Kyrgyz media reports say Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov has commented on the issue of delineation of the disputed stretches of Kyrgyzstan’s common border with Tajikistan.
Thus, 24.kg reports that Japarov said in an interview with Kabar news agency that “there are developments, but the work is going too slowly.”
“If both parties agree to the delimitation, then the work will be completed in a month. Unfortunately, in the course of work, the neighbors suddenly offer to determine some area on the map of 1924. Work stops. Such a proposal does not meet any legal or moral standards. In 1924, neither they nor we were a separate country. If both sides decide to delimit on the basis of the 1924 map, then all border lines should be reviewed according to it,” Japarov said.
Japarov reportedly noted that he had previously hoped that the determination of the border line with Tajikistan would be completed by May 2023. “At that time, the parties worked in harmony, the work was going faster. Unfortunately, it was not completed,” he said, according to 24.kg.
It is to be noted that the current configuration of Tajikistan’s common border with Kyrgyzstan is the product of Soviet mapmakers drawing the dividing lines for Soviet republics. After the Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991, these became the borders of independent nations.
The issue of demarcation and delimitation of the mutual border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan has been going for more than 20 years.
From the very first negotiations, the parties could not agree on the normative and legal aspects of the issue. The main problem is that the two republics have been using two different geopolitical maps, and therefore, Tajikistan did not propose “to determine some area on the map of 1924 suddenly.
The main problem is that the two republics are using two different geopolitical maps: Tajikistan operates with maps from 1924-1927 and the Kyrgyz Republic with the maps from 1958-1959 and 1989.
Tajikistan has suggested working with documents and maps from the 1924-1927 period, which show Tajikistan as incorporating Vorukh within its border.
Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan has suggested using the maps of the bilateral commissions from the periods of 1958-1959 and 1989, which show Vorukh as an exclave within Kyrgyzstan’s territory.
Media reports say Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to provide Bishkek with archive Soviet-era maps to help resolve the ongoing dispute between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan over disputed segments of their mutual border. Putin said last year that there was more “true” information about borders between the former Soviet republics available in the archives than in those republics themselves.
Many border areas in Central Asia have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the Fergana Valley, where the borders of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan meet.
The border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has been the scene of unrest repeatedly since the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
