Bishkek Permits Kyrgyz Living in Border Regions to Acquire Guns More Easily

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 25 – The Kyrgyz parliament has approved a law that will allow residents in the border regions of the country to acquire weapons more easily, an implicit acknowledgement that Bishkek can’t protect people there but a move that is likely to make it easier for Islamists and other radicals to acquire guns and increase instability in many places.

            The measure has already sparked concerns not only in the expert community in Kyrgystan but in Tajikistan  with which Kyrgyzstan has been locked in a border conflict (cabar.asia/ru/kyrgyzstan-zhitelyam-prigranichnyh-rajonov-uprostili-dostup-k-oruzhiyu https://www.ritmeurasia.org/news--2022-11-24--mina-zamedlennogo-dejstvija-dlja-kyrgyzstana-63208).

            While the measure limits the new rules to border areas, it is likely to be very difficult for the authorities to block those living there from carrying their weapons into the major cities and the capital and using them for criminal or political purposes, a development that could trigger major unrest in that Central Asian country in the near future.