Meandering frontiers do not even follow the region’s already muddled ethnic divisions
jubilation in August in Rishton, a town in the bit of the Fergana Valley that lies in Uzbekistan, when the gates of a nearby border checkpoint with Kyrgyzstan were unlocked for the first time in almost seven years. The opening reduced the length of the journey to Sokh, an island of Uzbek-governed territory surrounded by Kyrgyzstan, from 150km to 50km. As the crossing was reopened, officials from both countries waxed lyrical about a renewed spirit of fraternity.
For most of the 20th century the borders that divide the Fergana Valley today were merely internal administrative boundaries within the Soviet Union. Ordinary people could travel more or less freely between Soviet republics, to visit relatives, say, so it mattered little that the lines sliced up the region haphazardly.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan dispute half of their 1,000-kilometre frontier, using different historical maps to support conflicting claims. Until recently Uzbekistan, too, was quick to bicker about borders, threatening to go to war over water-sharing and even mining its frontier with Tajikistan. As Central Asia’s most populous country and the only one that borders all the others, Uzbekistan was ideally placed to impede regional integration.
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