Ethiopia: Shock, Grief and Rage in Addis Abeba

The news of the brutal murder of 30 Ethiopians (possibly including Eritreans) by militants of Islamic State (IS) on the shores of Libya has sent an utter shockwave in Addis Abeba as elsewhere in the country, beginning with the release of a footage of the horrific scene on Sunday.

Two of the victims, Iyasu Yekunuamlak, 35, and Balcha Belete, 35, were identified as residents of the Cherkos neighbourhood, Kirkos District, Wereda 10, off Sierra Leone Street (DebreZeit Road). Family members of the two young men who had left home two months ago on a journey to Europe, trekking the rather dangerous route of Sudan-Chad-Libya, were grieving on Monday and today, while their friends and thousands of others in the District demonstrated their rage against the perpetrators as well as a government whose response to the national tragedy they see as passive.

While trying to show their rage before officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Menelik II Avenue, members of city police cordoned their way near the headquarters of the UNECA, creating a human chain. Demonstrators have returned to the homes of the victims.

Ethiopia's Parliament has denounced the atrocious act during its session on Tuesday, April 21, 2015, and declared a three-day period of national mourning, beginning on Wednesday.

Paying tribute; the residents of Addis Abeba have gathered at the house of Iyasu and Balcha to express their condolences.

Aheza Kassaye, mother of Iyasu, heartbroken by the death of her son who was the source of income for the family, is seen being comforted by her neighbours.

Angry youth carrying a slogan that says sovereignty is a principle that goes beyond once boundary and protecting citizens aboard.

Shown in the middle, Meaza Belete, the sister of one of the deceased Balcha Belete, weeping in the middle of her neighbors who try to comfort her.

Meaza Belete, Balcha's sister, caressing the photo of her brother who left two months ago and remained in the shores of Libya.

The weeping people of the city marching down from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) crying and showing the photos of the deceased. Police are seen at the back following the marchers.

Appeal to whom? Here one of the mourners seems calling for the supernatural to hear their shouts and cries.

ORTODOX MAZIMUR

Practices and beliefs:

The faith and practice of most Orthodox Ethiopian Christians includes elements Miaphysite Christianity as it has developed in Ethiopia over the centuries. 

According to researchers Thomas P. Ofcansky and LaVerle Berry, as with many Christian traditions, Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity includes elements from the local non-Christian heritage that are rejected by more educated church members, but usually shared by the ordinary priest.[5] Christian elements include God (in Ge'ez / Amharic, ′Egziabeher, lit. "Lord of the Universe"), the angels, and the saints, besides others.[5] According to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church itself, there are no non-Christian elements in the religion other than those from the Old Testament, or Higge 'Orit (ሕገ ኦሪት), to which are added those from the New Testament, or Higge Wongiel (ሕገ ወንጌል).[6] A hierarchy of "Kidusan" (angelic messengers and saints) conveys the prayers of the faithful to God and carries out the divine will, so when an Ethiopian Christian is in difficulty, he or she appeals to these as well as to God. In more formal and regular rituals, priests communicate on behalf of the community, and only priests may enter the inner sanctum of the usually circular or octagonal church where the tabot ("ark") dedicated to the church's patron saint is housed. On important religious holidays, the tabot is carried on the head of a priest and escorted in procession outside the church. It is the tabot, not the church, which is consecrated. Only those who feel pure, have fasted regularly, and have generally conducted themselves properly may enter the middle ring to take communion. At many services, most parish members remain in the outer ring, where debteras sing hymns and dance.[5]

Ethiopian Orthodox believers are strict Trinitarians,[7] maintaining the Orthodox teaching that God is united in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This concept is known as səllasé, Ge'ez for "Trinity".

Weekly services constitute only a small part of an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian's religious observance. Several holy days require prolonged services, singing and dancing, and feasting. An important religious requirement, however, is the keeping of fast days. All devout believers are to maintain the full schedule of fasts, comprising 250 days. 1. Fast for Hudadi or Abiye Tsome (Lent), 56 days. 2. Fast of the Apostles, 10–40 days, which the Apostles kept after they had received the Holy Spirit. It begins after Pentecost. 3. The fast of Assumption, 16 days. 4. The gahad of Christmas (on the eve of Christmas). 5. The fast preceding Christmas, 40 days (Advent). It begins with Sibket on 15th Hedar and ends on Christmas eve with the feast of Gena and the 28th of Tahsas. 6. The fast of Nineveh, commemorating the preaching of Jonah. It comes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of the third week before Lent. 7. The gahad of Epiphany, fast on the eve of Epiphany.

In addition to standard holy days, most Christians observe many saint's days. A man might give a small feast on his personal saint's day. The local voluntary association (called the maheber) connected with each church honors its patron saint with a special service and a feast two or three times a year.

Military

Su-27

The Soviet Air Force began receiving Su-27s in June 1985. It officially entered service in August 1990. 

On 13 September 1987, a fully armed Soviet Su-27, Red 36, intercepted a Norwegian Lockheed P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft flying over the Barents Sea. The Soviet fighter jet performed different close passes, colliding with the reconnaissance aircraft on the third pass. The Su-27 disengaged and both aircraft landed safely at their bases.

These aircraft were used by the Russian Air Force during the 1992–1993 war in Abkhazia against Georgian forces. One fighter, piloted by Major Vaclav Alexandrowich Shipko (Вацлав Александрович Шипко) was reported shot down by an S-75M Dvina on 19 March 1993 while intercepting Georgian Su-25's performing close air support. The pilot was killed.

