom are false or misrepresentations. Let me explain
    1) Those massacred in Maikadra on Nov-6-10, 2020 were innocent ethnic Amharas of whom more than 1300 of them were killed. The massacre was conducted by Tigray youth group called Samri, Tigray militia and TPLF soldiers. Additionally the Tigray bandits are currently conducting cross border attacks against Amharas. (Evidence below
    https://addisstandard.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Maikadra-Preliminary-Findings-English-Final.pdf
    https://www.gettyimages.de/detail/nachrichtenfoto/agere-getnet-yeshi-ademe-bekele-sara-tadilo-zewdu-and-nachrichtenfoto/1305910720
    2) TPLF led an cruel dictatorship over Ethiopia for three decades. These dictatorship was characterized by genocide against Amharas, Somalis, Oromos and other Ethiopians. Billions of dollars were looted by TPLF. During their stay, they amassed money and diplomatic connection worldwide which they are currently using to spread false information.
    https://www.ethioexplorer.com/the-crimes-of-the-tplf/
    https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1390&context=jil
    https://www.ena.et/en/?p=19336
    3) What they call ‘Western Tigray’ is the ancestral land of Amhara Ethiopians. During beginning of 1990’s TPLF controlled Ethiopia and illegally annexed Amhara areas of Gondar and Wollo to Tigray in order to fulfil their long held dream of establishing ‘the great Tigray republic’ after they divided and looted the Ethiopia. TPLF instituted a poisonous ethnic federalism arrangement at which they categorized Amharas as the enemy of the state in the constitution they drafted. During the last 27 years, TPLF committed ethnic cleansing of Amharas. It conducted rapes and prohibited the use of Amharic in these areas. After struggle, those under occupation liberated the area. Amharas are in their original land. Tigray civilians are also living peacefully with Amharas in this area. What they call displaced are those who left the place by their interest during the height of the conflict. Most of them are returning. This is true story.
    4) Amharas have been massacred for decades, they are also being massacred at a higher rate especially in Oromia and Benishangul region. Silent untold genocide against Amharas is happening. The real parallel of Armenian genocide is the continuous Amhara genocide.
    https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/11/ethiopia-over-50-ethnic-amhara-killed-in-attack-on-village-by-armed-group/
    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ethiopias-war-the-administration-will-not-mention

    5) The one you used as source ‘Dr Goitom’ is a known Amhara hater. He is recorded saying hateful things like ‘I would rather see the desert of Sinai got developed than see Amharas get progress. You can see his daily posts of his facebook being filled by hateful details. Seeing his false characterization of Amhara forces give you additional evidence for his deep hate of innocent Amharas. For his visa purpose, he is convinced that spreading false information about Ethiopia and Amharas would grant him a positive progress.
    6) Armenians were hosted and protected by Amhara Ethiopian kings like King Hailesillassie, King Menilik. Armenians and Amharas have a lot in common in the misery they passed or are passing through. We don’t expect an Armenian media host completely anti-Amhara and one sided view.
    May peace prevail for Amhara, Ethiopia, Armenia and the whole world.
    #StopAmharaGenocide #AmharaGenocide
    #Ethiopia #ArmeniaGenocide #Armenia

  2. What a outrageous article, full of lies regarding Ethiopia!

    So-called ‘Western Tigray’ was seized by TPLF in the 1990’s from Begemder(Gondar province), they made up the 1994 census. TPLF killed and displaced Amharas from their homelands. Before the 1990’s, there was no Western Tigray, Tigray and Amharic speaking areas were divided by the Tekeze river.

    Where was Armenian weekly when 2.5 million Amharas dissapeared from the census between 1994 & 2007? Where are your questions there?? Like the rest of the world covered up and ignored the Armenian genocide, the international community are trying to bury what has happend to the Amharas.

    The West doesn’t want to admit that they helped TPLF, a genocidal regime stay in power. Because it exposes Western criminal policy in Africa.

    • Baseless aligations!
      People like you are supporters of the genocide in Tigray.

      During Armenian genocide Armenians couldn’t expect sympathy from the Othoman Turkey. Like wise Tigray people will never expect sympathy from like you.

    • Talking lies is in your genes.Thats why you lie a lot.TPLF never killed Amharas,infact TPLF created the so called Amhara region.There was no any area called Amhara before TPLF.You don’t have any evidence for your claims excpet lies from individuals like yours.

