The border strip between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan lived on the impact of renewed violent clashes between the armies of the two countries, which resulted in a number of deaths on both sides. While the reasons for this dispute go back to the border problem, which the two countries inherited from the Soviet era.
New armed confrontations erupted between the Kyrgyz army and its Tajik neighbor, killing and wounding a number of people, in addition to thousands of displaced people. This happened after the renewal of border disputes between the two countries, located in Central Asia, before a truce was approved, which was described in the media as "fragile."
This is not the first time that border disputes have caused fighting between the two countries, while the roots of these differences go back to the Soviet period, which divided the two countries in a way that did not satisfy the local population of the region, and made it difficult to restore consensus about its demarcation after the collapse of the Soviet Union and their independence from it.
Bloody confrontations
On the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Summit, which took place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the two Presidents of Kyrgyzstan, Sadr Jabarov, and his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon met, and "agreed to give directives to the bodies related to the ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops and equipment from the front line," according to a statement by the Kyrgyz presidency.
However, this announced truce did not last long, after renewed fire at positions from the border strip between the two countries, on Friday morning, in the Osh and Batkin regions in southern Kyrgyzstan.
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan accused each other of violating the previously declared armistice. The Kyrgyz border guards said in a statement that the Tajik army opened fire four times on Saturday morning, targeting with mortar shells border military positions in Kyrgyzstan. For its part, the Tajik army confirmed, through the local news agency "Khuvar", that the Kyrgyz forces targeted two Tajik sites.
According to Anadolu Agency, the Kyrgyz Ministry of Health announced that 24 soldiers were killed and 122 wounded, in addition to 136 thousand civilians who were displaced from the areas of clashes. The Ministry of the Interior in Tajikistan on Saturday morning confirmed the killing of civilians in the country during the violation of the armistice, without mentioning their number.
The head of the National Security Committee of Kyrgyzstan Kamchebek Tashiev was quoted by the Russian "Interfax" agency as saying that the military losses were great, and that "the situation is difficult and no one can give any guarantees regarding what will happen tomorrow." The Kyrgyz government declared a state of emergency in the border region of Batkin, in order to ensure the security of citizens, work to evacuate the population, prevent casualties, and mobilize the relevant forces, according to a statement by the Ministry of Emergencies.
On Saturday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was following with "extreme concern" the escalation of violence between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, calling on them to dialogue for a permanent ceasefire between the two countries. Guterres reiterated "the readiness of the United Nations to assist in finding a permanent solution to border disputes, if the two parties so request."
On Friday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry expressed its hope that the problems between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan would be resolved through dialogue. "We hope to quickly end the tension between the two friendly and brotherly countries without escalation, and resolve the problems peacefully through dialogue," she said in a statement regarding the recent developments.
Inherited border disputes
This is not the first time that clashes have erupted between the Tajik and Kyrgyz armies, on the border strip between the two countries. Back in April, similar clashes erupted , killing 31 Kyrgyz and 10 Tajiks, in addition to dozens of wounded.
The reasons for last year's clashes, according to the Kyrgyz version , are due to the resentment of the residents in Batken state that the Tajik border guards tightened security at the water distribution point on the Glonvoy River, which Kyrgyzstan considers within its sovereignty. According to the Tajik version , the shooting came after the governor of the Batken region incited the citizens to storm Tajik territory.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan share a border strip of 971 km in length, 471 km of which are unmarked, a problem inherited from the Soviet era, during which the borders between the two republics under Moscow's rule fluctuated. This is currently reflected in the non-agreement of Bishkek and Dunshanbe on any of the Soviet maps that will be adopted for the demarcation of the border, which extends the life of the dispute between them.
According to Glozana Karmaeva, a fellow at the European Policy Institute in Berlin, the Kyrgyz's southwestern regions have historically been dependent on nomadism and herding their large herds, unlike the Tajik population. With the entry of the two countries into the Soviet Union, Moscow sought to impose stability on the two countries' populations and to work in joint livestock breeding, but the majority of pastures were on the Kyrgyz side and water resources on the Tajik side, which was the reason for the border dispute between them after the collapse of the union.
The governments of the two countries have failed to resolve the dispute to this day, and to find a peaceful mechanism for the sharing of pastures and water in the region. In addition, the problems of smuggling add to the complexity of the issue.