As the crow flies, Kyrgyzstan’s second and third largest cities—Osh and Jalalabad—are just 30 miles apart, on the south and north sides of the Fergana Valley. The highway from Osh runs north 15 miles to a bustling border town, its bazaar a major distribution point for imported Chinese consumer goods. On the Kyrgyz side, it’s called Kara-Soo; on the Uzbek side Qorasuv (both mean Black Water). Cross the bridge and it’s a straight shot north past the industrial town of Khanabad before crossing back into Kyrgyzstan for the final few miles to Jalalabad.
It would be a simple trip if not for regional politics. For three quarters of a century, the internal boundaries of the Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) were marked on administrative maps but made little difference in the daily lives of people who crossed them freely—often daily—for work, school, shopping or to visit relatives. The only sign that you were crossing from one SSR to another might be a small commemorative welcome plaque or a police post.
It was only after the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, when each SSR became an independent country, that the notional boundaries became national borders. Soviet citizens suddenly found themselves citizens of an independent country with gerrymandered borders drawn in the 1920s to divide and rule Central Asia’s ethnic groups. In border regions, nomadic families were no longer free to move their herds between winter and summer pastures; some arable farmers could not reach their wells or found their irrigation ditches cut. Buses stopped at the border and people could no longer travel easily to visit relatives or trade or shop on the market.
In the Fergana Valley, the borders cut through the middle of towns such as Qorasuv and villages, sometimes through the middle of houses. Although most of the valley is in Uzbekistan, the northern panhandle of Tajikistan (Sughd oblast, with a population of more than two million) juts into the valley, physically, economically, and culturally separated from the rest of the country by the Pamir Alay mountain range. Uzbekistan literally bisects southern Kyrgyzstan, the border zigzagging in and out of the foothills of the Fergana and the Pamir Alay.
The long way around from Osh to Jalalabad
At Kara-Soo, the Uzbek authorities destroyed the bridge, stifling the local economy. Local people, used to bureaucratic paranoia, improvised, using rope walkways to cross the stream. The bridge has since been rebuilt but the border is still tightly policed by Uzbek border guards, who claim they are trying to keep out arms, drugs, and Islamic terrorists. Even if you make it across, you may not reach Jalalabad because the border crossing back into Kyrgyzstan is periodically closed. Most drivers from Osh take a circuitous 65-mile, two-hour route via the Kyrgyz town of Uzgen. Osh and Jalalabad are separated by only a slim wedge of eastern Uzbekistan, but it’s faster to drive around it than face delays and fines at the border posts.
“Central Asia’s Fergana Valley: Border Wars” is Chapter Fifteen of Postcards from the Borderlands, to be published by Open Books in November. You can pre-order here. Here’s what readers who had a sneak preview are saying about it:
“Whether you are a confirmed armchair traveler, or someone considering the road less taken, David provides a primer that demystifies many countries and transcends borders, clearing the way for a better understanding of cultures beyond our comfort zone.” -Frederick Lewis, documentary filmmaker, Professor, Media Arts & Studies, Ohio University
Preview of “Central Asia’s Fergana Valley: Border Wars”
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, its 15 Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) suddenly became nations, whether or not they wanted independence. Their borders had been drawn in the 1920s to prevent any ethnic group from dominating a region, and in an attempt to suppress Islamic and secessionist movements. In the Soviet era, the borders made little difference in peoples’ lives, but the new national borders divided communities and families and restricted travel and commerce. In the fertile Fergana Valley, the northern panhandle of Tajikistan juts into Uzbekistan. Southern Kyrgyzstan is literally bisected by Uzbekistan, tripling travel time between the cities of Osh and Jalalabad. Violent clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks over land and political power broke out as the Soviet Union was dissolving, and again in 2010. The jagged borders include territorial enclaves, whose inhabitants face long journeys to reach their country’s mainland. Regional power struggles are played out over natural resources; Kyrgyzstan holds back water from mountain rivers that Uzbekistan needs to irrigate its cotton crop; in return, Uzbekistan cuts supplies of gas and electricity. Since the mid-1990s, I have traveled frequently in the Fergana Valley, negotiating its messy borders.