    • As an outside observer, I have trouble understanding the denialism of Amhara people. You really think BBC, Reuters, France24, CNN, DW, AlJazeera, NYTimes, Washington Post, UK Telegraph, Guardian among others are all just making it up? I come up with 2 explanations, either they hate the Tigrayan people with every fibre of their being (eg. Neamin Zeleke), or 2) the reports are so atrocious, would cause such great personal shame if you admit them to be true that you must disbelieve to retain any semblance of holding yourself in good regard (cognitive dissonance).

  3. Thank you for the great summary! The horrific war crime committed by Abiy Ahmed and his partners are inhumane and too graphic beyond words. Its interesting how you articulately documented the various types of crime being committed in Tigray and how its genocidally identical with other countries

  4. How could you not mention the suffering of the Palestinians dear?

    You mentioned Armenians (I am Palestinian Armenian), you mentioned Rwanda, but what about Palestine?

    I expected more from Armenianweekly.com

    Jonny

  5. The Armenial Weekly:why you involved yourself with Ethiopian internal Affair.before you post such kind of article you better investigate the fact on the ground on both side.There is such thing west Tigray.its previous name is Welkait and Tsegede.The last 27 years TPLF forceful annexed the area and included it to Tigray.It killed,oppressed,displaced and forceful TPLF soldier make pregnant the local Amhara girls and married women to have their ethnic kids.They have even changed the name of the area as well.It has been Amhara land for more than 1000 years.There is no 1.2 million people displaced from the area.The number is inflated only supporter of this Terrorist TPLF group supporters run to Sudan after killing more than 1000 Amhara peopla.Even Today more Tigray are lining peacefully on that area.No one forceful make leave the area.They can live there but the administration is returned to the original Amhara people.TPLF supporter are engaged in doing disinformation all over the place About Amhara.They know the truth.The sad thing is the world see only partial of the fact.
    Sincerly

    • You are a typical supporter of the genocidal leader Abiy Ahmed Ali. All your aligations are false with out any ground. You are extremly happy by the suffering of Tigray people.

      All international medias CNN, BBC, AP, Newyork times, Algezira and others are talking about what is happening in Tigray is devastating and a crsytal clear genocide.

      Thank you Armenian Weekly for being voice for Tigray people.

  6. Stop fascist Abiy Ahmed Ali’s and dictator Esayas Afewerik’s genocide and ethnic cleansing of Tigray.

  7. The world needs to stop the genecid that is happening in Tigray

    Please for the sake of humanity do something to stop this genecid!!!!

  8. My parents had an Ethiopian instructor in an economics course once. He’d had to flee Ethiopia due to threats against his life.

  9. The USA and its allies should take the necessary steps detailed in the open letter to the President before the catastrophic genocide in Tigray gets out of control. Justice delayed is justice denied.

  10. A wonderful article, and truly insightful, full of facts. Bless Ztseat, Bless Armenian weekly!

  11. This is the tip of the icebergs! there are hidden and untold devastating stories inside Tigray. Villages are indiscriminately shelled by Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers as well as allied “Hutu” militias from the neighboring Amhara regional government. Government and non-government companies have deliberately destroyed by both forces. Hospitals, clinics, and other health centers have vandalized and all medical types of equipment have taken whether to Eritrea or to Amhara. Gangraping is a daily routine for the invaders. In general, Tigray is under an active and full-scale genocidal war.

  12. Thank you so much Armenian Weekly.
    For us for Tigrians people like Armenians can feel what we are goinng through now.

    The supporters of Abiy Ahmed and Isayas Afewerki are extremly thriled by what is happening in Tigray.

    We have seen them celebrating while Tigray women and girls are being gang raped by Ethiopian and Eritrian solders everday. We have seen them celebrating while innocent civilians are being killed in mass. We have seen the celebrating while more than 52,000 Tigrian people are displaced from their home to our neigbor Sudan. We have seen them celebrating while more than 2 million Tigrain people are displaced internally. Above all we have seen them celebrating while 5.2 million Tigray population is under man made starvation by the Abiy Ahmed gov’t and Isays Afewerki.

    In a netshell their strategy is to extrminate us. Despite of all these ups and downs Tigray Will Previal!

    I hope president Baiden and his allies will act soon and stop the genocide.

  13. Armenia Weekly hosting a known hate preacher is more than repulsive. This guy is a very hateful ultra-TPLF who was known for his Facebook posts in Amharic.

