Regime changes in Afghanistan in context of relations of religion and politics (1973 - 2001)

In recent years, emergence of religious movements in the context of religion and politics in both the academic literature and the international arena and disputes between government and religion has become a frequently discussed issue. This study aims to fill this gap in literature area and to present Afghan politic with an analyze regarding the influence of religion. Especially, in recent years, increasing influence of religion in Afghan politics is an emphasized topic and we discussed regime changes based on this issue. Thus, starting from the beginning point of the religious movement, emphasized on periods until the process of radicalization, we discussed, for which reasons religions used in this period and influence of religion in the intervention of foreign countries. Religion became very active in Afghan politics after 1973. Thus, after these periods, religious movements, as political actors began to appear in Afghan politics. Also the events such as Cold War and Iran Islamic Revolution etc. influenced religious movements in Afghanistan and increased effect of religion on politics. Thus, in these periods, regional and global actors were very attentive about doing politics based on religion. Between 1973-2001, in Afghanistan, religion and politics appeared as concepts which are tightly linked and quite influenced each other. Analyze of this quite important period constitutes the main theme of the thesis. Keywords: Religion and politics, religious movements, regime changes, Afghanistan.