Category: Statements

TRIBUTE FROM HIS IMPERIAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ERMIAS SAHLE-SELASSIE HAILE-SELASSIE
President, The Crown Council of Ethiopia

ON THE OCCASION OF THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF AVDYNE AEROSERVICES, LLC

26 July 2025 / 19 ሐምሌ 2017 – It gives me great honor to salute AvDyne AeroServices, LLC on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, and to recognize the visionary leadership of Mr. Jerome Hodge, whose commitment to excellence in aviation maintenance science continues the noble tradition of the Tuskegee Airmen. Among those hallowed pioneers was Colonel John C. Robinson, a graduate of the Tuskegee Institute’s mechanical engineering program, founder of the Coffey Aviation School — America’s first aviation academy established by an African American aviator — and a dedicated Pan-Africanist who answered Ethiopia’s call in her hour of need.

At the request of my grandfather, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I, Colonel Robinson organized Ethiopia’s first air force, trained its early aviators, and helped launch Ethiopian Airlines. His ultimate sacrifice in 1954 — giving his life on an aviation mission in service to Ethiopia — remains a beacon for all who believe in the transformative power of courage, knowledge, and unity among peoples of African descent.

In that same spirit, AvDyne stands today as a bridge between the African American experience and the modern renaissance of aviation on the African continent. Founded by CEO Jerome Hodge and his wife Mrs. Denise Hodge, AvDyne has grown from a principled vision into one of the leading aviation maintenance companies in the United States. Mr. Hodge — a 21-year veteran of the United States Air Force, where he served with distinction as a Master Sergeant and Flight Engineer — embodies the precision, leadership, and discipline essential to aerospace success. As a former President of the East Coast Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc., he carries forward the enduring flame of those who proved themselves in war and peace against all odds.

Supporting him are a remarkable team, including Vice President Gregory Hodge and Chief Operating Officer Gabriel J. Christian, Esq., past President of the East Coast Chapter Tuskegee Airmen and trusted legal advisor to the Ethiopian Crown Council — whom I first met in 1993 and who graciously invited me to the Tuskegee Airmen Christmas Dinner in 2012. Mr. Christian has been instrumental in helping to reconnect the African Diaspora with the Ethiopian heritage, and it was he who, in 2023, brought about a deeply personal and emotional reunion between myself and my dear elementary school friend, Captain Abiy Makonnen Behre, after 47 years of separation. That reunion, which took place at the East Coast Chapter Tuskegee Airmen Youth in Aviation Breakfast, was a moment of profound joy and reflection—made all the more powerful by the shared purpose we now hold in the aviation renaissance uniting Africa and its Diaspora.

Today, Captain Abiy Makonnen Behre serves as Chief Commercial Officer of AvDyne and has been a driving force behind its expansion of operations with PSA Airlines, a regional carrier for American Airlines. The son of the legendary Captain Makonnen Behre, one of Ethiopian Airlines’ earliest and most respected pilots, Captain Abiy carries forward his family’s proud aviation legacy with dignity and excellence.

We also recognize Chief Technical Officer Gedeon Kidanu, a graduate of the Ethiopian Airlines Aviation Academy, whose technical leadership helps power AvDyne’s operations at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), where more than 190 Ethiopian aviation engineers serve with skill and professionalism.

This historic collaboration reflects a sacred legacy — one that began with the partnership between Ethiopian Airlines and Trans World Airlines (TWA) nearly 90 years ago, and which has helped Ethiopia develop world-class aviation capabilities. Today, AvDyne AeroServices stands firmly within that continuum of excellence, innovation, and transatlantic partnership.

As Ethiopian Airlines continues to expand its mission of uplifting African aviation, we look forward to even greater collaboration with AvDyne AeroServices, JAG-Elevate, and our international allies. These bonds are forged in shared history and mutual respect, and they offer a vision of unity and progress for the generations to come.

To the AvDyne family, I extend my deepest gratitude and admiration. May your continued success inspire all who labor for unity, scientific advancement, and the uplifting of Africa and its children worldwide.

Happy 25th Anniversary!

May our partnership continue to rise on the wings of excellence, and may future generations look back on this moment as the renewal of a proud and sacred journey.

God bless you.

His Imperial Highness Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie Haile Selassie
President, Ethiopian Crown Council

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23 July 2025 / 16 ሐምሌ 2017 – 133 YEARS AGO TODAY, Ras Makonnen Wolde Mikael of Harrar and Woizero Yeshimebet Ali welcomed the only child born to their marriage that would survive to adulthood. Lij Tafari Makonnen, as he was then known, would grow up to be a transformative leader for his country, continuing the legacy of modernization and development begun by Emperor Menelik II.

