DUSHANBE, December 29, 2014, Asia-Plus – During a meeting with journalists in Bishkek, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said on December 27 that the situation on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border began to stabilize after his meeting with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Vechenrny Bishkek reports.

“After our meeting with President Rahmon in September in Dushanbe, practically all items were deleted from the agenda,” Kyrgyz leader noted.

Atambayev reportedly expressed confidence that the situation on the border will continue to improve in the future as well.   

“I think we will solve all disputable issues when our neighbors will understand that there ought to talk to Kyrgyzstan as an equal.  I am sure that Tajik president understood that.  However, there are certain forces that are interested in conflicts on the border.  The President of Tajikistan is not interested in that, but some his pseudo-friends are interested in that,” Atambayev was quoted as saying.  

We will recall that Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have been locked in a tense border dispute over Vorukh, an exclave of Tajikistan within Kyrgyzstan, for months.

Tajikistan suggested working with documents and maps from the 1924-1927 period while Kyrgyzstan suggested using the maps of the bilateral commissions from the periods of 1958-1959 and 1989.

The maps of the early 1920s show the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic as incorporating Vorukh within its borders.  But the maps of the 1950s show Vorukh as an exclave within the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic.