In an interview in 1988, he acknowledged that the goals of his movement were similar to that of the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, such as its approach to national self-determination and foreign affairs. A self-proclaimed atheist, he believed that "freedom comes out of the barrel of the gun."

When Mengistu was overthrown in 1991, Tamrat Layne became one of the three-man EPRDF-TPLF