Eritrea (province)

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Flag of the Eritrea Province

The province of Eritrea (ኤርትራ) was after the Italian colonial rule (as a colony of Eritrea ) an autonomous state in the Empire of Abyssinia and in the later People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia . However, the autonomy was lifted between 1962 and during the rule of the Derg until 1987.

As a semi-independent province within Ethiopia, Eritrea had its own democratically elected regional parliament , its own constitution , had its own regional government and had Tigrinya as the official language - in contrast to Amharic in the rest of Ethiopia . The capital of the province was Asmara .

The most influential political parties in the regional Eritrean National Assembly in terms of foreign policy were the pro-Italian New Eritrea Party , the nationalist Independent Muslim League and the Muslim League of the Western Province .

history

Map of the provinces of Ethiopia: In the north was the province of Eritrea

Italy recognized in 1947 that Eritrea was no longer under its colonial rule. After the Second World War , the United Nations decided on a federation of Eritrea with the Empire of Ethiopia. Eritrea was handed over to the United Nations on September 15, 1952, and in the same year it was federated with Ethiopia as the autonomous province of Eritrea.

federation

However, the imperial central government of Ethiopia tied Eritrea more and more to itself by further centralizing the entire country: The Amharic language was made the official language, the regional government was downgraded to an administrative authority in 1960 and the parliament was forced to dissolve in 1961.

Before the annexation of Eritrea, the chief judge of Eritrea was removed. The official status of the Eritrean languages ​​was eliminated in favor of the national official language of Ethiopia - Amharic. In federal times, the rights of the Ethiopian crown to intervene were not transferred to the chief judge of Eritrea. This was in direct contradiction to UN Resolution 390 A (V), which the federation mandated.

The federal structure, or at least a semblance of it, existed between September 15, 1952 and November 14, 1962. On November 14, 1962, the federation was officially dissolved and Eritrea was annexed by Ethiopia. This was achieved through Haile Selassie's pressure on the Eritrean National Assembly to abolish the Federation.

centralization

Resistance groups and liberation movements against the Ethiopian government were formed. First the Eritrean Liberation Front emerged as an actor, from which the Eritrean People's Liberation Front split off in 1970 . After several civil wars, the latter was able to prevail as the only political force in the province and drove the Eritrean Liberation Front from the province of Eritrea to Sudan . The Eritrean irregulars allied themselves with the Ethiopian resistance movements, which wanted to overthrow the Ethiopian government and waged a national civil war.

When the Derg rule was officially abolished in 1987 and the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia was established, the administrative system was also reformed. Eritrea was regained its autonomy to defuse the political conflict with the irregulars. However, the autonomous region of Assab was also established in the region around the previously Eritrean city of Assab as an autonomous region for the Afar people . The autonomous region of Assab also included the other Ethiopian areas where Afar lived.

But the Eritrean People's Liberation Front continued the struggle in the autonomous region of Assab and conquered the city of Assab in 1991. On May 24, 1991, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front finally took the provincial capital Asmara and thus ended the war of independence. After the war ended and the interim government of Ethiopia with the People's Liberation Front of Tigray was formed, Eritrea remained a province of Ethiopia for two years until it finally left peacefully in 1993, formed its own interim government and thus achieved state independence.

swell

  1. Brockhaus Encyclopedia 2003, EIT-ISK, page 1210
  2. Tom Killion: Historical Dictionary of Eritrea . The Scarecrow Press, 1998, ISBN 0810834375 .
  3. Semere Haile: The Origins and Demise of the Ethiopia-Eritrea Federation . In: Issue: A Journal of Opinion, Vol. 15 (Ed.): Issue . 15, 1987, p. 9. doi : 10.2307 / 1166919 . Retrieved March 6, 2007.
  4. Bereket Habteselassie: Eritrea and the United Nations and Other Essays . Red Sea Press, 1989, ISBN 0932415121 .
  5. ^ Gebru Tareke: Ethiopia: Power and Protest. Peasant Revolts in the Twentieth Century ( English ). Red Sea Press, 1996, ISBN 9781569020197 .
  6. ^ Meyers Großes Landeslexikon 2004, L, page 159