💭 Westminster Abbey, which is directly under the monarch’s jurisdiction, currently refuses to return the Holy Tablet
George Carey, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, has told The Art Newspaper that he is “astonished and saddened” that Westminster Abbey is refusing to return a sacred Tabot to Ethiopia. For the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, a Tabot is a holy tablet that symbolically represents the Ark of the Covenant.
London’s Westminster Abbey is what is known as a Royal Peculiar, which puts it directly under the monarch’s jurisdiction. This means that returning the Tabot might well require the blessing of the monarch, the supreme governor of the Church of England.
In July 2018 The Art Newspaper revealed that the Ethiopian government was calling for the restitution of the abbey’s Tabot. Although King Charles III will now be dealing with a myriad of pressing issues, he is known to be sympathetic towards the Eastern Churches. More than 150 years after its acquisition, an appeal to the new king for the return of the Tabot might finally prove successful.
Westminster Abbey’s Tabot was looted at the battle of Maqdala (Magdala) in 1868, when British troops attacked the forces of emperor Tewodros. The Tabot was then acquired by Captain George Arbuthnot of the Royal Artillery.
Arbuthnot donated the Tabot to the abbey. Two years later a new altar was commissioned for the Henry VII Lady Chapel. The dean inserted the Tabot into the back of the altar, where it remained visible, along with two other sacred objects: fragments from the high altar of Canterbury Cathedral and the leading Greek Orthodox church in Damascus.
The Ethiopian Church has a strict belief that Tabot should not be seen, other than by priests. In 2010 the abbey therefore added a covering so that its Tabot is no longer visible behind the altar. Today a ghost-like rectangle where the front of the tablet could once be viewed can just be made out.
An abbey spokesperson said last month that “there are no current plans [for its return], but the future of the Tabot is kept under review”.
Carey, who served as archbishop from 1991 to 2002, told us just before the Queen’s death that he is disturbed that the Church of England “has not returned a sacred object belonging to another faith and country”.
💭 British Museum considers loan of ‘invisible’ objects back to Ethiopia
The British Museum holds 11 Tabot, the largest collection in the UK. To reflect the prohibition on them being seen, they are kept in an underground store that even the museum’s staff cannot enter.
The pressure group Returning Heritage last month submitted a Freedom of Information request to the British Museum, asking for details of claims for the Tabot since 1990. The group argues that the museum would legally be able to deaccession, under an exemption which allows it to dispose of objects that are “unfit to be retained”. Since the Tabot cannot be seen, the pressure group argues that there is no point in them remaining in the museum’s collection—and they should be returned to Ethiopia.
Since the summer of 2021, as part of its efforts to bridge cultures, The Scheherazade Foundation has been campaigning behind the scenes for the British Museum to repatriate eleven highly sacred Ethiopian altar tablets looted by British forces at the Battle of Maqdala in 1868. So sacred are these ‘Tabot’ to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, that in some 150 years the Museum has never put them on display nor allowed them to be studied, copied or even photographed. They therefore have no value to the Museum and should be returned to their rightful owners – a point made to the Museum Trustees in a letter sent by the Scheherazade Foundation last September and backed up by an opinion by Samantha Knights QC. Among the signatories to the Foundation letter were the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, Lord Foster of the Liberal Democrats, and former Labour minister Lord Boateng. The British Museum answered that letter only last month, refusing to engage in any way with the comprehensive legal arguments that the Foundation had put forward for the Tabot’s return. Yesterday in the House of Lords, Lord Carey tabled an oral question on the matter, sparking a lively debate in which Lords Foster and Boateng, along with the Bishop of Worcester and Lord Bassam of the Labour Party also intervened to support the Foundation’s position. Here is the relevant clip from the debate.
✞✞✞[2 Corinthians 10:4-6]✞✞✞
“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.”
💭 Florida (FL) – ADI rolf = ADI Daero (E) – ADOLF + ELF (Eritrean Liberation Front ‘Jebha’)
Eritrean war planes bombed ADI Dearo. ELF is a Jihadist group created by Arabs. USA + Canada + Europe + Israel + Russia + Ukraine + China supported UAE + Iran + Turkey drones massacring Orthodox Christians in Tigray, Ethiopia.
