Isfara Mayor Bahovaddin Bahodourzoda has visited families of three residents of the Chorkuh and Vorukh jamoats who were killed in clashes along Tajikistan’s common border with Kyrgyzstan during the period from 2018 to 2019, according to the Isfara administration press center.  

He reportedly visited families of Husein Hakimov in the Chorkuh jamoat and Jalol Qarayev and Rasoiddin Teshayev in the Vorukh jamoat.  The mayor gave them a one-time food and financial aid. 

Bahodourzoda told them that the Isfara administration had transferred annual financial assistance to their accounts

Chorkuh and Vorukh jamoats are subordinate to the Tajik northern city of Isfara. 

Chorkuh jamoat borders Kyrgyzstan’s Batken district, while Vorukh jamoat is an exclave surrounded by Kyrgyzstan.  

“Fortunately, no killed was reported in clashes along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border in the passing year,” a source within the Isfara administration told Asia-Plus in an interview.  

It is to be noted that many border areas in Central Asia have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.  The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan meet.

The border of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan has been the scene of unrest repeatedly since the collapse of the former Soviet Union.  The countries share 971 kilometers of border – of which only 504 kilometers has reportedly been properly delineated.

Last year alone, there were at least fourteen cases of violence, in which six Tajik nationals and one Kyrgyz citizen were killed and more than 60 other people were injured.

Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan renewed interest in border delimitation suggests that the governments want to dedicate more attention and resources to the communities living in the Ferghana Valley.