Crossroads Asia | Safety | Central Asia
Kyrgyz officers laud a protocol signed with Uzbekistan to settle, as soon as and for all, the border. A lot work stays forward to comprehend the settlement on the bottom.
Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan’s long-running border dispute has been, based on Kyrgyz authorities, lastly put to relaxation.
Late final week, chairman of Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for Nationwide Safety (SCNS or GKNB) Kamchybek Tashiev stated, “Points across the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border have been resolved one hundred pc. We now have tackled this tough process. There’s not a single patch of disputed territory left.”
He’d simply returned to Bishkek after main a delegation for talks in Tashkent on March 24-25. That delegation got here shut on the heels of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov’s March 11-12 state go to to Uzbekistan. The border matter was raised throughout Japarov’s go to with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and progress was reportedly made throughout Tashiev’s go to, throughout which he met with a gaggle of Uzbek officers led by Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov.
The 2 sides signed a protocol on the ultimate delimitation and demarcation of the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border. The settlement comprises plenty of land swaps, with Kyrgyzstan popping out with extra territory, offset by continued Uzbek use of reservoirs on Kyrgyz land.
One reservoir specifically, the Orto-Tokoi (Kasan-Sai) reservoir, has been on the middle of heated debate for many years. As Eurasianet defined again in 2016, as a flash of tensions within the space abated:
This space has been a supply of competition between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan because the Nineteen Thirties, when each side had been nascent Soviet republics. With the rising significance of the cotton business to the economic system of Uzbekistan’s Ferghana Valley, Moscow ordered that the Kyrgyz Soviet authorities allocate giant portions of its water sources to its neighbor. Within the early Nineteen Forties, 660 hectares of land had been transferred to Uzbekistan for the development of the reservoir, which was accomplished in 1954
Uzbekistan enlarged the reservoir in 1972 and offered the Kyrgyz SSR with land as compensation. Rival territorial claims resumed in 1991 as each side claimed possession of the reservoir.
Within the fall of 2017, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan signed an settlement concerning the reservoir by which Bishkek was granted management however each international locations permitted entry. Uzbekistan, in that settlement, got here out with rights to a lot of the water for irrigation. The most recent agreements appear to maintain that association, however compensate Kyrgyzstan with land swaps in disputed areas.
Per 24.kg, quoting Tashiev:
“As you recognize, Orto-Tokoi reservoir was utilized by Uzbekistan by 95 %. In accordance with the settlement, they needed to switch us a land plot equal to the realm of the reservoir — greater than 700 hectares — as compensation. About 200 hectares have already been transferred, 500 remained. Because of the reservoir, we obtained a number of disputable areas: Kok-Serek — 105 hectares, Bayastan — 212 hectares, Ak-Tash — 100 hectares, Ungar-Too — 35 hectares, Kara-Beles — 25 hectares.”
Ungar-Too, a mountain that has additionally featured in earlier tensions, can be marked as Kyrgyz territory, with the border at its base.
One other reservoir, the Kempir-Abad reservoir situated in Osh area, can be collectively used.
Negotiations additionally touched on the matter of Sokh, an Uzbek exclave surrounded by Kyrgyz territory. The latest settlement commits each side to opening checkpoints for automobiles and minibuses that ought to simplify the method of journey between the exclave and the principle portion of Uzbekistan for the 85,000 Uzvbek residents who stay there.
With the protocol signed settling the remaining border points, the subsequent phases are important. The 2 sides should take into account and undertake the settlement within the subsequent few months and “conduct explanatory work among the many inhabitants.” That final bit is the touchiest. As Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan transfer from agreeing on paper to the place their border lies, or delimitation, they must take up the nastier matter of demarcation — or bodily marking the border. That course of could set off tensions on the native degree, particularly when swapped territory comes into play.
If this push proves profitable, Kyrgyzstan could have settled borders with three of its 4 neighbors: China, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. That can depart Tajikistan to cope with. Based on RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, solely about 60 % of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border has been settled. Tashiev cited the Vorukh exclave (Tajik territory surrounded by Kyrgyzstan) as a major stumbling block in settling the remaining border sections with Dushanbe. He proposed two choices: the opening of a highway from Vorukh to Tajikistan bypassing the Kyrgyz village of Ak-Sai or a land swap for territory alongside the border in Batken in Kyrgyzstan. Dushanbe has reportedly not responded to the proposition.