Negotiations between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan with participation of the countries’ security officials over the border clashes that took place in Chorkuh jamoat, which is subordinate to the Tajik northern city of Isfara (Sughd province), today resulted in vain.
Asia-Plus correspondent reported from the scene that the parties had failed to sign any joint protocol, and therefore, it was decided to continue the negotiations on January 29.
Recall, security officials of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan gathered in Chorkuh jamoat today morning to discuss ways to resolve the recent border conflict that erupted along a segment of the countries’ poorly demarcated border on January 27.
The Tajik side was represented Rajabali Rahmonali, the head of the Border Guard Directorate at the State committee for National Security (SCNS) of Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz side was represented by Kamchybek Tashiyev, the chief of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) of Kyrgyzstan.
Rahmonali noted before the beginning of the negotiations that “Tajikistan has always been supporter of peace, stability and security along the border.”
“Residents of border areas should live in an atmosphere of friendship and mutual understanding. Measures must be taken to prevent similar conflicts in the future,” he added.
Kyrgyzstan GKNB chief Kamchybek Tashiyev, for his part, stated that the conflict will be resolved peacefully.
“It is important to maintain good neighborliness, and people living in border areas should live in peace,” he said.
As it had been reported earlier the clashes erupted along a segment on the countries’ mutual border on January 27.
The press center of Tajikistan’s Main Border Guard Directorate reported Friday (January 28) morning that two Tajik nationals were killed and at least ten others, including 6 border guards and 4 civilians, were wounded in the fighting.
The Kyrgyz side says eleven Kyrgyz nationals were wounded in the fighting.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) that includes both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan said its secretary-general held talks with officials from both sides in an attempt to halt the fighting.
CSTO Secretary-General Stanislav Zas reportedly had telephone conversation with Tajikistan’s Security Council Secretary Nasrullo Mahmoudzoda and his Kyrgyz counterpart Marat Imankuov Thursday night and “called for an immediate ceasefire between the parties on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.”
In the early hours of January 28, at 01:00 am, competent agencies of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan held talks in Tajikistan’s Surkh jamoat and reached a full cease-fire.
Both countries accused each other of starting the clashes in the Tort-Kocho area in Kyrgyzstan’s western Batken region.
According to a statement released Tajikistan’s SCNS, the Kyrgyz side fired at Tajik “residents, vehicles, and facilities.”
Kyrgyzstan’s security officials said the conflict started when Tajik citizens blocked a road crossing the disputed segment of the border. Kyrgyz border guards deployed along this segment of the border in Batken region were put on alert. Tajik military used mortars and grenade launchers.”
Recall, a similar clash that erupted along the disputed segment of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border in April last year left dozens of people dead on both sides.
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have not yet resolved the border delineation problem. 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.
It has been difficult to demarcate the Kyrgyz-Tajik border because over the course of some 100 years Soviet mapmakers drew and redrew the Kyrgyz-Tajik border, incorporating land that had traditionally belonged to one people in the territory of the other Soviet republic.
Exclaves appeared and temporary land use agreements were signed.
All of this survived the collapse of the Soviet Union and people in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have various Soviet-era maps they use to justify their claim to specific areas along the border.
Border talks between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan began in 2002. Only slightly more than half of the 970 kilometers of border shared by the two countries has been demarcated despite decades of attempts to bring the matter to a close. The border delineation problem has led to conflicts between rival ethnic communities.
