😈 Turkey’s Simultaneous Genocide of the two oldest Christian nations of Armenia & Ethiopia
😈 The Muslim Azerbaijanis turned on Azan through the loudspeakers. Such messages are a primary threat to the Christian Armenian residents.
😈 Enemy of The CROSS ✞
Azerbaijan defiled the Holy Resurrection Church of Hadrut, dismantled THE CROSS & erased all Armenian inscriptions
💭 The Government of Azerbaijan Declares This Warning To All Armenians: “Leave Nagorno-Karabakh, or We Will Force You.”
Now that the world’s attention is diverted to Russia’s war with Ukraine, the Azeris and Turks are in the perfect opportunity to test the waters of the Russian brokered ceasefire. There are still Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh — that region that was governed by Armenians until 2020 when Azerbaijan, armed with Turkish Bayraktars, vanquished them — and the Azeris are beginning to pressure these Armenians to leave. There are Russian soldiers (part of a peacekeeping mission) present in Nagorno-Karabakh, but now with the war occurring in Donbas, the Azeris (and by extension, their Turkish patriarchs whom they ethnically identify with) are acting aggressively, testing the limits of the Russians. For example, in early March, Azeri forces were seen encircling Armenian villages and, with loudspeakers, demanding that the Armenian inhabitants leave Nagorno-Karabakh. This was seen in the village of Khramort where the Azeri military declared through a loudspeaker:
“Urgently leave the territory, otherwise we will force you. All responsibility for the casualties will fall on you․ Do not endanger your life and the lives of your loved ones. You are on the territory of Azerbaijan, and all actions are regulated by Azerbaijani law.”
What the Azeris want is not peace, but ethnic cleansing.
Depriving Armenians of natural gas has followed. On March 8th, a critical gas pipeline that was used to bring natural gas to the Armenians was cut off in Nagorno-Karabakh, leaving them without heat for two weeks. The pipeline was then “repaired” but was reportedly cut off again and then restored. The ethnic and religious hatred towards the Armenians was demonstrated in the recent desecration of the St. Harutyun church in Hadrut, which was condemned by Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia:
“These pre-planned actions carried out by the authorities of Azerbaijan, aimed at destroying and desecrating the identity of Armenian religious, historical and cultural monuments in the territories under the control of the Azerbaijani armed forces, are another manifestation of Azerbaijan’s ethnic and religious intolerance and the continuation of the policy of depriving Artsakh of Armenians and the Armenian trace.”
Azerbaijani soldiers then entered the area occupied by Russian peacekeeping forces, forced the evacuation of an Armenian village and even used drone strikes to kill numerous Armenian soldiers. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that the Azeri soldiers left, but both Azeri and Armenian sources denied this, and even the US, France and Russia have all denounced Azerbaijan for its violation of the ceasefire.
Even with the ceasefire, there has still been violence taking place in Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Artsakh, in early February “two members of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces were killed on the spot near the village of Khramort in the Askeran region, on the grounds of national, racial or religious hatred or religious fanaticism.” Following this event, “Unidentified gunmen opened fire on three” Armenian employees who were working in a mine in the administrative area of Khramort village, Askeran region.
On February 11th of 2022, shots were fired from Azerbaijani military positions located near the communities of Karmir Shuka and Taghavard in the region of Artsakh’s Martuni, according to Ombudsman of Artsakh Gegham Stepanyan in a statement on social media. Stepanyan observed:
“Given the distance between the settlements and the Azerbaijani positions, and the fact that the residential part of the village is directly observed from the Azerbaijani positions, it is undeniable that the Azerbaijani side has directly targeted the houses of the residents as a result of which residential houses, mainly walls, roofs, have been damaged.
The window of a house of Karmir Shuka resident was smashed during the same operations which are aimed at threatening civilians, and the bullet penetrated into the living room of the house”
“I reaffirm the claim that the criminal acts of Azerbaijan are of regular and systematic nature, aimed at creating an atmosphere of fear in Artsakh.
Azerbaijan will continue its criminal attempts against the people of Artsakh as long as the international community has not condemned unanimously the open Azerbaijani illegal acts against humanity”, he added.
