Kyrgyzstan raises the deployment of a CSTO contingent in the face of crossed accusations of violating the peace agreement

Oct. 19 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Kyrgyz Defense Minister, Baktybek Bekbolotov, has raised a possible deployment of a contingent of peacekeeping forces from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on the border with Tajikistan while both parties involved in the conflict accuse each other of violating the peace agreement.

“As you know, I recently met with the Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Stanislav Zas. I said that there would be no peace between the Kyrgyz and the Tajiks. The Kyrgyz have their own version of the truth and the Tajiks have their own. Until that an arbitrator stands between us, there will be no peace”, he explained, according to the news portal 24 KG.

Kyrgyzstan’s border guard service stated this Wednesday that Tajikistan “does not comply with all the agreements reached and continues to deploy weapons and troops on the border.” In this way, he has accused Dushanbe of deploying weapons in the Batken region.

“Since September 25, the Tajik side is preparing fighting positions: they are digging trenches and caves along the border with Kyrgyzstan. More than ten drones have violated the airspace and conducted reconnaissance since September 25. Tajik citizens They tried to burn down the houses of the residents of the border villages of Kyrgyzstan,” he said in a statement collected by the AKIpress news agency.

For its part, Tajikistan’s border guard service has accused the Kyrgyz side of violating its airspace on at least 13 occasions between September 26 and October 15 with “air vehicles” in various territories, such as in Isfara, from Sughd province.

“The provocative actions, aimed at destabilizing the situation, preparing firing positions, creating trenches, continuing to bring out additional military equipment and periodically violating the airspace of the Republic of Tajikistan, are a clear confirmation of the malicious plans of the Kyrgyz side” , he said in a statement collected by the Avesta news agency.

The Government of Kyrgyzstan announced on September 25 an agreement with the authorities of Tajikistan to put an end to the border conflict that includes the dismantling of a total of eight checkpoints, four for each country.

The border between the two countries, which extends for more than 970 kilometers, has been the scene of various clashes in recent years due to the fact that several points are not delimited, which causes disputes between Bishkek and Dushanbé over the control of said territories. .

This lack of clear demarcation has led to disputes over the use of land and water resources, with frequent clashes between border guards from one country and another and brawls between the communities that were separated after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.