July 01, 2022 )ENA) Egypt should correct its slanted rhetoric about Ethiopia and cooperate for mutual benefits, the Ethiopian historian and researcher Adem Kamil said.
The
scholar told ENA that successive Egyptian regimes have been
politicizing the water issue and Egyptian institutions negatively
portray Ethiopia in various events.
According
to the scholar, Egyptians have conducted 560 conferences and seminars
about Abay River and conducted 1,500 researches, wrote 225 about
Ethiopia out of the 2,222 books about Africa.
“All these are done in Arabic and this shows how much focus they give to Ethiopia,” he added.
Adem
further noted that the Egyptians diligently worked for many years to
depict Ethiopia in a negative way and misled many people about
Ethiopia’s ownership of the Abay River.
At
least 4,000 media outlets are solely working for Egyptian interests and
against Ethiopian affairs, especially when it comes to the Abay River,
the scholar stated, adding that successive regimes in the country have
been doing the same thing.
Ethiopians started focusing on the issue of Abay River since 2011, the inception of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Adem stressed the need to do more from the Ethiopian side to show the true image of Ethiopia.
About
80,000 Egyptians were deployed in key international institutions to
prevent Ethiopia from getting support as there was a belief that
Ethiopians cannot complete the construction of GERD without external
financial support.
The
scholar underscored that strategies to weaken and destabilize Ethiopia
will not work anymore as the completion of GERD is inevitable and
cooperation is the way forward.
Ethiopians
have to be aware of the country’s motives and build strong institutions
to correct wrong doings and encourage progressive cooperation for
mutual benefits from the resource, Adem added.
Kings
of Blue Nile Channel Director, Ustaz Jemal Bashir said Egypt’s concerns
are directly and indirectly related to Abay River and the dam.
Their
direct concern to filling and operationalizing the hydro dam can be
resolved through negotiations, he noted, adding that indirect efforts to
alienate Ethiopia from the Arab world are unacceptable.
He pointed out that they wrongly depict Ethiopia as a Christian country with governments oppressing Muslims.
According
to him, Ethiopia should build Arabic media and research institutions as
well as strengthen Islamic institutions to correct the wrong rhetoric
and improve its connection with the Arab states.
Ustaz
Jemal concluded that the relation between Ethiopia and Egypt and the
Arab world can further be improved through constructive engagement and
building strong institutions that inform to enhance relations.