The Azeris have found a loophole in the ceasefire to try to justify their actions. Article 4 of the ceasefire declaration calls for the withdrawal of Armenian soldiers. Three thousand Armenians reportedly left Nagorno-Karabakh, but local ethnic Armenian soldiers did not, giving the Azeris an avenue for their aggression. While Baku sees these self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Defense soldiers as illegal, the local Armenian population sees them as necessary for security from violence by Azerbaijani soldiers. But now, with the local defense not allowed in the region, the only thing standing between the local Armenians and the Azeri soldiers are the Russian peacekeepers. There are nearly two thousand Russian soldiers in Nagorno-Karabakh (and also around two thousand Russian support staff), and Baku sees this foreign presence as temporary, as there is an expectation that these troops will be sent to fight in Ukraine. The importance of Russian peacekeepers for the security of the Armenians is obvious. For example,on the 15th of February, 2022, Azerbaijani servicemen opened fire in the direction of Armenian farmers near Khramort. While a tractor was damaged, the civilians were saved thanks to the intervention of the Russian peacekeepers, according to the Prosecutor’s Office of Artsakh.
With such recent events, it is obvious that whatever relative peace is ongoing in Nagorno-Karabakh, it will not last long. Violence will resume in the region, and it will most definitely escalate tensions between Russia and Turkey. Such conflict will carry with it a resuming of where the Ottomans left off in the genocide of the Armenian people.
💭 Ethiopian Jews Can’t Get The Same Embrace From Israel as Ukrainians
👉 Courtesy: Ynetnews
Opinion: Ukraine crisis is clear evidence of a racial imbalance in how the world responds to tragedies; while many open their doors to Europeans, few do so when it comes to refugees from Ethiopia, or other countries with populations of color
The past few days I couldn’t stop crying about the situation in Ukraine. Watching the news, reading articles and hearing reports took me to dark moments in my past. My heart broke to see people being victims again in a war that they did not choose to be part of.
I have watched videos of fathers saying goodbye to their children, mothers trying to save their babies. When I watch the news it invokes painful memories of my own childhood, of my family’s history. I don’t remember the experience of escaping civil war and famine in Ethiopia as a child. However, I heard and learned about it over the course of my childhood through my father, my family and my community. With the very limited information that I had, I began to piece together the true history of my people.
I only had a few years of happy home memories before everything changed forever. This was after my family and I escaped, in 1990, from a war-torn Ethiopia where Jews were targeted, and settled in Israel, in the town of Beit She’an. My fondest memories are of gathering around the dinner table, talking about our days and laughing at my father’s jokes. I was too young to realize the realities of being a refugee and the racism around me. I was in a naive reality, before the horrors of the world were to enter my life.
My father got sick when I was still very young. I was around 10 years old when I heard him cry for the first time. I didn’t understand why, but the more I listened carefully the more I started to hear him. He repeated one name so often that I had to ask someone in my family who it might be. It was his nephew, who was killed in front of my father by agents of the Derg junta as my father watched, unable to do anything to save him.
The world around me shattered. I learned that the world is a cruel place, and that there are people who are meant to suffer unfathomable things when they don’t deserve it because of disconnected leaders with selfish agendas.
I was overwhelmed and overjoyed, then, to see how the world came together in condemning and isolating Russian President Vladimir Putin for what he is doing to Ukraine. The way Israel and the world acted so quickly to help Ukrainians to escape, and to help others to fight the war alongside them, was nothing short of extraordinary. When people started to advocate for Ukraine, I joined. I changed my profile picture on social media to the Ukrainian flag.
A few days later, however, someone from my Ethiopian community asked why I didn’t post the Ethiopian flag, when the government there has recently and regularly targeted civilians in a 16-month-old war against rebellious forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
I was ashamed. I had done what many white people do: I had brushed off what happened to my people, to Africa, to the Middle East, South Asia and Latin America. Why does the survival of one country matter more than another’s? Why does one group of people have more value than another?
When I realized my mistake, I felt rage and the urge to do something about it. I started to do research, make phone calls, ask questions. I reached out to everyone I knew in order to find out more about what is happening in Ethiopia and what we are doing about it.
There is clear evidence of a racial imbalance in how we respond to tragedies, not just in Israel but throughout the world. Many countries have opened their doors to the Ukrainian people, but not to refugees from Ethiopia, or other countries with populations of color.
