Turkmen in Afghanistan form a New Party

A group of Afghan Turkmen social, cultural, and political figures announced formation of a new first time party called the ‘Afghanistan National Justice Party’.

Mohammad Isa Misbah has been appointed as the head of this political structure. He told the BBC Pashto that he is trying to negotiate with the Taliban government.

The party's leadership members reside in different countries. Allah Nazar Nazari Turkmen and Shagofa Farhang have been elected as the party's deputies.

Mr. Misbah also said that for years, the Turkmen of Afghanistan have been deprived of education, lacked cadres, and faced discrimination or discriminatory treatment because they want the rights of the Turkmen and other ethnic groups.

Several Turkmen activists told the BBC that the formation of this party could help open up the environment for dialogue and bring the tribes closer together, which is severely limited under the current structure of the Taliban government.

The ruling Islamic movement of Taliban have in the past declared political parties non-Islamic. Therefore, it’s not clear yet how they see this new political party.

The role of Turkmens and Uzbeks in Afghanistan's political structure until the mid-20th century was very limited. They claim to have faced systematic discrimination.

Turkmen political participation increased during the leftist governments of the 1980s, and some Turkmen figures held government positions and entered political processes, but this presence rarely found its way to higher levels of decision-making.

During the two decades of the US-backed Afghan government, Turkmen ministers were in many cabinets, with Turkmen figures becoming ministers of education, refugees, and hajj and religious affairs. Turkmen representatives were also in the lower and upper houses of parliament. However, during the second term of Mohammad Ashraf Ghani’s presidency, Turkmens had no representation in the cabinet nor did they play a significant role in the lower house.

The Turkmen are from Central Asia and they live in northern Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, the Central Asian countries, and even parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan. They are considered an Oghuz branch of the Turkic people. Their language is Turkmen, a branch of the Turkic-Oghuz language family, which belongs to the Ural-Altaic language family.