Russia, which had backed ethnic Tajik president …
Years: 1997 - 1997
October
Russia, which had backed ethnic Tajik president Burhanuddin Rabbani's government in Kabul, feared that a Pakistani-backed Pashtun movement such as the Taliban would be expansionist, threatening Russia's interests in Central-Asian countries.
Russia provides Dostum with 500 T55 and T62 tanks, which he employs against areas that oppose his rule.
Russia also provides Dostum with a large number of Frog 7 and Luna M missiles.
Detractors claim that Dostum's forces are supported by Uzbekistan and financed by drug transportation from the hashish- and poppy-producing areas around Mazar-e Sharif.
Dostum's "nation within a nation" has a separate flag, currency, visas and airline.
In May, a dispute within the opposition Jumbish-i-Milli party forces General Dostam out of his stronghold in Mazar-e Sharif in the north.
Dostum's second in command, General 'Abd al-Malik Pahlawan, defects to the Taliban, a week after the assassination of a close ally, Abdur Rehman Haqqani.
Pahlawan believes Dostum had Haqqani killed because he favored striking a deal with the Taliban army.
Pahlawan's soldiers roll over Dostum's forces in the northwestern provinces of Badghis and Faryab, enabling the Taliban to take over Mazar-e Sharif on May 25, 1997.
Dostum flees with his family and associates to Ankara, Turkey, proclaiming, "The war is not over," and promising to return "when the conditions are right." Now that the last major center of resistance to Taliban rule has been taken, Pakistan becomes the first country to recognize the legitimacy of the Taliban government.
Within a few days, however, Pahlawan again changes sides, and the Taliban are driven out of Mazar-e Sharif in a bloody battle in which several thousand of them were taken captive.
Afghanistan is now effectively partitioned between areas controlled by Pashtun and non-Pashtun forces.
The Taliban control approximately two-thirds of Afghanistan, including all the predominantly Pashtun areas of the country as well as Herat and Kabul.
Non-Pashtun organizations control the areas bordering on the Central Asian republics whose populations are ethnically non-Pashtun, such as Uzbeks and Tajiks.
Dostum returns from Turkey in October 1997 and ousts Malik and the Taliban troops from Mazar-e Sharif and the northern provinces of Afghanistan.
Related Events
Showing 10 events out of 625 total
Years: 1997 - 1997
October
Locations
Groups
- Pashtun people (Pushtuns, Pakhtuns, or Pathans)
- Uzbeks
- Pakistan, Islamic Republic of
- Junbish-i Milli-yi Islami (National Islamic Movement) (Uzbek militia in Afghanistan)
- Russian Federation
- Afghanistan, Islamic Republic of
- Taliban Movement
- Afghanistan, Islamic Emirate of
Regions
