Hairatan

حیرتان Hairatan
Hairatan
Coordinates	37 ° 13 '  N , 67 ° 25'  E Coordinates: 37 ° 13 '  N , 67 ° 25'  E
Basic data
Country	Afghanistan
province	Balch
District	Kaldar
height	300 m
Welcome table on the road to the border river Amu Darya

Hairatan ( Persian حیرتان, DMG Ḥairatān ) is a border and port city in the north of the province of Balkh , Afghanistan .

It is located at an altitude of 300  m on the south bank of the Amu Darya River , which forms the border between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan . The Afghanistan-Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge , a combined rail and road bridge, opened on May 12, 1982 , connects Hairatan with the Uzbek city of Termiz . Hairatan has developed into one of the most important transshipment points in Afghanistan in recent years.

history

In the early 1990s, Hairatan was the location of General Abdul Momen's 70th Division, who was loosely allied with Abdul Raschid Dostum's militia, the "National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan". After Momen was killed by a reactive anti-tank rifle on January 5, 1994 , his division disbanded.

After the end of the Taliban rule and the inauguration of pro-Western President Hamid Karzai in December 2001, Hairatan developed into a place of great strategic importance for the new government. The new, NATO-trained Afghan Security Forces (ANSF) set up military bases here to ensure security for border activities; The Afghan Border Police (ABP) protect the border itself, while the Afghan Customs Administration regulates and monitors the trade in goods. They are supported by the Afghan National Army and, until the end of 2014, by the international ISAF forces.

traffic

Hairatan was initially the end point of today's Termiz – Mazar-e Sharif railway line , which originally ended at the Hairatan freight station after about ten kilometers from Termiz. About half of all Afghan imports in 2011 were processed here. On the part of Uzbekistan, the railway line was closed from 1996 to 2001 for political reasons. Trains have been running on it again since then. The extension to the airport in the Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif , 75 km away , was officially inaugurated on February 3, 2012 after a ten-month construction period.

The Hairatan Road is a 55-km long road that Hairatan with the Afghan Ring Road connects. Mazar-i-Sharif is reached after a further 27 km.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Anthony Davis: The Battlegrounds of Northern Afghanistan , in: Jane's Intelligence Review, July 1994