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| See also: | Other events of 1973 List of years in Afghanistan | ||||
The following lists events that happened during 1973 in Afghanistan .
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| Decades: | |||||
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| See also: | Other events of 1973 List of years in Afghanistan | ||||
The following lists events that happened during 1973 in Afghanistan .
Afghanistan's internal situation is dominated by difficulties arising from three successive seasons of drought in the central and northern areas of the country. In Ghor province, the shortage is particularly bad; famine is widespread and there are many deaths from starvation. Although massive Soviet and U.S. aid programs, supplemented by less ambitious efforts sponsored by China, Britain, France, India, and other countries, have done much to improve roads, power supplies, irrigation, and other essential elements of an economic substructure on which future progress could be based, the gap that divides Kabul from the outlying and backward areas shows little signs of closing. In those parts of the country the authority of the central government remains minimal, and small notice is taken of the men selected for parliament. Thus, the capital tends to be a world of its own, where governments change, where unrest is chronic, and where the country finds almost its only link with the outside world.
King Zahir Shah, whose personality has for many years ensured an element of continuity, absents himself in Italy for eye treatment. While he is out of the country, on July 17, Daoud Khan, who has long resented his exclusion from power, takes advantage of some discontent over promotions in the armed forces, along with student unrest and resentment among the educated classes against unemployment, to depose the king in a virtually bloodless coup. The King's forty-year reign was ended within a matter of minutes. Leftist military officers and civil servants of the Parcham faction, including the Air Force colonel Abdul Qadir, assist in the overthrow. Daud Khan abolishes the constitution of 1964 and establishes the Republic of Afghanistan with himself as president as well as foreign minister. He announces his adherence to Afghanistan's traditional policy of nonalignment, but is an acknowledged friend of the Soviet Union and a firm supporter of secessionist movements in the Pashto-speaking areas of Pakistan, the North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan - an outlook that seems likely to revive the friction with Pakistan that marked his earlier period of power. Zahir Shah formally abdicates on August 24, and remains in exile in Italy. Daud Khan attempts to introduce socioeconomic reforms, but gradually moves away from the socialist ideals his regime initially espoused.
Radio Kabul announces the discovery of an allegedly Pakistan-backed plot to overthrow the new regime. A number of civilians and high-ranking military personalities are arrested, including former Prime Minister Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal, who is later reported to have hanged himself on October 1 while awaiting trial. Five defendants are subsequently condemned to death and executed on December 25, while others receive long terms of imprisonment. A second attempted coup is foiled in December. The Kabul press accuses Pakistan of fomenting these conspiracies, but no solid evidence for the accusation is forthcoming. In view of Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's desire for friendly relations with Afghanistan, it seems more likely that the conspiracies were the products of domestic discontent.
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Mohammad Zahir Shah was the last king of Afghanistan, reigning from 8 November 1933 until he was deposed on 17 July 1973. Ruling for 40 years, Zahir Shah was the longest-serving ruler of Afghanistan since the foundation of the Durrani Empire in the 18th century.
Mohammad Daoud Khan was an Afghan military officer and politician who served as prime minister of Afghanistan from 1953 to 1963 and, as leader of the 1973 Afghan coup d'état which overthrew the monarchy, served as the first president of Afghanistan from 1973 until his assassination in the Saur Revolution.
The following lists events that happened during 1956 in Afghanistan.
Mohammad Nur Ahmad Etemadi was an Afghan diplomat and politician.
The Saur Revolution or Sowr Revolution, also known as the April Revolution or the April Coup, was staged on 27–28 April 1978 by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and overthrew Afghan president Mohammad Daoud Khan, who had himself taken power in the 1973 Afghan coup d'état and established an autocratic one-party system in the country. Daoud and most of his family were executed at the Arg in the capital city of Kabul by Khalqi military officers, after which his supporters were also purged and killed. The successful PDPA uprising resulted in the creation of a socialist Afghan government that was closely aligned with the Soviet Union, with Nur Muhammad Taraki serving as the PDPA's General Secretary of the Revolutionary Council. Saur or Sowr is the Dari-language name for the second month of the Solar Hijri calendar, during which the events took place.
The following lists events that happened during 1953 in Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1955 in Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1957 in Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1958 in Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1959 in Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1960 in the Kingdom of Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1962 in the Kingdom of Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1963 in Afghanistan.
The Barakzai dynasty, also known as the Muhammadzai dynasty, ruled what is now Afghanistan from 1823 to 1978, when the monarchy ended de jure under Musahiban Mohammad Zahir Shah and de facto under his cousin Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan. The Barakzai dynasty was established by Dost Mohammad Khan after the Durrani dynasty of Ahmad Shah Durrani was removed from power. As the Pahlavi era in Iran, the Muhammadzai era was known for its progressivist modernity, practice of Sufism, peaceful security and neutrality, in which Afghanistan was referred to as the "Switzerland of Asia".
Humaira Begum was the wife and first cousin of King Mohammed Zahir Shah and the last queen consort of Afghanistan.
The Kingdom of Afghanistan was a monarchy in Central Asia that was established in 1926 as a successor state to the Emirate of Afghanistan. It was proclaimed by its first king, Amanullah Khan, seven years after he acceded to the throne. The monarchy ended in the 1973 Afghan coup d'état.
The Republic of Afghanistan was the first republic in Afghanistan. It is often called the Daoud Republic, as it was established in July 1973 after General Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan of the Barakzai dynasty alongside senior Barakzai Princes deposed his cousin, King Mohammad Zahir Shah, in a coup d'état. The occcasion for the coup was the 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan, that took power from most members of the royal family, in favour of the centralization under Zahir Shah and his offspring under the tenet of democracy. Daoud Khan was known for his autocracy and attempts to modernize the country with help from both the Soviet Union and the United States, among others.
National Revolutionary Party was a political party in the Republic of Afghanistan. The party was founded in 1974 by President Mohammed Daoud Khan, who had seized control of Afghanistan from his first cousin, King Mohammed Zahir Shah, in the mostly bloodless 1973 coup d'état.
The 1973 Afghan coup d'état, also called by Afghans as the Coup of 26 Saratan and self-proclaimed as the Revolution of 26 Saratan 1352, was led by Army General and prince Mohammad Daoud Khan against his cousin, King Mohammad Zahir Shah, on 17 July 1973, which resulted in the establishment of the Republic of Afghanistan under a one-party system led by Daoud Khan.
Democracy in Afghanistan has been severely limited and characterized by short, unstable historical periods since the formation of the contemporary state of Afghanistan in the 20th century. Following the rise of power of Ghazi Amanullah Khan in 1919, the first elements of a democratic government in the country began to emerge, with the formation of a constitution and increased civil liberties. Amanullah's political reforms resulted in his overthrow and for much of the rest of the 20th century, until 1964, there was limited democratization in the country. With the establishment of a bicameral national legislature in 1964 by King Zahir Shah, political parties began to form; however, none of these reforms were lasting after Zahir Shah's removal from power in 1973 and the formation of an autocratic Afghanistan republic.
