The government of the republic gave the PRC part of the land of Tajikistan to repay the external debt.
Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan promises to become another conflict center in connection with the actions of official Dushanbe. The latter, according to the Tajik opposition (most of whom represent the interests of the field commanders of GBAO - ed.), Gave hundreds of hectares of land to China to pay off the external debt. Among the territories allegedly transferred to the People's Republic of China is part of the lands of the Gorno-Badakhshan Murghab region. For China, they are of particular importance, since they represent an important strategic potential, allow controlling security issues in disputed territories, and, according to some reports, there are deposits of precious stones and minerals in this area.
The GBAO opposition notes that a week ago, on May 6, official Beijing began expansion into the territory of Tajikistan, transferring the Chinese military to the region. They must ensure order in the process of land development by civilians. It is known that during the construction of strategic facilities, the development of deposits, and the launch of production, China uses its own troops as a labor force. So, for example, Beijing intended to build a railway through Kyrgyzstan with the help of the PRC construction troops. A similar situation takes place today in Tajikistan.
In just over 20 years of independence of the Republic of Tajikistan, Dushanbe has given more than 1.5 thousand square kilometers of its own territories. So, in mid-January 2011, the parliament of the republic ratified the protocol on the demarcation of its border, in fact, giving the Chinese almost 1.1 thousand square kilometers of disputed territories, which amounted to almost 0.8 percent of the territory of Tajikistan itself. It turns out that over two decades, the country's leadership gave China about 1 percent of the total area of \u200b\u200bthe state. This fact was then widely covered by the media of the two countries. Later, the same parliament amended the law "On Subsoil", allowing foreign investors to engage in the development of deposits on the territory of the Republic of Tatarstan.
Dushanbe refused to officially confirm the fact of another transfer of land, which the Chinese military had already mastered, but did not deny it either. By the way, numerous experts periodically warned the Tajik public about this, but the forecasts remained at the level of pseudo-statements. Meanwhile, according to sources in GBAO, today China is conducting active geological exploration in Murghab and the surrounding areas. The Chinese began to enter the region, which, over time, may completely oust the indigenous people from the area.
“The government of Tajikistan was supposed to hold a referendum in Gorno-Badakhshan on this issue,” Khurshed Atovullo, chairman of the Center for Investigative Journalism of the Republic of Tatarstan, expressed his opinion to New Region-Asia. - I think this deal is illegal. The reaction to this government decision is visible to everyone. It is known that Badakhshan has long been considered an unstable part of Tajikistan. In all negotiations with former field commanders from the region, the Tajik government constantly raises the issue of the illegal transfer of part of the region to China.
The expansion is also confirmed by statistics. For example, back in 2007, according to the Tajik Migration Service, about 30,000 Chinese migrant workers entered the country and were employed in the construction of roads and power substations. Many of them, upon completion of their projects, did not return to their homeland and chose to stay in the Republic of Tatarstan. At the beginning of 2010, the number of immigrants from China in the republic exceeded 80 thousand people. Claims to the lands of Tajikistan from China were recorded by historians at the end of the 19th century. It is known that in 1884, China and Russia signed an agreement called "New Margelan", according to which the authorities of the current PRC claimed more than 28 thousand square kilometers of Tajik territory, of which today they have managed to appropriate only twenty.
China, having increased its military and economic power, has moved on to the already predicted open expansion and annexation of the territories of its neighbors. A week ago, on May 6, Chinese troops occupied part of the territory of Tajikistan. This is what the media report - the land issue in Tajikistan is at risk of escalating into an interethnic conflict. Evidence of this is the entry of troops of the People's Republic of China into the territory of a neighboring country. The opposition of the Republic of Tajikistan reports that on Monday, May 6, official Beijing established military control over part of the lands in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) of Tajikistan. Dushanbe transferred these territories to China to repay its external debt. It is known that the Tajik authorities have assigned dozens of hectares of land in the Murghab region of GBAO to Chinese partners, but the official authorities refuse to confirm this fact. In total, over the years of independence of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Chinese were given 1.5 thousand square kilometers of land, which in fact is a disputed territory.
2
A piece of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region annexed by China
Recall that the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region is known for its distant position regarding the central government. Residents of GBAO do not always obey the decisions of the official Dushanbe, often causing the "fire" of the republican leadership on themselves. It is worth recalling that in the summer of 2012, a conflict broke out in the autonomy, provoked by the center, in which, among other things, civilians died. Gorny Badakhshan defended its field commanders, who were persecuted by the country's authorities. If the expansion with the involvement of the military from China continues, it is possible that another conflict will break out in the region, this time with a territorial connotation.
