Youth, National Unity, and Sustainable Peace: A Vision for an Independent and People-Centered Afghanistan

Loya Jirga Hall 

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

The First Lady of the country, respected youth, all attendees of the gathering, and Afghan generations, compatriot sisters and brothers; First of all, I offer you the gift of the leader of humanity; Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings!

Today is the beginning and the momentum of a national discourse and a fundamental shift in national narratives so that our lofty national goal, which is sustainable peace, can be secured. First, today the young generation of Afghanistan has moved from slogans to action; they always used to tell you that the future, today, and tomorrow belong to you.

The young generation of Afghanistan cannot wait for someone in the future to secure competence, credibility, and status for them. Today, this is in your capable hands. Your voice is resonant, your logic is reasoned, your will is firm, and your roadmap is clear. Today belongs to you, and Afghanistan is proud of you, the young generation, women and men.

Key Pillars of the National Discourse

I saw four fundamental points in your vision today. First; the peace process made our entire process, national discourse, and national narrative youth-centric. What does this mean? You represent the absolute majority of the people of Afghanistan. Do not give the right to represent you back to those who have repeatedly failed in representing you; represent yourselves.

Second; your discourse is women-centric. I am proud of the massive and constructive presence of Afghan women. Anyone who thinks they can throw Afghan women back into a cage should think again. The Afghan woman will not go back to a cage. The Afghan woman is a Muslim woman and demands the exact same rights that Bibi Khadija and Bibi Aisha had. If anyone can claim that their interpretation of our holy religion takes precedence over the biography of the Prophet (PBUH) and his noble companions, they should think again.

Third; 34 provinces of Afghanistan have gathered here today with one voice and represent this great, indivisible, and unbreakable nation—a committed and magnificent nation that has thousands of years of history. Our youth's anthem captured the entire essence; you have seen me, my own blood has not brought me to tears, but the voice of our youth depicting national unity has brought tears of joy to my eyes.

Fourth; your vision is future-oriented. You are a generation that understands all the problems of the past forty years because you were born in conditions of blood and gunpowder, displacement, and forced migration; but today you have one message: that no repetition of the bitter past is acceptable. Anyone who thinks they can make Afghans refugees again, displace millions of Afghans, and plunge Afghans into war should think again. We want friendship with everyone; but a friendship that secures our independence, dignity, and honor.

Demanding Sovereign Leadership

We want neither Shah Shuja, nor Amir Muhammad Yaqub Khan who signed the Treaty of Gandamak! We want Ghazi Amanullah Khan, we want the Great Ahmad Shah Abdali, we want Mirwais Nika, we want Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi! If anyone thinks they will make Ashraf Ghani sign another Treaty of Gandamak, my blood will be spilled, but I will never commit such a shameful act! What do you think? Is it not our intention to complete the unfinished chapter? And as Souhrab Jan said, with you, this chapter will be completed. Whether they do this or do that, we will make this field green!

Another point of mine is thanks and appreciation. First; every time I meet with you, my energy multiplies. Only sometimes the youth complain, why sixteen hours? Ten hours is better; but sixteen hours is because we wasted forty years of our lives. If I work sixteen hours, it is because others did not work two hours.

Second; in your faces, desires, and hopes, I see my national responsibility. You focus my sense of responsibility; therefore, everything that belongs to our peace and future, I look at every single word of it from the perspective of your fifty years, not my fifty days. Death is a right, death is closer than the jugular vein—it is a prophetic Hadith—but individual death differs from collective death. No responsible individual in Afghanistan has the permission to endorse the collective suicide of the people of Afghanistan, and from this perspective, you make my will to secure national interests multiple times stronger.

If a guest, youth, elder, or scholar comes to the Arg (Presidential Palace) and is not respected, I burn with anger, because I am not a king, I am the servant of the people; the Arg must be a place of respect! The point is that representing national interests in these critical conditions requires prudence, requires will, requires steadfastness, and requires patience.

I want to express my gratitude for the contribution of each and every one of you, and because Souhrab Jan took a special effort on behalf of all of you, the Medal of Sayed Jamaluddin Afghan is awarded to Souhrab Jan today. Likewise, we thank all the colleagues who managed this great gathering very prudently and with good organization, and we ask Souhrab Jan to propose the list of individuals for appreciation.

