Nation state, identity and belonging in Afghanistan

The main purpose of this study is to examine the foundations of current social anomie and Afghanistan's national identity crisis in the context of cause-effect relationship of Afghanistan's political, economic, cultural, social and educational problem as a nation-state process. The reason why Afghanistan could not be institutionalized was sought in the fact that it could not become a nation apart from war and foreign intervention. Next to scanning the archive and examining books, theses, articles, reports related to the subject, sociological observations and academic documents have been done. The focus of this article mainly lies on the nation-state project that has been going on for many years in Afghanistan is the trigger of ethnic conflicts. Attention was also drawn to the implementation of the nation-state centralist ideology. According to one opinion, the obstacles to the formation of Afghanistan's national identity are multiculturalism and linguistic differences. Due to the sensitivity of the subject, little research was possible about the political dimension of ethnic conflicts. Furthermore, Afghanistan's modernization effort in the historical process is explained. In the nationstateization process that started with the modernization movement, the formation of national identity and the feeling of belonging to Afghan identity; political, socio-cultural dimensions have been tried to be revealed. The cyclical history of Afghanistan, westernization, communism, Islamic movements and the individual and social effects of the transformation in the democracy process were evaluated. Indeed, leaders with an ethnic and tribal background, mainly aim to govern by state-power instead of public support. The nationalization of the modern nation-state, the Afghans' perception of identity, shed light on new scientific debates. The hidden side of radicalism, nationalism and ethnic identity conflict as a starting point are other topics investigated. This study is an original study that includes a sociological analysis of the political, social and cultural components of the ongoing ethnic and sectarian war in Afghanistan. Keywords: Afghanistan, Modernization, Nation State, Identity, Belonging