The timing of Mr. Markakis’s presentation on a political platform that was carefully crafted by the TPLF reveals the true color of the presenter himself. His long business-like association with the TPLF regime as a lobbyist and as an academic providing “analytical” justification to the minority rule of TPLF and its sham institutions and structures to western donors and institutions was unmasked by the Bahir Dar Symposia.

Mr. Markakis presented a paper as a palace historian on the Jubilee anniversary of ANDM, attended the inaugural of the 40 Million ETB Monument for TPLF/ANDM Martyrs’ paid by Sheik Mohammed Alamoudi. The ANDM anniversary and festivities were held in a town whose residents are angry because of the detention of their leaders and the killing of their children by TPLF forces. Mr. Markakis gave a paper in a town which was swarmed by TPLF Agazi Special Forces. Mr. Markakis gave a paper on the anniversary of an organization which does not still have recognition from the people it claims to represent. More interestingly, Markakis was one of the cohorts of the festivities of the anniversary, while many genuine academics working on Ethiopia are expressing their criticism about the violent ways the TPLF deals with its opponents and popular protests.

Markakis attempted to outline the long and complicated history of the Amhara people of Ethiopia from the prism of the ideology of the TPLF. That is why he made some grave errors and at times willingly deceived the historical facts to meet the wishes his bosses.

At the beginning of his short essay, Markakis reiterated that the image to which the name of the Amhara is attached appeared to be “…compact, firm, composed of pure, homogeneous matter, undifferentiated, united, undivided; in effect a monolith.” This is a very broad statement and is not applicable to any group of people. Considering a given group of people as “homogenous”, “pure” and “monolith” is at least problematic and at has a sinister motive. In the case of the Amhara, Despite there are so far no writers who claim that the Amhara view themselves as described as “compact”, “composed of pure”, etc. Such claim of ethnic purity was promoted by the Nazis of Germany. It is Fascists and Nazis who talk about ethnic purity not the Amhara people who are proud of their intermarriage and mixture with other nationalities of the country.

The most interesting statement in Markakis’s paper is the one which says “a political party that bears [the Amhara] name is unavoidably burdened with a heavy legacy from the past. The weight of this history is like a chain that binds a party to the past, forcing it to confront the yesteryear rather than address the future. When it comes to political contests on the national stage, this is a huge handicap. To use an analogy from boxing, the party is compelled to fight with one arm tied behind its back.” This statement reveals the true intention of both Markakis and his TPLF pay masters which have hired the eminent professor at their Ministry of Federal Affairs, where he is advising the TPLF minority regime how it could effectively entrench its power over the Ethiopian people through divide and rule. In this statement Markakis bluntly concludes that the Amhara should not have a political role in the present and the future of Ethiopia because of their “crime” of building the Ethiopian empire. This indeed accords well with the “Neftegna” singing of the TPLF and its surrogates.

The other assertion in which Mr. Markakis willfully deceived his readers is where he described the evolution of the “Amhara region”. Markakis asserted that the historic “ancien Amhara” province used to include Wollo, Shoa, Gojam, and Gonder. I am not sure that the medieval region of Amhara used to consist of the four provinces that are mentioned above. So far, there are no reliable historical sources which provide information about the exact geographic extent of the ancien Amhara province. Mr. Markakis pointed out that the ancien Amhara was reconstituted after by regionalization of Ethiopia after the coming to power of the TPLF in 1991. I do not know why the imminent professor evaded from mentioning the Amhara region which was created by the Italians (1935-1940).

In fact the there are several parallels between the Amhara region created by the Italians and the Amhara region created by the TPLF. I am sure it is clear to Mr. Markakis there are many parallels in the Amhara policy of the Italians and the TPLF. Both the Italians and the TPLF criminalized the Amhara because of their role in the past as empire builders. This was given analytical justification by Markakis paper at the Bahir Dar Symposia. Both the Italians and the TPLF followed a policy of inciting others against the Amhara. Mr. Markakis’s decision to exclude the Italian Amhara policy and the formation of the first Amhara region by the Italians not only show his academic dishonesty but also his sinister motive. After all, he belongs to those European scholars whose academic careers to a significant part depended on Amhara bashing. Markakis and his formers students at the then HSIU uncritically imposed truncated Marxian ideology and Soviet historiography to misdiagnose the Ethiopian society and ended up in giving wrong prescriptions, the result is ethnic animosity and ethnic bigotry. Wallelegn Makonnen’s application of Leninist characterization of Russia as “prison of nationalities” to Ethiopia is still uncritically celebrated by Markakis with no objective assessment of the positive or negative implications of the leftist ideology on Ethiopian contemporary quagmire. If Wallelegn was alive today, I do not think he would appreciate the monument erected by Sheik Alamoudi for Amhara martyrs which includes himself and the festivities for the anniversary of ANDM.

The other equally important misrepresentation in the paper of Mr. Markakis is the narration regarding the “transformation” of EPDM to ANDM. Markakis argues that EPDM was changed to ANDM to fit the ethnic federal model. I am sure that it is well known to Markakis from the very beginning that EPDM was sponsored by the TPLF and it is the TPLF which makes and unmakes its satellite organizations. It is therefore the TPLF which decided to change the name tag of EPDM to ANDM to facilitate its own control of power at a national level.

Indeed as pointed out in Markakis’s paper, the Amhara like other nationalities of the country are divided in political ideologies and organizations. But the argument that because of their past they should not play a role in Ethiopian politics is a mere academic justification for entrenching TPLF’s hegemony in Ethiopian politics. The TPLF indeed made a good investment when it decided to put on its payroll list people like John Markakis and Paul Henze. While Paul Heze is less sophisticated and archaic in his writings and presentations, Markakis has so far been subtle and sophisticated until he was unmasked by attending the anniversary of ANDM by a time when let alone expatriates but also Ethiopian officials are disdained to publicly seen with TPLF officials.

[*] Presented to the symposium organized by the Organizing Committee of the 25th Silver Jubilee of the Amhara National Democratic movement – ANDM