The future of Afghanistan, whose independence depens on 'one man policy' (2)

As of November 14, 2001, the USA has largely completed the invasion process of Afghanistan and took the power from the Islamic State of Afghanistan (Persian State, Pashto Emirate is used) which is governed by the 'Taliban' in the person of Muhammad Omar with the theocratic, totalitarian state system. Afterwards, the American will, manifested in the shadow of the US soldiers, ruled the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan through the subcontracted Afghan government until August 15, 2021. In the current situation, with the capture of the capital Kabul, the Taliban have de facto regained control of Afghanistan. Time will tell if there will be a de jure government.

We see that the USA attaches importance to the establishment of a legitimate administration in the eyes of the people, even though it is an occupier on Afghan lands. As we mentioned in detail in our first article, with the Bonn Agreement signed on December 5, 2001 under the leadership of the UN, it was decided that security in Afghanistan would be established with a state-centered roadmap, and that new political and civilian institutions would govern Afghanistan with a new constitution to be prepared. In this context, the winner of the Afghanistan election held on October 9, 2004 was Hamid Karzai, who received 55.4% of the votes. The head of the Afghan interim government, Burhanuddin Rabbani, handed over his duties to the new President Karzai. Karzai remained in the Presidency until 2014, winning the elections held in August 2009. He handed over his duty to Eşref Gani Ahmedzay, who received more votes than the other candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, in the 5 April 2014 presidential election. Ghani ruled Afghanistan as president until August 15, 2021. Meanwhile, Abdullah Abdullah also served as prime minister under Ghani.

In this article, we want to examine who the former presidents of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani, known as the "men" of the USA, are and whom they serve.

Hamid Karzai

He was born on December 24, 1957 in Kandahar. He is Sunni of Pashtun origin. He is a member of a family that has a place in Afghan politics. His father and grandfather served as the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, and his uncle Habibullah Karzai served as the Afghanistan representative at the UN in the USA. Hamid Karzai moved to Pakistan with his family during the Soviet occupation. He received his academic education in political science and international relations at the University of Himachal Pradesh, India. He later served as a member of the US-backed Mujahideen group and a contractor working in Pakistan for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Meanwhile, his siblings immigrated to the United States and became American citizens. Over time, members of the Karzai family prospered with the numerous Afghan restaurant chains they opened on Chicago's east coast.

He served as Deputy Foreign Minister in Burhaneddin Rabbani government in 1992. With the Taliban coming to power, he conveyed his desire to serve as the UN representative of his country to the Taliban, but Mullah Omar did not accept this request due to his "untrustworthy personality". Thereupon, Karzai, who continued to live in Pakistan, made tours in Italy to persuade the exiled Zahir Shah to return to the country as a 'saviour', visited foreign missions, including the US embassy in Islamabad, and worked to support them for the resistance against the Taliban. . After his father was killed by the Taliban in July 1999, he increased his contacts with the Northern Alliance and went to the USA to find support for the Anti-Taliban Coalition. He made contacts with the USA and NATO countries to clear the Taliban and al-Qaeda from his country. He returned to his country in September 2001 and acted together with the groups that were fighting against the Taliban "under the protection of the members of the American Special Forces" until the arrival of the American soldiers.

In this period, Karzai, whose star was polished by the USA to become a dominant figure in Afghan politics; He can say that he has been in close contact with the USA since his university life and that he is "prepared" as one of the strongest candidates to lead Afghanistan in the future. As a matter of fact, in accordance with the Agreement signed at the Bonn Conference under the leadership of the United Nations, he became a member of the 29-member interim executive board and was elected as the interim head of state. Thus, he ruled Afghanistan for 13 years temporarily between December 22, 2001 and December 7, 2004, and then as the elected president of the country until September 29, 2014.

During his presidency, he tried to be a so-called local personality, which the international community saw as the "savior of Afghanistan", with his 'image' reflecting the clothing tradition of the local elements (Pashto style long dress, Tajik and Uzbek style robe, Penjir style karakul - skullcap made of lambskin). .

Karzai, about 75 million US dollars, received through the CIA, this money in the election campaigns and in general to maintain the American influence in Afghanistan.

The claims that he has distributed around him in a way that will serve the purpose of maintaining it still remain valid today.

Karzai, who has been in contact with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the Hizb-e-Islami party since 1988, was accused of "espionage" in the late 1990s and imprisoned. The militias affiliated with Hekmatyar, who are known to have close ties with the USA, abducted him from the prison where he was held. Karzai; As of August 17, 2021, he continues to work in Doha to establish an Afghanistan Interim Government with Hekmatyar and Abdullah Abdullah, in order to create an alternative to the Taliban.

