People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan
| People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Party leader | Mohammed Najibullah |
| founding | January 1, 1965 |
| resolution | April 16, 1992 |
| Headquarters | Kabul |
| Alignment | Socialism , Communism , Marxism-Leninism , Afghan Nationalism |
| Colours) | red |
| Number of members | 160,000 (in the late 1980s) |
The Democratic People's Party of Afghanistan ( DVPA ) was a party with a communist character that described itself as “national democratic ” and was active above all before and during the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union . It was the unity party of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan .
history
Before taking power
The party was founded on January 1, 1965, with significant participation from Babrak Karmal , who later became president, and Nur Muhammad Taraki , a popular writer. The founding congress took place in secret at the Tarakis house in Kabul , which was elected Secretary General by the 27 participants. Karmal became his deputy and a five-member Politburo was formed. The party was banned in 1966 and split in 1967 into two often hostile wings, the Khalq and Parcham factions, each with their own secretaries-general and politburo. While the more moderate- socialist Parcham faction was shaped by politicians like Karmal and Mohammed Najibullah , the more radical, Leninist Khalq faction under Taraki initially prevailed. After the two factions reunited to form the DVPA in 1977, not least at Moscow's insistence, and shortly afterwards the prominent left-wing politician Mir Akbar Khyber was murdered (apparently at the instigation of the government), the more radical forces in the party pushed for an overthrow. On April 28, 1978 the DVPA actually came to power in the country through the acid revolution and proclaimed the People's Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
DVPA government
The DVPA tried to push through comprehensive reforms in Afghanistan, for example in questions of education policy, women's rights and modernization. They also succeeded in doing so. But even within the DVPA, the course of the now Prime Minister, who belonged to the Khalq faction, met with criticism. This reacted by expelling Parcham politicians from his government in July 1978 and bringing leading internal party opponents to trial for high treason. The communist secret police KAM were also notorious and were accused of torture and ill-treatment. In view of the increasing pressure, also through the support of the mujahideen by the USA, Taraki decided to call for help to the comrades in Moscow, who used this as an opportunity for military intervention in 1979 . To stabilize the country in which the mujahideen waged a partisan war, first against the DVPA government and later against the Soviet invaders, they relied on the more moderate Karmal, which they installed as president in Kabul; he was replaced by Najibullah in 1986 .
Fall
After the withdrawal of the Soviets in 1989, the DVPA's situation in the country deteriorated; in June 1990 she gave up her monopoly on power due to growing resistance and renamed herself the “ Vatan Party” ( Fatherland Party ) and in 1992 Najibullah was ousted from his office. Since then, the role of the communists in Afghanistan, who were seen as discredited by their cooperation with the Soviets, has only been marginal. They completely disappeared from the political scene when the Taliban marched into Kabul, which Najibullah publicly hung in 1996.
See also
literature
- Anthony Arnold: Afghanistan's Two-Party Communism. Parcham and Khalq (= Hoover Press Publication. Vol. 279). Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, Stanford CA 1983, ISBN 0-8179-7792-9 .
Web links
swell
- ↑ We have to bury vengeance . In: Der Spiegel . No. 38 , 1991, pp. 224 ( online ).