No Place for Warmongers Among Peace-lovers

January 20, 2022

 Timket or epiphany was celebrated colourfully in most of the country. Timket is unique as it is celebrated for two to three days. All these days, the celebration takes place outdoors with the participation of thousands of people, gathering in one place and a long procession that accompanies the Tabot. Men and women, youths and children, all participate in the pro­cession wearing traditional religious dresses and singing spiritual hymns.

Though Epiphany as a holiday is handed down from ancient times as a legacy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the actual celebration at least indirectly involves everyone and the happiness is also shared by every­one. Many people regardless of religion and ethnicity participate in pav­ing roads and public squares for the religious ceremony.

Such an event is unthinkable in a situation where there is no peace and stability. This is possible only when there is peace, stability, harmony and farsightedness among the public. These people hold this celebration in such a colourful way not because they forget the suffering and pain of those who were victims of the destructive war ignited by the terrorist group TPLF and Shane in various parts of the country. They don’t also ignore that these people would launch provocations during such mass gatherings of people.

But this is a big cause that the people have been fighting tooth and nail for. The people realize what they live for and what they fight for. The fore­fathers paid the sacrifice in blood to safeguard and maintain the national unity, dignity, territorial integrity of their nation. Within the sovereign and unified nation, there is always an untouched, beautiful and unique cultural heritage. These assets have kept the people united, proud and loving. This makes them icons of pride for the nation and is worth fighting and dying for.

As this generation received this beautiful cultural asset they are also duty-bound to protect and hand them down to the next generation with all their organic tradition and colour. One way to maintain and perpetuate this beautiful culture is to conduct the celebration with the utmost traditional feature as in the past. Hence, the people have demonstrated their commit­ment without being distracted by the adverse propaganda of the terrorist group.

But the intention of the warmongers and terrorist groups, TPLF and Shane were to destabilize such popular culture so that people can set against one another. Unfortunately, the circumstances and events turned out opposite to them. The people celebrated the holidays together without any distur­bance.

They made all the necessary preparations and precautions to observe the longstanding cultural assets of the nation.

The people can celebrate it even more peacefully than in the past since the celebration encourages the culture of peace, conflict resolution. This is a painful slap on the face of the conflict mongers who tried to spread terror and displacement recently in the country.

They were punched harshly by the people to the embarrassment of their supporters and enables.

Such attempts were as old as the years when many parts of North Af­rica and the Middle East were shaken by the historically notorious unrest called Arab Spring. All the attempts made since this period were foiled as they had no basis at home or among the public. Their attempt was a little in the making as the TPLF was kicked off from the centre and openly became a terrorist group during the last three to four years.

Yet all the attempts that seemed effective were thwarted by the joint hands of the peace-loving people and the committed heroic defence forces.

Now TPLF and its desperate supporter are on their last attempt of con­tinuing their warlike approach. But from what has been witnessed so far they will end up bringing about their demise which will bring about last­ing peace for the country and the region.

Therefore, all local and international actors that are behind the terrorist TPLF and Shane should learn from all the trends in the past and refrain from waging a terrorist war against innocent people which will not bring forth their desired result by any means.

THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 20 JANUARY 2022