Border dispute
Kyrgyzstan's 1991 pre-independence border is the ''de jure'' international border, but much of it is hotly disputed with its neighbors. In August 1999, the area around Barak was occupied byEffect on villagers
In 2011, Barak had a population of 153 families and over 1,000 people. The enclave is surrounded by Uzbekistan. " n Barakthere's a village school, there's a ultural centerand there's little shop. But there are no post offices and no government buildings or any other type of employment. There is no bank. Barak is tiny." Barak became an enclave when Uzbekistan forces blockaded the road leading to Ak-Tash, the nearest Kyrgyz village and the border connection on which it depends. In the following three years, border controls were greatly increased, with a daily routine of exhaustive border checks for residents. In February 2003, villagers went to Osh to protest the Uzbek border restrictions. There, a chance meeting with Prime MinisterSoviet-era borders
Border demarcations that were once of little significance are now affecting the lives of ordinary people in dramatic ways. The USSR's national-territorial delimitation of 1924–1927 was the first chapter of an ongoing story of twentieth-century border-moving, which continued beyond the Soviet Union's collapse. Although the Soviet era saw numerous demarcation commissions, none fully resolved questions regarding isolated territorial enclaves, temporary land leases that were never returned, unpaid rent agreements, and conflicting maps showing the borders running in different places. Soviet border commissions in the 1920s and 1950s failed to finish their work. The map-makers of this era likely never thought their lines would one day be international borders. Government planning projects spilled freely across internal borders. Even when land rental contracts existed, rents often went uncollected and the land unreturned upon contact expiration. Borders in the Fergana Valley in Soviet times bore little relevance to everyday life. Hence, later demarcation of its international borders has been complex. As a result, today large areas of land officially claimed by one state in the Fergana Valley are being farmed by citizens of the other states, an example of which lies along the Batken-Isfara (Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan) border, where over 1300 hectares of land are disputed. A similar situation exists along the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan border, where before 1991 the Uzbek SSR had rented large amounts of land for agricultural and industrial use. Despite renting for fixed terms, the Uzbek SSR often never returned the land nor paid rent, accompanied by the inevitable growth of settlements over time. For example, in 1999 a KyrgyzComplications at independence
In 1991, independence presented a complicated and uncertain geography. The Fergana Valley republics were heir to decades-long patterns of land use that freely transgressed boundaries. Those boundaries had never been fully demarcated, and different maps showed different borders. The effects of Soviet era planning were not felt in the years immediately following independence, apart from a brief crisis in 1993. Daily cross-border life in the valley continued almost uninterrupted, with large borderland areas being used by the people of neighboring states. This occurred both through illegal squatting and pre-existing fixed-term territorial leases. For example, Uzbekistan's Marhamat region was using 6885 hectares of land from Osh's Aravon region, the two of which share a border of only about 125 km (still in dispute in 2011). Until 1998 it still was possible to travel across state boundaries almost as though they were internal ones. However, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan were slowly drifting apart through the 1990s as the two republics became differentiated.Conflict in 1999
Major conflict erupted in 1999 that in part centered on Uzbekistan's unilateral demarcation of its border and its alleged seizure of large areas of Kyrgyz agricultural land loaned to Uzbekistan for temporary usage during the Soviet period but never returned. "On February 13, 1999, Uzbekistan's president, Islam Karimov, confirmed that the major Osh-Andijon cross-border bus service, along with many other routes in the Ferghana Valley, had been suspended. … Closure of the border was accelerated three days later when a carefully-orchestrated series of bomb blasts rocked the Uzbekistani capital Tashkent, killing 16 … Uzbekistan immediately sealed its border, ... security was dramatically tightened up … and special units were deployed to sensitive border areas. New control posts were built and existing facilities upgraded, and in many places crossings were closed, roads dug up, and bridges demolished. … The effects of these unilateral measures were keenly felt by Kyrgyzstanis." In the summer, the neighboringKyrgyz-Uzbek delimitation talks
By February 2000, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan had begun to work jointly to demarcate the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border; however, progress was very slow. One year later, a meeting between the two countries' prime ministers ended with a promise to meet again to discuss border demarcation, which had become the thorniest issue in bilateral relations. About 150 spots along the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border were disputed. A renewed effort resulted in a signed memorandum which would have given Uzbekistan a land corridor running the 40 kilometres along the Sokh River to its enclave of Sokh. In exchange for that corridor, Kyrgyzstan was to receive a smaller corridor to Barak." The memorandum caused political backlash in Kyrgyzstan and was never implemented. By February 2002, only 209 out of 1,400 kilometres had been jointly demarcated, although 994 kilometres had been studied. But the most controversial points remained: in the Osh and Batken regions, 406 kilometres were waiting to be studied by the joint commission. "The work also revealed the main disputed areas as being the enclaves of Barak and Sokh and the areas of Gava and Gavasay. Regarding these sites, the positions of the parties remained far from convergence." According to a 2004 report by the International Crisis Group (ICG), border demarcation negotiations had been charged with tension. Talks had stalled over approximately 50 contested locations along the border between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. In 2006, the process of delimitation had been under way for six years, with agreement reached on only 993 kilometers of the state border, which was 1375 kilometers long. The remaining 382 kilometers of the state border were not on existing maps and therefore remained subject to conflict and mutual distrust. In 2009, a report stated, "a lack of funding has greatly hindered border demarcation efforts. … Complex terrain and conflicting Soviet-era maps – printed at a time when defining the borders was not a pressing issue – present the toughest obstacle to delimitation." Nevertheless, an intergovernmental commission on the delimitation and demarcation of the border held its first meeting after a five-year break on 29 December 2010. In 2013, the two states' prime ministers were reported to be discussing the situation in the Barak enclave. Barak was not the only enclave that was a sticking point in negotiations. The Uzbek enclave of Sokh and three other Uzbek enclaves inside Kyrgyzstan were also major problems. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan had delimited 1058 kilometers of the border (out of a total length of 1378.44 kilometers), which accounts for over 70 percent of the total length. By early 2014, in the ten years after 2004, talks still had not resulted in the delimitation of nearly 50 border sections with about 300 km length. Talks resumed in 2018, and the two countries reached an agreement to exchange Barak for land in Uzbekistan's Andijon region near the Kyrgyz village of Birleshken ( Ala-Buka District). In January 2023, the two countries finally demarcated all the border, ending the dispute. The land swap that had been agreed upon in 2018 became permanent in April 2024, when the Barak enclave was absorbed by Uzbekistan. In November 2024, Kyrgyzstan PresidentReferences
{{Kara-Suu places Populated places in Osh Region Enclaves and exclaves