Sustainable Peace vs. Transitory Peace

The second topic of my discussion is our goal. What is our national goal? Sustainable peace. From this perspective, it is necessary that I present a few words from international experiences to you. First, the bitter truth is that fifty percent of international peace treaties have turned into wars more intense than the wars they ended within five years—fifty percent. What was the reason? They hurried, they placed a mud-brick on the mud and crossed the water. The people paid the price. International institutions do not have a successful experience. They proposed hundreds of mediators in hundreds of places. How sustainable were their results? The clear necessity is that the goal of sustainable peace must gain the trust of the nation; for this reason, peace is not signed at midnight behind closed doors by minorities.

Peace must take place in broad daylight by the nation of Afghanistan and our partners—and we thank our international partners who have been and remain partners—and we must reach a conclusion with the region. Our war is not one-dimensional such that if we reach an agreement with the Taliban tomorrow, the entire war closes; we must manage the different dimensions of war so that the dimensions of peace are secured.

Transitory peace is not acceptable. What are the characteristics of transitory peace? First, it is minority-centric. Neither youth have a role in it, nor women, nor scholars; a small minority gives itself the authority to represent great nations. Who elects them? If minorities reach an agreement among themselves—currently, does complete agreement exist among smugglers regarding the drug trade or not? Did they stop smuggling in the worst conditions of war? In the criminal economy, does agreement exist among the ruling minorities or not? But here it must be clear that minority-centric peace, which secures the interests of a limited few, sacrifices the interests of the majority.

Second; the characteristic of transitory peace is that it divides and weakens national institutions. Bring a clear division that ministries and provinces are divided this way, revive feudalism. Do you want feudalism or an effective government? Do you see your future in an effective government or in fragmented power? A disgraced Afghanistan or a dignified Afghanistan?

Third, the criminal economy was strengthened in all transitory peaces; look at the Balkans. Today, even in the most successful peace process, the peace of Colombia, cocaine reached the sky, and here specifically it is the weakening of security, defense, legal, and judicial institutions. Because after that, instead of the rule of law coming, the rule of individuals comes. In short, transitory peace weakens national authority and places national assets at the disposal of criminal circles.

Do you want Afghanistan's minerals to be the means of its prosperity or to be monopolized in the hands of a few neighbors? The necessity is clear that we must differentiate between transitory peace and sustainable peace. In sustainable peace, the interests of the absolute majority of the nation are considered. The legitimate democratic system is the decision-maker. National institutions and authority are strengthened. True peace and reconciliation based on the equality of every Afghan with every other Afghan, and the future of the young generation and women of Afghanistan becomes secure. The scholars of Afghanistan become dignified, and all strata and ethnicities become brothers together as one.

Source of Democratic Legitimacy

My third point is about responsibility and legitimacy. What is the source of legitimacy? The free will of the nation! Did I come on some foreign tank to enter the Arg? Did I have some militia to capture the Arg? Did I have wealth or force? I chose you because of your brains! A youth told me: there are so many khans, but your brain is in the service of the homeland! So come, let us talk about legitimacy. Others who talk, when the Taliban say that I am not legitimate: What is the source of your legitimacy? Which day did you hold elections in this land? Which day did you listen to the will of the nation? If you say that the source of your legitimacy is Sharia, then did the scholars of Indonesia, the scholars of Afghanistan, and the scholars of Saudi Arabia not tell you in one voice that suicide attacks and explosions have no place in religion? What is the source of legitimacy? Come and tell this nation, apart from committing suicide attacks and explosions, what is your other source? If that were the case and we did not have the will for peace, we would have called you by a hundred names. We looked at you with respect, again the will of the people of Afghanistan looked at you with respect, why are you afraid of elections? There are elections in the month of Saratan.

Are there no elections in the month of Saratan? Are you afraid of this, that you cannot compete with me in the elections? If you can, then here is the yardstick and here is the field! Come, every Afghan girl, every Afghan youth, and every member of the security and defense forces of Afghanistan will secure your safety in the elections. Come and tell the people of Afghanistan, what is your future vision?

Differentiate between individual responsibility and the responsibility of the position of the presidency. Madness did not stir from this. What is collective responsibility? On the day of Eid al-Adha, you witnessed collective responsibility. Were rockets raining down or not? Did your President move from his spot? The PPS (Presidential Protective Service) colleagues came saying go here, go there, go to that place. I told them [pointing to the presidential guards]:

This is not America, this is not Europe that the President of Afghanistan should not accept the risk of death; what superiority does my blood have over my soldier, over my officer, over my general? I accept national risk every day! You saw that the speech podium was shaking because rockets were coming, but did the voice of your President shake? What is the reason? There is a proverb that says: if you do not exist, let the world not exist. In my position as the presidency, if Afghanistan does not exist, let myself not exist! It is this Afghanistan that has given us dignity; we have all seen the pain of migration, all have seen the pain of indignity; my responsibility is not that of an individual, it is to protect the dignity of this land.

