Enclaves

Enclave ouzbèke de ChakhimardanLe en territoire Kirghize. Lac Kurban-Kul, lieu de pèlerinage.

Friday, October 12th. Panic moment when I arrive at the border with Uzbekistan. Several hundred individuals, most of them women, form a compact and impatient mass against the metal gate which marks the border on this side. They are from the region, Tajik or Uzbek, belonging to families separated by the border or "prisoners" of an enclave. The group mutters of exclamations.

Because another region’s specialities are the enclaves. « They appear as archetypical of the borders of domination which remove coherence and feature in a homogeneous regional space, by not respecting its géohistorique integrity." (Julien Thorez "New borders in Central Asia: the restructuring of states, nations and regions", Cybergéo, 2011). There are eight in Central Asia, delimited by the Soviets, such as the one in Sokh, an Uzbek enclave populated by Tajiks in Kyrgyz territory, which required Kyrgyz travelers to make a long detour to go from Batken to Osh and contributes causing repeated border incidents between population and border-guards, when it is not between nearby communities. On Soviet time, people could circulate freely. The visa is not required today for the inhabitants of the border areas but everybody has to queuing up for hours under a blazing sun. Admissions are made very slowly and everyone is defending his place with pugnacity. How is this full crowds going to cross ? And I, at the same time ? I observe the area. Ceaselessly, marshrutkas drop off new people who are growing the crowd. I approach the railing, a little way away, near the closed door which serves as entrance for vehicles. Seeing my discouragement, a man convinces me that I call the serviceman who keeps the entrance. This one comes immediately to open the door and waves me to move forward. I pass the check points in half an hour, without problem, with however a hypocritical thought for the unlucky people who are waiting outside. A woman protests that her daughter is waiting for her on the other side. The Uzbek police officers do not seem extremly worried by the impatient crowd. On the Uzbek side of the border, the number of people is as important as on the other side.

I remember another enclave, where I had gone in 1999, without any particular difficulties, from the city of Fergana. Shakhimardan is a small Uzbek territory of 90 km2 in the Kirghiz country. I remember a lake with an incredible emerald green, crystal-clear water, which is reached by a cable railway looking like an antiquated fairground rides. I had got lost during a walk in mountain and no more found the way to come down back, an exercise with which I am too familiar. I had resolved to follow a narrow canal cut into the rock. The ice water in which I walked barefoot galvanized my brain. I progressed so up to a high wire netting. A hole enabled me to penetrate into a vast property which proved to be a holiday camp for girls. They welcomed me.

Jeunes filles du camp de vacances de Shakhimardan, 1999.

Photos Supplement in the Ferghana