BY ABDUREZAK MOHAMMED & MISGANAW ASNAKE
ADDIS ABABA – History has once again recorded in its golden inks that Ethiopia’s successive generations are endowed with unbreakable spirit despite internal and external enemies’ despicable acts meant to subvert the people’s sovereignty and freedom.
Speaking to The Ethiopian Herald, Prof. Shumet Sishagn, a historian, stated that the Yekatit 12, 1929 E.C. (February 19, 1937) massacre, in which thousands of Ethiopians were killed by the invading Italian troops, and the recent Maikadra’s massacre which was perpetrated by the extremist Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) Junta were both intended to terrorize the people and force them into believing that the Junta is unconquerable, but the result was the otherwise.
He also elaborated that the main purpose of the Yekatit 12 massacre was to ensure Italian acceptance by Ethiopians and to suppress the Ethiopian struggle by intimidating the public and killing those who were believed to continue the struggle. Similarly, the Maikadra’s massacre in which the Amharas were targeted and brutally killed had been designed to instill fear and terror among the people and put victory in their side, he indicated.
Above all, what connects the two events is the fact that they are horrific massacres in which innocents were killed because of their identity and the two horrific massacres are the result of utter desperation of the perpetrators, as to him.
Ethiopian patriots launched a major offensive against the invading Italian army in the aftermath of the Yekatit 12 incident, he said, adding that the ruthlessness unexpectedly sparked the Ethiopians’ struggle.
“Yekatit 12 massacre had further stoked resentment towards the invading force, and instead of weakening, the Ethiopians struggle expanded and intensified,” he noted.
By the same token, the Maikadra’s massacre had also made the people more determined to fight the Junta tooth and nail. And also, it has become an event that mobilizes the public to prevent TPLF from getting a second chance, he stated.
He further indicated that the TPLF Junta’s objectives were already known, but the Maikadra’s massacre clearly revealed the tip of the ice-burg of the destructive ambitions the Junta held.
Meanwhile the professor went on to say that Yekatit 12 incident should be incorporated in the educational curriculum so that lesson could be handed down to posterity.
It has lots of lesson including that nobody can rule Ethiopians at gunpoint, he hinted.
“On 19 February 1937, Italian Fascism showed its darkest face. Following the unsuccessful attempt on the life of Graziani by two young Ethiopians, Abraha Daboch and Mogos Asgadom, a reign of terror was unleashed in Addis Ababa,” recounts Prof. Bahru Zewde in his book A History of Modern Ethiopia 1855—1991.
He goes on to write: “With official backing from, the Blackshirts, the political zealots of the Fascist order, went berserk in the city, chopping off heads, burning down houses with their inhabitants, disemboweling pregnant women and committing all manner of atrocities.”
The Yekatit 12 Martyr’s day is being observed today.
The Ethiopian herald February 19/2021
