Republic of Afghanistan

In July 1973, while the last king of Afghanistan, Mohammed Zahir Shah was in Italy undergoing eye surgery as well as therapy for lumbago, his cousin and brother-in-law, the former Prime Minister Mohammed Daoud Khan staged a coup d'état and established a republican government. Daoud Khan had been forced to resign as prime minister by Zahir Shah a decade earlier.[3] The king abdicated the following month rather than risk an all-out civil war.[3]

After seizing power, President Mohammed Daoud Khan established his own political party, the National Revolutionary Party. This party became the sole focus of political activity in the country. In January 1977, a loya jirga was convened following the Constitutional Assembly election, and approved a new constitution establishing a presidential one-party state, with political opposition being suppressed, sometimes violently.[2]

Also in 1973, former Prime Minister of Afghanistan Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal was accused of plotting a coup, though it is unclear if the plan was actually targeting the new republican government or the by then abolished monarchy. Maiwandwal was arrested and allegedly committed suicide in jail before his trial, but widespread belief says he was tortured to death.[2]

After Daoud's 1973 establishment of the Afghan Republic, members of the People's Democratic Party (PDPA) were given positions in the government.[4] In 1976, Daoud established a seven-year economic plan for the country. He started military training programs with India and commenced economic development talks with Iran. Daoud also turned his attention to oil rich Middle Eastern nations such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait among others for financial assistance.[2]

But during Daoud's presidency, relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated. They saw his shift to a more Western-friendly leadership as dangerous, including Daoud's criticism of Cuba's membership in the Non-aligned Movement and Daoud's expulsion of Soviet military and economic advisers. The suppression of political opposition furthermore turned the Soviet-backed PDPA, an important ally in the 1973 coup against the king, against him.[2]

Daoud in 1978 had achieved little of what he had set out to accomplish. The Afghan economy had not made any real progress and the Afghan standard of living had not risen. Daoud had also garnered much criticism for his single party constitution in 1977 which alienated him from his political supporters.

When Afghans by 1978 had grown disappointed with the "do nothing" Daoud government, the PDPA government officials alone were identified by some with economic and social reform.[4] By this time, the two main factions of the PDPA, previously locked in a power struggle, had reached a fragile agreement for reconciliation. Communist-sympathizing army officials were by then already planning a move against the government. According to Hafizullah Amin, who became Afghan head of state in 1979, the PDPA had started plotting the coup in 1976, two years before it materialized.[2]

Day after Saur revolution in Kabul.

The PDPA seized power in a military coup in 1978 which is best known as the Saur Revolution.[5] On April 27, troops from the military base at Kabul International Airport started to move towards the center of the capital. It took only 24 hours to consolidate power, with the rapid push including an air raid on the presidential palace and insurgent army units quickly seizing critical institutions and communication lines. Daoud and most of his family were executed the following day.[6]

Nur Muhammad Taraki, General Secretary of the PDPA, was proclaimed Chairman of the Presidium of the Revolutionary Council and effectively succeeded Mohammed Daoud Khan as head of state. He simultaneously became head of government of the newly established Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.[6]