Kyrgyzstan Local Politics - The Times Of Central Asia

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Kyrgyzstan Hails Border Deal with Tajikistan as Major Diplomatic Success

Kamchybek Tashiyev, head of Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security (GKNB), addressed parliament for the first time regarding the Kyrgyz-Tajik border agreements. He clarified the terms of the final agreement and explained the territorial concessions Kyrgyzstan made to prevent future border conflicts. The document has sparked mixed reactions in Kyrgyz society, with some deputies expressing dissatisfaction with the delimitation results, while ordinary citizens hope for lasting peace between the two countries. Final Agreement Tashiyev stated that the border agreement was based on the 1991 accords, countering earlier Tajik proposals to rely on documents from 1924-27. Years of work by geographers enabled both sides to reach mutual compromises. The Kyrgyz-Tajik border spans 1,006 kilometers. By 2011, 520 kilometers had been delineated, while the remaining 486 kilometers were settled over the past three years. “We have prepared several documents for signing by the presidents of both countries, including an agreement on the state border, an agreement on water resources—a previous water dispute in 2022 led to armed conflict—as well as agreements on cross-border road use and new infrastructure projects,” Tashiyev said. Over the past three years, the two nations have held numerous bilateral meetings, resulting in the signing of 45 protocols. Tashiyev noted that the process could be finalized within a month, as the Kyrgyz parliament has already approved the agreement, leaving only the leaders' signatures. Parliamentary Debate “We are making history! We have responsibly completed border delimitation with Uzbekistan. We approved the agreements with Tajikistan without debate. The people appreciate this. But public opinion is divided—that is common. If 50-60% of citizens support it, stability will follow,” said MP Nadira Narmatova during the parliamentary session. However, some MPs opposed the government's decision. Sultanbai Aizhigitov, an MP from Batken Oblast, criticized the transfer of Dostuk village, where Kyrgyz authorities had previously built roads and reinforced the state border. He also disapproved of the shared water intake arrangement, arguing that the territory had always belonged to Kyrgyzstan. Voices from Border Villages In an interview with The Times of Central Asia, Kanybek Myrzamuratov, a resident of Samarkandek village near the border, said most locals supported the government's decision. While some land was ceded, he emphasized that peace was the priority. “In some places, one street belongs to two countries—Tajiks on one side, Kyrgyz on the other. Disputes often started over minor issues but escalated into larger conflicts. At times, entire villages would mobilize against each other, leading to casualties,” he said. According to villagers, tensions with Tajikistan became serious in 1996, though minor disputes occurred even during Soviet times. The Soviet authorities, however, downplayed such incidents. Both sides engaged in stone-throwing, livestock theft, and occasional violence. Myrzamuratov noted that Kyrgyz authorities kept negotiations with Tajikistan confidential to prevent unrest among border residents. “In Dostuk, Leilek District, houses were burned down in last year’s clashes. Residents would not have accepted a transfer to Tajikistan. To prevent confusion and disputes, the authorities remained silent,” he said. He added that locals now look forward to reopening the...

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Kyrgyzstan’s Rebrand: New Country, or New Distractions?

