DUSHANBE -- Tajikistan's Foreign Ministry has summoned the Kyrgyz ambassador to Dushanbe over a statement by the chairman of Kyrgyzstan's State Committee of National Security regarding the disputed border between the Central Asian neighbors.
Erlan Abdyldaev was summoned over the weekend and informed that Dushanbe was "concerned" over Kamchybek Tashiev's statement to reporters on September 15.
"Such comments can seriously damage the ongoing negotiation process on delimitation and demarcation of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border," the Tajik ministry said on September 18.
Answering a journalist's question about the ongoing Kyrgyz-Tajik talks regarding the border, Tashiev, who chairs the Kyrgyz commission of demarcation and delimitation of the border, said the Kyrgyz side had discovered documents according to which some Kyrgyz territories had been taken over by Tajikistan in the past.
"If the neighboring country does not withdraw its territorial demands, we will also push such demands forward. We have enough capacities and opportunities to do so," Tashiev said.
The Kyrgyz government's special envoy for border delimitation and demarcation, Nazirbek Borubaev, confirmed Tashiev's statement, saying that the documents in question had been discovered in the archives recently. Neither Tashiev nor Borubaev provided details about the documents they mentioned.
The border between the two former Soviet republics has been closed since spring 2021, after an armed conflict along a disputed segment of the border left 36 Kyrgyz nationals, including two children, dead and 154 injured on the Kyrgyz side of the border.
Tajik authorities officially said at the time that 19 Tajik citizens were killed and 87 were injured.
SEE ALSO: War, Grief, And The Risk Of Repeat On The Kyrgyz-Tajik BorderIn all, the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan is 972 kilometers long, of which 664 kilometers has been agreed upon, while the rest remains disputed.
Many border areas in Central Asia have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan meet.
Tensions in those areas have led to clashes between local residents and border guards of the three countries.