On March 27, 1979 Hafizullah Amin took the post of prime minister of Afghanistan from Nur Muhammad Taraki, a decisive step in the internal power struggle within the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDPA) that would culminate months later in Amin's full seizure of power and Taraki's death. The PDPA had taken power in the April 1978 Saur Revolution, installing Taraki as president and prime minister with Amin, the party's strongman, as deputy prime minister. Through late 1978 and early 1979 the Marxist regime's radical land and social reforms provoked violent unrest and a growing insurgency, and a power struggle developed between Taraki and Amin within the dominant Khalq faction.
In March 1979, amid the crisis, Taraki was forced to name Amin prime minister while retaining the presidency and the party's general secretaryship. The dataset dates this shift March 27, 1979 and codes the fate as not physically harmed, reflecting that Taraki kept his other posts and was not harmed at this stage.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Nur Muhammad Taraki, who was forced to cede the prime ministership to Amin on March 27, 1979 but retained the presidency and party leadership; he was not physically harmed at this stage.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Nur Muhammad Taraki (president who ceded the premiership)
Hafizullah Amin (who took the prime ministership)
Sources
Amin's power continued to grow, and on March 27, 1979 he claimed Taraki's position of prime minister, although Taraki retained the presidency, at a time when the country was becoming increasingly unstable as Afghans protested the government's Marxist reforms.
Taraki found himself on the losing end of a power struggle with Hafizullah Amin, a deputy prime minister and fellow member of the People's faction of the PDPA, and in March 1979 Taraki was forced to name Amin prime minister but retained his position as president and PDPA general secretary.
SOURCE REVIEWEDBritannica, Nur Mohammad Tarakiopen source ↗
Amin was the main organizer of the April 1978 Saur Revolution, which overthrew the government of Mohammad Daoud Khan, and being second in chief of the Democratic Republic he soon became the regime's strongman before a growing personal struggle with General Secretary Taraki led to Amin wrestling power away.
Amin had gained considerable control by March 1979 and was named Prime Minister although Taraki retained his other posts, and the unrest continued as the regime was forced to seek more Soviet aid.
Coding note: the dataset labels this a palace coup with a not-physically-harmed fate, reflecting an internal shift of power within the ruling PDPA in which Amin took the premiership while Taraki, though weakened, kept the presidency and party leadership and was not harmed at this stage. Paired thematically: this March 1979 step and the companion 1979-09-16 record (Amin's full seizure and the deposition and killing of Taraki) are the two stages of the Taraki-Amin struggle; they are distinct dataset events. Arc link: this connects to the April 1978 Saur Revolution that brought the PDPA to power (a distinct earlier dataset event) and precedes the December 1979 Soviet invasion. Context: the regime's radical reforms and mass repression are recorded as documented background driving the instability; the specific date March 27 is the dataset's, with some sources giving late March 1979 more broadly.
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Nur Muhammad Taraki, who was forced to cede the prime ministership to Amin on March 27, 1979 but retained the presidency and party leadership; he was not physically harmed at this stage..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“World News Briefs: New Prime Minister Named by the Afghanistan regime,” March 28, 1979 “Insurgency Poses Growing Threat to Afghanistan’s Pro-Soviet Rulers,” by Robert Trumbull, June 24, 1979
“Approval in Moscow,” December 28, 1979
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →