DUSHANBE, December 19, 2013, Asia-Plus — The Isfara-Vorukh highway was still blocked today morning.
“Negotiations with the authorities of Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region on unblocking the highway will resume in the neutral zone of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border not far from the Ak-Sai village soon,” Jumaboy Sanginov, the first deputy governor of the Tajik northern province of Sughd, told Asia-Plus in an interview by phone today morning.
He stressed that they discussed the latest incident between residents of Tajik and Kyrgyz border villages with Batken local authorities yesterday afternoon.
“After the yesterday’s negotiations the situation has changed for better and the majority of people who gathered on the both sides of the road have dispersed,” said Sanginov. “We have come to an agreement that the relevant agencies should investigate the incident.”
“Persons involved in this incident must be punished. We have set up a bilateral commission. Such incidents are being held for the purpose of blocking the road and unleashing new conflicts on the border. We consider that this incident is a provocation,” the deputy governor added.
We will recall that according to Kyrgyz border service’s press center, a fire broke out in a country cottage in the Chaikana area not far from the Kyrgyz-Tajik border on December 17, 2013.
The country cottage belongs to Kyrgyz national and residents of the Kyrgyz village of Ak-Sai in the Batken district suspected that Tajik citizens had set fire to the cottage.
Kyrgyz and Tajik citizens reportedly blocked the Isfara-Vorukh road. Some 200 people have gathered on both sides of the road,” Kyrgyz border service’s press center said Wednesday morning, noting that regional officials of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will meet in order to stabilize the situation.
Iqbol Teshayev, a spokesman for the Tajik northern city of Isfara, told Asia-Plus Wednesday afternoon that Isfara Mayor Davron Zohidov and Deputy Governor of the Tajik northern province of Sughd Jumaboy Sanginov are currently in Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region to resolve the incident.
Vorukh is a jamoat in northern Tajikistan. It is located in Isfara district in Sughd province. Vorukh forms part of an exclave of Tajikistan within Kyrgyzstan. There are several such enclaves, and they all come from Stalin”s drawing of borders in the 1930s.
Meanwhile Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz Service reports that an arson attack has destroyed a teahouse belonging to a Kyrgyz national in a disputed area along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.
The incident on December 17 reportedly increased tensions between local Kyrgyz and Tajiks, which led to negotiations between Kyrgyz and Tajik officials in Tajikistan”s Isfara district on the following day.
The incident took place a day after Tajik border guards released two Kyrgyz citizens detained on December 15 for allegedly crossing the border illegally, RFE/RL said.
On December 18, the Kyrgyz government reportedly asked Tajikistan to hold the next round of talks on border demarcation on December 24.
Clashes between Kyrgyz and Tajiks along the border have been reported several times this year.
Three countries sharing the Ferghana Valley — Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan — inherited unclear borders upon gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
