Afghanistan
By Thulung at 19 January, 2009, 10:53 am
Afghanistan is a landlocked country in the southern Asia. Its area size is about 647,500 Sqkm, with the population of about 32 million. It is bordered with Turkmenistan, Uzebekistan and Tajikistan on the north and China on the extreme northeast, Pakistan on the east and south, and Iran on the west. High mountain range, called Hindu Kush, runs through the country, dividing Afghanistan into east and west, rising to the heights of 24,000 feet in the eastern part of the range. Most parts of the country is covered with snow-capped mountains and deep vallleys.
Afghanistan is made of Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Aimak, Turkmen, Baloch. Afghan peopel speaks: Dari Persian, Pashtu both are official langauge and Turkic. Kabul is the capital of Afghanistan with about 2.2 million living in the capital, other major cities are like Herat in the west, Kandahar in the south and Mazar-e sharif on the north. Afghanistan is world’s largest producer of opium.
Afghanistan came into being, when it was unified in the mid 1700s, later it became the battle ground for the control of central Asia between Russian Empire and the British Empire. In 1893, British established unofficial border, Durand line, separating British India from Afghanistan. Afghanistan was given full independence by the British in 1919.
The Democracy was short lived by 1973 coup and the communist counter-coup in 1978. Soviet Union (old Russia), invaded to support the faltering communist regime, the conflict went on until 1989, when Soviet Union withdrew due to continuous international pressure and the local anti communist fighters. After several civil wars, in 1996 Afghanistan fell to Taliban, the hard-line movement sponsored by Pakistan. Taliban government was only recognised by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia as a legitimate government of Afghanistan. But, after the 11 September 2001 attack in New York City, Pentagon and Pennsylvania - US Allied force, anti-Taliban Northern Alliance toppled the Taliban. In December 2004, Hamid Karzai was elected the President of Afghanistan. Today, though Afghanistan is ruled by democratic government, Taliban is still the challenge to the Afghan government, specially in the south and the east of the country.
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