The Global Society of Tigray Scholars and Professionals (GSTS) is a special interest group of a few ethnic Tigrean individuals residing mainly in the Western world. The group is a collection of a few self-proclaimed educated individuals who do not have any clue whatsoever about the wounds they are inflicting on the Tigray people and beyond. They intentionally concoct false information and accusations and claim to provide professional advice in areas where they do not have any knowledge at all. These individuals violate ethical standards pertinent to their field of study and profession. They single-handedly derailed a badly needed transition of the Tigray people from war to peace and introduced a very dangerous power struggle in the Tigray Provisional Government. While the Tigray people are dying of hunger and lack of drinking water, these idiots waste millions of dollars on conferences that have exacerbated the problems. They disregard international law and court decisions and spew poison to sabotage the peaceful coexistence of the Tigray people with their neighboring communities. They are idiots who prescribe Western-style democracy for those who are suffering from hunger and lack of drinking water and still live in tent camps.
Plays a Negative Role in Tigray’s Internal Politics
After the 2020–2022 devastating Tigray war, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) signed a peace agreement on November 2, 2022, in Pretoria, South Africa. The peace agreement required the establishment of a provisional government in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. When the selection of the members of the provisional government started, General Tsadkan Gebretensae, who made a name for himself by claiming to be a leader of the Tigray Defense Force (TDF), was rejected by the army. Yet GSTS and their bosses in the Prosperity Party brought him to the Tigray provisional administration as their representative. Now General Tsadkan is the one who is destroying the Tigrayan social fabric and creating a very dangerous political turmoil in Tigray. GSTS is responsible for the current predicament the Tigray people are going through. It is time for Tigrayans to tell this self-serving parasite group to stop its destructive activities in Tigray and beyond.
Conducts Low-Quality, Useless Conferences
Conferences are venues where professionals and academics exchange ideas that are useful in solving economic, political, and social problems. Tigray is a highly drought-sensitive region of Ethiopia. The Tigray people have been dependent on food aid for decades. When the TPLF assumed the helm of power in Addis Ababa in 1990, everyone expected it to engage in full force to reverse the risk of devastating drought and build a sustainable agricultural mechanism in Tigray. Yet TPLF never focused on Tigray. A third of the population has been dependent on food aid, and unemployment in Tigray is rampant. The whole governance system is conditioned on food aid. The 2020–2022 war made the situation worse and heightened it to an emergency level. Given the gravity of the problem, you would think any Tigrean who claims to be educated would focus on finding a solution. Yet, when these educated ignorant individuals organize conferences in Tigray, they never raise this important issue in their meetings. Instead, they bash their neighboring communities, propagate how to destroy the nation-building efforts of their neighbors, and pray to God for the leaders of neighboring countries to get old and die soon. It is difficult to comprehend how people could be so stupid, blinded by hate and ignorance, and lose their common sense.
Harbors Failed Ethiopian Expansionist Tendencies
When the Tigray people were going through hell during the 2020–2022 war, this group of self-proclaimed educated ignorant individuals distributed a petition requesting the United Nations to give a sovereign Eritrean seaport to Tigray. Imagine these people, who claim to have mastery of world politics and international conventions, openly propagating an idea that would make the then-ongoing war worse. Let alone those individuals who claim to have high-level degrees, even a layman would not commit such a mistake. That silly and sinister agenda is an indication of their sick mentality and an extension of the damage they are inflicting on the Tigray people and beyond. It also indicates their closeness to Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party.
Recycles Old, Debunked, Worn-Out Political Allegations
Recently, I came across a story about the GSTS writing to the new United States Trump administration regarding Eritrea’s role in supporting Somalia’s terrorist group Al-Shabaab. Such a false claim confirms how deranged and ignorant these people are. They believed as if the Horn of Africa was a distant land where the United States did not have any reach whatsoever. Don’t they think that the United States has embassies in Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia? Don’t they know that the work of these embassies is intelligence gathering? Don’t they know that the embassies know who is doing what?
After years of failure and anarchy, Eritrea and other friendly nations are working hard to reconstitute Somalia. Eritrea is training Somalia’s federal army, including its navy and air force. If there is any nation that is most visited by Somalia’s leaders, it is Eritrea. With the political help of Eritrea, the Sudanese people are working hard to solve their internal problems. During the 2020–2022 Ethiopian Civil War, the Eritrean army’s intervention saved Ethiopia from disintegration. Then how is Eritrea playing a destabilizing role in the Horn of Africa?
Plays the Victim Card
If those people were educated, it would not be difficult for them to read and understand the wounds the Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s (TPLF) army inflicted on Eritreans during the 1998–2000 Ethio-Eritrea border war. When TPLF soldiers had a chance to get deep inside Eritrea, they dug up a martyr’s cemetery and scattered the human bones, stole thousands of cattle, irrigation water pumps, and farming tractors, and sold them in Tigray markets. They brought Tigrayan civilians with donkeys and mules to ransack Eritrean cities, including doors and attics of civilian houses. Hotels and telecommunication buildings were demolished using heavy explosives. Historical monuments in Metera, Senafe, were toppled, and women were raped. It took an intervention by the Red Cross in Geneva to stop the rampant rape of Eritrean women around Senafe. Warplanes destroyed an Eritrean civilian electric power station hundreds of miles away from the border, in Massawa.
The TPLF-led government confiscated the hard-earned properties of 80,000 Eritreans who used to live in Ethiopia and expelled them empty-handed. After the TPLF-led Ethiopian government agreed to resolve the border dispute using final and binding court arbitration, it rejected the court decision and occupied Eritrean territories for 20 years. Continuing their sinister agenda, they concocted a 360-degree economic blockade against Eritrea. By enlisting Western governments who didn’t like Eritrea’s independent political stance, they imposed successive unjust United Nations sanctions against Eritrea. The TPLF-led Ethiopian government bought missiles from China and targeted Eritrean mining facilities deep inside Eritrea.
To the contrary, many Tigrean community members’ testimonials indicate that the presence of the Eritrean army during the 2020–2022 Tigray war reduced the human casualties the angry Ethiopian army would have inflicted in Tigray. Tigrayans themselves are talking about how the Eritrean army provided life-saving help to the unfortunate, fed those who were hungry, and provided much-needed security. The Eritrean army knew that Tigrayans were not enemies of the Eritrean people. Only those who inflicted wounds on Eritreans were responsible for their crimes.
Conclusion
The special interest group individuals hiding under the cover of the fictitious GSTS organization should be careful what they wish for. Their ignorance and sheer negligence have already immersed the Tigray people in turmoil. Other than that, Eritrea has no ear for idiots who don’t learn from their repeated mistakes and have no clue whatsoever about the politics of the Horn of Africa.
Victory to the Masses and Eternal Glory to Our Martyrs.
