Afghanistan or Pashtunistan? The Durand Line

Our current topic is Afghanistan. However, it is very difficult for us to understand Afghanistan without knowing the Durand line and its story. What is the Durand Line? Durand line; It is the 2640 kilometer border line between today's Afghanistan and Pakistan, which was determined by the British Foreign Secretary General Mortimer Durand in 1893.

In the late 19th century, India was ruled by the British to include present-day Pakistan. As we know, Pakistan is a country founded by Indian Muslims after the independence of India. In the same period, the Russian Empire also took the Turkish khanates in the south under its control. The geography of Afghanistan was between the pressure of the Russians from the north and the British from the south.

When we say Afghanistan geography, we do not mean today's geography. Rather, we are describing eastern and southeastern Afghanistan, where Pashtuns live, and western and southwestern Pakistan. Because the people who claimed sovereignty in this region throughout the ages are the Pashtuns, who are divided into two by the Durand line and dominate the geography from both sides.

Here, the mentioned Durand line, the region where Pashtuns lived at that time, was divided and determined as the land border between today's Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 1893, with the insistence of the British, it was imposed on Afghanistan with an agreement. The Durand line divided the Pashtuns that dominated the region into two, and 2/3 of the Pashtu remained in present-day Pakistan and 1/3 remained in Afghanistan. In fact, the remaining part of Pakistan is a natural extension of Afghanistan in terms of ethnicity and socio-culturalism. Yes, the Afghan administration of that day accepted the line with an agreement. Because, as we mentioned, Afghanistan was in danger of being swallowed by two imperial and colonial structures, namely the Russians and the British. After all, with the agreement, at least on the Afghan side, the sovereignty of the Pashto was accepted. The security understanding of that day almost imposed the acceptance of the Durand line on the Pashtuns.

With the Durand line agreement, a border dispute problem between Afghanistan and Pakistan was opened. Although the Durand line is accepted as the official border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, Afghanistan has not accepted this border since 1950. As a matter of fact, the Afghan Parliament declared that it terminated the Durand line agreement with a decision taken in 1950. He further states that he does not recognize the Durand line on every platform. However, changing a border determined by an agreement in international law is only possible with the agreement of the parties adjacent to the border. The dissolution of Afghanistan is unilateral and has no legal validity.

Over time, especially after the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the Durand line was constantly violated by the Pashtuns. The border began to be used for free crossings. Among the Pashtuns, it didn't matter whether you were in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Refugee camps have been set up for Pashtuns leaving Afghanistan on Pakistani soil just beyond the border. Afghan refugees, whose numbers can be expressed in the millions, continued to live in these camps. The Pakistani administration did not remain silent about this structure that was formed in its neighboring lands, as it was politically beneficial.

In parallel with the developments in Afghanistan today, the importance of the Durand line has emerged once again. The fundamentalist Islamic movement called the Taliban, which was supported by the US to resist the USSR occupation with military, logistical and educational support in Pashto refugee camps east of the Durand line in Pakistan, has become the dominant power in Afghanistan as of today. Again, after the 9/11 attacks, the same USA accepted radical Islam as a threat, sent 30,000 soldiers to Afghanistan under the umbrella of NATO (ISAF-International Security Assistance Force), and fought the Taliban for 20 years.

If you ask any question of nationality to any Afghan, they will not answer you "I am Afghan". He will say either I am Pashtu, I am Hazar, I am Tajik or I am Uzbek. The determination we are trying to reach is that Afghanistan has never been a nation-state. There is a sharp ethnicity based on race in the territory of Afghanistan. Since Afghanistan could not achieve its sociological and cultural transformation in the historical process, the primitive feudal socio-economic structure based on race and tribe has been prevailing in these troubled lands for years. In other words, when we look from our own nation-state paradigm, there has never been a country called "Afghanistan" before us. What happened is Pashtunistan, and Pashtuns have established a power-based dominance in the whole of the geography we call Afghanistan today. It is clear that the new political structure will also be the source of new unrest.

In the current situation, how can the region stabilize before more serious political and military crises occur?

My assessment is that a Kosovo-like transition may occur. As we know, there was an atmosphere of conflict between Serbian and Albanian ethnic groups in Kosovo. NATO took over the situation, the UN (United Nations) Business Nations) and OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), a non-conflict environment was created, then institutional structures were supported, and finally an independent Kosovo state emerged.

An atmosphere of non-conflict can be created for Afghanistan under the control of international powers. However, the atmosphere of non-conflict should be achieved as a result of reconciliation with the Pashtuns rather than a military intervention. The result to be achieved, unlike Kosovo; It may not be a unitary Afghanistan, but an Afghanistan with a federal government based on the territorial sovereignty of each ethnic group. Of course, this structure will also be problematic. It has always been a useful political method for Western imperialism to create border problems that can never be agreed upon, especially among peoples in regions with abundant natural resources, then to intervene in conflicts by scratching these problems, and to establish weak federative states as a solution to crises and continue to exploit them.

At this point, Pakistan also has a great responsibility. Since its independence in 1947, Pakistan has been in conflict with Afghanistan over the Durand line and Pashtunistan problems. It is known that Pakistan secretly supports the instability in Afghanistan in order not to bring this issue to the agenda strongly by Afghanistan. Pakistan can consent to decentralized autonomous structure and border integration in its Pashtun region on the border with Afghanistan. In this way, the source of the problems, the Durand line, is de facto eliminated.

The 19th century is the age of colonialism. The empires that followed the colonial policy were liquidated at the beginning of the 20th century, but the imaginary lines and border lines drawn in that period without complying with the geographical, sociological and cultural realities are the source of political and military vulnerabilities today. For now, the way to overcome these vulnerabilities is seen as the observance of the rules of international law by all parties and economic/political regional cooperation.