Whenever a head of state or government visits him, he plays the victimhood card, implicitly threatening war and persistently beating the drums of conflict.
This repetitive and tedious narrative regarding Ethiopia's population,and his claim that remaining a landlocked nation is "unjust",has become utterly absurd.
Nevertheless, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed reiterated this stance in the presence of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, claiming that the latter is set to undertake mediation efforts after agreeing to play a role so that Ethiopia can gain peaceful sea access.
He stated: "We have been geographically imprisoned for a long time, and this is not right. Logistics is one of our biggest bottlenecks,sea access is the key."
Here, the Ethiopian leader once again employs the "geographical imprisonment" fallacy.
In international law, there is no such thing as a "right to sovereignty over the territories of others" simply because a state is landlocked.
For the record, there are more than 44 landlocked countries in the world that live in peace and prosper through commercial agreements, not through "seizure of land" or threats of "demographic explosion."
Abiy Ahmed, in his attempt to portray the Turkish position as support for his ambitions, either forgot or ignored that Erdoğan signed a maritime defense agreement with Somalia.
This means Turkey now holds significant interests along the Somali coastline. How then can Turkey grant Ethiopia what it does not own?
In reality, what Erdoğan proposed is mediation to ensure strictly commercial usage through agreements with the concerned states, in exchange for Ethiopia abandoning its recognition of the separatist region of "Somaliland."
I reiterate: Abiy Ahmed’s repeated use of the "130 million Ethiopians" figure is a blatant attempt at demographic intimidation of his neighbors and an effort to export internal crises,specifically the civil wars in Amhara and Tigray,toward a foreign enemy or a delusional "national dream."
Ultimately, access to the sea is readily available through Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somali ports via legal channels.
However, Abiy Ahmed is seeking "sovereignty," not "trade," and therein lies the true danger.
https://x.com/khaledmahmoued1/status/20 ... 3837434365