The DAY after the ADI Daero (The region of Ethiopia where The Ark of The Covenant is preserved) Massacre – this tragedy in Florida – ADI rolf = ADI Daero
💭 Catastrophic Destruction Leaving Hundreds Dead In Florida Hurricane Aftermath. Hurricane Ian ravaged the area and collapsed part of the Sanibel Causeway
💭 The Conspiracy of Silence: The world and its media outlets are of course silent on this story: Ethiopia: Christians Carpet Bombed by The Nobel Peace Laureate & His Foreign Mercenaries – over 50 children massacred.
💭 Residents in the Northern Ethiopian city of Adi Daero, in Tigray scream in agony while searching for their families in the ash and trying to rescue people trapped under a rubble. A mother is heard shouting loudly “my son, my son, I lost him…”
The unEthiopian fascist Oromo regime’s and Eritrean air forces bombarded many towns in Tigray including Shire, Adi Daero and Mekelle.
Adi Daero Massacre, in Tigray Ethiopia, 27 September 2022
This barbaric act was carried out on 27 September 2022 – on the very day Christians celebrated the annual Christian festival of the Meskel (which means “CROSS” in Ethiopic), marking the finding of the “True Cross” on which Jesus Christ was crucified. The festival is one of the major religious celebrations of the Orthodox Church in Ethiopia.
“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.”
☆ Increasingly, Abiy’s vitriol toward the TPLF appears to be a projection or his own mindset, and not rooted in reality.
☆ Abby treats anyone who does not agree completely with him as an enemy. Here, he repeats the experience of Erdogan, Turkey’s president.
☆ Rather than engage professionally, the Abby regime prefers to rely on trolls. Such tactics always backfire.
☆ That Abiy appears to have blessed a foreign invasion of Ethiopia is treasonous on its face.
☆ Abby embraces the attitude, l’état, c’est moi, but he is wrong. Ethiopia is a great nation. It is not a single man. Abby’s campaign in Tigray has been a disaster. It should mark the end of Abby’s rule, but that does not mean an end to Ethiopia – unless Ethiopians continue to follow Abiy on his suicide mission.
It has now been almost three years since the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Abiy Ahmed as the recipient of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize “for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation.” Abiy received international plaudits. CNN called him a “modern day African leader.” Other African leaders congratulatedhim on twitter.
Terrence Lyons, a professor of conflict resolution at the Carter School, praised other aspects of Ethiopia’s tremendous progress under Abiy. He released political prisoners and opened political space. “Political prisoners were released, the repressive civil society law scrapped, and independent media rebounded. Exiled movements that had been labeled as terrorists – such as Ginbot 7, the Oromo Liberation Front, and the Ogaden National Liberation Front – agreed to end their armed struggles and returned to Ethiopia and registered as political parties,” Lyons explained. He continued to report that Abiy had strengthened civil society and laid the groundwork for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to explore the abuses of previous regimes. As important, Ethiopia began to meet its economic potential as an African giant.
From Promise to Pariah
Today, that promise is gone. The Nobel Committee may not be able to revoke its prize, but it chastised Abiy in a way that exceeded admonishments of other recipients whose commitmentto peace eventually waned.
Abiy and his partisans believe such criticism is unfair. He and his supporters grow frustrated that the international community largely discounts their narrative surrounding the start of the Tigray War and its conduct. Too often, this frustration manifests itself in either personal attacks or conspiracy theories, both of which exacerbate Abiy’s relationship with the broader international community. It may be satisfying to blame others, but it is immature. If Abiy wants to know how he lost the world, he need only consider his own actions.
Alas, he is unwilling to do this. Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to sit in on a conversation with an Ethiopian Cabinet-level official and ask him what lessons the Abiy government had learned from the past two years of civil war. After all, there are two major parties to the conflict, and to suggest the fault rests solely with Abiy’s enemies is not realistic. Even if Abiy believes truth is fully on his side, responsible political and military leadership should constantly assess and adjust tactics. Abiy’s does not, for the simple reason they do not acknowledge mistakes.
