>>404958I have very mixed feeling about eritrea and i hope this doesnt come across as bullshit nationalism. but i really dont think they should have ever seceded, considering how similar our cultures are, how are histories are intertwined and how we've basically always been a part of the same polity save for a 40 year italian occupation of eritrea and 10 years of british "administration". i dont think they would have gotten independence had the derg not been full of violent retards, and the tplf literally giving away our entire country's coastline when they came to power is a baffling move.
eritrea is ruled by a proper autocrat and its in a pretty sorry state. i went in 2019 after they reopened the borders, and my uncle who went with me said it literally hadnt changed since he last saw it in the 80s (while ethiopian cities have developed rapidly). theres a reason why such a large part of their population leaves the country (many ethiopians leave too but proportionally way more eritreans..many come to ethiopia) they claim theyre independent of any 'imperialist' international institutions, but really its nothing to brag about considering the state of their country.
having said all that, their leadership was feuding with the tplf since both of them were fighting the derg. so they viewed this conflict as a prime time to get rid of the tplf. i do regret their involvement in the conflict, and now i notice i havent mentioned it - it was decisive in initially collapsing the tplf, but they are implicated in serious abuses. the ethiopian army is as well, but the eritreans seemed to have been doing more.
this i'm sure helped rally people to the tplf, since 3 decades of propaganda has made tigrayans hate eritreans (even though over half of eritrea is literally tigre speakers, functionally the same people). i mean 3 decades of tplf propaganda also turned tigres against ethiopia, when they were always some of the most patriotic ethiopians and the origin or our civilisation. its incredible to see tigrayans burning the ethiopian flag, whose first appearance is in a 10th century tapestry in that same region, in favor of a weird party's aberration.
i think the long-term presence of the eritreans was ultimately detrimental to the campaign. they should have been withdrawn after the initial campaign which routed the tplf in november - aft
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