When Emperor Haile Selassie was born at Ejersa Goro 133 years ago, Ethiopia was still essentially a medieval state. The monarch presided over provinces ruled by powerful feudal aristocrats who were rulers themselves, appointing and removing local officials as they wished, and leading their own armies. The country was landlocked, surrounded by colonial powers who cast a covetous eye on her territories. You could count the number of paved roads, modern schools, hospitals, banks, telephone and telegraph lines on one hand. The railroad to Djibouti was still under construction and wouldn’t be complete until Lij Tafari was an adult. There were no universities, government ministries were embryonic, and taxation and tariffs were haphazard and at the whim of local officials.

By the time Emperor Haile Selassie died, Ethiopia was a different place. While the nobles retained some power and influence until the end of his reign, young humbly born western educated men had taken the forefront in power, taking the key positions and furthering the Emperor’s desires for a modern state. Both the central government and provincial administrations were filled with professional civil servants. The nobles had been stripped of their regional armies, and Ethiopia had a fully professional, well-equipped military. The country was no longer landlocked. Ethiopia had an Imperial Army, an Imperial Navy, an Imperial Guard and an Imperial Air force, and was a real power in the region. Ethiopia had two respected, high-quality Universities.

Top-notch technical schools had been established. Roads had been built across vast expanses, telephone and telegraph lines had been expanded, factories and commercial farming greatly expanded. Above all, public primary and secondary schools offering high quality education were expanded across the land and often reluctant parents were encouraged to educate their children. In the first decades of his reign the Emperor himself was minister of education, handing out school prizes, visiting schools constantly and giving out sweaters, fruit and cakes to students on certain holidays to encourage education.

Ethiopia built a successful Airline, a successful Shipping Line, a modern postal service, and its economy once based on very rudimentary trade in raw materials was beginning to shift and had grown massively from the time of the Emperor’s birth. All this was accomplished with what little Ethiopia could scratch together, and some modest foreign grants, without incurring massive debts. A modern system of taxation and tariffs was set up and a government coffer audited and maintained professionally. Corruption was relatively minor in those days, and the rule of law was generally respected in a way that it hasn’t been since.

This is not to say there were no problems. Centralization caused regional resentments. A focus on urbanization and industrialization neglected rural areas and agriculture, which took a serious toll. Land reform was a bitter pill the nobility could not swallow and thwarted every attempt at it by the Emperor and his ministers. The prime minister and his cabinet were responsible to the Emperor who appointed them rather than the parliament, which prevented true Constitutional Monarchy from developing. While democratic elections had been introduced in 1955, political parties were not allowed. When near the end amid political upheaval, the Emperor authorized political parties, he expressed his fear that political parties might evolve into ethnic ones. His fears have sadly been realized.

The Emperor began his reign, regarded by those close to power as a dangerous radical set on changing the way things had always been done. He ended his reign being vilified by the people he had raised up and educated as being too backward and traditional. It is the ultimate irony. However, one should consider how the Emperor found Ethiopia when he assumed state power in 1916 as Crown Prince and Regent for Empress Zewditu, and how he left it when he was removed from the throne by a group of junior military officers in September 1974. How was the country run during the 58 years between 1916 and 1974 (even including the Italian Occupation and various regional rebellions and one serious coup attempt) compared to the past 51 years since the Emperor fell?

The fact is that Emperor Haile Selassie presided over a long and relatively prosperous and peaceful reign. In just a few years we will have passed a point after his overthrow that equals the length of his rule first as regent then as Emperor. The political and social strife we have seen, the numbers of lives lost to political terror from all sides to open war, to famine, of people imprisoned, internally displaced or driven into exile, and the level of corruption exceeds by multitudes anything that happened during his reign or the previous few reigns. The horrors continue to deepen.

Emperor Haile Selassie I worked exceedingly hard to better the lot of his people and ultimately accepted his removal from power without causing bloodshed. Ethiopians during his reign could hold their heads up high all over the world. For all of that, he is owed a great debt. That is why we should mark his birthday and remember him.

May his memory be eternal.

by Lique Tiguhan Deacon Solomon Kibriye, KCSE

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The Ethiopian Crown Council extends its deep condolences to the Roman Catholic Church and its faithful around the world – and particularly to the numerous Catholic congregations in Ethiopia – for the passing last week of His Holiness Pope Francis I. Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie, President of the Crown Council, has released a statement commemorating the late Pope and his legacy of peace and love.

“I had the good fortune to meet His Holiness Pope Francis in May 2021,” Prince Ermias said.[1] “Pope Francis embodied compassion and the courage to work towards peace. His mission will live on in our own work, in our own service, in our decision to advance his values in Ethiopia and around the world.”

When Prince Ermias met with Pope Francis, it renewed a relationship between the Holy See and Ethiopia dating back many centuries. The Vatican had hosted Ethiopian pilgrims ever since the fifteenth century. A century ago, Pope Benedict XV converted a hostel for those pilgrims into the Pontifical Ethiopian College, the only seminary of its kind within Vatican walls, and a special stop on Prince Ermias’s 2021 visit. Prince Ermias’s grandfather, Emperor Haile Selassie I, met with Pope Paul VI in November 1970.

