Greater Afghanistan

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Greater Afghanistan, natively known as Loy Afghanistan, [a] is an irredentist and nationalist concept that seeks to annex the lands that many Pashtuns consider to form their national homeland. It is based on claims on the present-day presence of Pashtun populations in those areas. [1] [2] [3] In addition to the existing Afghanistan, the term incorporates claims to the regions of Pakhtunkhwa and the Northern parts of Pakistan's Balochistan province. [4] [5] [6] [7] The combination of the populations of these countries and territories of other countries sustaining large ethnic Pashtun communities enumerate to over 75 million people.

Contents

Terminology

Afghan nationalists use the term Pashtunistan or Pakhtunkhwa, which means "Land of the Pashtuns" to refer to the Pashtun parts of Pakistan, while the term Loy Afghanistan is used when referring to the unification of Pashtunistan with Afghanistan into a larger Afghan-nation state. [1] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]

History

Great Game

In 1836 the Emir of Afghanistan, Dost Mohammad Khan proposed that the Indus river serve as the border between Afghanistan and India in exchange for the Emir renouncing his authority over Kashmir. [14] The British however supported the Punjabis in Lahore and their claim over Peshawar which greatly offended the Emir of Afghanistan who had claims on the Pashtun city. [14] Tensions would lead to the First Anglo-Afghan War.

Early 20th century

King Amanullah's belief that the British and Indian soldiers would be "too war-weary to resist" following the first World War, sent detachments of Afghan soldiers which were assisted by tribal formations, to what is now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Northern Baluchistan in an attempt to reclaim all Pashtun territory west of the Indus river which had been lost during the 1800s, sparking the Third Anglo-Afghan War. [15]

During WW2 negotiations between Germany and Afghanistan regarding Afghanistan's entry into the war on the side of the Axis powers involved discussions regarding Afghanistan's borders expanding to include all ethnic Pashtun land between the Durand Line and the Indus River. [16] [17]

Communist Era 1978–1992

On April 28th 1978, the Saur Revolution brought the PDPA–Khalq to power. The new Khalqist leadership in Kabul continued to not recognize the Durand Line as the international border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, instead Taraki and Hafizullah Amin pushed for the idea of a Pashtun led, "Greater Afghanistan". [18] Taraki would raise the idea of a Greater Afghanistan extending to the sea and training the army to act in this region, against Pakistan to Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev arguing that in doing so the Soviet Union could reach the Strait of Hormuz and gain access to the Indian Ocean through Afghanistan, and that the people of these regions viewed the predominately Punjabi Pakistan as "foreign", stating that

“We must not leave the Pashtun and Baluch (of Pakistan) in the hands of the imperialists, Already now it would be possible to launch a national liberation struggle amongst these tribes and include the Pashtun and Baluch regions in Afghanistan.” [19]

In August 1978, Hafizullah Amin told Soviet Ambassador Alexander Puzanov and Soviet Major General L.N. Gorelov

“We are not parading the question of Pashtunistan and Baluchistan in the press although this question is still on the agenda. The territory of Afghanistan must reach to the shores of the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean. We wish to see the sea with our own eyes.” [19]

In 1979 under General Secretary Nur Muhammad Taraki the Khalqists regime in Afghanistan changed the official map to include NWFP and Balochistan as new "frontier provinces" of the DRA. [20] While addressing tribal leaders on 29th July 1979, Amin declared that

"All nationalities from the Oxus to the Abasin are brothers from one homeland. The waves of bravery of the Pashtuns and Baluchis of the whole region is reflected in the revolutionary emotions of the toilers here... our revolution is revered and welcomed from the Oxus to the Abasin... from the mountains of the Pamirs to the beaches of Gwadar in Baluchistan" [18]

In October 1979, Hafizullah Amin who was now the leader of Afghanistan brought up the issue of Greater Afghanistan again saying

“Our task is to direct the officers and soldiers and all the Afghan people to the Durand line which we do not recognize, and then to the valley of the Indus which must be our border. If we do not fulfill this historic task, then one can say that we have been working in vain. We must have an outlet to the Indian Ocean!” [19]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Pashto: لوی افغانستان, romanized: Loi Afğānistān [loɪʔaʊ.ɣɑ.nis.t̪ɑn,loɪʔap.ɣɑ.nis.t̪ɑn]

References

  1. 1 2 Khalilzad, Zalmay (1984). The security of Southwest Asia. Security in Southern Asia. Aldershot: Gower. ISBN   978-0-566-00651-7.
  2. ↑ Caron, James M (2009). Cultural Histories of Pashtun Nationalism, Public Participation, and Social Inequality in Monarchic Afghanistan, 1905-1960.
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ Kayathwal, Mukesh Kumar; Kayathwal, Mukesh Kamar (1994). "Pak-Afghan Relations: Durand Line Issue". Indian Journal of Asian Affairs. 7 (2): 37–46. ISSN   0970-6402.
  5. ↑ Mitrokhin, Vasiliy (July 2002). "The KGB in Afghanistan" (PDF). Wilson Center : 110–111.
  6. ↑ "د پښتنو ټولنيز ولسوليز ګونداعلاميه". www.sporghay.com (in Pashto (Afghanistan)). 2023-12-11. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  7. ↑ "د پښتنو ټولنيز ولسوليز ګوند اعلامیه". www.samsoor.com. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  8. ↑ "Historical Documents - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 2025-02-17.
  9. ↑ "Historical Documents - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 2025-02-17.
  10. ↑ Shane, Scott (2009-12-05). "The War in Pashtunistan". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2025-02-17.
  11. ↑ Pakhtunistan Day. 1949. p. 7.
  12. ↑ Shane, Scott (2009-12-05). "The War in Pashtunistan" . Retrieved 2025-10-30. Pashtunistan, an aspirational name coined long ago by advocates of an independent Pashtun homeland. From bases in the Pakistani part of it — the Federally Administered Tribal Areas toward the north and Baluchistan province in the south
  13. ↑ Faultlines, Volume 18. Institute for Conflict Management. 2007. p. 59. The very concept of Pakhtunistan was taken from the old word Pakhtunkhwa.
  14. 1 2 Ahmad Jalali, Ali (2017). A Military History of Afghanistan: From the Great Game to the Global War on Terror. University Press of Kansas. p. 100. ISBN   9780700624089.
  15. ↑ "Third Afghan War and the Revolt in Waziristan | National Army Museum". www.nam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-11-24.
  16. ↑ Ali, Tariq (30 November 2001). "The king of Greater Afghanistan; A German dispatch from 1940 shows Zahir Shah's true colours". Irish Independent. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  17. ↑ "Afghanistan in World War II". WW2DB. Retrieved 2025-11-27.
  18. 1 2 Kayathwal, Mukesh Kumar; Kayathwal, Mukesh Kamar (1994). "Pak-Afghan Relations: Durand Line Issue". Indian Journal of Asian Affairs. 7 (2): 37–46. ISSN   0970-6402.
  19. 1 2 3 Mitrokhin, Vasiliy (July 2002). "The KGB in Afghanistan" (PDF). Wilson Center : 110–111.
  20. ↑ Arnold, Anthony (1983). Afghanistan's Two-Party Communism: Parcham and Khalq. Hoover Institution Press. p. 77. ISBN   0-8179-7792-9.
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