Despite a pledge to speed up its evacuations of some of the relatives of Ethiopian Israelis who remain in the country in the midst of an escalating civil war, the Israeli government seems to be making it more difficult for Ethiopian Jews to make it into Israel. Case in point: The Israeli High Court has frozen the planned entrance of 7,000-12,000 Ethiopians into the country for more than a month. Meanwhile, the same government is preparing to receive several thousand Jewish Ukrainians, and to take in 5,000 non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees.
Preventing these Ethiopians from entering Israel keeps them in harm’s way while their case gets reviewed by the High Court, and it’s all because of those in Israel who question the Jewishness of those individuals. Ukrainians of any faith are rushed in, while Ethiopians of Jewish heritage are kept out.
The Ukrainian conflict is a perfect example of the world’s hypocrisy. It shows how little Black and brown skin matters. The voices of other refugees aren’t shared on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. War in Ethiopia and other countries is not as appealing to the international media.
But it’s up to each one of us to be their voice. We’re seeing big companies, sports teams, celebrities and governments boycotting Russia and blocking Putin in every way they can. But my wish is that the world will also treat Black and dark-skinned people the way they treat those who are white. A world, for example, that won’t stand for border guards in a war-torn Ukraine preventing brown students from fleeing the country while allowing white Ukrainians to get out.
What is happening in Ukraine is appalling, and we should all absolutely unite to fight oppression and murder any time it happens, but we can’t only do this when it is appealing to our racial or economic biases. Ethiopia is worthy of our time; all suffering around the world is worthy of our time. If we cared about human life more than we care about oil and military spheres of influence and our own racial biases, there would be less suffering in this world.
Let’s be a megaphone for the voices that have been drowned out.
💭 In the video, armed men burning civilians to death in Western Ethiopia. Some of the men in the crowd are wearing Ethiopian military uniforms as well as uniforms from other regional security forces.
[Leviticus 18:21]
„Never give your children as sacrifices to the god Molech by burning them alive. If you do, you are dishonoring the name of your Elohim. I am Yahweh.”
The Bible instructs believers that the AntiChrist Beast will first come in as a Peacemaker who will have the ability to get Israel (New Testament Orthodox Christian Nations) to sign a seven year peace treaty, which will enable them to build a third Temple at Jerusalem in exchange for allowing their “former” enemies to move into their neighborhoods and live together as “friendly” neighbors.
[Daniel 11:21]
And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
Daniel 11:21 says that the Antichrist will “come in peaceably”. Many Christians think that this means that the Antichrist will be received as a great peace maker or even be accepted as a Jewish Messiah. I don’t think that the Bible tells us that the Antichrist will be received as a Jewish Messiah. Although he may already be being received as a Muslim Mahdi.
Daniel describes a leader who will come in “come in peaceably”. This is first applied to Antiochous Epiphanies. Antiochous Epiphanies was a prince in the Seleucid dynasty. The Seleucid dynasty ruled over one quarter of the Grecian Empire and ruled from Antioch of Syria. Antiochous Epiphanies’ brother was the king over the Seleucid dynasty. Antiochous Epiphanies’ brother was imprisoned in Egypt. While the king was in prison, the king’s infant son was made king. Antiochous Epiphanies proclaimed himself as co-regent with the young boy and then killed his brother’s son making himself sole ruler over the Seleucid dynasty. So Antiochous Epiphanies became king by treacherous means. That’s what the word “flatteries” means at the end of Dan 11:21. Antiochous Epiphanies became king without military conquest. He gained power “peaceably”.
Dan 11:21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
Now that you have had our Bible history lesson let’s see what Daniel says about future events. Most Bible teachers also apply Daniel 11:21 to the actions of the coming Antichrist.
In the past seven years Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who actually is of Georgian ancestry has gained absolute authority over Turkey. He did so in 2014 by changing the Turkish constitution and eliminating the position of Prime Minister in Turkey. Ezekiel 38:1-3 say’s that the “chief prince” or primary governor of Turkey will lead the Islamic nations into Israel. In Ezekiel chapter 39 the “chief prince” of Turkey will lead the battle of Armageddon. So the Bible tells us that the “chief prince” of Turkey is the Antichrist. Since Turkish President Erdogan has eliminated any future Prime Minister in Turkey, then Erdogan will be the only primary governor of Turkey in the foreseeable future. I think that Turkish President Erdogan is in fact the Antichrist. He has already come to power by way of treachery and without military conquest, or “peaceably”. Erdogan will one day also rise to power over the next world empire. Erdogan is already recognized by most Islamic nations as the rightful Sultan over a revived Turkish ruled Ottoman Empire.
