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A book and a yellow flower to my friend Ararat Eyob

When we were young and I called you “best friend” you were also (to me) my dream future-sister-in-law. And when we were teen age girls in Asmara, we laughed, exchanged fashion ideas and damaged my

When we were young and I called you “best friend” you were also (to me) my dream future-sister-in-law. And when we were teen age girls in Asmara, we laughed, exchanged fashion ideas and damaged my brother’s bike trying to learn how to ride it.

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Review overview
17 COMMENTS
  • Thomas T January 27, 2018

    Ararat was dedicated since her youth to the Eritrean cause of freedom and wellbeing. She was brilliant, active and fluent speaker of her vibrant ideas. She was imprisoned and tortured in Mariam Ghimbi prison for months before she was released and she managed to escape to Mirara in Semenawi Bahri with her wounds all over her body and sentimental shock and trauma from Derge’s torture chambers of Mariam Ghmbi. It was in 1982 and I remember escorting her with my Ganta 3 Haili 3 Botoloni 2 Brigade 77 sitting on the back of the camel all the way to Nakfa breaking enemy lines from Semenawi Bahri with other women and elders who were gathered there to go to Sahel and join the front to fight and work in different capacities. Her intelligence was admired by many and what has happened to her due to that torture was so bad and she has carried it for the rest of her life like many dear Eritrean sisters. There are three faces of many Eritrean Patriots: …..the earlier years before the harsh wounds and sacrifices of Sewra and the latter days in the struggle and the third face after independence if not being buried as a martyr.
    May her soul Rest in Peace, God bless you my friend. My condolences to her dear family and friends.

    • Kiki Tzeggai January 29, 2018

      Thank you Thomas T.
      Indeed, she deserves to be buried at the Martyrs’ cemetery. But above all she deserves that her name be recorded in the Martyrs/Veterans’ registry created after independence. And to receive an ID card as a freedom fighter (ID card of Harbegnatat). This is a right denied to many, including Ararat and my late husband.
      An only certificate of “wufuuy” does not convey their history and their courage. They deserve full honors, such an ID card as Veterans/Freedom Fighters, flags at half mast, gunfire, and soldiers holding their Kalashnikov up-side-down and bowing their heads while their names are engraved in the Soldier’s Monument in Asmara/Eritrea. Because soldiers of Eritrea they are!! It is irrelevant of their geographical place during our war of liberation; if they fought holding a Kalashnikov in the field or took residency between the enemy’s kidneys and fought from inside the belly of the beast while providing life-saving information and directing our freedom fighters in the mountains or in the trenches (defaa)…Eritrean soldiers they are indeed!! In fact much more than others that had a refuge in the field and a weapon to defend themselves. People like Ararat put their life and all they had on the line for a free Eritrea!
      Ararat never spelled a word of any activity she knew/was part of during the torture séances she went through…Berhane too. But Berhane did not make it out alive. How many like them? How much our conscience asks us to hold and not let it fade and in fact testify about them? I am deeply grateful for your testimony about Ararat.
      Ararat was my childhood friend and to the day she left us a true friend of mine. Ararat was imprisoned – like my husband- by the Ethiopian occupier. Herself and an Ethiopian colonel arrested by his own government, were the only 2 people that told clearly about my husband’s daily tortures as soon as they could. Years later, few former prisoners came forward as well and gave more details.
      This Ethiopian colonel met with Ararat once out of jail and personally told her about my husband. He lives now in BaharDar/Ethiopia. One of Ararat’s last writing to me details that conversation between them.
      Let us hold hands and create an Eritrean Veterans’ Day so that ALL our Veterans and ALL our Martyrs will be honored. Among them many Berhane, many Ararat and thousands of Eritreans. If we do not fight for them, their names and their history will be simply pilfered under the rug of time.
      Honor to ALL our Martyrs and to ALL our Veterans.
      Thank you much.

