#Since the military conquest and ethnic cleansing of Western Tigray in 2020—mainly by Amhara special forces and Fano militias with direct and tacit support by Eritrea and Ethiopian federal authorities, respectively—post hoc justifications have been offered to consolidate this unconstitutional takeover.
As many as 723,000 Tigrayans have been violently chased from their lands, while the number of civilians killed is undoubtedly high but could not be ascertained by human rights investigators because their access to the areas was blocked by the occupying forces.
To justify these expulsions and killings, the supposed eternal Amharic character of Welkait and the surrounding districts is commonly invoked.
An example of such arguments, Tibor Nagy, former US Assistant Secretary of African Affairs, wrote in a recent op-ed that, “When the TPLF came to power, they transferred a fertile section of Amhara State (Welkait district) to Tigray, renaming it Western Tigray, and brought in ethnic Tigrayans to displace ethnic Amharas. Thus, Amharan militias eagerly joined the fight and forcibly reclaimed Western Tigray.”
However, there was no Amhara state in the pre-federal eras and Ethiopia’s federal constitution stipulates that the ethno-linguistic demography of a region, rather than the historical control of a territory by a certain group, determines how the country’s internal borders are organized into regional states.
As a result, areas known as Welkait, Tsegede, Tselemti, and Humera were initially incorporated into the Tigray region during the 1991-1994 transitional period, because the residents of those areas were overwhelmingly Tigrinya speakers and ethnically Tigrayan.
However, many Amhara nationalists have claimed historical possession of these lands. Although this historical ownership argument is irrelevant to the current federal setup, Amhara irredentist claims should nonetheless be scrutinized more closely.
After all, Amhara irredentism has been a driving force in the Tigray war. Removing this most productive zone from Tigray that borders Sudan appears also to be part of a strategy to impoverish and subjugate Tigray, while encircling it with hostile forces.
This territorial dispute between Tigray and Amhara regions remains a sticking point that has impeded peace in Ethiopia for two years. The possession of “Western Tigray” or “Welkait” was not directly addressed in the peace agreement signed on 2 November.
While the negotiated settlement’s emphasis on abiding by the existing constitutional framework has raised fears among Amhara nationalists that “ancestral Amhara lands” will be transferred back to Tigray, the agreement is subject to interpretation on this matter.
Mapping Welkait
A wide array of historical maps and records jointly reveal that the territorial organization of northern Ethiopia has changed repeatedly and considerably over the last four centuries.
Our research team at the University of Ghent has retrieved all historical maps representing the Western part of the Tigray region, otherwise known as Welkait and its adjacent districts, from well-established repositories.
Only maps prepared in the same period as they depict were used. Each map was screened for representation of internal borders, indicating territorial control. Out of 109 maps, spanning the period from 1607 to 1967, 66 explicitly display territorial control.
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