The cradle of mankind and ancient civilization, Ethiopia is home to many ethnic groups with diverse culture and tradition. The Amhara people are one of the largest ethnic groups and have a long history of living in peace, harmony and mutual respect with other people. Like all other Ethiopians, the people of Amhara have played a significant role in protecting and preserving Ethiopia's interests including its sovereignty and territorial integrity. They have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the fight for freedom, democracy and rule of law. The Amhara people had never benefited in a special way under the past Ethiopian regimes. Rather, like all other people in the country, they shared both the good and bad moments throughout the nation’s history. They suffered equally by any injustice and repression under successive regimes.
Contrary to this historical reality, the Tigrian People Liberation Front (TPLF) deliberately smeared the Amharas as if they were beneficiaries under the past regimes as a strategy to fulfill its ethnocentric autocratic monopoly. TPLF has committed a systematic defamation, massacre, marginalization and depopulation of the Amhara people for the past two and half decades. The late professor Asrat Woldeyes, who was the pioneer and inspiration of the Amhara movement, realized this targeted mistreatment of the Amhara people at early stages and started unifying all Amhara people to lead the struggle for survival and equitable participation in all sectors. Since then, there have been few organizations and individuals that have made significant efforts to organize Amharas. However, due to the unpopularity of ethnic based organization among the Amhara people, the establishment of a strong civic or political Amahara organization has been a challenge. Today, the country is facing a crisis of unprecedented magnitude and its social and structural fabric is at a crossroad. The Amhara people’s survival is at a great risk due to the barbaric targeting by the divisive, myopic and anti-Ethiopian policies of TPLF.
It is, therefore, high time and of utmost importance to come together in solidarity with all stakeholders to rescue our people at this troubling time in our history. Hence, we the daughters and sons of the Amhara, have founded Amhara Professionals Union (APU), hereafter called Amba for brevity, on this 15th day of November 2016. Amba is a nonprofit civic organization established to mobilize the educated and skilled Amhara personnel and unify all Amhara voices for the noble cause of defending and protecting the values and interests of the Amhara people in all sectors. Amba is established at this critical time to serve as a research and advocacy platform on social, economic, political and cultural matters to end the systematic marginalization of Amhara people. Amba also promotes a culture of respect, cooperation and understanding where all existing civic and political organizations put aside their ideological differences and work together to realize a prosperous, united and democratic Ethiopia.
The establishment of Amba is not in anyway the acknowledgment of the divisive ethnocentric agenda of the ruling political coalition in Ethiopia. Instead, we understand the fierce urgency to come together for sake of our people and work with everyone who share the cause of helping our country at large. We realized that the need for unity and action for the common good is more crucial now than ever before and urge all citizens to contribute in every way they can towards building a free, prosperous and united Ethiopia that is just to all of its citizens.