Mohammed Daoud Khan

In office
July 17, 1973 – April 27, 1978
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Nur Muhammad Taraki
Born	July 18, 1909 Kabul, Afghanistan
Died	April 28, 1978 Kabul, Afghanistan
Political party	National Revolutionary Party Image File history File links Mohammed_Daoud_Khan. ... July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 248 days remaining. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... Nur Muhammad Taraki (July 15, 1913 - September 14, 1979) was an Afghan political figure, amateur poet, and publicly-notorious revolutionary. ... July 18 is the 199th day (200th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 166 days remaining. ... 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... A view of the old city Kabul Kabul (, Kâbl, in Persian کابل) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan with a population variously estimated at 2 to 4 million. ... April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 247 days remaining. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... A view of the old city Kabul Kabul (, Kâbl, in Persian کابل) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan with a population variously estimated at 2 to 4 million. ...

Sardar Mohammed Daoud Khan[1] (July 18, 1909 – April 28, 1978), son of Sardar Mohammed Aziz Khan and grandson of Sardar Mohammed Yusuf Khan was an Afghan statesman and President of the Republic of Afghanistan from 1973 until his assassination in 1978 as a result of a revolution led by the quasi-Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Khan was known for his progressive policies, especially in relation to the rights of women, and for initiating two five-year modernization plans. His diplomatic relationship with the rest of the world is best summed up by his quote, "I feel the happiest when I can light my American cigarettes with Soviet matches." July 18 is the 199th day (200th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 166 days remaining. ... 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 247 days remaining. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... Daouds Republic (July 17, 1973 - April 28, 1978) The welcome Mohammed Daoud Khan received on returning to power on July 17, 1973 reflected the citizenrys disappointment with the lackluster politics of the preceding decade. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... It has been suggested that Revolutionary be merged into this article or section. ... Marxism refers to the philosophy and social theory based on Karl Marxs work on one hand, and to the political practice based on Marxist theory on the other hand (namely, parts of the First International during Marxs time, communist parties and later states). ... The Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan (in Persian: حزب دموکراتيک خلق افغانستان, in Pashto: د افغانستان د خلق دموکراټیک ګوند, PDPA) was a Soviet-aligned Revisionist party that ruled Afghanistan from 1978 to 1991 with the help of 12000 Russian troops. ...

Royal Prime Minister

He was appointed Prime Minister on September, 1953 in an intra-family transfer of power that involved no violence. His ten-year tenure was noted for the foreign policy turn to the Soviet Union, the completion of the Helmand Valley project, which radically improved living conditions in southwestern Afghanistan, and tentative steps towards the emancipation of women. A prime minister is the most senior minister of a cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. ...

By 1956, having been rebuffed by the US for both sales of arms and loans, and with the independence of the former parts of the British Empire in Southeast Asia, his government turned Afghanistan toward the Soviet Union. His main reason was to train both the Afghan Army and Afghan Air Force as a defense against provocations by the Pakistanis. The British Empire in 1897, marked in pink, the traditional colour for Imperial British dominions on maps. ...

His obsession with Pashtunistan and his hostility to Pakistan proved disastrous for the economy. Daoud supported the reunification of the Pashtun people under Afghanistan, but this would involve taking a considerable amount of territory from the new nation of Pakistan. Pashtunistan (Persian: پشتونستان) or Pakhtunistan (Persian: پختونستان), is what many Pashtun nationalists call the Pashtun-dominated areas of Pakistan. ...

With the creation of an independent Pakistan the Durand line had become an international border dividing the Pashtun people. The Durand Line is a term for the poorly marked 2,640 kilometer (1,610 mile) border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. ...

In 1961, to discourage Pashtun reunification efforts Pakistan closed its borders with Afghanistan causing a crisis and greater dependence on the USSR and the USSR became Afghanistan's principal trading partner. Within a few months, the USSR had sent jet airplanes, tanks, heavy and light artillery for a heavily discounted price tag of $25 million. This article refers to the tool of travel. ... Look up heavy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Historically, artillery refers to any engine used for the discharge of projectiles during war. ...

The crisis was finally resolved with the forced resignation of Daoud in March 1963 and the opening of the border in May.

In 1963 Zahir introduced a new constitution, for the first time excluding all members of the royal family from the council of ministers. He quietly stepped down.

President of the Republic

On July 17, 1973, Khan seized power from his cousin King Zahir. Departing from tradition, and for the first time in Afghan history, Daoud did not proclaim himself Shah, establishing instead a Republic with himself as President. July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... Mohammed Zahir Shah (born October 16, 1914) was the last King of Afghanistan from 1933 to 1973. ... Shah is an Iranian & Pakistani/Indian term in Persian language & Urdu (شاه), for a monarch (king or emperor), and has also been adopted in many other languages. ... In a broad definition, a republic is a state or country that is led by people whose political power is based on principles that are not beyond the control of the people of that state or country. ... Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (1861-1865) The majority of this article is about heads of states. ...

