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Founding of the TPLF, 1975
The TPLF formed seeking to overthrow Ethiopia's central government, not Tigrayan independence.
What happened
The TPLF was founded on 18 February 1975, originally seeking to overthrow Ethiopia's central government rather than Tigrayan independence; it overthrew the Derg in 1991 and dominated Ethiopian federal politics for nearly three decades.[1]
Sources for this page
Each number marks a specific claim. Notes give the source, its locator and how it relates to the claim.
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1.
Claim: The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) was founded on 18 February 1975 as an ethno-nationalist armed movement based in Dedebit, north-western Tigray; unlike contemporaneous Eritrean or Somali liberation fronts, the TPLF's original political programme did not seek Tigrayan independence from the Ethiopian state, instead aiming to overthrow Ethiopia's central government and implement its own vision of the Ethiopian revolution. Following a seventeen-year insurgency, the TPLF-led coalition overthrew the Derg military government in 1991, after which the TPLF became the dominant force in Ethiopian federal politics for nearly three decades, notably through TPLF chairman and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi until his 2012 death.
- Tigray People's Liberation Front (Wikipedia) link, Origins, Original Objectives and Post-1991 Rule sections. Source record