Will the Taliban bring peace to Afghanistan?

Baku/19.08.21/Turan: The latest developments in Afghanistan are still dominating news headlines. As viewed by analysts, the ongoing political crisis will create migrant problems for many neighboring countries and even for Europe. Also, there are concerns that radicalism and anti-western rhetoric will increase.

What does the Taliban's seizure of Afghanistan imply for the Central Asia and the world as a whole? What countries are ready to cooperate with the Taliban in Afghanistan? Will the Taliban bring peace to a country that has been at war for nearly 50 years?

Asked about the situation above, Anar Mammadli who had repeatedly been a member of the election observation mission in Afghanistan, answers these and other questions in the "Difficult Question" program.

According to him, the reason that the Taliban succeeded in seizing power in Afghanistan just in 9 days are years-long unresolved issues of the country, including in the state construction, gross miscalculations in the security area, etc. Among the main problems is the legitimacy of the political leadership. This challenged faced both the governments of Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani. The issues above arise from the lack of support from the people and the army included. It should be added that since 2004, the elections have been accompanied by serious violations of the law. Thus, there is a serious gap between the people and the authorities.

As viewed by the analyst, western countries, and mostly the United States, have shown distrust to local leaders, for instance, Prime Minister Abdullah Abdullah. This clearly manifested itself in the fact that during the talks in Doha (Qatar), the United States acted not as an intermediary between official Kabul and the Taliban, but as a party. At the same time, Washington did not see  it fit to inform the government of Ashraf Ghani about results of the talks, invariably putting him before the fact of decision-making  without his participation. Naturally after all that, the Taliban ceased considering with Kabul and was set to talk with Washington only.

Also, Mammadli pointed out that the Pashtuns are the dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan, therefore the West, in an attempt to preserve the territorial integrity of the country, ignoring interests of other ethnic groups, contributed to the fact that they were disproportionately represented in the power structures.

All these and many other factors led to the fact that the population had no motivation to protect the Kabul regime.

According to the expert, the Taliban has also changed. At least, as compared to its first advent, the movement's rhetoric has changed significantly - the Taliban is seeking to show that it poses no threat to the citizens of the country and, most importantly, to the neighboring countries. Moreover, today we see that the Taliban has integrated representatives of other ethnic groups into their ranks and even included their leaders into the governing bodies of the movement.

At present, the Taliban controls about 90% of Afghanistan; however, this notwithstanding, the movement is expected to face opposition. "It has already begun: fierce fighting with the Taliban is underway in Jalalabad and Panjer," Mammadli noted.

A question arises:will the countries worldwide accept the Taliban government? According to the expert, many governments de facto recognize it.—0—