Why in Afghanistan there is a desire to move the capital to Kandahar?

Former Vice President of Afghanistan Amrullah Saleh gave sensational news. According to him, the Taliban intends to move the country's capital from Kabul to Kandahar "without any prior notification”.

According to Saleh's idea, Kabul should become the administrative capital. And in Kandahar, located in the south of the country, the Supreme Council of Ulemas will be located.

The transfer of the capital in any state is an extraordinary event. It is caused either by the desire to give an impetus to the selected region, or by security reasons. An example of the former is Kazakhstan: the transfer of its capital to Astana gave an impetus to the development of the centre of the country. Kyrgyzstan can be an example of the latter: recently, the governor of its Jalal-Abad region, Iskenderbek Aidaraliyev, called for the transfer of capital functions to southern Osh — otherwise "the state may disappear by itself”.

And how is it in Afghanistan?

To begin with, the Taliban, the main backbone of which are Pashtuns, may not retain power in multi-ethnic Kabul. It is opposed by the Tajiks, the second largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, and partly by the Baluchis.

Within the movement itself, there is a struggle between confessional beliefs and Pashtun nationalism. Fundamentalists, advocating the continuation of the "Islamic revolution", deny border problems between Muslim peoples. Therefore, if the capital is moved to Kandahar, where the majority of Pashtuns live, it will mean that Pashtun nationalists have won in the "Taliban".

In case of defeat in Kabul, they can proclaim an independent Pashtunistan with the centre in the same Kandahar, unleashing disintegration processes in multinational Afghanistan. This can also cover neighbouring Pakistan. Thus, opposing both Kabul and Islamabad, Pashtun nationalism is turning - along with Kurdish one - into a new and very serious factor in the political life of the Middle East.

It should be recalled that the first Afghan state was created by the Pashtuns in 1747, although other peoples lived in Afghanistan before and now: Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Hazaras and others. Pashtuns are, so to speak, "the salt of the Afghan land”. They created this state, their leaders, and as a rule, governed this state.

There were only two cases of departure from traditions. In 1929, the British brought to power the so-called "Bacha-ye Saqao" ("Son of a water carrier"), an ethnic Tajik. Two years later, he was overthrown and hanged in the centre of Kabul. And in 1979, Babrak Karmal, also a Tajik, the leader of the Parcham wing of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, was brought to power by us. Nothing good came of it — eventually, he was replaced by Pashtun Najibullah.

It is difficult to say what will happen this time. So far, it is clear that in the "Taliban" the Pashtun-Islamist synthesis is falling apart. Nationalists, descendants of those who created the Afghan state, can abandon it in the name of an ethnically homogeneous country. Everything is heading exactly towards this.