Since the beginning of 2013, many experts have warned that the country's authorities are preparing an act on the transfer of land to China, but no one took the information seriously.
4
The history of "clarification of borders" with its neighbors
The territories will be given to the PRC to pay off the external debt. In the long term - registration for China of highland lands, unsuitable for life. The Chinese side needs them, since they are rich in deposits of precious stones, uranium and minerals. It is known that at this time the Chinese have already begun geological exploration in Murghab itself. The actions of the neighboring state in Tajikistan, in fact, were legalized by adopting amendments to the Law on Subsoil. In fact, the official Dushanbe legalized the development of deposits by legal entities from abroad.
It is known that not only military, but also civilians have already begun to enter the territory of Tajikistan. The latter will develop the lands where ethnic Tajiks once lived. Today there is an unspoken struggle between the parties for land, which Tajiks do not want to give up to Chinese migrants. However, they will apparently still have to do this, since there is a government paper obliging the local population to leave the territory.
Exercise or Terrain Reconnaissance?
It is also indicative that just a year ago China assured all its neighbors of its great peacefulness. How black irony is the fact that a year ago Chinese units took part in the territory of Tajikistan in the so-called. "joint military exercises" (most likely, in reality, the Chinese military reconnoitred the area, and checked the combat capability of the Tajiks).
5
6
9
"Chinese Army exercises" in Tajikistan in 2012
In Tajikistan, in June 2012, at the Chorukhdairon training ground (in the Sughd region), a regular exercise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Peace Mission 2012 was held, in which more than 2 thousand military personnel from Russia, China, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are participating.
"More than 350 soldiers and officers from Russia took part in the exercises, as well as more than 50 units of military equipment from the 201st Russian military base, including 15 armored personnel carriers BTR-80 and an armored vehicle" Tiger ". In addition, Russia on the" Peace mission " will represent the attack aircraft - front-line bombers Su-24 from the Kant airbase (Kyrgyzstan). "
The PRC was represented in the exercises by units of the Lanzhou Military District, incl. 10 ZSL-92 armored vehicles and 6 PTL-02 assault self-propelled guns from the 6th light mechanized division, as well as Z9WA helicopters from the 3rd helicopter brigade.
Apparently, the Chinese military liked it so much that they decided to stay in Tajikistan for good.
There are claims to everyone
I must say that the so-called. China has "territorial claims" to almost all of its neighbors. India, Mongolia, Burma, Nepal, Vietnam, Japan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan. Including Russia. Whatever someone says about the "final settlement of territorial disputes" after the return of the islands along the Amur. And in the coming years, China will definitely demand something else. The only question is who has it. And without asking anyone's permission, he will most likely get what he wants.
7
Runet was stirred up by rumors about the "occupation" of Gorno-Badakhshan
The adherents of the concept of the "Chinese threat" have recently received a new reason to speculate about the quiet expansion of the PRC in the post-Soviet space. Rumors about the occupation of Tajik territory by the troops of the Celestial Empire excited the news space.
Several Russian media outlets at once reprinted the message that appeared in the beginning of May in the online edition Forum.msk. Citing unnamed sources in the Tajik opposition, the publication reported that Chinese troops captured the eastern Pamir in the Murghab region of Tajikistan and took control of the only highway in the region.
The publication also reported that over the years of independence, Tajikistan has already transferred to China 1.5 thousand square kilometers of disputed territories, the total area of \u200b\u200bwhich is 28.5 thousand square meters. km. It is also argued that at the beginning of the year, Dushanbe was preparing to transfer part of the Pamir highlands, which is considered uninhabitable, but rich in deposits of precious stones, rare minerals and even uranium, in order to pay off its external debt to Beijing. Prospecting work has already begun in Murghab, maps are being made and the assessment of deposits will begin in the near future, it said. edition
“Nobody knows exactly what the volume of uranium deposits in Badakhshan is, but it is known that there is uranium there,” noted Anatoly Baranov, editor-in-chief of FORUM.msk. “In addition, there are many deposits of strategic raw materials, including tungsten and rare earth metals. It is true that Murghab, where snow lies even in summer, is of little use for life. But this is an important strategic point - Murghab lies on the Pamir Highway, thus the PRC will control the only transport artery in the Pamirs. In general, Tajikistan is a buckle of a soldier's belt with which Russia holds Central Asia, and the surrender of positions in Tajikistan is the surrender of the entire region, up to Orenburg and Astrakhan. Although, when the Russian border troops left the Tajik-Afghan border by Putin's decision, it was already clear that Russia was leaving the East, and someone would definitely come to replace it. China made a request that by the time the troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan, presumably, the United States and Great Britain will make their move. Iran and Pakistan are interested. It reminds one of the division of the dead man's junk, for whom boots, for whom a pea jacket ... "
At the same time, the information has not found any official confirmation either from the Tajik or Chinese side. However, there were no intelligible refutations either.
