DUSHANBE, February 29, 2016, Asia-Plus – Some media outlets repot that residents of border areas of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan claim that Kyrgyz authorities allegedly offer residents of Tajik enclaves an “easy way” of obtaining Kyrgyz citizenship.
The initiative reportedly sounds against the background of border incidents and the ongoing process of demarcation and delimitation of a mutual border between the two countries.
According to Kyrgyz news agency
24kg
, some Tajik media outlets have reported that resident of the Bobojonghafourov district Abdukholiq Abdulloyev gained access to his land plot in the disputed area only after acquisition of Kyrgyz passport.
24kg
reports that representative of Leilek district of Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region said in an interview with
Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service
, also known as
Radio Ozodi
, that the proposal on citizenship is for those who want to use the land permanently. “Tajiks are interested in working in our lands. So we want them to work legally and not get into our territory illegally,” he said.
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have been unable to agree on the location of the border they inherited when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. They have delimited only about half of the 971 kilometers. As the population in the dense Ferghana Valley grows, it has become increasingly difficult to demarcate the contested sections, where valuable agricultural land often lies.
In recent years, the tension along the Kyrgyz-Uzbek and Kyrgyz-Tajik borders have intensified after outbreaks of violence involving residents and border guards from all sides.
The latest skirmishes sparked by a territorial dispute between residents along the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border escalated on August 4, 2015 leaving several people injured and damaging multiple homes.
The area at the focus of this and much previous unrest lies on the jagged frontier where the east of Tajikistan’s Sughd province and Kyrgyzstan’s Batken province meet.
