There will be no peace between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Kyrgyz Defense Minister Bakytbek Bekbolotov has told reporters in Bishkek, AKIpress reported on October 19.
“Unfortunately, the war does not end there. recently I met with the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Stanislav Zas. I told him that there will be no peace between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. I'll tell you why. Because the Kyrgyz have their own truth, and the Tajiks have their own truth,” the minister said.
Bekbolotov noted that this will continue until an arbiter stands between the countries, for example from the CSTO with tasks to monitor ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy armed hardware from the state border.
“If they solve these two issues, then further it will be possible to solve political problems with them: delimitation and demarcation of the state border between the Kyrgyz and the Tajiks. It has not been going on for 30 years it has been going 98 years,” he said.
Last month, Kyrgyz and Tajik authorities accused each other of aggression after the two sides used heavy artillery and mortars in the latest clashes near a disputed part of the border.
Kyrgyz Security Council Secretary Marat Imankulov said on October 17 that Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov asked Putin to help with the demarcation and delimitation of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border when they met on October 13 along with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon in the Kazakh capital, Astana, on the sidelines of a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Meanwhile, Kyrgyz presidential spokesman Erbol Sultanbayev said at the time that the talks were initiated by Putin, who said he "was ready to assist in resolving border disputes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan."
Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly agreed to provide Bishkek with archive Soviet-era maps to help resolve the ongoing dispute between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan over segments of their border.
Russian leader said earlier that there was more "true" information about borders between the former Soviet republics available in the archives than in those republics themselves.
