 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2023) |
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| See also: | Other events of 1979 List of years in Afghanistan | ||||
The following lists events that happened during 1979 in Afghanistan .
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2023) |
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| Decades: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| See also: | Other events of 1979 List of years in Afghanistan | ||||
The following lists events that happened during 1979 in Afghanistan .
A mutiny in the Herat garrison by Afghan army officers is crushed.
In a cabinet reshuffle, Taraki inducts Foreign Minister Amin as prime minister and himself takes over chairmanship of the Supreme Defense Council.
A rebel force is routed near Kabul in a major battle, and later an offensive is mounted to destroy guerrillas in districts bordering Pakistan.
Taraki leaves for Havana, Cuba, to represent Afghanistan at the sixth summit conference of nonaligned nations, leaving the government in the hands of Amin. Returning via Moscow, Taraki is advised by Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev to get rid of Amin, whose anti-Islamic policy is considered dangerous. Taraki, however, fails in this as Amin is tipped off about the plot and manages to turn the tide of events to his own favour.
Taraki is overthrown in a coup, and Amin becomes president of the Revolutionary Council, which is nominally in charge of running the government, together with the Central Committee of the Khalq party and the Council of Ministers. Contradictory reports suggest that Taraki is killed during the takeover, although his death is only announced on 9 October and stated to be the result of "a severe and prolonged illness." On 17 September Amin announces that his rule marks the beginning of a "better Socialist order."
A general amnesty is declared in an ineffective effort to placate the Muslims. This is followed by an administrative purge and a further attempt at reconciliation with Islam. Radio Kabul accuses Pakistan and Iran of sending armed infiltrators to undermine the government. Pakistan is also charged with arming the Afghan refugees and tribal rebels in the border areas with the help of Saudi Arabia, China, and the U.S. Afghan refugees in Pakistan are at one time estimated to number 140,000.
CCCP-86036, a Ilyushin Il-76M of the Soviet Air Force, crashed 36 km (22.5 miles) from Kabul on approach to Bagram Air Base on a flight from Tashkent-Yuzhny Airport, killing all 48 occupants (10 crew and 38 passengers). The plane hit the top of a mountain at 5000 m at 19:33 during a nighttime descent, with the crew unfamiliar with Bagram and no navigational equipment on the ground. The plane carried paratroopers of the Vitebsk Division, headed for Kabul on the first day of the Soviet invasion. The crash was Afghanistan's deadliest at the time. [1]
Amin is overthrown and killed in a coup backed by Soviet troops. Viktor Karpukhin carries out the taking of the presidential palace, in which two Soviet soldiers are killed. Ex-deputy prime minister Karmal, who has been in exile in Czechoslovakia, is picked as Amin's successor. The Soviets have begun a massive military airlift into Kabul, and at least two motorized divisions have crossed the Soviet-Afghan border. Babrak Karmal, whose Parcham party spearheaded the coup against Daud but later lost power to the faction led by Taraki and Amin, is considered more pro-Soviet than Amin had been. In one of his first speeches, he denounces Amin as an agent of U.S. imperialism. At year's end reports from Kabul indicate that some 40,000 Soviet troops are fanning out through the country in an apparent attempt to crush the Muslim rebels. On 31 December U.S. Pres. Jimmy Carter declares it is imperative that world leaders immediately make it clear to the Soviet Union that its actions will have "severe political consequences."
Babrak Karmal was an Afghan communist revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Afghanistan, serving in the post of General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1986.
Hafizullah Amin was an Afghan communist head of state, who served from September 1979 until his assassination. He organized the Saur Revolution of 1978 and co-founded the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA), ruling Afghanistan as General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party.
The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA), renamed the Republic of Afghanistan in 1987, was the Afghan state during the one-party rule of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) from 1978 to 1992. It relied heavily on assistance from the Soviet Union for most of its existence, especially during the Soviet–Afghan War.
Viktor Fyodorovich Karpukhin was a member of the KGB who was instrumental in the Soviet–Afghan War.
