The Kyrgyz government has completed the resettlement of residents of the Barak exclave, a portion of a country separated from the Kyrgyz mainland that is completely encompassed by Uzbekistan. That’s according to a report by the TV channel ELTR.
All houses and social infrastructure in Barak were dismantled and moved to Kyrgyzstan. Ninety-eight families were temporarily placed in different areas of Osh region, with some of them staying with relatives, and others placed in rented houses.
Barak is a rural settlement with a total area of about 4 square kilometers, where 1,250 people lived. It was the largest exclave of Kyrgyzstan, surrounded on all sides by the Uzbek region of Andijan’s Korgontepa district. Barak is located 1.5 kilometers from the border with the Kyrgyz mainland.
In 2018 Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan agreed on an exchange of land plots whereby Kyrgyzstan would receive the territory of Barak, and in return swap an equivalent plot of land adjacent to the village of Aktash in the Karasuv district. However, the exchange did not take place. In November 2022 Kyrgyzstan announced that it had reached a final agreement on the exchange of territories with Uzbekistan, giving the green light to the current resettlement plan.