Many Christians have a fuzzy notion that the Antichrist will be viewed as a great peace maker. Not necessarily so. In reality the Antichrist will gain power by devious political means.
👉 Thursday Mar 10th, 2022 – Revelation 17:12 The 10 horns
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Turkey on Thursday.
😈 Turkey, an Islamic nation trying to broker peace between Orthodox Christian brothers of Russia and Ukraine?
Antichrist Turkey and The UAE countries that have directly participated in the #TigrayGenocide by supporting the fascist Oromo regime of Ethiopia, now are trying to play a more active role in ‘mediating’ between the fascist Oromo regime of Abiy Ahmed Ali and Orthodox Christian Ethiopia which is Tigray. Countries like the UAE, Turkey, China, Russia,Ukraine support the Ethiopian central government with political, diplomatic, financial help and drones in its offensive against Orthodox Christians of Tigray. Mind boggling, isn’t it?!
💭 Similar circumstances, similar actions and actors, similar tragedies between the Russo-Ukraine war and the Ethiopian ‘civil war’.
Ethiopia managed to survive as a single state from the Aksum Kingdom (325 BC) to the reign of the fascist Oromo regime of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali. The country was not divided into two states in the civil war that broke out due to the Tigray problem. On the other hand, there are some similarities between the Ukraine and Ethiopia crises, such as the relations between the warring parties and the fact that they come from the same origin. So, can such closeness be a factor that stops or fuels a war?
Approaches
Ukraine, which gained its independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, is now the second largest country in Europe with a population of 44.9 million. The country has extensive agricultural lands as well as fields for many heavy industry sectors in its east. Both Russian and Ukrainian are spoken in the country. There are many social and political partnerships between the peoples of Russia and Ukraine, as well as their histories, structures, common customs and traditions. Despite the fact that the peoples of the two countries have a common history, culture and religion, after the independence of Ukraine, its relations with its western neighbors developed more than its relations with Russia. Ukraine enjoys closer relations with its European neighbors in Poland and other regions to its west.
On the other hand, the Tigray region is located in the north of Ethiopia. An independent territory within the federal system, ratified by the Ethiopian Constitution in 1994. The history of the region has striking marital dimensions. There are abundant mineral deposits, especially gold. The Tigrayans are Ethiopia’s third largest ethnic group (7 to 10 million people) in terms of population, after the Oromos and Amhars, who make up the majority of Ethiopian people. Although the Tigrayans and Oromos retain their own language, Amharic has been the dominant language among the Ethiopian people, with Christianity and Islam, the two major religions with the largest number of members.
On a regional scale and in contrast to the polarization factor and the attractiveness of Ukraine’s neighborhood with Western European countries, Tigray’s location adjacent to Eritrea creates a political dimension that is not far from sensitive for historical rivalry reasons, despite the similarities and commonalities of the two peoples.
Beginning of crises
As for the beginnings, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine started after the Ukrainian people’s revolution overthrew the pro-Russian former President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. After Russia lost its political hegemony with the fall of Yanukovych administration, Russia annexed Crimea using this situation and started to arm the rebel groups in the east of the country.
The danger that Ukraine posed for Russia after its independence and its orientation to Europe further increased the sensitivity of relations. The crisis erupted in its political and regional dimensions following Kiev’s intention to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The crisis in Ethiopia, on the other hand, began after the political transformation during the ruling People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front following the people’s revolution in February 2018, with the resignation of former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. On 27 March 2018, current Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office, with the decline of Tigrayan nationalism after nearly 30 years of domination and the political crisis in Abiy Ahmed and the neighboring country Eritrea.
💭 Ethiopia Declares State of Emergency as Tigrayan Forces Gain Ground
Bitter experiences
There were news in the media that Russia began to occupy Ukraine from the eastern Donbas region on February 24, 2020) (after the recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics). These were followed by reports that cities such as Mariupol (please look at map in the video below) and Odessa (on the Black Sea coast), Kherson (in the south of the country), Jitomir and Kharkov (in the northwest) were subjected to heavy bombardment. In the current war, military and civilian infrastructure has been destroyed in many parts of Ukraine. Several cities were occupied while services such as water and electricity were interrupted.
According to the information in the press, while people in various regions of Ukraine faced terrible situations, hundreds of civilians, including children, lost their lives, hundreds of thousands of people immigrated to Poland and other neighboring European countries.
