1. Major General Teshome Gemechu is Director General of International Relations and Military Cooperation at #Ethiopia’s Ministry of Defense. He oversees Ethiopia’s military diplomacy, coordinating with foreign military attachés, briefing them on all of Ethiopia’s multiple military engagements (#Somalia, #Tigray, #FANO, #OLA, #Egypt, #Eritrea)
2. He was recently interviewed by Prime Media. Prime Media describes itself as an “East African regional media organization that aims to educate, entertain, inspire, and empower people through a multiplatform, multilingual approach.” Broadcasting in Arabic, Amharic and Afaan Oromo, clearly, it’s self-funded and any claims that all it does is advance the interest of its benefactor, UAE, is just malicious libel.
3. What is the job of the Director General of International Relations and Military Cooperation?
3.1 Mission One: to recruit allies to advance Ethiopia’s cause and to be its spokesperson.
3.1.1 Success So Far: 12 allies told Somalia if Ethiopia is not involved as peacekeepers, they will cut funding for peacekeeping missions.
3.2 Mission Two: To prepare Ethiopia for Fifth Generation Warfare (5GW):
5GW entails:
3.2.1 Information Warfare: Manipulation of media, social networks, and data to spread propaganda or misinformation (e.g., deepfakes, bots).
3.2.2 Cyber Operations: Hacking, data breaches, and disruption of critical infrastructure.
3.2.3 Psychological Operations: Targeting morale and public opinion through tailored messaging.
3.2.4 Non-State Actors: Involvement of irregular forces, terrorists, or corporations alongside state actors.
3.2.5 Ambiguity: Lack of clear declarations of war or identifiable fronts, often conducted covertly.
3.2.6 Success So Far: Look at all the time and energy we are spending fighting against it, a time that could have been better used to develop our countries.
4. His Four “Justifiable Reasons” For Ethiopia Seeking Sea-port “Access”
4.1. Historical: we used to own it. Besides, Assab was once a semi-autonomous region.
Buddy, you used to own all of Eritrea. By that logic, why stop at Assab?
4.2 Distance Factor: we are so so close to the Sea.
There is literally no such thing in international law. There are no “proximity awards.”
4.3. Counter Threats: missiles fired from the Red Sea can hit our cities. We need to be there.
Does Eritrea need to be near Debrezeit because Ethiopia’s Air Force is based there?
4.4. Illegitimacy: the Ethiopian government that gave away our ports was not duly elected and therefore it didn’t have the right to do that.
The government (Emperor Menelik) that signed the Wuchale Treaty giving up all claims on Eritrea was never elected. The government (Mengistu Hailemariam) that never contested #Djibouti independence was never elected.
Besides, per Article 7 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT, 1969) that your allies wrote, a country cannot claim that an agreement is not binding because the previous government was not elected.
But. Even if it could, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was elected and he entered into a bilateral treaty with Eritrea and a trilateral treaty with Eritrea and Somalia, recognizing the sovereignty of Eritrea with its formal, internationally-recognized borders. There are no mulligans in international treaties!
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