Nur Muhammad Taraki

Nur Muhammad Taraki
Nur Muhammad Taraki
نور محمد ترکی
	Taraki, c. 1978–79
General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan
	In office; 1 January 1965 – 14 September 1979
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Hafizullah Amin
Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of Afghanistan
	In office; 30 April 1978 – 14 September 1979
Preceded by	Mohammed Daoud Khan (as President)
Succeeded by	Hafizullah Amin
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Afghanistan
	In office; 1 May 1978 – 27 March 1979
Preceded by	Position established; Mohammad Musa Shafiq (as Prime Minister, 1973)
Succeeded by	Hafizullah Amin
Personal details
Born	14 July 1917; Nawa, Ghazni Province, Emirate of Afghanistan
Died	9 October 1979 (aged 62); Kabul, Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
Manner of death	Assassination by suffocation
Political party	People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (Khalq)
Spouse	Nur Bibi
Profession	Politician, journalist, writer

Nur Muhammad Taraki (Pashto: نور محمد ترکی‎; 14 July 1917 – 9 October 1979) was an Afghan revolutionary communist politician, journalist and writer. He was a founding member of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) who served as its General Secretary from 1965 to 1979 and Chairman of the Revolutionary Council from 1978 to 1979.

Taraki was born in Nawa, Ghazni Province, and he got his primary and secondary education from district pishin currently in Balochistan Pakistan graduated from Kabul University, after which he started his political career as a journalist. From the 1940s onward Taraki also wrote novels and short stories in the socialist realism style.^[1] Forming the PDPA at his residence in Kabul along with Babrak Karmal, he was elected as the party's General Secretary at its first congress. He ran as a candidate in the 1965 Afghan parliamentary election but failed to win a seat. In 1966 he published the Khalq, a party newspaper advocating for class struggle, but the government closed it down shortly afterward. In 1978 he, Hafizullah Amin and Babrak Karmal initiated the Saur Revolution and established the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

Taraki's leadership was short-lived and marked by controversies. The government was divided between two PDPA factions: the Khalqists (led by Taraki), the majority, and the Parchamites, the minority. Taraki along with his "protégé" Amin started a purge of the government and party that led to several high-ranking Parchamite members being sent into de facto exile by being assigned to serve overseas as ambassadors, and later started jailing domestic Parchamites. His regime locked up dissidents and oversaw massacres of villagers, citing the necessity of Red Terror by the Bolsheviks in Soviet Russia, that opponents of the Saur Revolution had to be eliminated.^[2] These factors, among others, led to a popular backlash that initiated a rebellion. Despite repeated attempts, Taraki was unable to persuade the Soviet Union to intervene in support of the restoration of civil order. Amin initiated most of these policies behind the scenes.^[3]

Taraki's reign was marked by a cult of personality centered around him that Amin had cultivated. The state press and subsequent propaganda started to refer to him as the "Great Leader" and "Great Teacher", and his portrait became a common sight throughout the country.^[4] His relationship with Amin turned sour during his rule, ultimately resulting in Taraki's overthrow on 14 September 1979 and subsequent murder on 8 October,^[5] on Amin's orders, with Kabul press reporting that he died of illness. His death was a factor that led to the Soviet intervention in December 1979.

^ Shaista Wahab & Barry Youngerman, A Brief History of Afghanistan, Infobase Publishing (2007), p. 137
^ "The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World".
^ The Intervention in Afghanistan and the Fall of Detente: A Chronology
^ Edwards, David B. (2002). Before Taliban. Genealogies of the Afghan Jihad. University of California Press. p. 72. ISBN 0-520-22861-8.
^ Hafeez, Malik (1994). Soviet-Pakistan Relations and Post-Soviet Dynamics, 1947–92. Springer. p. 263. ISBN 978-1-349-10573-1.

[1] Shaista Wahab & Barry Youngerman, A Brief History of Afghanistan, Infobase Publishing (2007), p. 137

[2] "The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World".

[nsarchive2.gwu.edu-3] The Intervention in Afghanistan and the Fall of Detente: A Chronology

[4] Edwards, David B. (2002). Before Taliban. Genealogies of the Afghan Jihad. University of California Press. p. 72. ISBN 0-520-22861-8.

[5] Hafeez, Malik (1994). Soviet-Pakistan Relations and Post-Soviet Dynamics, 1947–92. Springer. p. 263. ISBN 978-1-349-10573-1.

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