On the other hand, the Ethiopian war, which started on November 4, 2020, (The genocidal war against Orthodox Christians of Tigray begun on Tikimt-ጥቅምት 24 ቀን 2013 ዓ.ም EC ) caused the Tigray region to be occupied by the fascist Oromo regime of Abiy Ahmed Ali and killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced only in beginning of the war tens of thousands to migrate to Sudan. Unlike Ukraine, no Tigrayan is able to leave Tigray due to a complete siege and blockade during the past twelve months.
💭 Ukrainians Blocking Africans From Getting on Trains | ዩክሬናውያን አፍሪካውያንን በባቡር እንዳይሳፈሩ አገዷቸው
A Very curious comparison: White ‘Christian’ Ukrainians block Africans from getting on European trains – while black African Christians of Ethiopia hinder their Tigrayans brothers and sisters from fleeing the besieged Tigray to safety, to Sudan. Wow! Do Africans really have the right to complain about the actions of the Ukrainians, or about the preferential treatment fellow Europeans give to them? Can Africans claim the moral high ground when they are still quite and do nothing while their brothers and sisters in Africa are barbarically abused, murdered and ethnically cleansed by fellow Africans for the past 15 months?! What a disgrace!
One other example: Headquarters of the African Union (AU) is in Addis Ababa, but protocol dictates that when a summit is held there — as it was last month — the host is the AU Commission itself, not Ethiopia. In breach of that principle, the AU invited monster war criminal Abiy Ahmed Ali to welcome Africa’s heads of state. The thematic focus of the summit was launching Africa’s “year of nutrition.” Cruel Abiy Ahmed Ali and every speaker spoke about the importance of food; none mentioned the starvation crimes perpetrated by their host in Tigray, even in passing. The AU’s own principles were tossed aside in a show of smug solidarity.
Competing regional powers have quietly backed Abiy Ahmed in Ethiopia’s deadly conflict
👉 From The New Arab
The war that started in November 2020 as a conflict between the Ethiopian Federal Government and the Tigray Regional Government has turned the country into an arena where many regional and international powers are active.
Like a Pandora’s box suddenly opened, the conflict has borne many geopolitical surprises, but one of its most important ironies is the reported use of drones and weapons supplied by competing powers in the Middle East, who seem to have agreed on their support for Ethiopia’s government.
U A E, the first player
The United Arab Emirates (U A E) has intervened in the Ethiopian war since it began, with leaders from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) accusing Abu Dhabi of targeting Tigray an forces in November 2020 with drones stationed at its Assab military base in Eritrea.
In the wake of the Ethiopian withdrawal in the face of the advancing Tigray an forces in the summer of 2021, an Emirati air bridge supporting the government was monitored. This comprised more than 90 flights between the two countries in the period between September and November 2021.
Satellite images identified Emirati drones at Harar Meda Airport in Ethiopia and at a military base in Deirdawa in the east of the country.
The U A E’s intervention was an extension of its strategy to build an allied political and security system across the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa, most notably following Who Tea gains around Bab al-Mandab at the beginning of Yemen’s conflict.
Abiy Ahmed’s election as Ethiopia’s prime minister in 2018 further accelerated an alliance between Addis Ababa and Abu Dhabi.
That same year, the U A E-sponsored Eritrean-Ethiopia peace agreement pledged to support the Ethiopian treasury with three billion dollars, and made huge investments in various sectors.
From this perspective, the possibility of the Tigray ans seizing power in Addis Ababa was a threat to these political arrangements, and Emirati investments, especially since the TPLF view Abu Dhabi with hostility after its role in their first defeat in November 2020.
Turkish drones in the Habesha sky.
The visit of the Ethiopian prime minister to Ankara in August 2021 represented a turning point in the relationship between the two countries, which had become estranged in parallel with the development of Ethiopian ties with the U A E-Saudi axis.
During the visit, a package of agreements was signed that included “military cooperation”. Indeed, according to the Turkish Defence Industries Corporation, the value of Turkish military exports to Ethiopia increased from just $234,000 in 2020 to nearly $95 million in 2021.
Although in July 2021 the Turkish embassy in Addis Ababa denied that it had supplied drones to Addis Ababa, reports alleged the participation of Bayraktar TB2 drones in military operations in Ethiopia’s conflict after Ahmed’s visit to Ankara, which were not denied by either side this time.
