*The Great Betrayal: How Getachew Reda is Scavenging Abiy’s Leftover Power and Sacrificing Tigray’s Martyrs*

In the cynical theater of Ethiopian politics, a new master manipulator has taken the stage. Getachew Reda, once the fiery voice of Tigrayan resistance, has perfected the art of the deal—trading the blood of his people and the legacy of his fallen comrades for a seat at the table of their tormentor.

The recent Head-to-Head interview on Al Jazeera was not a political discussion; it was a masterclass in Machiavellian realpolitik. It revealed the final, chilling transformation of Getachew Reda from a wartime spokesman into a courtier in the very regime he accused of perfecting genocide "into an art form." This is not mere political pragmatism; it is a profound betrayal, a scavenging of power from the ruins of Abiy Ahmed's legitimacy, paid for with the currency of forgotten martyrs and unacknowledged atrocities.

*From Battlefield to Throne Room: The Ultimate Machiavellian Pivot*

Niccolò Machiavelli wrote that a prince must learn to act as both the lion and the fox. Getachew Reda has taken this to heart. The lion who once roared about genocidal campaigns has shed his skin, revealing the fox who now navigates the corridors of power in Addis Ababa.

His performance for Mehdi Hassan was a textbook display of what Machiavelli called "duplicity." He acknowledges that genocide occurred, yet meticulously deflects the spear of responsibility from the man who led the war. "We don't have to be that specific," he demurred, when asked if Abiy Ahmed led the genocide. This is not legal caution; it is political calculation. To be "specific" would burn the bridge to his new patron. To name Abiy as the architect of genocide would shatter the fragile fiction of a "reconciliation" built on the graves of hundreds of thousands.

He is not a partner in peace; he is a pawn in a larger game. Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party, weakened by internal strife and a devastating war, needs a Tigrayan face to legitimize its forced "unity." Getachew, in turn, scavenges this leftover power, becoming the gatekeeper of a hollow regional autonomy, all while the structures of federal control tighten their grip.

*The Betrayal of the Brave: Erasing the Sacrifice of Tigray's Generals*

This political maneuvering is an insult to the bravery of the Tigrayan generals and fighters who sacrificed everything. While Getachew speaks of "friendship" that existed "outside the war," Tigrayan sons and daughters were dying on the front lines, not just fighting an army, but battling a manufactured famine and a systematic campaign of sexual violence.

These were the men and women who, with legendary courage, *saved Getachew Reda's own life and the people of Tigray* from total annihilation during the brutal genocidal warfare. They fought with AK-47s against drones, they broke a siege with sheer will, and they believed they were fighting for a cause that was just and a leadership that was principled. Now, their supreme commander trades their sacrifice for a title, sanitizing the name of the man who orchestrated their suffering.

Their blood, it seems, was the price of admission for Getachew’s new role.

*The Master Manipulator's Playbook: Deflection, Denial, and Power*

Getachew’s interview was a symphony of manipulation:

1. *Strategic Deflection*: By acknowledging the "crime of genocide" in the abstract while refusing to pin it on Abiy, he creates a moral fog. This serves Abiy’s need for plausible deniability and his own need for political viability. It is a deliberate, calculated obfuscation of truth.

2. *The "Friendship" Gambit*: His revelation of a past friendship with Abiy is a cynical tool. It serves to normalize the relationship, suggesting that the war was merely a bitter disagreement between old pals, not a systematic campaign of destruction against a people. It diminishes the gravity of his own past accusations, framing them as the hyperbolic rhetoric of a temporary spat, not the documented evidence of atrocity.

3. *The Scavenger’s Bargain*: Getachew is not wielding real power; he is managing its aftermath. He is being given administrative leftovers from Abiy’s table, tasked with pacifying a traumatized population while the central government consolidates its control. He has become the face of Tigrayan compliance, a tool for demobilizing both armed and political resistance.

*A Legacy Forged in Betrayal*

For the victims—the survivors of sexual violence who say "it would have been better if they had killed me," the families of the starved, the displaced, and the executed—Getachew’s words are not just empty. They are a second violation. He is building his political future on their unmarked graves.

The man who was once the voice of Tigray’s defiance has become the architect of its silenced justice. He has chosen the path of the Machiavellian courtier, believing that a share of scavenged power is worth more than the truth, worth more than the legacy of the fallen, and worth more than the cries of the victims he once swore to represent.

The people of Tigray have survived genocide. The question now is whether they will survive the peace brokered by a master manipulator who has forgotten who he was, and in doing so, has betrayed all who trusted him.