DUSHANBE, January 13, 2014, Asia-Plus – In a statement released on January11, Tajikistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) blamed the Kyrgyz side for starting the problem.
The statement posted on Tajik MFA’s website, in particular, notes that Tajikistan’s MFA expresses serious concern about the situation that emerged on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border.
In spite of agreements reached during a meeting of the Tajik-Kyrgyz commission for delimitation and demarcation of common border that took place in Dushanbe on January 7, the Kyrgyz side on January 11, 2014 tried to resume work on construction of the Koktash-Aksai-Tamdyk road, the statement said.
The Tajik side reportedly expresses its extreme concern about the situation that emerged on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border and states that demonstration and use of force are not the ways to solve the focal problems.
“We consider that such actions of the Kyrgyz side worsen links of brotherhood and neighborliness between the two nations.”
The Tajik statement said the incident started on January 11 at 12:20 after Kyrgyz workers using armed cover of soldiers started doing work on a road, part of which passes through Tajikistan.
Meanwhile, Kyrgyz authorities say a clash on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan can be regarded as a military operation planned in advance by the Tajik side.
Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz Service reports that Kyrgyz Vice Premier for Law and Security Tokon Mamytov said on January 12 in Bishkek that the clash the previous day must have been carefully prepared because it involved “ordnance, namely, mortars, and grenade-launchers.”
We will recall that an agreement on organization f joint patrol for disputed segments of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border was reached at border talks that took place in Tajikistan on January 7-9.
The talks were initiated by official Bishkek last month in an effort to tackle escalating tensions that were heightened after an alleged arson attack on December 17 destroyed a teahouse belonging to a Kyrgyz citizen in the disputed area.
There were several clashes between Tajik and Kyrgyz nationals along the border in 2013. Many areas along the borders in Central Asia remain in dispute after collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
