Prof. Tekeste Negash prophecy on Eritrea Nov 2013

Prof. Tekeste Negash: የኢትዮ-ኤርትራ ችግር መፍትሄ፣ ድንበር ማስመር ሳይሆን ድንበር ማፍረስ ነው

09 NOV 2013

In an interview published in ‘Addis Admas’ in Amharic, Prof. Tekeste Negash, Prof. of Modern History at Uppsala University and current visiting Prof. at Addis Ababa University , is quoted to have said, “The Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict will be resolved, not when the border is demarcated but when the border between the two countries is abolished”. He states that Eritrea is destroying itself while Ethiopia is showing a lot of developments. According to the interview he claims that Eritrea can end up like Somalia when the Isaias regime falls. He claims there will be an ethnic conflict then. 

He states that the lowlanders have their own agenda while the highlanders are divided. He further notes that Eritrea had exhausted all the options it had during the 40s- Federation and Unity with Ethiopia and secession. He claims the current conflict is on the issue of who represents (rules) the Tigrinya speaking people in both countries. He states that Ethiopian sentiments are still high in the highlands. He notes that one can see the relations among the Afar and also claims that the Bilin in Eritrea believe that they belong to the Agew in Ethiopia, the same is similar with regard to the Kunama. He claims that Eritreans had no reason to separate from Ethiopia. He further states that though the Eritrean Orthodox Church was separated from that of Ethiopia but it continued to send secretly students to Gondar to study there. Translation from Amharic is mine and I stand to be corrected.

My comment:

With all due respect to Prof. Tekeste , I guess he got it wrong on the 3 options exhausted. The Federation though faulty to start with, was accepted by all parties- the unionists (tactically) and those calling for independence- as a compromise and it would have survived if the Hailesellasie regime didn't start demolishing it gradually and tried to impose the mono-Amhara culture not only on Eritreans by on other non-Amhara Ethiopians, too. The ordinary Amharas were oppressed too. Unity by force was tried and brought too much suffering. Independence is still high jacked by the PFDJ regime

You can read the whole article here: http://www.addisadmassnews.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=13208%3A%E1%8B%A8%E1%8A%A2%E1%89%B5%E1%8B%AE-%E1%8A%A4%E1%88%AD%E1%89%B5%E1%88%AB-%E1%89%BD%E1%8C%8D%E1%88%AD-%E1%88%98%E1%8D%8D%E1%89%B5%E1%88%84%E1%8D%A3-%E1%8B%B5%E1%8A%95%E1%89%A0%E1%88%AD-%E1%88%9B%E1%88%B5%E1%88%98%E1%88%AD-%E1%88%B3%E1%8B%AD%E1%88%86%E1%8A%95-%E1%8B%B5%E1%8A%95%E1%89%A0%E1%88%AD-%E1%88%9B%E1%8D%8D%E1%88%A8%E1%88%B5-%E1%8A%90%E1%8B%8D&Itemid=214&fb_action_ids=10201955975237550&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B1420780214806131%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D