Afghan Diplomat Zahir Tanin On The Golden Era Of Afghanistan: King Amanullah Was The Afghan Atatürk

On December 21, 2011, Afghan diplomat Zahir Tanin,[1] who at the time was permanent representative to the United Nations for Afghanistan, gave a speech at the Atatürk Symposium at the United Nations, describing the reign of the reformer Afghani King Amanullah Khan, who has been described as the Afghan Atatürk. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is the major political leader in modern Turkish history who founded the Republic of Turkey in 1923 following the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire and thereafter sustained a 15-year campaign of modernizing reforms until his death in 1938.

King Amanullah Khan, an ethnic Pashtun, is considered Afghanistan's national hero for winning the country's independence in the third Anglo-Afghan War with Great Britain in 1919. After defeating British rule, King Amanullah felt that it was his responsibility to bring Afghanistan onto the path of modernization. During King Amanullah Khan's rule, which lasted from 1919 to 1929, several reforms were implemented. First of all, in 1919, a year before women's suffrage in the U.S., women in Afghanistan were granted the right to vote. King Amanullah established the first Afghan constitution, penal code, and family code. He ended slavery and promoted a new dress code, which made mandatory the use of Western clothing for public workers, encouraged women not to wear the veil, and allowed them to be an integral part of society.

For King Amanullah, the role of women was central to the modernization of the country. He actually said that "the keystone of the future structure of the new Afghanistan will be the emancipation of women." Afghan diplomat Zahir Tanin reminded in his speech that King Amanullah's reforms were strongly influenced by the ideas of Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who was seen as an inspiration for the development of Afghanistan.

Tanin's speech, even though it was given in 2011, remains highly relevant, since it shows that Afghanistan's roots can be found not in Islamist ideology, but rather in King Amanullah's progressive reforms. Unfortunately, his reign did not survive. Unlike in Turkey, where Atatürk was able to tap into the uniting power of Turkish nationalism, Afghanistan was and remains "disadvantaged by a powerful and divisive tribal and religious elite opposing the reforms." In 1929, a popular uprising led King Amanullah to flee Afghanistan.

It is worth noting that King Amanullah then moved to Rome, Italy, where he died in 1960. According to media reports, King Amanullah "was said to have maneuvered to regain his throne with Nazi help during World War II."[2] However, the German reversal in Stalingrad in 1943, ended Amanullah's plans.[3]

Below is Zahir Tanin's speech:[4]

King Amanullah with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1928 (Source: Twitter.com)

Zahir Tanin (Source: Unmik.unmissions.org)

"Like Kemal Atatürk, King Amanullah Saw Modernization As The Way Forward"

"It is my honor to be here as a part of this symposium, celebrating Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. I would like to thank my respected friend Ambassador Apakan and the Turkish Mission for their coordination of the Third Annual Atatürk Symposium to remind us of the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and reflect on his long-lasting impact...

"I have a particular reason for being here. For us in Afghanistan, our journey toward modernization in the early 20th century is closely linked with that of Turkey, and to the ideas and aspirations of the Young Turks and Kemal Atatürk.

"With the gradual crumbling of the Ottoman Empire on the eve of the First World War, the Young Turks emerged as a major force within the empire. They profoundly influenced the thoughts of nationalist and modernist forces throughout the Muslim world. In Afghanistan, a progressive elite felt a close ideological kinship with the Young Turks, with particular influential elements in the Afghan ruling class seeing Turkey as a source of inspiration. Among them was Mahmud Tarzi, father-in-law of Afghanistan's next king, who had lived in the Ottoman Empire – in Syria – for a long time, and was known as the founder of modern nationalist ideology in Afghanistan. It was mainly through him that the influence of the Young Turks' and later, Kemal Atatürk's thinking came.

"In 1919, the new King, Amanullah Khan, ascended to the throne of Afghanistan. Influenced by the widely felt progressive aspirations of the time, mainly through Mahmud Tarzi and other members of a political movement of the time, the 'Young Afghans', he was a modernist, nationalist king, deeply committed to progress and change. The new King engaged in a historic struggle and managed to lead Afghanistan to full independence from Britain at the start of his reign. With Afghanistan's independence, King Amanullah devoted himself to securing Afghanistan's future. Like Kemal Atatürk, the King saw modernization as the way forward, and to him this meant westernization.

"However, King Amanullah's success in achieving independence made him a hero and rallying point for anti-colonial, nationalist and pan-Islamic movements across the Muslim world, particularly in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. But with Soviet Russia to the north and British India to the south, Afghanistan's geopolitical situation required a delicate balance. For the king to become a symbol of pan-Islamism would threaten this balance of powers, and it took a while to distance himself from championing the pan-Islamic cause and focus instead on reforms."

