Fergana Valley No Longer Set to Trigger Broader Explosion in Central Asia, Tajik Scholar Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 28 – For four decades, observers both in Central Asia and beyond have predicted the Fergana Valley, where the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan come together in a jigsaw pattern, would be the trigger that might set the entire region ablaze (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/04/fergana-valley-heading-toward-explosion.html).

            But Sherali Rizoyon, a Tajik political scientist, argues that while such a notion might earlier have been true, it no longer is because these countries have reached agreement on the borders among them and on the ways they can work together (cronos.asia/centralnaya-aziya/uzbekistan/nastupila-li-novaja-realnost-v-ferganskoj-doline).

            Having resolved all their border disputes, the three countries have now formed the Fergana Forum to meet at a high level on a regular basis and work to address infrastructure, water-sharing and other issues jointly rather than separately and thereby ensure that any move by one will not lead to any increase of tensions with the other two.