The Eritrean Orthodox Church is being systematically captured by the Isaias Afwerki regime so it can supply the religious legitimacy that the unimplemented 1997 Constitution denies him. In 2006–2007 the regime deposed Patriarch Abune Antonios after he resisted government pressure to excommunicate critics and called for the release of detainees. He remained under house arrest until his death in 2022. Successive patriarchs and senior clergy have been selected or heavily influenced by the state. Independent voices are removed, silenced, or detained. The Church is forced to align its messaging with regime positions, both inside Eritrea and in the diaspora, where regime-aligned networks have been documented as tools of transnational control. Only four religious groups are legally recognized; even those operate under tight state supervision. This is not spiritual guidance. It is institutional capture. This mirrors the old imperial model: the Church legitimizes the ruler, and the ruler controls the Church. Isaias is rebuilding that system from within Eritrea while blocking the people’s Constitution. With no elections, no implemented Constitution, and no independent institutions, he seeks legitimacy through a controlled Church rather than through law or popular consent. The same pattern is appearing across the border. In May 2021, during the Tigray war, Tigrayan archbishops formally broke from the Ethiopian Orthodox Holy Synod in Addis Ababa and established the Tigrayan Orthodox Tewahedo Church (See of Selama Kessate Birhan), based in Axum. They cited the Addis Synod’s silence or perceived alignment with the war, failure to protect churches and monasteries, and political capture. That split continues. The Tigrayan structure has ordained its own bishops and operates independently of Addis. Similar pressures and internal fractures have affected Orthodox communities in Amhara areas amid ethnic and political conflict. As these churches loosen their ties to the Addis headquarters, the risk grows that a regime-controlled church in Asmara will seek to fill the vacuum and extend influence over Tigrayan and, over time, other Orthodox communities that have rejected Addis. This is how legitimacy is manufactured when a constitution is denied: capture the institutions people trust, then claim their authority. The Eritrean Orthodox Church belongs to the faithful. Sovereignty belongs to the Eritrean people under the 1997 Constitution. No ruler can substitute controlled religious institutions for the supreme law of the land. Full discussion of the current regional context and these dynamics: https://www.youtube.com/live/-MjeBDm3wi0?is=J9N1EZdxNmOz8l4O #ENA1Eritrea Constitution First. #Alenawaltahager #shabia #eplf #eritreanorthodox - @merzi.edf