  14. Thank you Dr. Goitom. You clearly put the facts on the ground.
    I hope the president of the United states will use every capacity and mechanism in hand to swiftly stop the human catastroph in #Tigray. It is now 7th month since the #Eritrean army, #Ethiopian national defence forces, #Amhara militia, #Amhara special forces and #Amhara fano started the #TigrayGenocide. Thus far, ~150,000 civilian #Tigrayans already killed, murdered or massacred, nearly 70,000 #Tigrayans fled to Sudan and more than 20,000 females of all age gang raped, many are perishing in concentration camps, about 5.2 million people are in starvation. The international community still idly watching. The Armenia and Rwanda genocides repeating themselves in #Tigray, again. This is unacceptable!! We should learn from the past! The international community must swiftly stop #TigrayGenocide. The invaders from #Eritrea and #Amhara regional state must immediately leave Tigray.

    Thank you armenianweekly.com

  15. If this article is written by Armenians, I really wonder. It is a copy paste of TPLF’s cadre article.
    It doesn not seem like that Armenia is towards Ethiopia, but against Ethiopia.
    If you are towards Chirstianity, TPLF is totally against Ethiopian Ortodox Tewahido Church.

  16. Thank you Armenia! For making the voice of Tigriyans about the atrocious killing, extermination and Ethnic cleansing of Tigriyans from western Tigray and the mass killings inside Tigray.

  17. Thank you for being a voice to the people of Tigray who are at the edge of being exterminated by the Ethiopian, Eritrea and Amhara joint military forces. #TigrayGenocide

  18. President Biden is a man of his words. POTUS, during a speech he gave in April, recognized “that the events that began in 1915 were a deliberate effort to wipe out Armenians.” In Nov 2020, the Ethiopian government started a similar event in Tigray in the name of a “law enforcement operation.” We now know this campaign is anything but law enforcement. PM Abiy used the Ethiopian Army, the Ethnic Amhara militia, and conspired with the Eritrean Mercenary Army to conduct a Genocidal war in Tigray. The US Senate has passed S Res 97 concerning Ethiopia. We hope POTUS will speed up using the tools provided in this senate resolution to help bring the atrocities to an end. We thank Armenian weekly for supporting Tigray.

  19. Thank you. Much appreciated. I have seen some “Ethiopian” trolls here who have tried to justify, deny, or deceive the world about the Tigray genocide from day 1. Their double deception is also amazing. They killed Tigryayans and then they act as the victims. Exactly they are acting in the same way as the Turkish who had tried to either deny or justify the Armenian Genocide.

  20. Thank you so much for your thoughtful piece on the inhumane acts occurring against the people of Tigrai!! If anyone doesn’t understand the hatred against Tigrayans, one only needs to look at the comments section below this article and read all the hatred, vitriol, and lies written by Ethiopians against their fellow Ethiopians, Tigrayans. My heart especially hurts for the women/girls who have been violated as a result of this blind hatred. May the creator protect and bless the people of Tigrai!

  21. You guys are propagating TPLF lies and deceptions, so much like the west media–which have been greatly benefiting from the crisis as TPLF has been financing all these falsehood campaigns against Ethiopia using the money that they robbed of the country for close to three decades. TPLF attacked the Ethiopian National Defense Force that has been protecting Tigray and the people of Tigray for decades. Shame on you in siding along with a terrorist group that is attacking Ethiopia, the country that gave you protection while escaping persecution in your own home country. Ethiopia shall overcome all these campaigns based on skewed and TPLF influenced media outlets.

  22. Hey TPLF sympathizers, stop piggy backing your failed tribal agenda on the Armenian genocide. The Ethiopian people nor its governments has ever been against the people of Tigray. It is the TPLF and its sympathizers that took power through the institution of ethnic politics in Ethiopia. The people of Ethiopia have said enough is enough to the bantustanization of Ethiopia! Stop shedding the blood of the poor people of Tigray to gain power. Your time is up.

  23. The international community should stop #TigrayGenocide project of #AbiyAhmedAli which brought 150 Massacre Sites, 10,000 women raped in 4 months, 70,000 refugees in Sudan, 160,000 children at risk of death due to famine, 90% harvest looted or destroyed, 80% livestock looted or killed 2.3 million #Tigrayan internally displaced and 5.2 million #Tigrayans on brink of Famine.

  24. As amhara whose family members were facing genocide because of the tigray expansionist nationalists dream to take control more fertile lands of gondar and wollo and declare independence of the greaer tigray I am very ashamed to see the armanians those my forefathers were helping and protecting preferred to stand in the wrong side of history with genociders who are responsible for genocide of 2.5 million amharas as of 2015 Ethiopian parliament recognised.

  25. Thanks so much for being voice for the voiceless millions of Tigray People. What a great summary of all #TigrayGenocide Genocidal events with evidences frpm reliable sources such as UN, Human Rights Watch and World Peace Foundation!

  26. An academic and well research article with ample evidence from international reliable sources! Great work. Kudos to the writer!

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