A little later, Kyrgyz journalists from the Vesti.kg portal clarified the situation a little. As the head of the Kyrgyz Border Service, Tokon Mamytov, told them, reports about the introduction of Chinese troops into Tajikistan are nothing more than a duck. “I just spoke on the phone this morning with the first deputy chairman of the State Committee for National Security of the Republic of Tajikistan, the head of the main directorate of the Tajik Border Troops, Mirzo Sherali, and he said that the situation is stable. Moreover, to say that China occupied the Murghab region means, at best, do not understand the processes taking place in Central Asia. Both Dushanbe and Beijing are SCO members who signed a series of documents within the framework of this organization on the observance of territorial integrity. Naturally, information that a friendly state suddenly, for no apparent reason, almost occupied the lands of its neighbors are wrong, "Mamytov said.
Experts have already suggested that the message could be an attempt to put pressure on Dushanbe from Moscow, which also claims to have influence in the region. However, it should be noted that the precedents of the "quiet" transfer of territories to the PRC by the countries of the former USSR have already taken place before, so that such a scenario in Tajikistan cannot be completely ruled out.
In mid-January, the parliament of Tajikistan ratified a protocol on the demarcation of its border, according to which 1.1 thousand square kilometers of disputed territories are assigned to China, which is 0.77 percent of the total territory of Tajikistan. The ceremony on the occasion of the transfer of land was attended by military officials of the two countries, who exchanged memorable gifts.
On the transferred land is part of the Pamir mountain range, which crosses several Central Asian countries, writes the site ASIA-Plus.
Tajikistan is one of several Central Asian states that have a border with China. It shares borders with China and Kazakhstan. Last year, Kazakhstan turned down an offer from Beijing to lease a million hectares of Kazakh land along the border to grow soybeans.
82 THOUSAND CHINESE
In June of this year, it was reported that 1.5 thousand Chinese farmers would come to Tajikistan to develop two thousand hectares of land in the southern, mainly mountainous regions - Kumsangir and Bokhtar.
Khatlon region - for growing cotton and rice.
The Tajik Migration Service says that back in 2007, 30,000 Chinese migrant workers were employed in the construction of roads, power substations and mountainous areas. There are claims that some Chinese workers do not return home after projects are completed.
According to official data, the number of Chinese citizens in Tajikistan at the beginning of 2010 was about 82 thousand people.
NO HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Rakhim Masov, director of the Institute of History of the Tajik Academy of Sciences, renowned scientist, academician, since 2004 is a member of the Tajik-Chinese intergovernmental commission. Masov said in an interview with the BBC that he personally did not sign the document according to which part of the territory of Tajikistan is taken by China, the website Tajmicrant.com writes.
- It was the wrong decision of the government of Tajikistan. The territorial integrity and indivisibility of our state is a matter of honor and dignity for every Tajik, - says academician Rakhim Masov.
He said that as a result of many years of work of scientists back in
Soviet times, it was revealed that it was in this territory of Tajikistan (Eastern Pamir) that there are large reserves of 17 types of minerals, the website Tajmicrant.com writes.
The scientist is convinced that there are no historical prerequisites for the transfer of Tajik lands to China.
“To resolve this issue, the government of Tajikistan has set up a special commission. The PRC then demanded that the lands of the Tajik Eastern Pamirs be transferred to it. Tajikistan, naturally, did not agree with this formulation of the question. As a result of negotiations, it was decided to transfer only more than 3 percent of the territory. It should be recalled that in the past, the Bukhara Emirate did not have a common border with China, since Badakhshan temporarily joined Bukhara only in 1895. Then Russian troops were stationed in the Pamirs. The PRC had no business in this region. Both the Emirate of Bukhara and the Pamirs were subordinate to the Russian Federation, ”the agency“ Regnum ”quotes the historian.
Khamrokhon Zarifi, head of the Tajik Foreign Ministry, speaking to parliamentarians, said that China and Russia signed an agreement in 1884 called "New Margelan", according to which the authorities of present-day China claimed more than 28 thousand square kilometers of Tajik territory.