This development is an extension of the Turkish approach in the region described by Jason Moseley, a Research Associate at the African Studies Centre at Oxford University. “Turkey has adopted an interventionist attitude in the regional crisis, with the consequent rebalancing between soft and hard power in favor of the latter,” he wrote last year.
In fact, Turkey saw drone support for the Ethiopian government as a strategic gain, bolstering its reputation in the African military and security market after it had proven its success in an African war arena, with growing demand for this type of weapon.
Ankara’s participation also indicates that Turkish construction companies could make a significant contribution to the reconstruction of infrastructure in the areas destroyed by the war
Preventing Ethiopia from sliding into a civil war protects Ankara’s large investments inside the country and ensures that the ensuing chaos does not spread into neighbouring Somalia, the most important centre of Turkish influence in the African continent.
Additionally, Turkish support for the Ethiopian government appears to be a strategic necessity due to Ankara’s fears of the Tigray ans, who Ethiopia has accused of being supported by Egypt.
In this sense, Ankara’s ties with Ethiopia are related to the exchange of support between the two countries, which is taking place in the context of their conflict with Egypt.
Iran seeks an opportunity
In a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, on 7 December 2021, TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael accused Iran, along with the UAE and Turkey, of providing the Ethiopian army with weapons, including drones.
Prior to that, the US government had accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF) of providing drones to Ethiopia, and on 29 October 2021, sanctions were issued by the US Treasury Department.
According to investigative websites, Iranian drones have been seen in Ethiopia and 15 flights from two airlines linked to the IRGC have been monitored from Iran to the Harar Meda military base in Ethiopia.
Both the Iranian and Ethiopian governments have not yet commented on these reports.
The sharp dispute between Ethiopia and the United States over the war in Tigray, and Washington’s continuous pressure on Ahmed’s government, who has framed the conflict as a colonial attack on Ethiopia’s unity, has apparently brought Tehran and Addis Ababa closer.
Iran sees the Ethiopian PM’s need for military equipment as an opportunity to expand its strategic presence in a country that is historically an ally of the United States and Israel.
This level of Iranian engagement demonstrates the importance of the Ethiopian arena for Tehran, and indicates Iran’s desire to enter the burgeoning military and security market in Africa.
However, the most important prize for Tehran is a return to Ethiopia, which is situated close to Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Horn of Africa, after losing its influence in recent years with allies Eritrea and Sudan following Emirati-Saudi pressure, and the fall of Omar al-Bashir’s regime in Khartoum after popular protests.
Ultimately, all three powers are trying to exploit a moment of Ethiopian weakness to create or consolidate their influence.
The weight and extent of their involvement are best indicated, perhaps, by consultations the US envoy to the Horn of Africa, which has historical influence in Ethiopia, has been having with Middle Eastern capitals to try to find a solution to the Ethiopian crisis.
💭“አዲሱን የዓለም ሥርዓት ለማስጠበቅ ልዩ ቀውስ ያስፈልጋል።…አዲሱን የዓለም ሥርዓት ለመጠበቅ የመንግስት ያልሆኑ ተዋናዮችን እና ስልጣን የተሰጣቸውን ግለሰቦችን ማስወገድ ግድ ነው”። “Extraordinary Crisis Needed to Preserve New World Order….The elimination of non-state actors and empowered individuals “must be done” in order to preserve the new world order.
💭 The Washington Post has analyzed photos of shrapnel and satellite imagery and cross-referenced video to confirm that Ethiopia used a Turkish drone in January in an attack that killed at least 59 civilians sheltering in a school in Tigray, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing an analysis by the paper published on Monday.
On January 7, a school was struck by a drone-delivered bomb, killing at least 59 people and gravely injuring dozens more, according to aid workers whose organizations worked at the camp for internally displaced people in Dedebit, located in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray.
According to The Washington Post, more than 300 civilians have been killed by drone and air strikes since September, including more than 100 since the start of this year.
Weapon remnants recovered from the site of the strike by aid workers showed internal components and screw configurations that matched images of Turkish-made MAM-L munitions released by the weapons manufacturer. The MAM-L pairs exclusively with the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB-2 drone.
Military experts from the Dutch nongovernmental organization PAX and Amnesty International also identified the weapon used as a MAM-L bomb that is fitted to a TB2 drone, Politico earlier reported.
