Parviz Mullojonov on the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan Border Dispute – The Diplomat

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In mid-September, the long-running border dispute between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan exploded into a brand new section. The escalation of violence – which left no less than 100 useless and displaced 1000’s – marked a pointy deterioration of relations between the respective governments, fueled by an extra of accusatory rhetoric within the aftermath. 

Whereas the dispute has historic roots within the borderlands, the place a lot of the worldwide border between the 2 states has remained unsettled for 30 years, modern components from a stalled negotiation course of to elevated militarization of the border space contributed to the burst of violence in September. To dive deeper into the battle, and ponder methods ahead, The Diplomat’s Catherine Putz spoke with Parviz Mullojonov, a political scientist and historian, concerning the troubled Kyrgyz-Tajik border.

A good portion of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border is undelineated and undemarcated. What have the main hurdles to settling the border been through the years?

Certainly, till the current, regardless of steady efforts and common outbursts of violence, solely about 60 p.c of the border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan is demarcated. One of many major components that hamper the demarcation course of is the profound disagreement between the international locations relating to the possession of land plots and water sources alongside the border – particularly across the Tajik enclave of Vorukh. Normally, the disagreements might be comparatively divided into three major clusters.

First, the query of possession of a number of hundred hectares of land plots – predominately pastures and fruit gardens – situated primarily across the Tajik enclave Vorukh. Throughout the centuries each native communities – nomadic Kyrgyz and settled Tajik farmers – collectively and comparatively peacefully used the disputed lands primarily based on inter-communal agreements and preparations. Nevertheless, the sedentarization and mass resettlement of the nomadic Kyrgyz inhabitants in the course of the Soviet interval modified the demographic composition and promoted competitors over land and water sources. 

The impact was doubled by the so-called “demographic scissor” phenomenon, which is described when appreciable inhabitants development is accompanied by the discount of cultivated areas. On one hand, the area skilled a demographic explosion, particularly on the Tajik facet of the border;  on the opposite, the huge and large-scale irrigation system constructed in the course of the first many years of the Soviet Union was already outdated and required an intensive renovation each when it comes to gear and water utilization expertise. The irrigation strategies are nonetheless primarily based on badly regulated and intensive watering. It causes a substantial, yearly growing, rise within the ranges of underground water and, consequently, salinization of soil and additional degradation of land plots. 

In 1940, the typical measurement of cultivated lands within the space constituted 0.6 hectares per capita; in 1989, it was solely 0.17 hectares per capita. The phenomenon drastically enhanced competitors for scarce water and land sources and, consequently, promoted social rigidity and battle potential within the border areas.