AKAYEV PUNISHED FOR TRANSFER OF LAND
The problem of resolving territorial disputes with China faced not only Tajikistan, but also Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
On August 12, 2010, Askar Akayev, the former president of Kyrgyzstan, was stripped of his immunity status for a number of crimes, including for "transferring to Kazakhstan and China a part of the primordial Kyrgyz lands." Kazakhstan also made concessions, but society does not remember this.
The members of the Provisional Government of Kyrgyzstan called the change of the line of the state border with China and Kazakhstan in favor of the latter “the gravest crime” committed by Askar Akayev during his presidency.
"Because of his criminal conciliatory position on the line of passage of the Kyrgyz-Chinese and Kyrgyz-Kazakh borders, the primordial Kyrgyz lands, the names of which testify to their inalienable historical belonging to the Kyrgyz people, were transferred to China and Kazakhstan," the decree says.
Our radio Azattyk wrote that in 2001, as a result of the delimitation of the state border with Kyrgyzstan, about 600 hectares of land were transferred to Kazakhstan. But before that, Kazakhstan itself lost a number of border areas. For example, in April 1994, as a result of an agreement on the Kazakh-Chinese state border, Kazakhstan transferred to China an area of \u200b\u200b946 square kilometers.
In 1997, the fate of two disputed regions in Almaty and East Kazakhstan regions was decided. Then the territory of about 530 square kilometers passed to China.
In September 2002, Kazakhstan ceded to Uzbekistan part of the lands of the Saryagash district of the South Kazakhstan region, including the village of Turkestanets. Part of the territory of the Kyzylorda region was also transferred to Uzbekistan. In total, the Uzbek side got about 1,700 hectares of land.
UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT IN KAZAKHSTAN
Our radio Azattyk has already reported that two years ago, in 2009, the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, paid a visit to China. Then an agreement was reached on a Chinese loan of $ 10 billion.
After that visit, Nursultan Nazarbayev at a meeting of the Council of Foreign Investors announced the possible lease of 1 million hectares of irrigated land to China. However, later that year, after a violent protest from the Kazakh public, he not only refused to implement this idea, but also threatened to bring to justice those who would "spread rumors on this topic."
He referred his opponents to Article 23 of the Land Code. “It is written in black and white that the land cannot be sold to foreigners. What else can you add to this? " - said the President of Kazakhstan on this resonant topic in December 2009 and never returned to it.
From May 13 this year, Victoria Nikitina spar: “Since May 6, China has been bringing troops into the territory of Tajikistan. A part of the Gorno-Badashkhan Autonomous Region of this state was given to China for debts. Dushanbe believes that it is uninhabitable. However, China treats this territory differently, not without reason considering it important from a strategic point of view. " Boris Shmelev, head of the Center for Political Research of the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was involved as an expert in frying facts and pepper arguments by the journalist, who did not in the least doubt the information about the introduction of Chinese troops into Tajikistan.
In the opinion of this authoritative expert, this case in international relations refers to "special", even to symbolic events. China is strengthening its position in the world by transforming economic power into political influence.
And such a failed state as Tajikistan, represented by the president, is forced to flirt with China: after all, it gives the money needed for the elections. But, the analyst asks, what will the introduction of troops lead to? How can Russia be here?
The scientist advises the native government to accept what happened as a fact and take this very fact into account in its foreign policy strategy. How to take into account? Russia should play an important role in Central Asia and allocate significant funds to support its states. If she does not do this, then others will do it - the same China.
"As for the very fact of selling land for debts, I will say this: each country is sovereign, and therefore can look for convenient forms of debt repayment ..."
Well, what is there to think for a long time, let's add as a joke from ourselves. The President of Tajikistan can sell Tajikistan to the Chinese - and it won't take long. Why does he need it? All Tajiks have been working in Russia for a long time. So the "form of repayment" is very convenient.
Igor Rotar () recalls that horror stories about the Chinese offensive in Central Asia have been agitating the Russian media sphere for several years, and now it has come to reports about the "occupation of the Pamirs by China." It also came to the appearance of maps allegedly published in the Middle Kingdom, on which China owns all of Central Asia and a significant part of Russia.
Since in Dushanbe they simply did not see about the "occupation", the "Rosbalt" correspondent had to contact the residents of Murgab via the social network "Odnoklassniki". In response, he received several replies that "no Chinese" were "noticed" there.
