Kyrgyzstan has recently de-listed the Taliban as a terrorist organization, denying its stance in the Southern Central Asia region on the ruling group of Afghanistan. The new list was released by the Kyrgyz Prosecutor General’s Office in early September 2024 with 20 organizations on the list, but the Taliban was not on that list. This comes after the Taliban, which has been a terrorist group as declared by the Pervomaysky District Court on a prior date of 2006, after their reign in Afghanistan. Azamat Yusupov, a deputy head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Commission on Religious Affairs, said that “the decision was due to the “recent events in Afghanistan,” and he admitted that the judiciary finally decided to close them. He stated that the move could potentially pave the way for the recognition of the Taliban government in Afghanistan. The same pattern has been observed in Kazakhstan, where the group was recently taken off the list of terrorists. The decision is viewed as a part of the new regional reorientation process, with most Central Asian countries reevaluating their position towards the Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi also welcomed the decision, referring to it as “a commendable step” designed to remove hindrances to the development of relations. Although the number of banned organizations has reduced in recent years, it still lists several infamous organizations, such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. Some political scientists believe this may help to increase political and economic relations between Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan, although this remains a rather debatable decision given the fact that the Taliban is still banned internationally.

Source: TOLOnews, The Times of Central Asia