Fascist Italy's tribal "goverenorato" of Amhara, written "Amara" in Fascist Italian literature, was again arbitrarily taken north of Abbai to be composed of Gojam and Gondar bordering on a separate Shoa "governorato", and Wollo, Wag, Bugna, Lasta and Angot - .This last region was of course the proper home and origin of the Amhara ! Let us concentrate on Fascist "Gondar." The Ethiopian Emperor had lost his capital in the south (Shoa) and had established his new capital in the north at Gondar from the 17th to the end of the 19th century, following the Oromo invasion and settlement in southern and eastern Ethiopia beginning in the 16th century. And as the capital and seat of the Emperor, Gondar had naturally soon expanded to bring under the direct rule of the Emperor a large territory divided by the Anghereb River. The region north of Anghereb (Welqait, Tsegede, Waldebba, Tselemt Semen, Wogera) as we indicated above has had throughout history its own independent cultural , religious and linguistic identity largely dominated by the Agaw Falasha. The original language of the people in these regions has been the Agaw and their religion Falasha (an Ethiopian version of Judaism to which they might have been converted since Axumite times.) Due to proximity with Tigrai on the other side of Tekezie commerce and communication has apparently been going on for centuries since Axumite times and hence the existence of important pockets of Axumite-Tigrai colonies spreading Geez-Tigregna particularly in Welqait. Tselemt with its own Shum Tselemt appointed by the Emperor and paying his allegiance directly to the Emperor had been at different periods of history appearing in the list of the negarits (provinces) of the viceroy of Tigrai until the end of the 16thth century.
But since the Gada-Galla nomadic pastoralist invasion of and settlement in southern Ethiopia as well as half of central Ethiopia including Angot-Amhara-Shoa, thus mutilating close to three-fourth of Ethiopia's ancient provinces, the entire Ethiopian population had to flee and cram in a small corner constituted of Tigrai and the territory north of Abai (Blue Nile). Consequently also, the Emperor whose dynasty originated in Amhara-Angot-Shoa, having lost his base population and his power base, had but to move the seat of his throne to the newly conquered and Christianized Agaw and Falasha regions north of Lake Tana between Dembiya and Welqait. This region will from now on be known as the new Amhara, signifying not Amhara tribe (as the region remained predominantly Agaw ) but the centrality of the region from where the Emperor ruled his empire, and consequently the adoption of Amharic - the "lesane Negus" or "the language of the Negus" - which will spread fast and establish its supremacy together with Orthodox Christianity. That was also where the Emperor founded his new capital at Gondar! And thus the new "Amhara" between Dembiya and Welqait has been thoroughly conquered, Christianized and Amharized permanently cutting out any more Tigrai influence west of Tekezie at that date. And that situation has lasted practically unaltered through even the Measafint Zemen, under Tewodros, under the Tigrai Emperor Yohannes IV, Menelik, under Iyassu-Zewditu, under the Fascist occupation period, Under Emperor Haile Selassie and the Derg. The administrative, cultural and linguistic map of Gondar had persisted even after Gondar lost its status as capital in favor of Addis Ababa . A Gondar administrative region composed of two parts north and south of Anghereb bordering on the Sudan is also what Fascist Italy found upon occupation of Ethiopia in 1936.
For military reasons of repressing Ethiopian nationalist resistance, Fascist Italy had temporarily annexed Gondar territory north of Anghereb as part of Eritrea in two steps, first by a decree of March 1938 when Welqait and Tseged were transferred to Eritrea and then by a decree of July 17, 1939. These temporary annexations undertaken for military reasons for the repression of patriotic resistance have served TPLF to annex to-day the same large chunks of fertile Gondar territories north of Anghereb as part of Tigrai.