This could suggest many dynamics, none of which is good for Ethiopia. First, Abiy may truly be unable to recognize the error of his ways. He may have a messiah complex and believe that he can do no wrong. Second, Abiy may so terrorize those around him that they either self-censor or fear contradicting their boss. In a sense, this was the dynamic at play when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman allegedly ordered the murder of Washington Post columnist and Muslim Brotherhood activist Jamal Khashoggi. That many long-time visitors to Ethiopia report public fear approaching what Ethiopia experienced under the Derg should raise alarms.
Volume over Substance
Also contributing to the collapse of Abiy’s reputation has been the Ethiopian government’s over-the-top response to criticism and its ineffective diplomacy. Too often, Abiy and his regime substitute volume for substantive engagement. The Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, D.C. is a non-entity. Its diplomats are less active than those of countries a fraction of Ethiopia’s size.
Rather than engage professionally, the Abiy regime prefers to rely on trolls. Such tactics always backfire. They did not work for Somalia’s Mohamed Farmajo or Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Rather, online polemics became self-defeating as the leaders themselves began to confuse paid and imaginary courtiers with legitimate opinions. Trolls seldom change the opinion of policymakers for the simple reason that the latter do not spend their time online, let alone on a platform prone to manipulation and dominated by anonymous persons.
For the Ethiopian government to use trolls to punish opinions it dislikes also backfires because it antagonizes rather than changes minds. If Abiy’s government believed in the justice of its cause, it should be able to use facts to cajole and convince rather than simply lob insults. Perhaps Abiy believed he could use trolls to attack diplomats, foreign analysts, and academics, and then conduct business as usual through official channels. This fools no one. When government-paid trolls throw fireballs, it reflects on all serving Ethiopian diplomats and ministers. It disqualifies them in the court of normal relations.
Perhaps one of the reasons for Abiy’s slash-and-burn diplomatic strategy is a mindset that exaggerates Ethiopia’s importance to non-Ethiopians. At its core, Abiy treats anyone who does not agree completely with him as an enemy. Here, he repeats the experience of Erdogan, Turkey’s president. The West once saw Erdogan as a moderate and a bridge-builder. But years of dismissing even mild criticism as evidence of affiliation with terrorist groups backfired. Rather than being silenced, Abiy’s critics, diplomats, and even his earlier cheerleaders began to question his grip on reality. He antagonized so many figures at home and abroad that today he can rely only on his own family.
It is also incorrect to adopt the “with us or against us” mindset for domestic politics. When Abiy supporters suggest criticism of his conduct of the Tigray war means affinity for the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), he appears paranoid if not a loon. That his supporters suggest criticism of Abiy and partiality toward the Tigryans is racist does Abiy no favors. It makes as much sense as suggesting that support for Ukraine over Russia is motivated by anti-white sentiment.
Confusing Propaganda with Reality
Abiy may be frustrated that the world in general and Washington, in particular, do not share his conclusions about the TPLF as a terrorist group. Arguments that the TPLF is to Addis Ababa what al Qaeda is to Washington are ridiculous. The TPLF was the dominant party in Ethiopia’s governing coalition from 1991 to 2018. While Abiy is correct that the TPLF committed human rights abuses during its rule – one in which he participated both as director-general of the Information Network Security Agency and later as a minister – simply reclassifying political rivals as a terrorist group and then growing angry when the international community does not follow suit is self-defeating. Even if the TPLF was a terror group, there is no justification for the collective punishment and mass starvation that Abiy has directed. Increasingly, Abiy’s vitriol toward the TPLF appears to be a projection or his own mindset, and not rooted in reality.
Abiy’s arguments fail to resonate in other ways. His supporters say the TPLF fired the first shots on Nov. 3, 2020, when Tigrayan forces attacked the Northern Command headquarters. But the speed and scale of the Ethiopian reaction suggest prior planning on Abiy’s part. This in turn leads foreign analysts to interpret Tigrayan action as pre-emption rather than aggression.