On January 29, in what became a viral social media post, Seide Ibraimova and her mother drove to the site of VDNKh, the exhibition center built in the Kirghiz SSR to demonstrate the achievements of socialist science and culture. Her mother, wrapped in a white headscarf, reminisced happily about the times she’d spent there, surrounded by poplar trees in the shadow of the mountains. Seide’s father was one of the architectural team who built the main pavilion in 1974. But as they arrived at the site, they found nothing but rubble. The government had bulldozed the pavilion to make way for a new congress hall. “How could they?” said the old lady in a choked whisper. “Your father gave his heart and soul to this, for the people of the republic. The number of delegations who came here… how could they?” In the post’s comments section, an intense debate began. Some lamented the loss of the exhibition center: “Without this historic architecture, Bishkek will be nothing more than a concrete jungle,” said one. Another invoked Chingiz Aitmatov’s famous mankurt metaphor, describing those who had destroyed the site as having “no sense of memory or feelings, without attachment, who do not know who they are or where they come from.” Others were less sentimental, pointing out that VDNKh had been left to rot for two decades, and that those venerating the Soviet relics were the real mankurts, “forgetting your language, preaching the history and ideology of the fascists who invaded and occupied our country.” “You can forget the USSR,” said another. “We live in a sovereign state, the Kyrgyz Republic!” These online spats come at a time when Kyrgyzstan is going through a form of national branding under the government of Sadyr Japarov. But is the country really shedding its Soviet skin, or are the changes mere window dressing? [caption id="attachment_29217" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] The ruins of the VDNKh pavilion, February 2025; image: Joe Luc Barnes[/caption] Around two hundred meters from the wreckage of the pavilion is Yntymak-Ordo, or the “new White House”. This is the newly-constructed official administrative building of Kyrgyzstan’s president – a squat structure with thick columns, topped by a glass dome and surrounded by iron bars and armed guards. Reminiscent of many of the other presidential palaces that have sprung up across Central Asia over the past thirty years, it is an assertion of power. Further along Chinghiz Aitmatov Avenue (which was called Prospekt Mira until 2015) are scores of new high-rise residential buildings. Each month, new approvals are granted for more of these in the city center, contributing to a construction boom. Some see this as a deliberate attempt to erase the Soviet past from the city and replace it with their own idea of a modern Kyrgyz capital. The aesthetic shift is not just architectural. The government recently launched a competition for a new Kyrgyz national anthem. Aspiring composers have been invited to submit their proposals, the commission recently confirming that 23 have been accepted so...

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Kyrgyzstan Faces Labor Shortages Amid Growing Return Migration

As of February 1, 2025, Kyrgyzstan had 6,305 job vacancies, with the highest demand for blue-collar workers, according to the Ministry of Labor, Social Security, and Migration. The official unemployment rate currently stands at 1.8%. A total of 69,300 people have sought assistance from the employment service, with 49,800 officially registered as unemployed. Since the beginning of the year, 12,246 citizens have applied for job placement, and 1,283 have successfully secured employment. To enhance job seekers' competitiveness in the labor market, the employment service has introduced training programs for in-demand professions. These include computer operation, sales, cooking, cosmetology, hairdressing, manicuring, massage therapy, makeup artistry, translation, accounting, sewing, driving, electric and gas welding, plumbing, and beekeeping. Over the past three decades, hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz citizens have migrated abroad for work, primarily to Russia. However, in recent years, return migration has been rising due to Russia’s economic downturn, stricter regulations, and increasing anti-immigrant sentiment toward Central Asians. In response to this trend, the Kyrgyz government has prioritized establishing new industrial enterprises to create job opportunities for returning labor migrants.

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Some Good News as Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan Finalize Border Deal

Central Asia is offering a rare bright spot in a geopolitical landscape that often seems troubled by conflict and uncertainty. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are on the verge of resolving a long-running border dispute that has sometimes flared into deadly violence, an outcome that will open the way to smoother transport links as well as energy and water agreements between the two countries. At a ceremony in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s capital, on Friday, 21 February 2025, the chief negotiators for each country signed what they said was an agreement demarcating their nearly 1,000-kilometer border, the final and most critical of a series of accords aimed at ending the dispute over territory. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan must also add their signatures as part of the process of making the agreement legal. The most painstaking work has been done after months of discussions over the delineation of the border, which was the scene of clashes in 2021 and 2022 that killed dozens of people and forced mass evacuations of residents. Much of the frontier runs through mountainous areas. Saimumin Yatimov, Tajikistan’s chief negotiator and head of the State Committee for National Security, said the deal, once ratified, “will bring an end to the 100-year dispute” between the neighbors, the AKIpress news agency reported. Yatimov’s counterpart in the talks was Kyrgyz security chief Kamchybek Tashiyev. Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and other Central Asian states declared independence from the Soviet Union as it fell apart in 1991. The origin of lingering border problems, in particular between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, go back a century to when the Soviet Union formed those republics, drawing lines on a map with little regard for ethnic and geographical circumstances. Geopolitical strategist Velina Tchakarova, whose predictions for 2025 include heightened tensions in the Indo-Pacific, noted the positive development between the two Central Asian countries. “Not everything is about bad news in global geopolitics,” Tchakarova said on X.

