DUSHANBE, July 10, 2014, Asia-Plus — A simultaneous beginning of construction of two bridges and roads in disputed areas along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border that was scheduled for today has been postponed.
An official source at the Sughd regional administration says the postponement has been caused by new disagreements between the sides that arose during the discussion of the project for construction and use of border roads that took place in the Tajik northern city of Qairoqqum on July 7
“The sides have failed to come to an agreement on the Isfara-Vorukh road. The Tajik side suggested that the road should be built, maintained and controlled by Tajikistan, while the Kyrgyz side insisted on joint management and control of the road,” the source said.
Meanwhile, a source at the Isfara mayor’s office says the Isfara population has been sad to know that the working groups failed to reach an agreement on construction of the roads Isfara-Vorukh and Koktash-Aksai-Tamdyk-Kishemish. “They realize that unsolved problems connected with construction of these roads will not promote removing tense on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border,” he said, noting that Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Murodali Alimardon and senior representatives of relevant ministries and agencies of the country will arrive in Isfara today.
The source further added that it could not be ruled out that the next round of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border talks would take place in Isfara today or tomorrow.
We will recall that a meeting of the Tajik-Kyrgyz commission for demarcation and delimitation of disputed areas of mutual border took place in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on July 2-3.
According to information posted on Kyrgyz government’s website, the meeting was presided over by Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Murodali Alimardon and Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Abdyrakhman Mamataliyev and the sides coordinated the issue of construction of interchange of the roads Koktash-Aksai-Tamdyk-Kishemish and Isfara-Vorukh. The sides reportedly agreed to simultaneously start construction of the mentioned roads beginning on July 10.
A 130-square-kilometer fertile area around the village of Vorukh, which is populated by some 32,000 people, the vast majority of them Tajiks, is one disputed areas on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border. Legally, Vorukh is part of Tajikistan, but due to past redrawing of borders, it exists as an exclave some 20 kilometers inside Kyrgyzstan.
