Month: December 2020

From Tazi to Afghan Hound… from hunter’s friend to silken-haired pet

Kate Clark •

Winter is the time when Afghan hunters go up into the snowy mountains with their dogs, known as tazis. These are lean, graceful creatures who use speed and keen sight to catch their prey. To the outside world, they became known as the ‘Afghan hound’ after officers in the British colonial army brought individual dogs to London a […]

29 Dec 2020

Die Rückkehr der Taliban

Deutschlandfunk, 28 December 2020 Listen to a podcast (in German) on the situation in Taleban-controlled areas with journalist Wolfgang Bauer and AAN’s Thomas Ruttig. Bauer experienced that the Taleban felt like winners and were hardly willing to compromise. In Thomas Ruttig’s eyes, the Taleban have shown that they are capable of learning and that they are […]

28 Dec 2020

The Afghan Taliban’s Drones

The Diplomat, 22 December 2020 The Taleban have recently incorporated weaponised, commercially available drones into their arsenal. Franz Marty looks at how numerous, dangerous and effective they are – and finds their direct military “negligible” so far: So far, the impact of weaponized Taliban drones on the Afghan battlefield has been negligible, as there have […]

22 Dec 2020

Afghan Exodus: Migrants in Turkey left to fend for themselves

Christine Roehrs • Khadija Hossaini •

For Afghans seeking refuge or a new life in Europe, Turkey used to be a major migration transit hub. With routes through Turkey largely shut down after a refugee pact with the European Union in 2016, the country is now permanently hosting millions of refugees and migrants – among them possibly hundreds of thousands of […]

22 Dec 2020

Er infame magnetiske miner i stedet for gigantiske selvmordsbomber virkelig et godt tegn i en beskidt krig?

Politiken, 21 December 2020 Quotes from AAN’s Thomas Ruttig about the increased use of magnetic mines in terrorist attacks in Afghanistan in the leading Danish newspaper – but behind a paywall, so we can’t see them.

21 Dec 2020

Afghanistan: Wenn Warlords für die Regierung verhandeln

SRF1 (Swiss Radio), 20 December 2020 Listen to a 5min audio (in German), discussing the composition of the “Islamic Republic of Afghanistan” negotiations team in Doha, with quotes from AAN’s Thomas Ruttig and Mir Wais Wardak (PRTO, Kabul).

20 Dec 2020

COVID-19 has not left Afghanistan. But in Kabul, people are just ignoring it.

Business Insider, 19 December 2020 Former AAN colleague Ali Latifi’s reportage from Kabul.

19 Dec 2020

The CIA’s Afghan Death Squads

The Intercept, 18 December 2020 A short quote from AAN’s Fazal Muzhary in this reportage by Andrew Quilty: “Madrassas are mostly considered the epicenter of [the] Taliban,” said Fazal Muzhary of Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent research organization based in Kabul. 

18 Dec 2020

Corona kein Hinderungsgrund: Deutschland schiebt wieder nach Afghanistan ab

ARD, 17 December 2020 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted on the website of Germany’s leading TV news programme, Tagesschau, on the resumption of Germany’s deportation flights of rejected Afghan asylum seekers in the middle of the ongoing Corona crisis and high levels of violence: Thomas Ruttig vom Afghanistan Analysts Network kritisiert die Abschiebung – mitten […]

17 Dec 2020

Flüchtlinge: Abschiebung trotz Corona

Süddeutsche Zeitung, 15 December 2020 The German daily quotes “Afghanistan expert” Thomas Ruttig that the Afghan refugee ministry has confirmed the resumption of deportation flights for rejected Afghan asylum seekers from several European countries.

15 Dec 2020

Governance, violence, and aid: the donor–Taliban dilemma

ODI, 11 December 2020 The authors, Rahmatullah Amiri and Ashley Jackson, write as an intro to thi short paper: In the lead up to last month’s Geneva Conference, the EU ambassador to Afghanistan, Andreas von Brandt, lamented that the Taliban had failed to lower violence levels, and in doing so lost the opportunity to attend the donor […]

11 Dec 2020

Writer [Rahnaward Zaryab] Retreats to a Kabul That Lives Only in His Memories and Books

New York Times, 17 April 2015 In memory of Azam Rahnaward Zaryab, one of the leading modern Afghan writers, who passed away in Kabul today, on 11 December 2020, this is a portrait written in 2015 by Mujib Mashal.

11 Dec 2020