Our country has always remained neutral. Like other countries, Afghanistan has not attacked or invaded any countries as our country and people are not invaders. If Sultan Mahmoud Ghaznavi and Shahabuddin Ghori went to India along with their Mujahidin, they went there to help the oppressed. Also, Ahmad Shah Baba, who was taking over the mountains and deserts of India, was out on the request of Hazrat Shah Waliallah.
Why did all the invaders attack on other countries to expand their territories and tighten their grip? Iranian Dariush has also attacked our country to expand their territory. Alexander the Great also had such a plan; but, the brave Afghans defeated them. Genghis Khan, the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, invaded the lands of the Khwarazmian Empire in Central Asia and then attacked and invaded our country. Fortunately, the great son of the Genghis Khan was killed by Afghans in a battle.
Timur also invaded our land to expand his territory. He used to say: The world is not big enough to be controlled by many kings, only a few rulers are needed to control it. Fortunately, Timur was also wounded in the leg by the brave Afghans. When Afghans ended the Timurid invasion, but Sultan Husayn Bayqara, who was the Timurid ruler, established his government in Herat. When he was in power in Herat, an Uzbek Shaybani named Mohammad Shaybani Khan attacked our country. Bayqara’s sons escaped to Iran. The Iranian Safavid then attacked Afghanistan under the pretext to help Bayqara’s sons. The Safavid Empire sent Gurgin Khan, who was a barbarian ruler and killed lots of Afghans.
With the efforts of Mirwais Khan, Gurgin Khan, the Safavid governor was assassinated. Mirwais Hotaki from Kandahar declared the independence of the country. After Mirwais Hotaki passed away, his son Sultan Mahmoud Hotaki even captured Iran’s capital where the Safavid King Husayn surrendered to the Afghan ruler. Unfortunately, the Hotaki’s Kingdom did not continue for long time in Iran. They have been defeated by Nadir Afshar and Afghans returned home.
Nadir Afshar, who was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian history, has started his attacks on Afghanistan and overthrown Shah Husyan Hotaki’s government, but good Nadir Afshar’s government has been overthrown by Iranians. Ahmad Shah Baba and other Afghans returned to Kandahar and have been declared as the ruler of today’s Afghanistan.
Ahmad Shah Baba, also known as Ahmad Shah Abdali, was the founder of the Durrani Empire and is regarded as the founder of the modern Afghanistan.
With the support of our countrymen, Ahmad Shah Baba pushed east towards the Mughal and Maratha Empires of India, west towards the disintegrating Afsharid Empire of Iran, and north towards the Khanate of Bukhara of Turkestan. Within a few years, he extended his control from Khorasan in the west to North India in the east, and from the Amu Darya in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south.
After the death of Ahmad Shah Baba, his son Timur Shah took power. He did well and protected his father’s territory. After his death, his son Shah Zaman Khan became the ruler of Afghanistan. In France, Napoleon took power and India was invaded by British Empire, which later attacked two times on Afghanistan. Fortunately, Afghans defeated them each time. On the third time when British forces were defeated, Afghanistan declared its independence, but British Empire and the Soviet Union were waiting and wanted to invade Afghanistan.
Some people in Afghanistan were influenced by the ideas of the East and the West as they asked King Mohammad Zahir Shah to declare a constitutional monarchy in Afghanistan, let freedom the press and formation of political parties in the country. The King also became a victim of their desire. The freedom of expression was approved, the royal family was removed from the government except the king, but the law on the formation of political parties was not approved. Nevertheless, political parties were formed, and political activities started in the country.
The main parties were the People Democratic Party and Parcham, who received their direction from KGB of the Soviet Union. The People Democratic Party started recruitment for its party and asked the people to support it.
The authoritarian President Mohammad Daud had seized power in 1973 without much attention abroad and even little notice in Afghanistan. Daud Khan was a prince and was seen as just another new king, although he proclaimed a republic. It was the second coup, on 27 April 1978, that changed Afghanistan forever.
The ‘Saur (April) Revolution’ toppled Daud and killed most of his family. Within 19 months, Soviet troops would invade to save the regime. The invasion, and the reaction of the West and regional powers, internationalized the conflict and turned into the last hot battle of the Cold War.
On 6 Jadi, 1358 of the Solar Hijri calendar ( December 24, 1979), nearly 140,000 troops of the Red Army invaded Afghanistan. Afghans believe the Soviet invasion had bad consequences for the country and that Afghanistan is still damaged by its results. Afghans call the day of the Soviet invasion a “dark day.
During the ten years of their invasion, the Soviet Union lost more than 15,000 of its troops and thousands of others were wounded and disabled. They left a devastating and destructed country, where war was still ongoing.
By 1988, the Soviets decided to extricate itself from the situation. Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev saw the Afghan intervention as an increasing drain on the Soviet economy, and the Russian people were tired of a war that many Westerners referred to as “Russia’s Vietnam.” For Afghanistan, the Soviet withdrawal did not mean an end to the fighting, however. The final Soviet departure came on the day set as a deadline by the Geneva accords last April. It left two heavily armed adversaries, the Kremlin-backed Government of President Najibullah and a fractious but powerful array of mujahidin to conclude their civil war on their own.
Both 7 Saur and 6 Jadi are considered as the darkest days in the history of Afghanistan as the people have suffered for 44 years. Once mujahidin entered Kabul, the civil war started, the next time, mujahidin of the Islamic Emirate entered and established an Islamic system. Then on 15 August 2021, the Islamic Emirate forces entered Kabul and ended the 20 years invasion of the US in the country.
Mohammad Ali Azmat
The dark evening of Jadi 6th; Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan
