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Soviet – Afghan Relations From Cooperation to Occupation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Alam Payind
Affiliation:
Middle Eastern Studies CenterThe Ohis State University

Extract

In the field of international relations, the 1979 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan has raised major issues concerning regional security and superpower relations. By introducing Soviet military forces in a traditionally nonaligned country, the Kremlin initiated a more aggressive pattern in its foreign policies. This occupation was the Soviet Union's first territorial expansion by direct use of military power since World War II.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

NOTES

Author's note: The manuscript of this article was accepted by IJMES in August of 1988.

1 Interviews with Afghan refugees, Mujahidin, scholars, and writers from 1979 to the present.

2 Gist, Bureau of Public Affairs, U.S. State Department, September, 1985.

3 The New York Times, January 1, 1980.

4 Interview with Mohammad Sharif, an Afghan Journalist and one-time prisoner of Taraki and Amin, Indianapolis, Indiana, December 27, 1983.

5 Commonly used phrase in Afghanistan for the Soviet policies toward Afghanistan has been “maram-e shoom-e shorawi” which means evil Soviet objectives.

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14 Interview with a former Afghan diplomat, see n. 9.

15 Based on the author's experience as Assistant Director and later Director General of Cultural and Foreign Relations at Kabul University during 1967–1970 and 1972–1974, respectively.

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26 The author was involved in generating the proposal and implementing the compromise solutions.

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41 From the author's personal conversation with Soviet educational and technical advisors in Kabul during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

42 Time, Novemebr 22, 1982, p. 33.

43 Pravda, March 18, 1979.

44 International Herald Tribune, April 14–15, 1979.

45 Arnold, op. cit., p. 80.

46 The Economist, January 5, 1980.

47 Guardian, October 29, 1979.

48 Kabul Times, September 15, 1979.

49 Kabul Times, September 29, 1979.

50 ibid., October 10, 1979.

51 Interview with Mohammad Sharif, see n. 4.

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54 The New York Times, February 3, 1980.

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59 Hammond, op. cit., p. 132.

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64 I believe that “Turkistani Jihad” is a more proper term for Turkistani resistance against Sovietization than the commonly used derogatory term of “Basmachi” used by the Soviets which means “bandits.”

65 The New York Times, December 27, 1987.

66 Interview with Abdul Rahim, see n. 61.

67 The New York Times, December 27, 1986.