      • Thomas T January 31, 2018

        What I said about Ararat is just a spoon from the ocean. What I know is limited but she was a beacon in the darkness, she was brave a lady with integrity and to never change her beliefs and principles regardless when or where she was. Dear Kikiy your pain and sorrow is not felt by me alone but rather by many fellow Eritreans who are kept silent either of fear or not having the platform to express their internally bleeding wounds. Our Martyrs and Veterans they definetly deserve more than what ……. and no excuse or pending is accepted but upfront erect A National Monument and declare Memorial Day where our children and grand children could always visit and carry their history from one generation to the other generation as a strong chain follows stronger chain so as become safe guardians of Eritrea……..as it was and as it is our Martyrs and Veterans greatest dream of all times! Thank you Kiki for sharing your golden story, and bear in mind that your late husband will remain a martyr no matter what, and he will always be remembered in the hearts and thoughts of all Eritreans. May God bless Eritrea!

        • Kiki Tzeggai January 31, 2018

          Hi Thomas,
          I sent you a private email. I hope you have received it. If not, please, take my email from Amanuel (Asenna) and I ask you to kindly contact me.
          Not only our Martyrs, but Eritrean women like myself and kids like mine need Eritrean Veterans like you to rescue us from our pain; because for so many years we have been victims of our expectations. You know, often the worst place we can be is our minds! When your people are between giving up and seeing how much more we can take, it is the duty of Veterans to lift us up by uniting. Enough of blaming a regime and the enemy. It is time you unite and lead us. Our Veterans did it in the past by defying a more powerful enemy. Many Eritreans like Ararat and Berhane had broken bones but never a broken trust in their people. They did not talk, but their screams to keep a united Eritrea alive is loud to present.
          Ararat left us her readings, her poems, her writings. How many times she faked a smile and said she was OK, when in reality she was not. She tried the hardest not to act the way she felt. The enemy could not brake her. Even in her death the enemy could not claim victory, because she was the warrior that defeat them all.
          Berhane left his ideas and paid with his life for a united Eritrea. I am turning over his story and his beliefs to the world, first and foremost because he is a Tegadalay/Veteran; he was someone who had it all to live a comfortable life, but preferred to give his all to Eritreans like his own kids and your kids and leave them with a comfortable freedom. Besides that, he is the husband I would like to have back, but cannot claim him from the Heaven of our Martyrs. So many Berhane and Ararat belong now to our history and to a future Eritrean Constitution. God will Bless us only if Veterans will rescue us by uniting. Our platform is the unity of our Veterans and you can erase our fears. Believe in unity and it will all be simple. United we were and we defeated superpowers.
          I close with a favorite quote by Berhane: “AN ERITREAN IS NEVER ALONE”. I hope you will answer my request and reach out. I thank you in advance.

  • Thomas T February 1, 2018

    I ve received and have responded to your email, as Eritreans and as the best value seekers possible we are in the same boat going forward with high waves and storms on our way to alfa omega of our life time. I hope and I wish I am one of those whom you mentioned and would turn the tide straight as needed, in fact there are and were many master teachers exemplary fighters who passed away and some still breathing and maybe hibernating/meditating for the unpredicted good times to come. One of those I dearly remember a friend, leader and my teacher in Sewra used to tell me “” Thomas our only freedom time is the time or the gap between two wars and offensives from our enemies”” it may pause for long or short period but Ethiopians are not going to stop attacking us and we will never give up but fight back as long as it might take. He told me this in 1979 after the long retreat from the highlands and towns of Eritrea, and I think it makes a lot of sense to this contemporary days and years. United we stand……

    • Kiki Tzeggai February 1, 2018

      Indeed, united we stand and united we are as Eritreans despite the bewilderment of present times. The Veterans you all are, can deliver a combination of commitment and democracy to Eritrea if you unite. The enemy’s greed has always been the beginning of our wisdom. Your own people might hold on to skepticism, but we will see our Veterans validate freedom to its’ intense meaning.
      Thank you much Thomas. I received your message. Thank you Assenna for being a bridge to connect Eritreans and make our Martyrs smile from above.

  • sami September 7, 2018

    justice delayed justice denied. this is reality to many brothers ans sisters who sacrifice their youth and their life. always ask my self why why why this long from the day the ottoman empire land his feet 1557 to today my people are victim of ungodly evil regime. .

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