Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border conflict
Source: Hindu
GS II: International Relation

What is discussed under the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border conflict?

1. What Led to the Clash? 
2. What Is the Road Ahead? 

Why in News?

• In a week, border conflicts between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have killed around 100 people and wounded dozens more.
• Russia arranged a cease-fire agreement.
• The two landlocked nations share a 1,000-kilometer boundary, much of which is contested.
• There have been previous clashes over the distribution of water and land resources.

What Led to the Clash? 

History

• The present conflicts are recreating pre- and post-Soviet period legacies.
• Under Joseph Stalin’s guidance, the borders of the two republics were drawn.

  

• Historically, the Kyrgyz and Tajik peoples shared natural resource rights.
• The subject of boundary delimitation is a legacy of the Soviet period.
• While continuous meetings have attempted to settle the issue, one of the key grounds of contention remains the map that should be used for demarcation reasons.
• Almost half of its almost 1000-kilometre boundary is contested.
• The establishment of the Soviet Union resulted in the large-scale relocation of cattle to collective and state farms, upending the established status quo.
• Unfortunately, there was only so much space available.
• Tajik territory experienced a rise in livestock, and with limited grazing grounds, agreements were struck between the two communities on the use of Kyrgyz territory by Tajik animals.

Current flare-up

• Recent instances have seen groups from both sides planting trees in contested areas and engaging in physical combat using farm equipment as weapons.
• The Ferghana valley is a conflict zone and periodic violent outbursts, with the region, largely populated by Tajiks, Kyrgyz, and Uzbeks, who have traditionally shared common social characteristics, economic activity, and religious customs.
• The fall of the Soviet Union led to the creation of independent farms, which resulted in a significant increase in water consumption patterns.
• Both nations share several water routes with undulating trajectories and flows, disrupting equal water access on both sides. As a result, small-scale disputes erupt almost every year during the critical irrigation season.
• Leaders from both nations have contributed to the prolongation of the war in one way or another by imagining a certain sort of development project with the hope of stabilising their respective countries’ internal dynamics.
• This ‘development project’ is comparable to how the Soviet Union saw modernization, which resulted in the large-scale displacement of nomadic people, adding to the current conflict’s ‘environment driver.’

What Is the Road Ahead? 

• The route to conflict settlement will need opposing parties to agree on a common map.
• The international community must make attempts to resolve the disagreement by involving elders in the communities since elders have historically been utilised to mediate conflicts.
• To stabilise the geopolitical dynamics, the informal small-scale governance systems would need to be developed further by a coordinated effort by the respective nations.

Daily Current Affairs: Click Here

Leave a Feedback