Keys to War and Peace

The key to peace, from the perspective of intellect, is in Kabul. And Dr. Khalilzad, the key to peace being in Kabul means that we have a plan—we have a practical plan, a principled plan, and a comprehensive plan! But the key to war is in Islamabad, it is in Rawalpindi, it is in Quetta. In these four and a half years, whom have I attacked? Where have I sent Afghanistan's forces to destroy another country? Have I fired upon others? Have I plotted the assassination of the leaders of other countries? I have told them that a stable Afghanistan is to the benefit of you all. So a clear distinction must be made here. The authority and responsibility of the President of Afghanistan are in the hands of the people of Afghanistan. The Constitution of Afghanistan has determined these boundaries.

Does the Constitution of Afghanistan allow me to deviate from the rule of law? To deviate from the oath I administered on the day of the presidency? Clarity must come here. I am not just an individual to sit on television and talk. The day you made me President, you took personal taste and personal will away from me. Now, I am solely the representative of national authority, national will, and national movement.

Defining Questions for the Nation

I have a few questions for you and the entire nation:

Do you want a sustainable peace or a transitory peace? We are thirsty for a peace that arrives through momentum, prudence, and at the earliest opportunity, but it must be sustainable so that your children do not fall victim again. Has this forty years of displacement, migration, and misery been the result of a weak state or not? Therefore, my question is, should peace transform into a strong and constitutional government that possesses strong institutions, or into a weak state that is influenced by every neighbor, telling it to jump and the state asking, "How many meters?" Do you want Afghans to be under the thumb of ill-intentioned people who dictate how many meters you should jump, or do you want to write your own destiny?

Do you want a state connected to the entire world that exemplifies national authority, will, and dignity, where the Afghan passport is respected? Or do you want a situation where whenever anyone sees an Afghan passport, God forbid, they throw it away and step on it? Are you tired of humiliation or not? Do you want dignity? From an economic standpoint, do you want the abundant resources that Allah (SWT) has granted us to be utilized for the benefit of the entirety of the nation or not?

Challenging the Taliban's Autonomy

I have a few questions for the Taliban. Taliban! Is your authority your own or does it belong to foreigners? Please answer this question. Today, foreigners say that they brought you to the negotiating table by force. Whose authority do you carry? Come and tell this nation whether you have authority or not. Have others prepared your roadmap for negotiations, or did you prepare it yourselves? Come forward then. We also have allies, legitimate allies, but as Souhrab Jan told you, look at how I speak with them. If they hold you at the airport so you cannot leave, and another time they allow you to go, under what conditions do you accept this back-and-forth? Is it an honor for you that a foreign country hands you a roadmap, or is our honor found in sitting down with fellow Afghans and building a joint roadmap together? I ask you this very question, and you should ask yourselves too: why do some foreigners tell you not to speak with President Ghani? What have I done to them? Are they afraid because I reclaimed authority over Afghanistan's waters, reclaimed authority over Afghanistan's pine nuts, and reclaimed authority over Afghanistan's development? At least ask this much! If I had bowed my head or gone to them begging for peace, these very neighbors would have taken pride in me, but I want the pride of the nation, I do not want the pride of foreigners!

What am I telling you? What I am saying to you is very simple. Together, you and we can build Afghanistan. How many women have been widowed? How many children have been orphaned? How many villages and schools have been burned? Attacks are carried out on hospitals and highways—for what purpose? Swear an oath, O Taliban! Did they tell you, "Make sure you do not give us control over the waters"? Did they tell you, "Do not touch the mines, do not develop them, and leave them to us," or not? Come, let us talk. Sustainable peace exists, it is possible, and it is necessary. We can achieve it; come and bring pride to your Afghan identity.

We speak to the world with logic, reasoning, and based on mutual interests. Did I not remove more than one hundred thousand international soldiers? It is not a difficult task. Our goal must be to build our pleasant and beautiful Afghanistan, and its prosperity is in our hands. War is not the solution. For what have we gained from war? Furthermore, if the security and defense forces of Afghanistan do not exist, there is no dignity for Afghanistan. Do you think these defense and security forces of Afghanistan sacrifice their lives every day just for 15,000 or 30,000 Afghans? This is a sign of love for this homeland.