The first transfer of Northern Gondar territory had been decreed by Mussolini's Fascist government on March 13 1938. The mountainous and tortuous land north of Anghereb and south of that river bordering on the Sudan in the west and the Setit-Tekezie in the north and east has throughout history been a land of rebellion and resistance to oppression and hegemony. North of Anghereb are found the famous mountainous regions of Semien, Tselemt, Welqait, and Tsegede. South of Anghereb is found the legendary Armachiho, the large territory estimated at 3500 sq. km. extending south up to Om Hager. The region north and south of Anghereb constituted among the centers of the highest resistance to Fascist occupation and brutality led by patriots like Fitawrari Wubneh (Amoraw Wubneh) and others among whom mention should be made of Bitweded Adane Mekonnen, Killed by the EPRP in cold blood in 1985 at the age of eighty four, a few kilometers beyond the Sudanese border engaged in fighting a guerrilla warfare as leader of EDU against the Derg.
Here is how an Italian officer during the Italian war of aggression described Armachiho: "Armachiho, thanks to its position, its difficult terrain, covered with a thick forest and inaccessible, has remained until to-day beyond any control. The population of Armachiho live surrounded by a legend of independence and inviolability of their territory, given that since times immemorial, they have never paid taxes to the Negus, and his troops have never penetrated in the region to claim sovereignty. In the recent past Armachiho was considered not only a safe asylum to outlaws and shiftas, but also was equally the storehouse of arms pillaged from passing caravans. It is also believed that a section of the Emperor's army while on retreat in April 1936 with 1000 guns was completely disarmed at the Dawa pass. Furthermore, it is known that a flourishing arms trade with distant countries is carried on in Armachiho.”Hence the major role Armachiho played in the resistance against Fascist occupation. That was the background of Fascist decision to modify the border of northern Gondar. On February 5, 1939 a high-level meeting of Fascist authorities in Eritrea (Asmara) under the chairmanship of General Teruzzi, Under-secretary of State in the Ministry of African colonies on the question regarding the temporary modification of the border between Eritrea and Amhara transferring the whole of northern Gondar, north of Anghereb, to the Eritrean government, outside the provisions of the "Legge Organica" as we have seen. Hence the specific statement on the cover page treating that meeting:"VERBALE DELLA RIUNIONE PRESIEDUTA DA S.E. IL GENERALE DI CORPO D'ARMATA ATTILIO TERUZZI, SOTTOSEGRETARIO DI STATO PER L'AFRICA ITALIANA IL 5FEBBRAIO 1939 - XVII° PRESSO IL PALAZZO GOVERNATORIALE DELL'ERITREA CIRCA IL TEMPORANEO PASSAGGIO AL GOVERNO DELL'ERITREA DEI TERRITORI A NORD DELL' ANGHEREB"
"MINUTES OF THE MEETING PRESIDED BY H.E. GENERAL OF THE MILITARY CORPS ATTILIO TERUZZI, UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR ITALIAN AFRICA, FEBRUARY 5, 1939 - XVII° AT THE GOVERNMENT PALACE OF ERITREA REGARDING THE TEMPORARY TRANSFER TO THE GOVERNMENT OF ERITREA THE TERRITORIES NORTH OF ANGHEREB"
The meeting was also attended by S.E. Enrico Cerulli -Vice Governor General of Africa Italiana, a leading Ethiopianist! At that meeting General Teruzzi explained the situation and the justification for such a temporary transfer of the Amhara territories north of Anghereb to Eritrea on military grounds as being commanded by the necessity to crash Ethiopian patriotic resistance in Amhara north of Anghereb! Referring to the example of Shoa where the nationalist rebellion was ripe, Teruzzi explained how by creating a separate Fascist government under one military direction and control of the centre - Addis Ababa the repression of the patriotic resistance has been much more successful. On the other hand, in the governorate of Amhara and Gojam the situation is different. Special operations of repression of patriots in Gojam is already underway under the direct supervision of the supreme Fascist military command in Italian Africa it was hoped it will be completed by the end of May. In the same way it was hoped to get a good politico-military result regarding the repression of patriotic resistance and "pacification" of the Amhara region through the temporary modification and transfer of Gondar territory north of Anghereb because of the lack of communication and the impossibility to conduct the repression of anti-Fascist rebellion in this mountainous and tortuous region from Gondar. Creating a "pacified zone" by crashing the patriotic resistance in the territories north of Anghereb will also help us to create a buffer zone between Eritrea and Amhara and protect ourselves from the risk of anti-Fascist resistance spreading into Eritrea.
