Topographic working groups of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will meet in Batken next week to agree on the next section of the state border. This was announced by the head of the Kyrgyz government delegation, chairman of the National Security Committee (SCNS KR) Kamchibek Tashiev. According to him, “fundamental solutions” have been found on two issues, and on their basis decisions will be made on other problem areas. His Tajik colleague Saimumin Yatimov clarified that the issue of the Vorukh – Khojai Aalo road has been resolved. The day before, the parties agreed on 24.01 km of the Kyrgyz-Tajik borders out of the remaining 300 km.
The meeting of delegations of the two countries took place from November 29 to December 5 in the city of Buston, Sughd region of Tajikistan. According to the already established tradition, the parties will continue to work on describing the remaining areas on the territory of Kyrgyzstan, the press service of the Kyrgyz Cabinet of Ministers reported. Perhaps it will be the last, and by the New Year, as planned, Bishkek and Dushanbe will sign an agreement on the border (see “NG” dated 11/14/23). The new agreements are enshrined in a joint protocol, which was signed by the special representative of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan on border issues Nazirbek Borubaev and the chairman of the State Committee for Land Management and Geodesy Orif Khojazoda. However, the parties did not specify which areas were being discussed.
The heads of the government delegations of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan Kamchybek Tashiev and Saimumin Yatimov, following a meeting on December 1 in the city of Buston, stated that a “fundamental solution” had been found regarding two main issues, on the basis of which other controversial issues would be resolved. In particular, the head of the National Security Committee of Kyrgyzstan, Kamchibek Tashiev, told the Sughd television company: “The decisions we made today bring us closer together to resolve the main issue on the border. The next meeting will be held in Batken, where a decision will also be made. Our state commissions are working without interruption. I think we are very close to reaching a “final solution.” His Tajik colleague Saimumin Yatimov clarified that first of all the agreement concerns the Vorukh-Khojai Aalo road.
Vorukh is a Tajik enclave on the territory of Kyrgyzstan. It is this section of the road that is the main issue in the border conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Therefore, conflicts occurred here most often. Historically, Vorukh was not an enclave and was fully part of the Isfara region of Tajikistan. According to one version, in the 50s of the last century, the authorities of the Kyrgyz SSR paved a road through the territory of the Tajik SSR to their Leilek region, since there was no direct road due to the mountainous terrain. At the same time, the decision of the Kyrgyz authorities was not coordinated with either Moscow or Dushanbe, which became a monstrous problem. Over the past years, there have been many cases when the Vorukh-Khojai Aalo section of the road was blocked by residents of Kyrgyzstan and became a reason for the aggravation of the situation. The conflict was the most brutal in 2021, with clashes killing more than 50 people on both sides and injuring more than 300 others.
The second issue on which agreements were reached is the facilities that are used by Kyrgyzstan on the territory of Tajikistan and the facilities that are used by Tajikistan on the territory of Kyrgyzstan. “In this regard, too, we have reached a fundamental decision,” Saimumin Yatimov, head of the National Security Committee of Tajikistan, told the Sughd TV channel. “If we decipher it thoroughly, specifically, in historical terms, so that it is recorded: to all objects that Kyrgyzstan uses on the territory of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan will have constant and uninterrupted access, but the lands remain with Tajikistan. All objects that Tajikistan uses on the territory of Kyrgyzstan , will forever, endlessly be used by Tajikistan, but the lands remain with Kyrgyzstan,” explained the Tajik security official.
According to Yatimov, these are very important strategic areas of activity, in which the commissions of the two countries have achieved concrete results. “Therefore, the very fact of fixing this issue through the media and announcing it to the public is a major event. We are closer to resolving the main issue. At the same time, our negotiations are leading to the demarcation of the state border in order to exclude other disputes in this regard,” Yatimov noted.
He also said that similar and equivalent measures have been taken on the Tort-Kocho section. The parties will use it as they used it in the direction Vorukh – Khojai Aalo. In Bishkek, Tort-Kocho is considered a strategically important area, since the Osh-Razzakov (Isfana – tad.) and Vorukh-Isfara roads intersect here. When a conflict arises, citizens of Tajikistan block the Osh-Razzakov (Isfana) highway, as a result of which residents of the Batken and Leilek regions remain cut off from the rest of Kyrgyzstan.
It is for the Tort-Kocho plot of land that the Kyrgyz deputy, leader of the Butun Kyrgyzstan parliamentary faction, Adakhan Madumarov, is being tried. He is accused of treason for the fact that in 2009, as secretary of the Security Council of Kyrgyzstan, he signed a protocol of a working meeting with the Tajik side, according to which the Kyrgyz side leased a plot of 5 hectares and a length of 275 m from Tajikistan for 49 years in the Tort area -Kocho. However, the document was not ratified by parliament.
Let us remind you that Madumarov was arrested on September 2, 2023 and is being held in a pre-trial detention center. On the same day, Tashiev wrote on a social network that “the response of the security forces against those who commit high treason, as well as actions aimed at denigrating the state, will be cruel, and there will be no pity for such citizens” (see NG from 09/03/23). On December 5, the court was supposed to begin considering Madumarov’s case, without preliminary hearings, since it is classified as “secret.” As his lawyer Kumanychbek Tumanov told the April TV channel, due to secrecy, the court does not allow copies to be made from Madumarov’s criminal case. Moreover, the statute of limitations from the moment of the so-called crime had long expired, and the judge could terminate the criminal case without starting the trial.
Tajik expert Negmatullo Mirsaidov called the agreements reached a real breakthrough in resolving the border dispute. “The main thing is that they determined the status of the property of the two states, which is located on each other’s territory, and the territory on which the property is located. Although the parties do not indicate in detail what kind of property this is, it is not difficult to guess that we are talking about the Golovnoye water distribution hub, first of all Tortkol irrigation canal, a number of other irrigation structures in both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan,” Mirsaidov said.
In his opinion, “property” should also be understood as transport communications. “The Isfana-Batken road, for example, in several places, like the Tortkol irrigation canal, crosses the territory of Tajikistan. This is the property of Kyrgyzstan. The Tajik side has never questioned the ownership of these objects. Now there are guarantees that Kyrgyzstan will forever receive the right to operate them. It turns out “that Kyrgyzstan also recognizes that the Golovnoye station is located on the territory of Tajikistan and part of the Tortkol canal and the Isfana-Batken highway crosses Tajik territory. This is a reasonable and correct decision,” the expert noted.
He also suggested that the parties could make such a decision regarding the status of the Khujand-Kanibadam, Isfara-Vorukh highways. “Perhaps the parties decided in the same way the issue of ownership of oil wells on the outskirts of the village of Niezbek, which were considered the property of Tajikistan. Whether Tajikistan will exploit them or the exploitation will be joint, I think the parties will agree. The main thing is that there is a will, a way has been found to resolve the issue. This for now, only my assumptions. And please wait. Explanations may follow soon. Since the parties have decided to make such an open statement, then a thorough agreement has been reached,” Negmatullo Mirsaidov wrote on the social network.
Source : asiais.ru