The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) was a Marxist–Leninist political party in Afghanistan established on 1 January 1965. Four members of the party won seats in the 1965 Afghan parliamentary election, reduced to two seats in 1969, albeit both before parties were fully legal. For most of its existence, the party was split between the hardline Khalq and moderate Parcham factions, each of which claimed to represent the "true" PDPA.
Nur Muhammad Taraki was an Afghan revolutionary communist politician, journalist and writer. He was a founding member of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) who served as its General Secretary from 1965 to 1979 and Chairman of the Revolutionary Council from 1978 to 1979.
Parcham was an Islamic socialist faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan led by Babrak Karmal and Mohammed Najibullah. The sect was formed in 1967 following ideological splits in the PDPA; specifically, the Parchamis' belief in the need for swift social-economic reforms to achieve revolution. This was in direct contrast with their PDPA rivals, the Khalqs, who sought an immediate and violent overthrow of the government. Karmal believed that Afghanistan was not developed enough for a Leninist revolutionary approach and instead sought a patriotic and anti-imperialist united front to take the next steps toward revolution.
Khalq was a faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Its historical de facto leaders were Nur Muhammad Taraki (1967–1979), Hafizullah Amin (1979) and Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy (1979–1990). It was also the name of the leftist newspaper produced by the same movement. The Khalq wing was formed in 1967 after the split of the party due to bitter resentment with the rival Parcham faction which had a differing revolutionary strategy.
Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi was an Afghan politician and mujahideen leader who was the founder and leader of the Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami political party and paramilitary group. He served as President of Afghanistan under the mujahideen from January 1993 to 1996.
Colonel General Abdul Kadir Dagarwal was an Afghan politician, diplomat, and a military officer in the Afghan Air Force who participated in the coup d'état that created the Republic of Afghanistan under the President Dawood Khan, and later directed the Afghan Air Force and Army Air Corps squadrons that attacked the Radio-TV station during the Saur Revolution.
The Tajbeg Palace Assault, known by the military codename Operation Storm-333, was a military raid executed by the Soviet Union in Afghanistan on 27 December 1979. It saw Spetsnaz GRU storm the heavily fortified Tajbeg Palace in Kabul and subsequently assassinate Afghan leader Hafizullah Amin, a Khalqist of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) who had taken power in the Saur Revolution of April 1978. The Soviet military operation marked the beginning of what would later become known as the Soviet–Afghan War.
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 Mohammed 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 PDPA-affiliated 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 1978 in Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1980 in Afghanistan.
The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was the government of Afghanistan between 1978 and 1992. It was recognised diplomatically by only eight countries which were allies of the Soviet Union. It was ideologically close to and economically and militarily dependent on the Soviet Union, and was a major belligerent of the Afghan Civil War.
Ghulam Dastagir Panjsheri was an Afghan communist politician and public servant. Panjsheri was usually identified as a Khalq by fellow Afghan politicians, while outside observers said he was creating his own PDPA group under the name Gruhi Kar.
Mir Akbar Khyber was an Afghan left-wing intellectual and a leader of the Parcham faction of People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). His assassination by an unidentified person or people led to the overthrow of Mohammed Daoud Khan's republic, and to the advent of a socialist regime in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
The Revolutionary Council of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) ruled the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1978 until its collapse in 1992. The council was the supreme state power under the communist regime and was a carbon copy of the Supreme Soviet in the Soviet Union. The point with the council was to convene on a semiannual basis to approve decisions made by the presidium.
The Council of Ministers was the governmental organ in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The leader of the Council of Ministers chose ministers for the different ministerial posts in the country. Under the leadership of Nur Mohammad Taraki, Hafizullah Amin and Babrak Karmal the council underwent massive changes. Under the rule of Karmal, there were 20 out of 24 ministers that belonged to the Parcham faction and the remaining belonged to the Khalq faction. All Afghan ministers had seats in the council.
Major General Sayed Muhammad Gulabzoi is an Afghan politician. An ethnic Pashtun from the Zadran tribe, Gulabzoi was born in Paktia Province. An Air Force mechanic by training, he studied at the Air Force college. As an air force officer, he supported Daoud Khan's 1973 coup d'état which overthrew King Zahir Shah, for which he was rewarded with the position of Aide to the Air Force Commander. In 1976, he went to the Soviet Union to study radar technology.
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