“I was honored,” Prince Ermias said, “to visit Pontifical Ethiopian College during my visit to meet Pope Francis, and I felt as if he and I represented the continuity of our respective legacies, spiritual and secular. But I understood his humanity, his love of the poor, his devotion to his calling to mean that we should not focus on memories of our past, but on building our shared future.”

Prince Ermias noted the Pope’s personal role in the search for peace and reconciliation in the Horn of Africa. “Pope Francis passionately prayed and appealed for peace and stability in South Sudan,” Prince Ermias noted. “We will never forget the moment in 2019 when His Holiness knelt and kissed the feet of South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar. We know that he also prayed for peace in Ethiopia after our meeting in 2021. In turn, we now pray that Pope Francis’s transition from mortality to immortality will lead to the restoration of peace and national cohesion in South Sudan, and that Ethiopia’s spiritual and secular leaders will follow his example in praying and working for peace on our own home.”

Prince Ermias also noted, “Pope Francis was known for concluding his audiences with one simple, powerful request: ‘Pray for me.’ And now, with hearts full of faith and memory, we do just that. He was a truly gifted, blessed and humble human being. In this world of uncertainty, fear, and violence, his wisdom will truly be missed. We will pray for his soul in unison.”

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[1] https://ethiopiancrown.org/meeting-at-the-vatican-between-hh-pope-francis-i-and-hih-prince-ermias-sahle-selassie/

6 ጥር 2017 / 15 January 2025 – On January 14, 2025, His Imperial Highness Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie, President of the Crown Council of Ethiopia, and Patron of the Royal Ethiopian Trust, together with his wife, Princess Saba Kebede and other members of the Imperial family of Ethiopia, were present at the re-consecration of Addis Ababa’s Holy Trinity Cathedral following extensive renovation of the building.  Prince Ermias was appointed as Fundraising Ambassador for fundraising efforts for the Cathedral outside of Ethiopia in November 2023.

The ceremonies began with the ታቦቶች/Tabots (Arks) of the Cathedral being carried in procession from the Church of Beále Wold where they were enshrined while the Cathedral was being restored.  The Tabots were then brought to the front of the Cathedral before celebrating guests and faithful, while His Holiness Patriarch Abune Mathias I, Patriarch of Ethiopia, Archbishop of Axum and Echege of the See of St. Tekle Haimanot, assisted by numerous Archbishops, priests and deacons of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, blessed the outside walls of the cathedral and then the interior, before he re-consecrated the three altars of the Cathedral and re-enshrined the Tabots upon them.  Their Imperial Highnesses Prince Ermias and Princess Saba, along with other senior members of the Imperial family, were guests of honor to witness the re-dedication of this holy site built by His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie.  The Cathedral hierarchy and the Renovation and Development Committee of the Cathedral offered special thanks to Prince Ermias for his efforts towards raising funds towards achieving the completed restoration.

His Holiness the Patriarch in his remarks published in honor of this occasion noted that:

 The ancient Israelites in the time of Moses established the Tent of the Tabernacle to carry out their religious rites, and King Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem that served as the site of worship of the Almighty for 364 years.  After the passing of these houses of worship, the New Testament Church of Christ was established in the Upper Room of Zion in the home of the mother of St. Mark the Evangelist by the Holy Apostles and their teachings, as well as the efforts of the scholars of the early church, spreading across the world and down to our time….and so in the time of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie, with amazing skill and refinement, this great church was built to celebrate great celebrations, to enthrone our fathers the Holy Patriarchs, to consecrate the Bishops, to honor leaders of the country and other important people upon their passing, and lay them to rest.  As the age and deteriorated condition of Altar of Victory Holy Trinity Cathedral raised the concern of all of you our children in the Holy Spirit, both in the country and abroad, your great efforts to preserve this landmark and pass it on to future generations has borne fruit, and for that we offer thanks to God and congratulate you.

His Imperial Highness has expressed his great pleasure that this holy site, and monument to his grandfather Emperor Haile Selassie, as well as to many great patriots of the struggle against fascist occupation has been restored.  He is also deeply honored by the thanks offered to him personally for his efforts.

LALIBELA 29 ታኅሣሥ 2017 / 7 January 2025 His Imperial Highness Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie, President of the Ethiopian Crown Council (shown at right), is in Lalibela, Ethiopia, celebrating the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord today. His Highness wishes all Orthodox and Eastern Rite Christians a blessed Christmas.

The famous rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, recognized as World Heritage Sites, are among Ethiopia’s most treasured pilgrimage sites. Traditionally dated to the reign of the great medieval emperor Gebre Meskel Lalibela, they are a symbolic representation of Jerusalem, and commemorate Ethiopia’s age-old ties to the Holy Land.