The attacks have drawn criticism from US President Joe Biden and a warning from the United Nations that they may constitute a grave violation of international law, Politico said.
Drones are rapidly turning into the decisive weapon of the conflict and have helped Ethiopian government forces turn the tide against rebels from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which governed the country for nearly three decades before 2018.
Turkey has exported Bayraktar armed drones manufactured by defense contractor Baykar Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Şirketi (Baykar), which is run by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son-in-law Selçuk Bayraktar. Ukraine, Poland, Qatar, Libya, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia and Azerbaijan have all taken delivery of the armed drones.
According to Turkey’s 2021 export figures announced by the Turkish Exporters Assembly in early December, Turkey’s arms sales reached a record level, with the biggest increase to African countries.
In the first 11 months of 2021, Turkey exported $2.793 billion worth of defense products, an increase of 39.7 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. The Turkish defense industry, which set an export record of $2.7 billion in 2019, is preparing to set a new record by closing this year with exports of more than $3 billion. For the first time the defense sector had a 1.8 percent share of Turkey’s total exports in November 2021.
💭 Can you see the similarities between the Soumela St.Mary Monastery and the Mariam Dengelat St. Mary Monastery of Tigray, Ethiopia? On November, 2020 more than 100 Orthodox Christians were massacred by Turkish-allied evil leader of Ethiopia.
➡ CNN Investigation of Massacre at Maryam Dengelat Church in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region
💭 The courtyard of Panagia Soumela Monastery was recently turned into a nightclub for an advertising video clip, causing outrage in the Orthodox world.
The controversial video clip, with a DJ playing loud electronic music in the courtyard of the historic monastery and people dancing, had many Orthodox Christians reacting in anger.
Many comments in social media speak of the desecration of the historic monastery as along with the music, church bells can be heard in the background.
Some even demanded explanations from Turkish authorities, as the historic monastery had essentially been turned into a nightclub.
Greece’s Foreign Ministry said, on Monday, images showing a band dancing to electronic music at the former Orthodox Christian Sumela Monastery in Turkey were “offensive” and “a desecration” of the monument, Reuters reports.
The Ministry called on Turkish authorities “to do their utmost to prevent such acts from being repeated” and to respect the site, a candidate for UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites.
“The recent images that were displayed on social media, in which a foreign band seems to be dancing disco in the area of the Historical Monastery of Panagia Soumela, are a desecration of this Monument,” it said.
Turkish officials were not immediately available for comment.
Founded in the 4th century, Sumela is a monastic complex built into a sheer cliff above the Black Sea forest in eastern Turkey. It was long ago stripped of its official religious status and operates as a museum administered by the Culture Ministry in Turkey.
Thousands of tourists and Orthodox Christian worshippers journey to the monastery annually.
In 2010, Turkish authorities allowed the first Orthodox liturgy since ethnic Greeks were expelled in 1923 as part of a population exchange between Greece and Turkey. In 2015, the Sumela Monastery was shut for restoration and re-opened to tourists in 2019.
A liturgy to mark the Feast Day of the Virgin Mary was allowed in 2020 and 2021.
“It is surprising that the permit was given to the band, as the Monastery of Panagia Soumela opens only for pilgrims,” the Greek Foreign Ministry said. “These images are offensive and add to a series of actions by the Turkish authorities against World Heritage Sites,” its statement said, without elaborating.
Greece and Turkey disagree on a range of issues from airspace to maritime zones in the eastern Mediterranean and ethnically split Cyprus.
Expressing an important value among the places you should go to in Trabzon, one of the most beautiful cities of the Black Sea, Sumela Monastery was built on steep cliffs in Altındere Village located within the borders of Maçka district of Trabzon. It is known by the name of “Mama Maria” among the people. Located approximately 300 meters above Altındere village, the Virgin Mary was built in accordance with the tradition of steep cliffs, forests, and caves, which are traditional monastery construction sites. The monastery, which was founded in reference to the Virgin Mary, took the name Sumela from the word molasses, which means black.
Etymology of the Name Sumela
It is understood that the name of Sumela comes from the word “molasses” meaning black, black darkness in the local language of the years when the monastery was built, and the name of the region is Oros Melas. The original name of the monastery is “Panagia Sou Melas”. In the Ottoman Empire records, the monastery takes place as “Su (o)Mela.