TPLF or its consultants have done the necessary research, and have been good at copying Fascist tribal maps and borders. In this respect the most striking reproduction of Mussolini's Fascist Italian colonial map is that of the transformation of the Fascist map of Eritrea (including Tigrai) as the map of Tigrai alone in order to justify the annexation (and denomination as "Western Tigrai" of almost half of Gondar - the fertile regions beyond Anghereb (Welqait , Tsegede, Waldebba, Tselemt,) – separated from Tigrai by the Tekezie, as well as a large chunk of Wollo - extending to the river Alewoha (commonly called Ala in Fascist Italian maps) as integral parts of Tigrai. That is why we have written that that God had created the TPLF in 1975 with, in its belly or its head, the map (or evolving maps) of Tigrai and its borders already carved out. This appears so because, already in its first political programmes (see Map ?) TPLF presents a modified and aggrandized , almost doubled, Tigrai so that TPLF's Tigrai border reaches the Sudan in the west and the Red Sea hinterland in the southeast. And this is the Fascist Italian colonial map temporarily annexing to Eritrea, the Gondar-Wollo territory extending from Anghereb to Alewoha, now reproduced most faithfully by the TPLF as representing the historical map of Tigrai!This was also the Fascist map that the British inherited following their victory over the Fascist troops and which they made the basis of their colonialist Tigrai Tigregn project during the British administration period (1941-1952). The area north of Anghereb-Aleweha border was also the one indicated for the Tigrai-Tigregn project of the first Woyane in 1943. That is also the border the TPLF has arbitrarily and fascistically chosen to inherit from Mussolini invasion as the border of Tigrai! And yet even Fascist Italy had never denied that the regions west of Tekezie and north of the Angherreb were integral parts of Gondar. [See enclosed Fascist Italian map of Gondar]
The Tigrai-Tigregn project, which the TPLF has adopted, since its origin is made by trespassing the river Tekezie and annexing a large chunk of the Gondar region west of the river and extending the southern border of Tigrai north of Anghereb valley, to include Tselemt, Waldebba, Welqait, and Tsegede.
Thus aggrandized in the west and south , TPLF's Tigrai has been blown up from the traditional and official size of 65,000 sq. kms to 102,000 sq. kms "restoring" what the TPLF says was land taken away from Tigrai, on the basis of an entirely unfounded , unhistorical claim and assertion that following the Woyane revolt of 1943, "Haile Selassie . incorporated parts of Tigray to Amhara provinces." (see TIGRAY - A NATION IN STRUGGLE," a TPLF publication, October 1979). A glance at the administrative maps of Ethiopia in the twentieth century between 1900 and 194 , including even Fascist Italy's maps during the occupation period (1936-1941), is enough to discredit such a baseless claim intended to justify TPLF expansionist agenda. Christopher Clapham had thus exposed Meles territorial expansion and opportunism:
"The TPLF needs to define Tigray in such a way as to gain external access, and the two geographically most appropriate ways of doing so, by claiming a corridor to the Red Sea at Tiyo or Mers Fatma on the one hand, or to the Sudan between the Gash and Setit rivers on the other, are both closed off because they form part of Eritrea. The TPLF has, therefore, instead claimed, part of northern Gondar, asserting entirely fictitiously that for a couple of years in the early 1940's this was administered as part of Tigray. It has claimed Wag in northern Wollo on the same grounds."
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