Nation Marks 83rd Martyrs’ Day

Addis Ababa,February 20/2020 (ENA)The 83rd Ethiopian Martyrs’ day has marked today by laying wreath at the Yekatit 12 monument to honor the 30, 000 Martyrs massacred by fascist Italy in 1937. 

Representatives of Addis Ababa City Administration and the Ethiopian Patriots’ Association including residents of Addis Ababa city were presided over the commemorative.

At the memorial, Ethiopian Patriots Association President, Lij Daniel Jote Mesfin said the present generation especially the youth has to take a lesson from forefathers’ history in the move to sustain peaceful and prosperous Ethiopia.  

Daniel urged the youth to contribute their share in sustaining peace and stability across the country in a bid to build a strong nation.   

The Martyrs’ Day is marked every year, February 20, to remember the 30,000 Ethiopians who were massacred by Fascist Italian troops within three-days.

The massacre was by the Italian forces embarked on following an attempted assassination by Ethiopian patriots Abraha Deboch and Moges Asgedom, against Marshall Rodolfo Graziani, who was the Viceroy of Italian in East Africa, Rodolfo Graziani during their brief occupation.

“The place you stood up right now was ‘a bloodbath’, as the Fascist Italians ruthlessly massacred innocent Ethiopians. So we are celebrating not to repeat such massacres again,” the president told ENA.

“History must be told and transferred for the new generation. That was happened because of absence of peace 83 years ago,” he stated.

Serbian Ambassador to Ethiopia, Aleksandar Ristic said that Ethiopia and Serbia have faced similar mass execution and shared common history during WWII.

“Serbian people just like our Ethiopian brothers paid high price in the Second World War fighting for freedom,” the ambassador said.

The ambassador added that “We faced the same enemy and we won and we have to be proud of our ancestors. They fought against the biggest threat in human history against fascism.”

The Martyrs’ monument at sidist kilo square in Addis Ababa was inaugurated by former Yugoslavian President Marshal Tito in 1955.