Bishkek (TDI): Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan signed a deal on Thursday that aims to put an end to tensions that have made their border the deadliest area in Central Asia for more than a decade.
Highlighting the importance of this breakthrough was Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon making his first state visit in nearly twelve years to Bishkek to ink the agreement on the delimitation of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.
Marking the border in the mountainous, sparsely inhabited eastern section of the two nations’ border was not difficult, and by 2011, about 520 kilometers had been demarcated.
Reaching a final deal on the western 487 kilometers, located in the Ferghana Valley and more densely populated, however, was far more complicated due to roads and canals that passed through both states’ territories.
Rahmon’s trip in May 2013 came a month after hundreds of residents of border communities clashed near the Kyrgyz village of Ak-Sai and Tajikistan’s Vorukh enclave.
Such clashes were increasing, though at that time they were limited to fistfights, throwing sticks and stones, and vandalism of property, usually vehicles.
In May 2013, Rahmon and then Kyrgyz President, Almazbek Atambayev, discussed steps to ease tensions along the border, but along the frontier, the meeting of the two presidents in the Kyrgyz capital made little difference.
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In January 2014, a Kyrgyz construction crew began work on a bypass road around the Tajikistan’s Vorukh enclave, and an argument broke out between border guards of the two nations.
Five Kyrgyz and two Tajik border guards were injured in the fighting.
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It was the first time weapons were used during border clashes but from that time on, disputes increasingly involved gunfire, increasing the number of casualties and sometimes resulting in deaths.
Both governments sent additional forces and military equipment to the border area, adding fuel to the fire.
