BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN — While Kyrgyz state media have portrayed the recent resettlement of residents of a Kyrgyz enclave in Uzbekistan in glowing terms, a different picture emerged during a VOA visit to the residents’ new home.
At issue is Barak, a Kyrgyz hamlet of less than 1,000 inhabitants in Uzbekistan that was moved in April as part of a border deal with Uzbekistan.
Barak is one of a number of parcels of land shared by Soviet Central Asian republics that, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, became problematic. The Uzbek territories of Shakhimardan, Sokh, Qalacha, and Jangail are all located within Kyrgyzstan’s Batken province. Vorukh and Western Qalacha, two Tajik districts, are also surrounded by Batken province. Tajikistan’s Sarvak lies within Uzbekistan’s Fergana province. Enclave residents have long complained about stiff border control measures by the Central Asian governments that have hampered travel and trade. As a result, the enclaves often become flashpoints for border-related confrontations.
Nurgul, a Barak primary school teacher who only provided her first name, described to VOA the difficulties of living in Barak, which was connected to Kyrgyzstan by a 3-kilometer road through Uzbekistani territory.
“To reach Kyrgyzstan, we had to cross several border and police checkpoints. Border guards frequently closed the road, and this left Barak without food and medicine for weeks.” She added that, exhausted by such difficulties, some of her relatives left Barak to resettle in Kyrgyzstan’s Osh province, about 20 kilometers away, in 2018.
In late 2022, in accordance with a Kyrgyz-Uzbek border agreement, Barak’s territory was absorbed by Uzbekistan. In exchange, Kyrgyzatan received an equivalent parcel of land from Uzbekistan.
In November 2022, Kyrgyz officials said that Barak residents would be permanently resettled in a new village in Osh province.
The new settlement is called Jany Barak, or “New Barak” in Kyrgyz. Construction began in April and was to be completed by August 31, the anniversary of Kyrgyzstan’s independence.
Osh provincial Governor Elchibek Jantaev told local media in April that Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov had allotted $3 million for the construction of 101 new houses, a secondary school, and a health clinic for the resettled Barak residents and Kyrgyz state media provided extensive coverage of government’s resettlement works.
An early May broadcast on Kyrgyz state TV described the resettlement as a historic event. The broadcast also presented interviews with several Barak residents who said they were joyous about being reunited with mainland Kyrgyzstan.
A different picture
That is not the picture that emerged during a VOA visit to the site of Jany Barak.
Kalyssa, a retired accountant from Kara-Suu, a town in Osh province near Jany Barak, who would only let her first name be used, said construction is still in progress, adding, “people have questions about quality of the new houses. They are also worried the houses will not be completed until winter.”
VOA observed August 17 that the new houses being built are not winterproof and there are no paved access roads or sewage system.
Nurgul, the primary school teacher from Barak, said Barak residents were not given a choice between financial compensation and housing.
“Some people would rather take money instead of moving into government-built houses,” she told VOA.
Marat Imankulov, the head of Kyrgyzstan’s Security Council – part of Kyrgyz President’s Office – said in a May interview with Kyrgyz media that the land-swap deal allowing for resettlement of Barak could serve as model for “solving border issues with Tajikistan.” Some experts, though, have expressed doubts about land-swap solutions for enclaves.
Chris Rickleton, a journalist based in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, wrote in a late April analysis paper published by RFE/RL that 2021 comments by Kyrgyz President Japarov’s ally and national security chief Kamchybek Tashiev about a potential transfer of Tajik enclave Vorukh to Kyrgyz control “were met with anger from Vorukh locals, not to mention a former top Tajik official who publicly lambasted Tashiev.”
Kyrgyz political analyst Emil Juraev, in an April interview, described Vorukh, compared with Barak, as “a massively more difficult situation, with around 40,000 people in Vorukh compared to just a few hundred in Barak.”
A Kyrgyzstani journalist who covered the enclaves for Kyrgyz media pointed to high economic costs from potential land-swap deals, saying Central Asian governments “are cash-strapped, and they cannot afford such costly resettlement projects.”
Uzbek officials have their own reasons to oppose further land-swap deals with Kyrgyzstan. An Uzbek government official from Ferghana province, which has jurisdiction over Uzbekistani enclaves of Shakhimardan and Sokh, told VOA on condition of anonymity that the two territories “have strategic importance for Uzbekistan.”
“They are major holiday destinations due to their picturesque sceneries and mountain lakes,” the official said, adding that both enclaves house small Uzbek military outposts.
Nevertheless, there are positive developments related to enclave solutions.
Since November 2022, the Uzbek and Kyrgyz governments have eased border restrictions for Shakhimardan and Sokh inhabitants and have pledged to jointly develop the tourism potential of the enclaves.
“This step is a crucial move forward,” the Uzbek government official from Ferghana said.
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