Democracy was curtailed and there was little public representation except through the now largely nominated Loya Jirga. A new constitution backed by a Loya Jirgah was promulgated in February 1977 but failed to satisfy all the factions.

Daoud sought to increase relationships and trade with other Muslim countries and made a tentative agreement with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on a solution to the Pashtunistan problem.

His administration and the army squelched a growing Islamic fundamentalist movement whose leaders fled to Pakistan. There they were supported by Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and encouraged to continue the fight against Daoud. These men --- Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Burhanuddin Rabbani, and Ahmad Shah Massoud --- would later be major leaders of the mujaheddin. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (January 5, 1928 - April 4, 1979) was a Pakistani politician who served as President, from 1971 to 1973, and as Prime Minister, from 1973 to 1977, of Pakistan. ... Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (born 1947 in Imam Saheb, Kunduz province, Afghanistan) is an Afghan warlord. ... Burhanuddin Rabbani (برهان الدين رباني) (born 1940), an ethnic Tajik, is a former President of Afghanistan and was political leader of the Northern Alliance of Afghanistan. ... Ahmed Shah Massoud (احمد شاه مسعود) (c. ... Mujahideen (مجاهدين; also transliterated as mujāhidīn, mujahedeen, mujahedin, mujahidin, mujaheddin, etc. ...

Any resistance to the new regime was suppressed. A coup against Daoud, which may have been planned before he took power, was subdued shortly after his seizure of power. In October 1973, Maiwandwal, a former prime minister and a highly respected former diplomat, died in prison at a time when Parchamis controlled the Ministry of Interior under circumstances corroborating the widespread belief that he had been tortured to death.

Reneging on his promise to make progressive reforms, he ran a repressive regime with hundreds of arrests and political executions of leftists (including members of the Parcham who had helped him gain power) and Islamists (religious extremists.)

He lessened the country's dependence on the Soviet Union and went to India, Saudi Arabia and newly-oil-rich Iran for aid. Surprisingly, he did not renew the Pashtunistan issue; relations with Pakistan improved thanks to interventions from the US and Iran.

The next year, he established his own political party, the National Revolutionary Party, which became the focus of all political activity. In January 1977, a loyal jirgah approved the constitution establishing a presidential, one party system of government.

Diplomatic Relations with the USSR

President Daoud met Leonid Brezhnev on a state visit to Moscow from April 12 to 15, 1977. He had asked for a private meeting with the Soviet Premier, to discuss with him the increased pattern of Soviet actions in Afghanistan. In particular the intensified Soviet attempt to unite the two factions of the Afghan communist parties, Parcham and Khalq. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev Russian: ; December 19 [O.S. January 1 1907] 1906 – November 10, 1982) was the effective ruler of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, though at first in partnership with others. ... A communist group in Afghanistan formed in 1967 by USSRs help. ... This article needs to be wikified. ...

Brezhnev described Afghanistan's non-alignment as important to the USSR and essential to the promotion of peace in Asia, but warned him about the presence of experts from NATO countries stationed in the northern parts of Afghanistan.

Communist Coup and Assassination

The April 19, 1978, the funeral for Mir Akbar Khyber, a prominent Parchami ideologue who had been murdered, served as a rallying point for the Afghan communists. An estimated 10,000 to 30,000 persons gathered to hear stirring speeches by PDPA leaders such as Nur Muhammad Taraki, Hafizullah Amin and Babrak Karmal. A communist group in Afghanistan formed in 1967 by USSRs help. ... Nur Muhammad Taraki (July 15, 1913 - September 14, 1979) was an Afghan political figure, amateur poet, and publicly-notorious revolutionary. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Babrak Karmal (January 6, 1929 - December 3, 1996) was the third President of Afghanistan (1979 - 1986) during the period of the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. ...

Shocked by this demonstration of communist unity, Daud ordered the arrest of the PDPA leaders, but he reacted too slowly. It took him a week to arrest Taraki, Karmal managed to escape to the USSR and Amin was merely placed under house arrest. According to later PDPA writings, Amin sent complete orders for the coup from his home while it was under armed guard using his family as messengers.

The army had been put on alert on April 26 because of a presumed "anti-Islamic" coup.

On April 27, 1978, a coup d'état beginning with troop movements at the military base at Kabul International Airport, gained ground slowly over the next twenty-four hours as rebels battled units loyal to Daud Khan in and around the capital. April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 248 days remaining. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... Kabul International Airport is located 16km (9miles) from Kabul, Afghanistan. ...

Daud Khan and most of his family were shot in the presidential palace the following day. His death was not publicly announced after the coup. Instead, the new government declared that President Khan had "resigned for health reasons."