Prince Ermias is in Ethiopia in January for a series of important events, including the formal reopening of Menbere Tsebaot Cathedral, more commonly known as Holy Trinity Cathedral, in Addis Ababa on January 14. On January 5, His Highness attended a celebration (shown below) in honor of those who contributed to the renovation of Trinity Cathedral. Prince Ermias spearheaded a fundraising campaign in 2023 and 2024 resulting in a major contribution to that renovation.

His Highness thanks all friends of the Ethiopian Crown Council for their support of this initiative.

On November 11, 2024, Lij Nebyat Aklilu Demessie, Public Relations Officer and Advisor to the Crown Council of Ethiopia, participated in an international prayer day for global peace on behalf of HIH Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile Selassie. The event was organized by the “Light Must Unite,” a global peace effort founded by entrepreneur and visionary philanthropist Michael King Jr. and public relations, special events, branding and marketing guru Cygalle Dias, alongside the Light Must Unite Initiative co-founders Makonnen Hanna and Barbara Blake-Hannah of Jamaica. The panel was co-moderated by fashion icon, Joseph DeAcetis as well as music producer and entrepreneur, Makonnen Hanna with closing remarks made by founders Michael King Jr. and Cygalle Dias.

The mission of the “Light Must Unite” is to unite communities worldwide in the fight against violence, to foster peace, and to encourage positive societal transformation. During the Crown Council of Ethiopia’s official state visit to Jamaica in 2022, both Makonnen and Barbara Blake-Hannah accompanied Prince Ermias, Princess Saba Kebede, and advisors to the Crown Council.

The international prayer day event commenced with video tributes from historical figures including the late Emperor Haile Selassie, President John F. Kennedy, and American hotelier and humanitarian Conrad Hilton. The event featured a distinguished panel of speakers from diverse fields such as business, the arts, and philanthropy, including Matthew W. Rockefeller, J. Bradley Hilton, Chaka Khan, Young Wylin, Marla Maples, Jimmy Levy, Khalilah Camacho Ali, Xana Romeo, Ana Carla Sinclair, Sheila Chamberlain and other notable figures. The discussions centered around the power of prayer, meditation, peace, and unity.

Prince Ermias, who was unable to attend in person, submitted a written speech that was delivered by Lij Nebyat. Prince Ermias’ speech opened with a powerful quote from Emperor Haile Selassie on the importance of peace and the ongoing effort required to achieve it. Prince Ermias emphasized the universal need for peace and collective security, particularly in light of the global challenges facing humanity.

As a panelist in his own right, Lij Nebyat also spoke about the work of Selassie Stand Up, Inc., an organization he founded to promote the legacy of Emperor Haile Selassie. He highlighted the organization’s advocacy for the creation of a statue of the Emperor in the African Union Headquarters as a constant reminder of the Emperor’s commitment to peace, unity, and collective security. Lij Nebyat was also successful in getting approval from the Government of Jamaica to build a statue of HIM Emperor Haile Selassie during the Crown Council of Ethiopia’s official State Visit to Jamaica in 2022.

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Please see HIH Prince Ermias’ written speech below:

Greetings Distinguished Guests, Conference Participants, Ladies & Gentlemen:

In the words of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie: “Peace is a day-to-day problem; it is the product of a multitude of events and judgments. Peace is not an ‘is,’ it is a ‘becoming.’” This means that achieving peace is an ongoing process that requires constant effort and attention to detail, rather than a single moment or state that can be simply attained and then easily sustained; it’s about actively working towards peace every day, making choices that contribute to it, and recognizing that peace is always evolving and needs to be continuously cultivated.

Peace requires a just cause, dedication, determination, commitment and resolve. It is a product of a multitude of events and judgments because peace is impacted by each and every one of us as well as the decisions we make individually and collectively. Peace is a process and a journey that starts within each and every one of us. Peace is dependent on how we chose to act and also interact with others.

During such troubling times, the universal necessity of peace cannot be overemphasized. We, therefore, must continue to strive in our efforts to achieve the ideals of humanity, global peace, collective security and unity.

As President, and on behalf of the Crown Council of Ethiopia, We thank the organizers of the Light Must Unite for this opportunity, international day of prayer for peace and the global call for unity. We implore each and every person to do his or her part in prayer, meditation and action to achieve ideals of humanity, global peace and unity.

Thank you so very much for this opportunity and organizing this very important meeting. Together, in prayer, unity and collective action we can achieve.

May God Bless you all!

The Annual Victory of Adwa Dinner for 2024 was held 23 March 2024 in Washington, DC.

Proceeds from the sale of photographs on this website – which also includes photos from the 2019-2023 Victory of Adwa Dinners – will go to support The Crown Council of Ethiopia.