Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border

Kyrgyz and Tajik officials say they're close to agreement on the entirety of their long-disputed border.

After a December 1 meeting in Tajikistan, security officials on both sides are proclaiming success and promising progress.

On a hot summer day, the women of Kök-Tash took a break to play football. It was a rare joy amid a difficult life on the border.

The details of “Protocol No. 44” are unknown, but both sides clearly want to portray some kind of progress in their drawn-out border negotiations.

The drama around the Madumarov matter obscures the lack of tangible progress by the Japarov administration in coming to an agreement on the border with Tajikistan. 

Human Rights Watch says in a detailed report on the September 2022 Kyrgyz-Tajik border conflict that forces on both sides may have committed war crimes in targeting civilians.

Protests, unrest, war, and worry defined 2022 in Central Asia.

What explains the dramatic escalation of violence along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border?

Tashiev posed recently with the latest Bayraktar Akıncı attack drone, suggesting Kyrgyzstan had added the platform to its arsenal.

A protocol reportedly signed over the weekend would see both vacate four border posts each but is shadowed by domestic critiques in Kyrgyzstan and a lack of clarity in Tajikistan.

Conflicts have intensified across the former Soviet Union, now in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It’s a worrying and disillusioning development for the region.