This Monday, legislature of Kyrgyzstan brought to the attention of the Cabinet the matter of the return of the Uzbek Shakhimardan in the Ferghana Valley. Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev backed lawmakers and announced that "Shakhimardan is a territory of Kyrgyzstan."

Ismail Isakov, Chairman of the Security Committee of the parliament who presented the initiative in the first place, is convinced that the government should tackle the matter "of the necessity of Shakhimardan to Kyrgyzstan" within the framework of the bilateral Kyrgyz-Uzbek state border delimitation and demarcation commission. "The Shakhimardan resort zone in the mountains on the border with the Batken region of Kyrgyzstan (in the south) was reserved for supreme state and party functionaries of Uzbekistan in the Soviet era... No documents at all were signed," said Isakov. In fact, the so called Stalin's geography did not require any documents: Moscow alone made decisions on whether to make Omsk the capital of Kazakhstan and how many republic there should be in Central Asia.

We are not living in the 1920's anymore. That is why Tanayev supports the idea. "We will defend our rights," he said. "The matter will be brought up in the negotiations over delimitation and demarcation of the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border under way in Tashkent."

Shakhimardan is located 55 kilometers to the south of the Uzbek city of Ferghana (1,500 meters above the sea level), in the Alai mountain range. This is not the only enclave in Kyrgyzstan. There are two Uzbek enclaves in the republic (Sokh and Shakhimardan, total population of 35,000) and a Tajik one (Vorukh, population of 38,000). They are major enclaves only, and small ones are scattered all over southern Kyrgyzstan. These enclaves were formed under Josef Stalin. These days, they aggravate border problems immensely. The enclaves are located along rivers, making water distribution among Uzbeks, Tajiks, and Kyrgyzes a nightmare.

There are also border disputes among the three states in the densely-populated Ferghana Valley. All experts emphasize that this knot may become a detonator of potential conflicts in the near future.

Mass clashes between Kyrgyzes and Uzbeks took place in the Osh region of Kyrgyzstan in June 1990. Casualties numbered thousands then. Absamat Masaliyev, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Kyrgyz Communist Party, resigned and was replaced with Askar Akayev who is the president now. Akayev and President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov succeeded in preventing - by persuasion and sheer force - a massacre between the two sisterly nations.

In fact, any "territorial initiative" in the disputes between these two countries may explode the Ferghana Valley that is not known for tranquility in the first place. Sergei Kortunov, Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Political Planning, emphasizes that absolutely all borders within the Commonwealth (and not only in Central Asia) are artificial and illegitimate. "These disputes will continue," said Kortunov, "unless the countries reach agreements on delimitation or with the help of mediators."

VALLEY OF DISCORD

Mekhman Gafarly

Novye Izvestia, September 8, 2004, p. 4

© Translated by Ferghana.Ru