Allies also matter. To make peace with Eritrean dictator Isaias Afwerki is one thing; to collaborate actively with him is another. That Abiy appears to have blessed a foreign invasion of Ethiopia is treasonous on its face. Abiy’s alliance with former Somalian President Mohamed Farmajo, a man who collaborated with Al-Shabaab and sought to extend his own term illegally, is almost as stigmatizing. Friends matter. Simply put, Abiy’s hatred led him to the disqualifying embrace of rogues. He may blame the outside world, but he took that journey of his own accord.
The Problem is Abiy, not Ethiopia
Abiy embraces the attitude, l’état, c’est moi, but he is wrong. Ethiopia is a great nation. It is not a single man. Abiy’s campaign in Tigray has been a disaster. It should mark the end of Abiy’s rule, but that does not mean an end to Ethiopia – unless Ethiopians continue to follow Abiy on his suicide mission. Here, an Iraq analogy is useful. In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein slaughtered the Iraqi Kurds in the Anfal genocide. Rather than divorce Iraq completely, Iraqi Kurds still mark Iraqi Army Day each year on Jan. 6. To date, they realize Saddam was the problem, but see the Iraqi Army as an institution to respect.
A year ago, Abiy might have used external diplomacy to shield himself from accountability for his own actions. Today it is too late. He has condemned himself and Ethiopia to pariah status, and has become an impediment to both peace and to Ethiopia’s efforts to secure an influence commensurate with its size, history, and economic potential.
Abiy may persevere as Robert Mugabe did, but Ethiopia will pay the price, just as Zimbabwe did. The simple reality is the United States, European Union, and many African countries no longer see Abiy as redeemable. For peace and prosperity in Ethiopia, the only course of action is Abiy’s exit. If, when, and how that happens will be a question for Ethiopians only. The lone certainty is that Abiy’s legacy will be shaped less by his Nobel Prize and more by the revelations of a future Truth and Reconciliation Committee.
💭 Residents in the Northern Ethiopian city of Adi Daero, in Tigray scream in agony while searching for their families in the ash and trying to rescue people trapped under a rubble. A mother is heard shouting loudly “my son, my son, I lost him…”
Yesterday, ‘unEthiopian’ fascist Oromo regime’s and Eritrean air forces bombarded many towns in Tigray including Shire, Adi Daero and Mekelle.
This barbaric act was carried out yesterday, 27 September 2022 – on the very day Christians celebrated the annual Christian festival of the Meskel (which means “CROSS” in Ethiopic), marking the finding of the “True Cross” on which Jesus Christ was crucified. The festival is one of the major religious celebrations of the Orthodox Church in Ethiopia.
👹 Evil Jihadist Abiy Ahmed Ali Blessed A Foreign Invasion of Ethiopia is Treasonous on its Face
It’s tragic that the ‘PEACE PACT’ – actually a WAR PACT — that earned evil Galla-Oromo Abiy Ahmed Ali the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize allowed him to borrow Eritrean soldiers, U the Eritrean army UAE + Turkey + Iran drones, to conduct this genocidal war against Christian Tigray, Ethiopia„
👹 Kosovo 2.0 in the making. This is the evil did of Ahmed’s PP Oromos, Isaias’s EPLF, Debre Tsions’ TPLF and Amhara PP/ Fano.
💭 This satellite image shows the mobilization of military forces in the town of Shiraro
Satellite images show the mobilisation this month of military forces in towns on either side of Ethiopia’s northern border with Eritrea, a private U.S. company said on Wednesday.
Reuters could not independently verify the contents of the images showing reported military activity in the aftermath of the breakdown on Aug. 24 of a five-month ceasefire in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
Tigray forces have battled Ethiopia’s federal army and its allies, including Eritrean troops and fighters from neighbouring Ethiopian regions, over the course of a nearly two-year war.
Images collected on Sept. 26 show military forces, vehicles and artillery positions in the town of Shiraro, near Tigray’s northern border with Eritrea, according to Maxar Technologies Inc, which collects and publishes satellite imagery of the region.
The images from Eritrea were taken on Sept. 19 and show the deployment of heavy weaponry in the town of Serha, near the Tigray border, Maxar said.
Most communications to Tigray have been down for more than a year.
