After decades of war and different stages of formation of a new government in Afghanistan, a parliament has finally begun its work with more than 249 elected members after a general election held on 18 September 2005.

As expected, Pashtoons made up the majority in Parliament, with Tajiks the second largest group and Hazar the thirdö Uzbeks fourth. Only four Turkmen members, representing more than 3 million of the 25 million citizens of Afghanistan, were elected.

According to local Turkmen leaders, this result was a surprise for many Turkmens, who had been represented by eight members of parliament some 50 years ago under the rule of Zahirshah in an elected parliament in the 1960s and 70s.

Turkmens, who live mostly in northern Afghanistan, are known as a peaceful nation who have managed to avoid taking part in internal conflicts. But soon after the result of the election were announced, they took to the streets of Kabul in protest for probably the first time in Afghan history.

According to Shayimmerdanqul Murady, a Turkmen journalist based in the Afghan capital of Kabul, ‘Turkmens were very enthusiastic during this election and put up 33 candidates, including two women, for parliamentary seats. But the unexpected loss raised a different kind of speculation in the Turkmen community, many saying the loss was the result of a lack of unity.’

Haji Gorban was one of the losing Turkmen candidates. In an interview with RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service, he raised questions about the reliability of the election process, asking ‘How could this election be controlled fairly by the armed forces of former commanders?’ But many local political activists believe this was only part of the reason for the poor performance of Turkmen candidates. According to them, more than low-level election fraud, the main reason was the lack of strong leadership, leading many of the candidates to be exploited by different groups for their own ends. Local Turkmen media sources highlighted especially the example of the Jawezjan province, where only one out of thirteen Turkmen candidates managed to gain a seat. Almost 70% of the population of this province is Turkmen, but the candidates were competing against each other, and lost the election in spite of winning tens of thousands of votes as third parties took advantage of their conflict, said local businessman Annamurat.
According to local news sources, the province of Qunduz, while other tribes were campaigning under the umbrella of a single party, each of the seven Turkmen candidates came to the election claiming to represent different non-Turkmen groups. Some were supported by Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostim, some by Tajik leaders and some even by Pashtoons and high-level officials of the Karzai administration, which caused them to divide the Turkmen vote.
So what next? ‘This is the question which worries many Turkmens,’ says Turkmen journalist Nadir Turkmen. Unlike other communities, as well as being a peaceable nation, Turkmens are mostly known as farmers living in isolated rural areas of the country. This has left them disunited, uneducated and somehow far from the center of power. They need urgent attention, but because of the tribal structure of the country, parliament (with only four Turkmen members out of the total of 249) is unlikely to make any difference in the lives of Turkmen people.
Unlike Mr Turkmen, some of the newly-elected Turkmen members of the parliament are talking in favor of unity despite their political background, saying it’s the time to work together.

In an interview with RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service, Turkmen member of parliament Shah Mardanqul from the Balkh province said ‘We are working on it, and planning to raise the issues of the problems
that Turkmen people face today.’

But their problems are enormous. They are completely enclosed by the borders of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, in an area which, because of its difficult location and lack of passable roads and safe passage, foreign NGOs are unlikely to visit. The Afghan government has so far been unable to address their problems, and they still urgently need educational institutions, equipment for farms and an easy and reliable way to take their products, such as carpets and fruit, to the market.

There are many villages in northern Afghanistan where there are no roads, electricity, bridges, transportation system, factories, no investment and no opportunities for employment. The survival of the people depends mostly on the farmlands, which are also suffering as water supplies in the main sources for irrigation canals such as the Panjshir and Amu Rivers are getting lower.

Published on:- The Journal of Turkish Weekly