Tigrai will always be a victim of its own geography. Being in a narrow but very tight geography had been its advantage but in the modern world, this has turned out to be its curse.
Tigrai is surrounded by the Tekeze river on the west, the Mereb in the north, the Danakil depression and the Afar desert in the east and the high mountains of Ambalaje and Alamata in the south. Geography has once again betrayed Tigrai with a limited geographic strategic depth that makes the "Republic of Tigrai" a pipe dream. Tigrai and the Kurdish people in Turkey will have the same dilemma and predicament for many years to come.
There is no doubt that the Meles era will always be remembered by Tigrayans as their Golden Period in their history. Like him or not, Meles was one of the smartest and astute political brains who left too early for Tigrayans. Meles can see problems from a distance and get prepared to tackle way ahead of his opponents from within and from without. Meles has also made his own few mistakes, one being seeing political problems mainly from the vantage of ethnic and identity politics that is the core and the basis of the current federal state in Ethiopia.
However, his second mistake was that he also left Tigrai without resolving the issue of "Tigrai is a victim of geography". The current and future of Tigrai is uncertainty without access to the sea. In the periods between 2008 and 2012, Meles was at the zenith of his power, while Issais was at his lowest. Issaias was roped up to his neck in sanctions, lonely without friends, without money, without modern armaments and with young Eritreans leaving him in thousands a month. Still, Meles was waiting for Issaias to drop dead, instead of slaying him and resolving Tigrai's predicament of geography.
The Tigraian and the Weyane era is over. For people who have studied Horn African or Abyssinian history in depth since the Zagwe era, this is not new. In most part, from 1991 - 1998, Issaias had been a kingmaker, like any Bahri Negasi of of the Midre Bahri region of the 1400 and 1500s. From 2000 to 2020, Issaias had been acting sometimes as an ally and sometimes as an adviser to opponents or kings not different from Bahre Negasi Ishahak of Dubarwa of the early 1500s.
The greatest question is about the future of Abiy. Is Abiy like the emperor who ended the era of princes - Teodros of Quara, or is he Sertse Dingle who rehabilitated Ethiopia after the invasion of Ahmad Gragn?
Only history will tell.