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Fake Nephew of Sadyr Japarov Detained in Kyrgyzstan

A man posing as an adviser and relative of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov has been detained for attempting to seize a coal deposit worth approximately 50 million KGS ($572,000), the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) reported. According to security officials, the suspect falsely claimed to be a presidential adviser and Japarov’s "jeen" (nephew). He allegedly demanded that the mine be transferred to a foreign company, threatening the owner with arrest and citing supposed connections within law enforcement. He also claimed to have personal ties to the country’s leadership, using this assertion to pressure his target. The SCNS launched an investigation after receiving a complaint from a citizen who reported that an individual, along with an accomplice, was attempting to take over a coal deposit by exploiting the president’s name. Authorities confirmed that the suspects had no actual connection to Japarov or his family. Both individuals were arrested and placed in the SCNS pre-trial detention center. Investigators are now looking into the potential involvement of additional accomplices and are examining whether the detainees have committed similar crimes. This is not the first case of someone misusing presidential ties for personal gain. In the summer of 2024, media reports surfaced about the arrest of Ulan Japarov, an actual nephew of the president. According to reports, he allegedly accepted more than $100,000 in exchange for promising to secure an appointment as a presidential plenipotentiary representative in one of Kyrgyzstan’s regions. However, when he failed to deliver on his promise, he was arrested by the SCNS. He was later released under house arrest.

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Japarov Backs Elon Musk’s Call to Shut Down Radio Liberty

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov has expressed support for Elon Musk’s initiative to close U.S.-funded media outlets Voice of America and Radio Liberty. In an interview with the state news agency Kabar, Japarov suggested that Azattyk, the Kyrgyz branch of Radio Liberty, was no longer relevant in the digital age. “Twenty or thirty years ago, everyone waited for Azattyk, listened to it, believed it - because there was no internet or smartphones. Now, people do not need information from Azattyk. Everyone gets their news online. Besides, our people have learned to analyze information and not believe everything,” Japarov said. Azattyk’s Legal Battles in Kyrgyzstan Japarov accused Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz service of frequently spreading unverified and harmful information. He noted that when state authorities took legal action, Azattyk journalists often removed the disputed material. In 2022, a Kyrgyz court suspended Azattyk’s license over its coverage of border clashes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. “If you sue them, they start shouting to the whole world: ‘Freedom of speech is dead in our country.’ Is this normal? Is spreading misleading information or manipulating the news freedom of speech? We should not confuse permissiveness with free speech or human rights. That’s why Trump and Musk’s decision should be supported,” Japarov said. At a national assembly in Bishkek last December, Japarov suggested that the U.S. State Department should provide funding directly to the Kyrgyz government, promising that Kyrgyzstan would then ensure democracy and human rights at the highest level. Political Analysts Weigh In Political analyst Bakyt Baketaev told The Times of Central Asia that while Radio Liberty – Azattyk is widely listened to in Kyrgyzstan, this does not necessarily mean broad public support for its narratives. “They mix solid journalism with unverified reports. They frequently take negative stories from the opposition - sometimes deliberately disrupting stability. Naturally, this affects the authorities’ perception of the outlet,” Baketaev said. He added that Azattyk’s closure would have a significant impact on pro-Western perspectives in Kyrgyzstan. “Modern geopolitics has shown that democracy, free speech, and human rights cannot be introduced overnight in other countries. Afghanistan is a clear example of this. Democratic values should be developed in coordination with the state,” Baketaev said. Despite the criticism, Baketaev acknowledged that Radio Liberty had successfully collaborated with the Kyrgyz government on ecology, public health, and women's rights issues.