In the 2008 South Ossetia War, Russia used Su-27s to gain airspace control over Tskhinvali, the capital city of South Ossetia.

On 7 February 2013, two Su-27s briefly entered Japanese airspace off Rishiri Island near Hokkaido, flying south over the Sea of Japan before turning back to the north.^[30] FourMitsubishi F-2 fighters were scrambled to visually confirm the Russian planes,^[31] warning them by radio to leave their airspace.^[32] A photo taken by a JASDF pilot of one of the two Su-27s was released by the Japan Ministry of Defense.^[33] Russia denied the incursion, saying the jets were making routine flights near the disputed Kuril Islands.^[30] In another encounter near Japan, in 2014 a Su-27 nearly collided with an American RC-135.

Ethiopia

Ethiopian Su-27s reportedly shot down two Eritrean MiG-29s and damaged another one  in February 1999 and destroyed another two in May 2000.^[37][38] The Su-27s were also used in CAP (Combat Air Patrol) missions, suppression of air defense, and providing escort for fighters on bombing and reconnaissance missions.^[39] The EtAF used their Su-27s to deadly effect, bombing Islamist garrisons and patrolling the airspace. The Su-27 has replaced the aging Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, which was the main fighter of the EtAF between 1977 and 1999, as Ethiopia's main air superiority fighter.

TIENS

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የኢትዮዽያ ኦርቶዶክ ተዋህዶ

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church
 

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (Amharic:

የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን?; Transliterated Amharic: Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan) is an Oriental Orthodox Christian church in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Church was part of the Coptic Orthodox Church until 1959, when it was granted its own Patriarch by Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa, Cyril VI. It should not be confused with the Ethiopian Catholic Church.

One of the few pre-colonial Christian churches of Sub-Saharan Africa, it has a membership of about 40 million people (45 million claimed by the Patriarch),[1] mainly in Ethiopia,[2] and is thus the largest of all Oriental Orthodox churches. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is a founding member of the World Council of Churches.[3]

Origins:

Tewahedo (Te-wa-hido) (Ge'ez ተዋሕዶ tawāhidō, modern pronunciation tewāhidō) is a Ge'ez word meaning "being made one" or "unified".

Tewahedo refers to the Oriental Orthodox belief in the one single unified Nature of Christ; i.e., a belief that a complete, natural union of the Divine and Human Natures into One is self-evident in order to accomplish the divine salvation of humankind, as opposed to the "two Natures of Christ" belief (unmixed, but unseparated Divine and Human Natures, called the Hypostatic Union) promoted by today's Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia article on the Henotikon [2]: the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, and many others, all refused to accept the "two natures" doctrine decreed by the Byzantine Emperor Marcian's Council of Chalcedon in 451, thus separating them from the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox — who themselves separated from one another later on in the East-West Schism (1054).

The Oriental Orthodox Churches, which today include the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Malankara Orthodox Church of India, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church, are referred to as "Non-Chalcedonian", and, sometimes by outsiders as "monophysite" (meaning "One Single Nature", in reference to Christ). However, these Churches themselves describe their Christology as miaphysite (meaning "One United Nature", in reference to Christ; the translation of the word "Tewahedo").

(Architecture ) የኢትዮዽያ ኦርቶዶክ ተዋህዶ

Architecture

Architecture Below: The Church of Saint George is a monolithic church in Lalibela.

 There are many monolithic churches in Ethiopia, most famously the above-mentioned twelve churches at Lalibela. After these, two main types of architecture are found—one basilican, the other native. The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion at Axum is an example of the basilican design, though the early basilicas are nearly all in ruin. These examples show the influence of those architects who, in the 6th century, built the basilicas at Sanˤā' and elsewhere in the Arabian Peninsula. There are two forms of native churches: one oblong, traditionally found in Tigray; the other circular, traditionally found in Amhara and Shewa (though either style may be found elsewhere). In both forms, the sanctuary is square and stands clear in the center, and the arrangements are based on Jewish tradition. Walls and ceilings are adorned with frescoes.

 A courtyard, circular or rectangular, surrounds the body of the church. Modern Ethiopian churches may incorporate the basilican or native styles, and utilize contemporary construction techniques and materials. In rural areas, the church and outer court are often thatched, with mud-built walls.

 Below: The Chapel of the Tablet at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion allegedly houses the original Ark of the Covenant.

Ark of the Covenant:

The Ethiopian church claims that one of its churches, Our Lady Mary of Zion, is host to the 

original Ark of the Covenant that Moses carried with the Israelites during the Exodus. However, only one priest is allowed into the building where the Ark is located, ostensibly due to dangerous biblical warnings. As a result, international scholars doubt that the original Ark is truly there, although a case has been put forward by controversial popular writer Graham Hancock in his book The Sign and the Seal. Throughout Ethiopia, Orthodox churches are not considered churches until the local bishop gives them a tabot, a replica of the tablets in the original Ark of the Covenant. 

The tabot is at least six inches (15 cm) square and made from alabaster, marble, or wood (see acacia). It is always kept in ornate coverings on the Altar. Only priests are allowed to touch the tabot. In an elaborate procession, the tabot is carried around the outside of the church amid joyful song and on the feast day of that particular church's namesake. On the great Feast of T'imk'et, known as Epiphany or Theophany in Europe; group of churches send their tabots to celebrate the occasion on a common location where a pool of water or a river is.