1. The Ethiopian Narration:
Eritrea has always been part and parcel of Ethiopia going back to the D’mt (10th-5th BCE) and the Aksum (1st – 7th CE) kingdoms, both of which were maritime powers dominating the Red Sea.
In late 19th and early 20th century, during the scramble for Africa, the Empire of Ethiopia entered into three treaties with the Empire of Italy for purely technical and administrative reasons: a treaty among equals on administration of their properties. When Italy was defeated in World War II, its colony of Eritrea should have been returned to Ethiopia. But the world conspired against it, despite repeated fact-finding missions by the Four Powers indicating Daughter Eritrea wanted to return to Mother Ethiopia.
This desire for unity was not just an Ethiopian drive but Eritrean too. In fact, the largest and most organic party that emerged in Eritrea in the 1940s was the Union Party demanding unconditional union with Ethiopia.
But historical enemies of Ethiopia (an expansive list) funded and set up Eritrean parties calling for independence forcing Ethiopia to endure an unworkable federation in 1952. This was short-lived as the Eritrean parliament begged for unconditional union with Ethiopia and dissolved itself in 1962.
This brought about the Golden Age of Eritrea when Emperor Haile Selassie gave Eritreans preferential treatment in the civil service and university admissions.
But Ethiopia’s historical enemies (those rascals again) would not rest and they began a 30-year long campaign of training, arming and funding secessionist bandits weakening Ethiopia using Fifth Columnists in Tigray and Eritrea. Eventually, the conspiracy against Ethiopia was joined by the U.S. which engineered the partitioning of Ethiopia in 1991.
This was followed by a fake “referendum”, where Ethiopians were never asked their opinion on whether a province which had all of Ethiopia’s Red Sea should be let go, an act blessed by a temporary, illegitimate government of Ethiopia.
For 30 years, Ethiopians were forbidden from raising this issue by the illegitimate, unrepresentative Ethiopian government which made Ethiopia landlocked.
Now that Ethiopia’s legitimate rulers are in charge, it’s only fair that this topic be revisited. By all rights, the entire Eritrea belongs to Ethiopia, but out of its interest for stability and regional peace, Ethiopia is only asking to get back the port of Assab. This can be done peacefully by letting the local Afar population conduct a second referendum. Or, if peaceful means are not available, the UN Charter allows Ethiopia to use force to safeguard its sovereignty.
All we need is Assab. For now. We will talk about the other port, Massawa, as soon as the issue of Assab is settled.
2. Eritrean History As Narrated by Eritreans
Ethiopia was just one country, in a string of countries that included Turkey, Egypt, Italy, Britain that administered all or parts of Eritrea. In 1993, after a 30 year war that liberated Eritrea from Ethiopia’s occupation, Eritrea conducted an internationally observed, UN-supervised free and fair referendum, resulting in the country’s recognition by UN.
The 1995 war with Yemen decided Eritrea’s ownership of its islands.
In 2002, another UN supervised process resulted in drawing the boundaries of Eritrea, including 1,200 miles of coast line.
Consequently, Eritrea is one of the few countries in the world where there is zero possibility of any part of its territory being contested or disputed: land and sea decided in 2002 and islands decided in 1999 via international court rulings.
Nobody is denying Ethiopia sea access: all we are saying is, you can rent or lease, but you can never own. No other country in the world sells its coast or meekly allows it to be taken.
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