Barak, Kyrgyzstan
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Barak
Барак | |
|---|---|
 Interactive map of Barak | |
  Barak Location of Barak in Kyrgyzstan | |
| Coordinates: 40°40′N 72°46′E / 40.667°N 72.767°E | |
| Country |  Kyrgyzstan |
| Region | Osh Region |
| District | Kara-Suu District |
| Elevation | 868 m (2,848 ft) |
| Population (2021) | |
• Total | 985 |
| Time zone | UTC+6 |
Barak (Kyrgyz: Барак) was, until 2024, a Kyrgyz village that was surrounded by the territory of Uzbekistan. Its de facto status as one of the world's relatively few international enclaves began in 1999.[1][2] Administratively it was part of Kara-Suu District in Kyrgyzstan's Osh Region.[3] It was encircled by the Andijan Region of Uzbekistan. Its population was 985 in 2021.[4] In August 2018 Kyrgyz and Uzbek authorities agreed to a land swap that would eliminate the enclave.[5] The land swap became permanent in April 2024, when the Barak enclave was absorbed by Uzbekistan.[6] Nearly all of its former residents were resettled within Kyrgyzstan.[7]
The small town, located in the Fergana Valley,[8] was estimated to consist of 153 families (approximately 1,000 residents).[9] It is located about 4 km northeast of the road from Osh (Kyrgyzstan) to Xoʻjaobod (Uzbekistan) near the Kyrgyz–Uzbek border in the direction toward Qoʻrgʻontepa.[10] This places it approximately 1.5 km from the Uzbek/Kyrgyz border, near Ak-Tash village.[9][11]
Kyrgyzstan's 1991 pre-independence border is the de jure international border, but much of it is hotly disputed with its neighbors. In August 1999, the area around Barak was occupied by Uzbekistan, cutting it off from Kyrgyz territory. Uzbek forces dug up and blockaded the road to Ak-Tash,[11] while also seizing large areas of Kyrgyz land that allegedly had been loaned in the Soviet era but never returned.[12] They entrenched themselves within much of Kyrgyz border territory and refused to leave.[13] Barak became a de facto enclave only 1.5 km from the shifted main border.[9] Four Uzbek enclaves and Barak are major sticking points in border delimitation talks,[14] and disputes center on the areas of Barak, Soʻx, Gava and Gavasay (stream).[15] In 2011, many villagers asked the government to re-settle them within the main border. Kyrgyz officials fear, however, that if the people leave Barak then Kyrgyzstan will not be able to keep its enclave.[9]
Effect on villagers
In 2011, Barak had a population of 153 families and over 1,000 people. The enclave is surrounded by Uzbekistan.[9] "[In Barak] there's a village school, there's a [cultural center] and there's little shop. But there are no post offices and no government buildings or any other type of employment. There is no bank. Barak is tiny."[16]
Barak became an enclave when Uzbekistan forces blockaded the road leading to Ak-Tash, the nearest Kyrgyz village and the border connection on which it depends. In the following three years, border controls were greatly increased, with a daily routine of exhaustive border checks for residents. In February 2003, villagers went to Osh to protest the Uzbek border restrictions. There, a chance meeting with Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev led to Uzbekistan removing the concrete blockade and re-opening the road.[17] The following month, officials of the two states signed a protocol to ease restrictions on Barak residents. In practice, however, nothing changed to simplify procedures for their entry and exit.[18]
Soviet-era borders
Border demarcations that were once of little significance are now affecting the lives of ordinary people in dramatic ways.[19] The USSR's national-territorial delimitation of 1924–1927 was the first chapter of an ongoing story of twentieth-century border-moving, which continued beyond the Soviet Union's collapse.[20]
Although the Soviet era saw numerous demarcation commissions, none fully resolved questions regarding isolated territorial enclaves, temporary land leases that were never returned, unpaid rent agreements, and conflicting maps showing the borders running in different places.[21] Soviet border commissions in the 1920s and 1950s failed to finish their work. The map-makers of this era likely never thought their lines would one day be international borders. Government planning projects spilled freely across internal borders. Even when land rental contracts existed, rents often went uncollected and the land unreturned upon contact expiration.[22]
Borders in the Fergana Valley in Soviet times bore little relevance to everyday life. Hence, later demarcation of its international borders has been complex. As a result, today large areas of land officially claimed by one state in the Fergana Valley are being farmed by citizens of the other states, an example of which lies along the Batken-Isfara (Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan) border, where over 1300 hectares of land are disputed.[21]
A similar situation exists along the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan border, where before 1991 the Uzbek SSR had rented large amounts of land for agricultural and industrial use. Despite renting for fixed terms, the Uzbek SSR often never returned the land nor paid rent, accompanied by the inevitable growth of settlements over time.[23] For example, in 1999 a Kyrgyz deputy claimed to have a copy of a 1960s agreement renting 45,000 hectares to the Uzbek SSR, which should have terminated in 1980.[24] Kyrgyzstan also has some territories that it leased for cattle raising during the Soviet period and which it has not given up.[25]
Complications at independence
In 1991, independence presented a complicated and uncertain geography. The Fergana Valley republics were heir to decades-long patterns of land use that freely transgressed boundaries. Those boundaries had never been fully demarcated, and different maps showed different borders.[26]
The effects of Soviet era planning were not felt in the years immediately following independence, apart from a brief crisis in 1993. Daily cross-border life in the valley continued almost uninterrupted, with large borderland areas being used by the people of neighboring states. This occurred both through illegal squatting and pre-existing fixed-term territorial leases. For example, Uzbekistan's Marhamat region was using 6885 hectares of land from Osh's Aravon region,[27] the two of which share a border of only about 125 km (still in dispute in 2011).[21] Until 1998 it still was possible to travel across state boundaries almost as though they were internal ones.[21] However, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan were slowly drifting apart through the 1990s as the two republics became differentiated.[28]