Bishkek,Kyrgyzstan : Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic considers necessary to announce that the events taken place on September 14-17, 2022, on our sovereign territory is a planned military aggression of the Republic of Tajikistan against our state.
As of September 18, 2022, 46 people died and 140 wounded as a result of inhumane actions of the Tajik party. 140 thousand people had been evacuated. The material losses are enormous.
We consider that groundless accusations of Tajikistan against Kyrgyzstan in “military aggression towards the Republic of Tajikistan” is an attempt to put the responsibility and guilt on Kyrgyzstan. The Tajik party has launched the campaign of misinformation in order to discredit the defensive actions of the Kyrgyz Republic.
We state that any information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan and other public bodies does not correspond the reality. Kyrgyzstan has all the evidence (photos and video footages) of the beginning of aggression, crimes and atrocities of the Tajik soldiers on the territory of our country. We are ready to provide the evidence if necessary.
The Republic of Tajikistan viciously violated basic international principles, such as the territorial integrity, the inviolability of frontiers, the peaceful settlement of disputes, the non-use of or the threat of force, the respect of human rights and freedoms, enshrined in the UN Charter and other international documents.
The Kyrgyz Republic acted exclusively from a defensive position, without the goal of seizing someone else’s territory, unlike the Tajik side, which treacherously encroached on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Kyrgyzstan, which once again confirms the existence of territorial claims that Tajikistan has. The Kyrgyz side demands that the Tajik side refrain from hopeless plans to encroach on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic and from pursuing the goal of escalating the situation in the border area.
We strongly protest the unlawful and destructive actions of the Republic of Tajikistan, which has violated all previously reached agreements by sending in advance its military forces to the border of Kyrgyzstan, using armed forces and heavy military equipment, and unreasonably attacked border and civilian facilities, settlements along the entire perimeter of the Kyrgyz-Tajik State border in Batken and Leilek districts of Batken region of the Kyrgyz Republic, including shelling the regional center of Batken region, town of Batken, in the deep of the Kyrgyz Republic (there are recorded video materials).
We note that despite numerous ceasefire agreements, the Tajik side continued its provocative shelling, and seized some settlements in the Batken region of the Kyrgyz Republic such as Dostuk, Aksai, Internatsional, Jashtyk, Borborduk, Arka, and Kulundu.
Unlawful actions of the Tajik party are the aggressive and destabilizing campaign which contradicts with bilateral and multilateral agreements, the spirit of good-neighborliness and mutual support between peoples of our countries.
We are gravely concerned with the active involvement of irregular paramilitary groups on the Tajik side.
The actions of the Tajik side may lead to the outbreak of a large-scale interstate conflict, as well as to the destabilization of the situation in the Central Asian region as a whole. Moreover, the situation provoked by the Tajik side has already resulted in casualties among the civilian population, military personnel, serious damage to military and civilian infrastructure, health and property of local residents.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic reaffirms its unwavering position on the need to resolve disputes between the two countries exclusively by peaceful political and diplomatic means at the negotiating table.