Nur Muhammad Taraki Quotes

Nur Muhammad Taraki was an Afghan communist statesman during the Cold War who served as President of Afghanistan from 1978 to 1979. Taraki was born in Nawa, Ghazni Province and graduated from Kabul University, after which he started his political career as a journalist. He later became one of the founding members of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan and 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 first issue of Khalq, a party newspaper, but the government closed it down shortly afterward. Taraki led the Khalq wing of the PDPA. In 1978 he, Hafizullah Amin and Babrak Karmal initiated the Saur Revolution and established the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

Taraki's presidency was short-lived and marked by controversies. The government was divided between two PDPA factions: the Khalqists , the majority, and the Parchamites, the minority. He 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. Taraki launched a land reform on 1 January 1979 that proved highly unpopular. His regime also brutally locked up dissidents and oversaw massacres of villagers. 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.

Taraki's reign was marked by a dictator-like 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". 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, on Amin's orders. His death was a factor that led to the Soviet intervention in December 1979.

From the 1940s onward Taraki also wrote novels and short stories in the socialist realism style.



Wikipedia  

✵ 15. July 1917 – 8. October 1979
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Nur Muhammad Taraki: 10   quotes 1   like

Famous Nur Muhammad Taraki Quotes

“We want to create a society in which our workers and farmers can afford to appear in handsome attire and enjoy a good life and health; we want this kind of society.”

Speech August 1, 1978 http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1978/eirv05n35-19780912/eirv05n35-19780912_061-who_are_afghanistans_new_leaders.pdf.

“Everything will be all right. I know this room. Soldiers used to be quartered here. Now it's our turn.”

Said to his wife in the Presidential Palace, shortly before his assassination, as quoted in Rodric Braithwaite (2010) Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89, page 67.

Nur Muhammad Taraki Quotes

“You are the one who should quit! Because of drink and old age you have taken leave of your senses.”

Hafizullah Amin, as quoted in Nabi Misdaq (2006) Afghanistan: Political Frailty and External Interference, page 125.
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