Mohammed Ashraf Ghani Ahmedzai

He was born on May 19, 1949 in Logar, Afghanistan. He is Sunni of Pashtu origin. Eşref Gani studied at Lake Oswego High School (LOHS) in the USA as an international exchange student, sponsored by American AFS, between 1966-67. Gani, who won an American scholarship again for her undergraduate education, completed her undergraduate education in the field of Cultural Anthropology at the American University of Lebanon, Beirut. Here, Rula Saade, from a Lebanese Christian family, met and married, did not return to her country after school, settled in the USA with her family and became an American citizen. His son and daughter, who were born in the USA, still live in this country and hold US passports.

He continued to stay in the USA with the scholarship granted to him from Columbia University and completed his master's and doctorate studies in the field of "Cultural Anthropology" in this country. After graduating in 1983, he was invited to teach at the University of California, Berkeley. Between 1983-1991, he taught at Johns Hopkins University, USA, and conducted field studies in Pakistan in 1985 with a Fulbright scholarship. He also participated in BBC Persian and Pashto radio broadcasts in this period as an 'expert'.

In 1991, he began working as an anthropologist at the World Bank, which is known to serve predominantly US policies. He played an active role in the field of 'human dimension of economic plans', participating in the bank's programs in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Russia, China and India.

He resigned from his position at the World Bank in 2001. After 9/11, it started to appear in news programs and newspapers in the USA. He came to Afghanistan in the last months of 2001 and started to work as the Special Advisor to Ahdar Al Ibrahimi, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Afghanistan. After the Taliban, he took an active role in drawing the roadmap for the new government in Afghanistan, writing the Bonn Agreement draft, conducting and implementing the negotiations. During Karzai's interim administration, he played a role in the economic development of Afghanistan. Appointed as Karzai's senior adviser on February 1, 2002, he subsequently served as Minister of Finance and Chief International Aid coordinator until the end of 2004.

After Karzai's election as the head of state, Ashraf Gani Ahmedzai for some reason avoided taking part in Karzai governments and continued to stay in his country as the Rector of Kabul University. In 2005, he worked for the UN Development Programme, co-chaired with an American citizen the Institute for Ensuring State Effectiveness, which focuses on the role of the state in nation-building processes. In this period, this expectation of Ghani, who was considered to replace UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, did not come true.

Announcing that he had renounced his US citizenship in order to be a candidate in the Afghan elections in 2009, Gani, despite receiving the support of James Carville, who directed Clinton's election campaigns, could only be fourth by winning 3 percent of the votes after Hamid Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah and Ramazan Beşerdost. During Karzai's second term presidency, he conducted the negotiations as the most authorized person responsible for the transfer of Afghanistan's security responsibility from foreign powers to Afghan forces and supported Karzai.

Gani, who was placed in the 'fiftieth place' among the world's best thinkers by the Foreign Policy magazine published in the USA in 2013, was also ranked second by the British Prospect Magazine, thus, in a way, the USA and England began to prepare for the presidency. As a matter of fact, Gani, who was touted as a liberal policy; In the elections held in 2014, with the decision of the international election review commission established with American funds, he was able to 'win' the election against Dr. Abdullah. The US diplomatic mission, which stepped in here, did not neglect to ensure that Abdullah took place as the second man in the national unity government headed by Ghani. Likewise, it was announced on February 18, 2020, 11 days before the Taliban-US agreement that he won the 2019 elections amid various corruption allegations.

Ghani, who took refuge in the American embassy with his wife on Sunday, August 15, 2021, when the Taliban was seen on the streets of Kabul, ended his presidential adventure, which he started with American support, by taking refuge in the United States.

Conclusion

During the 20-year period of the USA, the giant who represented their own identity to Afghans Rather than heads of state, Karzai and Ahmedzai, two political figures who have been supported by American funds for years, openly or implicitly, have ensured that a structure that is in line with American rights and interests in Afghanistan survives. As Karzai does from time to time, "fake" statements made against the USA have no value in the general picture.

In the third of this series of articles on Afghanistan, we will share with you the role played by Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan, and Mullah Abdulgani Brother, who are the other key players of Afghan origin, and the story of the Taliban organization, which gained strength with the support of the USA.

Some of the references that we used in this article

Matthew Rosenberg (28 April 2013). "With Bags of Cash, C.I.A. Seeks Influence in Afghanistan". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 April 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2013.

Senator puts hold on some Afghan aid over Karzai "ghost money", [1] Archived 16 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Reuters, 17 June 2013

Rauofi N. (2019). “The Role of USA and Iran in Afghanistan Security After 2009”, Master Thesis, Sakarya University Middle East Institute, https://acikerisim.sakarya.edu.tr/bitstream/handle/20.500.12619/69319/T08516.pdf?sequence= 1&isAllowed=y, set25.8.2021.

Regional Agenda News. (2021). “Who is Ashraf Ghani? Where is he originally from, how old is he?”, 15 August, https://www.bolgegundem.com/esref-gani-kimdir-aslen-nereli-kac-yasindadir-1129950h.htm, s.e.t. 26.8.2021.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashraf_Ghani>, s.e.t. 25.8.2021.

Uslubaş F. (2010). From the Great Game to Chaos, the Taliban and Jihad in Eurasia, Ant Publishing, Ankara