Afghan Tatars

Afghan Tatars are a Turkic ethnic group in Afghanistan. A very small community speaks the Afghan Tatar language, while the vast majority speaks either Dari, Pashto, Uzbek, or Turkmen.^[2]

Afghan Tatars claim descent from Tatar nomads who joined the Golden Horde and came to Afghanistan, first settling in Afghan Turkestan. They live nomadic lives in rural areas, mostly in Samangan and Balkh in Afghan Turkestan, but also have a presence in various other provinces. Local community leaders of the Afghan Tatars estimate that their population is around 100,000 people, although there hasn't been an Afghan census in decades. The Afghan Tatar language today is critically endangered, only a very small minority speak it. The majority of Afghan Tatars adopted the language of the region they settled in. They lived a remote life for the majority of their history.^[3]

The Afghan Tatars are mostly Hanafi Sunnis with a Shia minority,^[4] and a member of the Afghan Tatars community said that the community is moderate, and that there is not any religious extremists in it. He said that the Afghan Tatars have never fought in any big wars due to their isolation, but have fought in local conflicts. He said that the Taliban was against Afghan Tatar traditions and that they entered homes of Afghan Tatars, burnt their books, and destroyed much cultural heritage.^[5]

The Afghan Tatar community had a role in preserving the Buddhas of Bamiyan, which they considered a part of their heritage.^[6]

Afghan Tatars never held high positions in the Afghan government, although during there was one Afghan Tatar MP before the 2021 Taliban takeover. Afghan Tatars were not recognized as an ethnic group in Afghanistan until March 2021. The National Statistics Office of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan listed them as an ethnicity, which would allow them to have their ethnicity written on the new planned Afghan national ID cards, although the Taliban takeover happened after a few months and the ID cards never happened. The Afghan Tatar Cultural Foundation helped Afghan Tatars establish relations with ethnic Tatars over the world. They have ties to the World Tatar Congress of Tatarstan, Russia.^[3][5]

The Afghan Tatar Cultural Foundation's goal is to reconnect Afghan Tatars with their culture as well as revive the almost-extinct Afghan Tatar language, a Kipchak language closely related to the Tatar language. The World Tatar Congress helped them with much of it, and since 2005 have been inviting Afghan Tatar to Tatarstan to discuss issues. The World Tatar Congress assisted them in launching online education courses to revive their language since March 15, 2021.^[4][3][7] In January 2023, Danis Shakirov, with the World Tatar Congress, led a meeting in Kazan, where they spoke about what to do for Afghan Tatars. Shakirov stated that life for Afghan Tatars worsened after the Taliban takeover, and that the World Tatar Congress was planning on sending 1,000 Afghan Tatars to various universities in India and China who were willing to accept them. Shakirov also claimed that the World Tatar Congress has saved thousands of Afghan Tatars from starvation and promised to help save their language in the future.^[1]