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From the narratives by Vartex Nabandiyan, an Ethiopian man of Armen origin, we learn the painful experiences that the Armenians went through to get Ethiopian Citizenship and Passport.
In this speech, he shared discriminatory experiences as a holder of an Ethiopian passport. In the airport in London, an Indian-looking turban man who apparently happened to be an immigration worker, asked him, angrily, “how come you are Ethiopian?” His answer was, as he narrated it, “The same way that you are a British.”
He also shared experiences locally with regard to obtaining identification cards and the mandatory ethnic identity that TPLF introduced.
When the officer asked him what his ethnic identity is, he first answered Ethiopian. When the ‘Kebele’ worker told him that he has to choose an ethnicity and that Ethiopian is not on the list of ethnicities, he said, “Armen.” He got the same response “That is not in the list of Ethnicity and you have to choose one.” Finally, it came down to a question of which other language he used as a child other than Armen. His response was “Amharic” and the Kebele worker determined that he is “Amhara.”
He introduced his book “ባንዲራ ሳይኖረኝ እንዳልሞት”
Watch his moving speech below
Video : embedded from Arts TV Youtube channel
Cover photo : screenshot from the video
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