"The Keystone Of The Future Structure Of New Afghanistan Will Be The Emancipation Of Women"

"King Amanullah's reforms were broad. He ended slavery, established the first Afghan constitution, penal code and many important modern institutions aimed at building a society based on the rule of law. He embarked on a major education agenda, founding modern western-style schools and sending dozens of Afghan students abroad throughout Europe. He emphasized women's rights, saying that 'the keystone of the future structure of new Afghanistan will be the emancipation of women'; to this end he established the first family code. Queen Soraya [Tarzi] was the first First Lady in our part of the world that appeared in public without a veil or 'limited' veil. He particularly emphasized girls' education, constructing girls' schools and sending girls to France, Switzerland, and Turkey. King Amanullah began to modernize the basic health systems, communications infrastructure, as well as the Afghan army. Telephones, telegraphs, a postal service, numerous print media, radio broadcasting, the metric system, cars and airplanes were first introduced in Afghanistan at that time. Besides these substantive changes, under King Amanullah Afghanistan began to modernize socially and culturally as well. Some symbolic changes such as mandatory use of European clothing for public workers and other measures sent shockwaves through the country and the region. The many photographs of Afghans in western attire from the period are testament to the transformation that Afghanistan's culture was undergoing.

Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Queen Soraya Tarzi, and King Amanullah Khan, in Ankara, 1928. (Source: Trtworld.com)

Queen Soraya Tarzi (Source: Twitter.com)

"King Amanullah turned to other nations for support with his reform efforts –Soviet Russia, France, Germany, Italy, the USA, Japan, and even Britain – but more than anywhere else, he turned to the fledgling Republic of Turkey. Afghanistan became only the second country in the world to recognize the new Republic, with the 1921 Turkey-Afghanistan Alliance Agreement, signed in Moscow, even as Turkey was fighting to establish its independence. The Agreement reflected the full mutual trust that Turkey and Afghanistan shared, going so far as to give each a voice in the other's foreign policy, pledging not to enter into agreements with third parties without each other's consent.

"The Agreement ushered in a period of very close cooperation, as Turkey became integral to Afghanistan's development and modernization efforts. The Turks sent educational and military missions to Afghanistan. Turkey's future Chief of General Staff, Kâzim Pasha, helped train the Afghan army and its officers. Turkey helped build the civil service by sponsoring the first administrative school; got involved in Afghan girls' education and women's rights; and later set up the medical training program that became the nucleus of the future Kabul University. Turkey was also instrumental in the drafting of our first Constitution and laws in the 1920s."

Afghan women in 1927 (Source: Afghanistanonmymind.blogspot.com)

Afghan women in 1920s. (Source: Afghanistanonmymind.blogspot.com)

"Afghanistan Was Disadvantaged By A Powerful And Divisive Tribal And Religious Elite Opposing The Reforms"

"King Amanullah understandably saw Turkish involvement in Afghanistan as the key to progress, a manifestation of our shared aspirations for modernization and to end backwardness. And in many ways, the King's modernization project paralleled that of Kemal Atatürk. But Amanullah's program was not a non-religious one, and broke from the western secular-modernist model by maintaining a connection between religion, state and law.

"The debate between secular-modernism and the religious element is highly pertinent to today's world. The Al-Qaeda sort of religious extremists denounce the nation-state as un-Islamic and a 'blasphemous idol,' though the mainstream view in most Islamic countries is that secular-modernist reform is not inherently anti-Islamic or even non-religious. Rather, the key to modernization is simply modernity and modern values, as both King Amanullah's and Kemal Atatürk's reforms show – values such as freedom, rule of law, progress, prosperity and human rights.

"Where Atatürk's modern state survived, however, Amanullah's failed. When the King met Mustafa Kemal in Turkey in 1927, forming a strong personal connection, Atatürk is said to have advised him to always maintain the strong support of an army with which to resist counter-pressure from conservative forces. But the failure of the King's reforms was not due to the lack of a strong army or strong support from the army, or any anti-religious character of his reforms as claimed by his enemies. Rather, where Turkey could tap the uniting power of Turkic nationalism for the new Republic, Afghanistan was disadvantaged by a powerful and divisive tribal and religious elite opposing the reforms. But most importantly, Afghanistan's strategic location often made it a pawn in the game of international geopolitics, which has sadly undermined many of our past attempts to modernize, from King Amanullah's to the end of the Cold War...

"Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is often remembered as a great leader, revolutionary and modernizer. But we in Afghanistan also remember him as a true friend to our nation, and in this regard his legacy lives on..."