Sisters... [pointing to the seated women] when sisters become doctors, if the daughter of any Afghan dies, is it not like the light of their eyes has died? What is the reason behind all of this? The reason is that they did not allow women to become doctors. You complain about teachers lacking education. Where do we find all this? My main message is that we have come close; come, let us take a step. Why have we come close? If it was a matter of legitimacy, why did you accept the ceasefire? What Islamic legal justification exists today that did not exist that day? Once you accept something once, the door breaks open. We have said every day: unconditional negotiations, but conditional peace. What is our condition? Sustainable peace! I am passing, you are passing, every human being is passing, but we must build a path where this great young generation and the older generation of Afghanistan protect the dignity of this land together.

In the dignity of Afghanistan lies the dignity of every Afghan, and in its disgrace lies the ruin of every Afghan and every part of the country.

Electoral Integrity and Democratic Reforms

We have reached a point where, Inshallah, peace will come. Peace is coming, and let no one doubt our will; but at the same time, we must make it clear that Afghanistan's presidential election must take place. All respected candidates should present their peace proposals to the nation and sketch out the fundamental pillars of Afghanistan's future for you.

I want the election results to be announced transparently within one to two days, and I do not accept any kind of corruption, interference, or tampering.

Extensive reforms are coming to the commissions, because they lost their credibility before the people of Afghanistan. There is consensus on one thing: we met with the entire political spectrum, civil society institutions, and election observers, and no one trusts these two commissions. The law will be amended, and changes will be made based on consultation so that management becomes clear and responsible, and all votes must be biometric votes, counted and completed on the same day so that the nation of Afghanistan understands its future. For the sake of sustainable peace, whichever day provides an opportunity, we are ready for serious and comprehensive decisions. Because this is the command of Allah (SWT): "And settlement is best" (Chapter An-Nisa, Verse 128). The Pashto and Dari translation of this is not just that peace is merely good. It is a command to do good work; therefore, no one can say anything if the conditions are met—if they are met tomorrow, we are ready tomorrow, if the next day, the next day. But this is a matter of the system's legitimacy, and it must be secured, and we must essentially get to know one another within the framework of negotiations. We have been divided into pieces and have gone down different paths; we must find a united way forward, and Inshallah, we will find this approach.

National Vision and Youth Inclusivity

My final point, with the utmost respect and gratitude, concerns your proposals. The centenary of Afghanistan's independence is ahead of us. In this year, all historical monuments of the Amany era will be restored, from Darul Aman to the palaces of Paghman and Jabal al-Seraj, and all of these palaces will be gifted to the nation of Afghanistan. These are not anyone's personal palaces; but our most principal focus must be to have a clear roadmap for a self-reliant, free, developed Afghanistan possessing sustainable peace in the hundredth year of independence. This must be our promise to history.

The second is sustainable peace. We must exert all our efforts, and from this perspective, I consider this action by the youth to be the beginning of a debate. Women have consulted across 34 provinces. The necessity is that the Great National Jirga of Afghan Women be established right in this hall.

Afghan scholars have held various meetings; I call upon all strata of Afghanistan to enter into a national discourse so that we can clarify the limits of authority for peace negotiations, define sustainable peace, and clearly debate both values and flexibilities.

The President is like a kite. Its string is in the hands of the nation; when the nation gives it leeway, it flies very high; but if the nation does not want it, it says, "Come down." What is the beauty of a democratic system? Which day have you seen my children entering any government office? Which day has anyone claimed they can represent the family of Ashraf Ghani? You are my family.

My honor is in this turban. This is a national turban. The honor of every Afghan, of every language, and of every resident of Afghanistan lies in unity and agreement.

National unity is our greatest asset, and our national unity cannot be compromised. Therefore, the commitment is clear: by understanding your very reasonable proposals, we will move forward step by step, sometimes if possible by running, and sometimes by leaping; but it is necessary that you understand the conditions of the field. If you do not differentiate between a creek and a river and you leap, you will drown in it. Drowning is not our choice; the shore of salvation is our choice.

Your third point is ownership of the peace process. You are truly an enlightened generation, and I am proud of this enlightened generation. You mentioned a specific mechanism; a specific mechanism has been jointly created by the Security Council and the Independent Directorate of Local Organs, and the Administrative Office of the President also plays a role in it. In every district, one person will be appointed as a point of contact with the Arg at your request, and we will remain continuously connected with each other on matters of peace, development, progress, and reforms.

Once again, from the bottom of my heart, I take pride in the hosting of this grand assembly, your highly constructive views, your message of hope, self-confidence, and your message of belief in a magnificent, dignified, stable, and law-abiding Afghanistan.

Long live Afghanistan!