The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) announced in a statement issued on February 5, 2025, that the primary choice of the people and elites of Tigray is peace. This statement followed Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s call to the people and elites of Tigray.

On February 3, 2025, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed addressed the people of Tigray, especially the elites, emphasizing that the region’s people have been victims of repeated wars. He urged everyone to work together to enable the people to return to development and recovery.

Following the Prime Minister’s call, the TPLF issued a statement, reiterating that peace is the foremost choice of the people of Tigray and urging all parties to play a constructive role in making this desire for peace a reality. The TPLF expressed its willingness to collaborate with any party committed to peace. “We want to make sure we are ready yesterday, today, and tomorrow to work with all peace-seeking forces,” the TPLF stated.

In his message, Prime Minister Abiy recalled that the people of Tigray have endured wars for centuries. He noted that, especially in the past hundred years, they have been involved in conflicts with the central government for various reasons and have suffered significant losses. “The land of Tigray has become a battlefield; the people of Tigray have become a tool of war,” he said.

The Prime Minister urged the elites of the region to question whether Tigray and its people have gained or lost from the wars.

In its response, the TPLF stated that the wars fought by the people of Tigray over the last hundred years were to ensure their existence and resist oppression. “The struggles of the people of Tigray make them proud, not regretful,” the TPLF added.

The TPLF described the struggles of the people and elites of Tigray as battles for sovereignty, independence, and glory, adding that these struggles were crucial chapters that determined their existence as a nation and a people. “The people of Tigray do not have a culture of war,” the TPLF explained.

The TPLF further stated, ”What should be regretted are the regimes that invited foreigners to destroy the people of Tigray, who sacrificed to establish a country and system.”

“Even though the people of Tigray and the elites have been the main actors in the history of Ethiopia, efforts have been made to exclude them from the Ethiopian system and treat them as second-class citizens,” the TPLF explained, detailing events from the regime of Emperor Haile Selassie to the present day.

The TPLF’s statement affirmed that the people of Tigray continue to demonstrate their commitment to peace in various ways. “The people of Tigray accepted the Pretoria agreement, which ended the war that led to genocide, only because of their strong desire for peace, and they call on all concerned parties for its full implementation,” the TPLF stated.

“The Pretoria peace agreement has not been fully implemented,” the TPLF declared, emphasizing that the people of Tigray want and support the peace process’s realization.

“We want to make sure that we will do everything in our power to establish and sustain our peace; we will ensure that every call for peace does not fail,” the TPLF stated.

“Freeing our people who have not been liberated from invading forces, ensuring that our displaced people can return home, protecting the territorial integrity of the region, and holding those responsible for the genocide accountable are essential for the future peace of the people of Tigray,” the TPLF asserted.

“Returning Tigray to a normal constitutional system is the desire of the people of Tigray and the principle of the TPLF,” the statement concluded.