Kyrgyzstan Protests Detention Of Two Men At Tajik Border

BISHKEK — Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry has summoned the Tajik ambassador and handed him a note protesting the detainment of two Kyrgyz men by Tajik authorities near a disputed segment of the border between the two countries.

The ministry said on April 26 that Deputy Foreign Minister Nurlan Niyazaliev met with Tajik Ambassador Nazirmad Alizoda to express his concerns over the detainment of the two residents of Kyrgyzstan’s southern Batken region.

“The Kyrgyz side has called upon the Tajik side to undertake immediate measures to find out all of the circumstances of the incident, hold all individuals responsible for the situation accountable, and inform the Kyrgyz side about the results,” the ministry said in a statement.

The statement added that Bishkek is ready to cooperate with Dushanbe in efforts to “form conditions in the areas close to the border to secure peace, safety, a friendly neighborhood, and stability.”

The two Kyrgyz nationals disappeared in the Batken region’s Leilek district on April 24 while constructing a house close to a disputed segment of border.

It later turned out that the missing men had been detained by Tajik law enforcement.

On April 25, the men were released and handed to Kyrgyzstan.

Earlier in April, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon said during his visit to Tajikistan’s Vorukh exclave within Kyrgyzstan that agreements on almost half of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border have been reached during more than 100 rounds of negotiations between Dushanbe and Bishkek since work on border delimitation started in 2002.

Many border areas in Central Asia’s former Soviet republics have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan meet.

In recent years there have been numerous incidents along the border which in some cases involved deadly gunfire.