Tigray forces said on Sept. 13 that Eritrean troops, fighting alongside Ethiopian soldiers, had at one point taken control of Shiraro since fighting had resumed but suggested they had since been beaten back.
They have also accused Eritrea of shelling Tigrayan towns from its territory in recent weeks.
The Ethiopian and Eritrean authorities have not responded to requests for comment about the recent fighting.
Eritrean troops supported the Ethiopean military in earlier phases of the war. The Eritrean government has not confirmed its participation in fighting since the ceasefire broke down, but said earlier this month that some reservists had been called up for military service.
Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu, military spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane and the prime minister’s spokesperson Billene Seyoum did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the images on Wednesday.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel and Getachew Reda, a spokesperson for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that leads Tigray’s regional government, also did not immediately comment.
Jihad vs The World’s ancient Christians of Armenia & Ethiopia
💭 Historical adversary of Armenia & Ethiopia; Turkey – which is waging a NATO green-lighted Drone Jihad everywhere – is unleashing again war crimes and genocide against the two most ancient Christian nations of the world: Armenia and Ethiopia.
👹 Muslims Take Christian Woman, Saw Her Legs Off, Cut Her Fingers Off, Put Her Severed Finger Into Her Mouth, And Strip Her Naked. One Muslim Man Says: “Look At The Bitch… She Became A Rock.’
On Friday, the Armenian Ministry of Defence confirmed that the woman in question was killed during the clashes on 13–14 September along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.
The footage, ostensibly filmed by a Muslim Azerbaijani soldier, shows a number of bodies of Armenian soldiers, including two women.
One of the women has been stripped naked with text written across her breasts and stomach. A stone has been placed in her eye socket and a severed finger in her mouth.
The man filming the scene comments in Azerbaijani: ‘look at the bitch, there are two women. She became a rock.’
The Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces spoke about the footage during a visit by foreign diplomats to the resort town of Jermuk in the southern Vayots Dzor Province on Friday. The town was subject to Azerbaijani shelling, with Azerbaijani troops taking control of positions near the town during the fighting.
‘They committed atrocities in our combat positions against our service members, including women service members’, Edward Asryan told the diplomats. ‘I can’t find words to describe how they dismembered a female soldier, cut off her legs, and fingers, stripped her naked, this is the ultimate level of cruelty’, he added, promising to show the video to them.
😠😠😠 😢😢😢
💭 Historical adversary of Armenia & Ethiopia; Turkey – which is waging a NATO green-lighted Drone Jihad everywhere – is unleashing again war crimes and genocide against the two most ancient Christian nations of the world: Armenia and Ethiopia.
👹 This appalling attack shows once again the depths of cruelty and barbarism to which Muslim societies will sink.
Since 2018 We in Ethiopia saw this sort of cruelty and barbarism on such a massive scale when Turkey-Azeirbaijan allied soldiers of the fascist Oromo regime of Ethiopia begun their Jihad against Christians of the Tigray region of Northern Ethiopia.
The Tigrayan people of Northern Ethiopia are still facing an even greater threat. Turkish and Arab agent evil Abiy Ahmed Ali has rallied his supporters around a campaign of blatant ethnic hostility. They portray the Tigrayans as a “cancer,” “weeds,” “daylight hyenas” and “rats.” On several occasions, many of Ahmed’s Oromo soldiers were videotaped saying that they should be destroyed with the “utmost cruelty.” Even Pekka Haavisto, Finland’s foreign minister and EU envoy attested: „Ethiopian leadership vowed to ‘wipe out’ the Tigrayans for 100 years, this looks for us like ethnic cleansing.”
500 years ago the Ottoman Turks, together with the Somalis and Oromos of Africa massacred more than three million African Christians of Ethiopia. 300 years later, the Turks slaughtered as many as 1.5 million Armenians in the #ArmenianGenocide. Today, the Turks massacred Armenians in Azeirbajan, they even travelled accross Africa to work together with their natural allies — Somalis and Oromos– and are again bombing and starving to death millions of ancient African Christians of Ethiopia in the # TigrayGenocide.
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Addis Ethiopia Weblog 