Later, on May 7, the Kyrgyz portal Vesti.kg clarified the "news" of the Chinese invasion. The head of the Kyrgyz Border Service, Tokon Mamytov, told reporters that reports about the introduction of Chinese troops into Tajikistan are nothing more than a duck. Mr. Mamytov stated:
“I just spoke on the phone this morning with the first deputy chairman of the State Committee for National Security of the Republic of Tajikistan, the head of the main directorate of the Tajik Border Troops, Mirzo Sherali, and he said that the situation was stable. Moreover, to say that China has occupied the Murghab region means, at best, not to understand the processes taking place in Central Asia. Both Dushanbe and Beijing are SCO members who signed a series of documents on the observance of territorial integrity within the framework of this organization. Naturally, the information that a friendly state suddenly, for no apparent reason, almost occupied the lands of its neighbor is erroneous. "
Khairullo Mirsaidov, a columnist for the Tajik media holding Asia Plus, told Rosbalt that the rumor about Chinese expansion was “launched by Russia, and is fanning it”. The aim of the Moscow "duck" is the return by Russia of "its border guards to our border."
By a strange coincidence, the correspondent notes, on May 8, the Russian president just signed laws on the ratification of agreements on the conditions for the presence of Russian military bases in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Returning to the territories of Tajikistan "occupied" by China, I must add the following.
As early as April 15, that is, more than three weeks before the news about Chinese expansion appeared, a note appeared with a link to the above-mentioned Tajik resource "Asia plus".
China received more Tajik territory than it was given to Dushanbe, said Rakhmatillo Zoyirov, chairman of the National Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan. As reported on the website of the Iranian radio Sadoi Khuroson, Rakhmatillo Zoyirov does not exclude that in exchange for debts to China, Tajikistan may give up another part of the territory of the Murghab region. The Chinese border guards have penetrated 20 km deeper into the territory of Tajikistan than previously agreed. The Iranian radio station quotes Zoyirov:
“I myself personally traveled to the Murghab region and saw that the Chinese border guards in certain areas established their borders 20 km deep into Tajik territory, although Tajikistan and China agreed to transfer only 1.1 thousand square kilometers of the territory of the Murghab region.”
Mr. Zoyirov believes that the transfer of military forces and equipment to the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region under the pretext of holding anti-terrorist exercises there is connected precisely with the discussion of the transfer of part of the lands of the Murghab region to China and Dushanbe's debts.
However, official representatives of the Ministry of Defense of Tajikistan deny these rumors.
IA "REGNUM" reminds that Tajikistan approved the transfer of part of the territory to the PRC in January 2011, when the parliament of the republic ratified the protocol on the demarcation of the border with the PRC, according to which 1.1 thousand sq. M. km of disputed territories. The official land transfer ceremony took place in the autumn of the same year. The area of \u200b\u200bChina has grown by 1,158 square kilometers, while the territory of Tajikistan has decreased by 1%.
Eduard Limonov, in his "sermon" of May 14, wrote in his own that what is happening in Gorno-Badakhshan is "hardly accessible to observers," because there "is not Pushkin Square," but "mountains, and how dense!"
If Tajikistan transferred to China a territory of 1.5 thousand square kilometers to pay off the national debt, then Tajikistan, Limonov believes, will keep information about this secret - after all, "distributing pieces" of their native land will have a bad effect on the morality of Tajiks.
And what about the Chinese? Why are these silent?
And they, writes Limonov, also find it unprofitable to disseminate such information: they "prefer to swallow territories in silence."
“And the fact that the Chinese are masters of moving the border deep into foreign territories is widely known. What they did on the Amur near the Tarabarov island, when they changed the course of the Amur (flooded barges and transported sand, because the border under the treaty goes along the fairway) in order to chop off pieces of our territory is widely known. Few people know that the border with China now runs along the city beach of Khabarovsk. By God, it is so! "
Limonov states:
“I reproach and will reproach compatriots for political frivolity and political dementia.
They briskly enter into hysterical disputes about absolutely unimportant things, especially Moscow ones, and ignore serious and terrible problems.
Giant China breathes hotly and swallows saliva, looking at the former Soviet Asia ... "
According to Limonov, the PRC is already blocking the rivers (for example, the Black Irtysh) and "stealing for itself four-fifths of the water intake." Now, having seized the Pamirs, he will control the sources of the great rivers.
And now let's break away from the prose of Comrade Limonov and check how the Russian military feel in Tajikistan: whether they notice nearby Chinese hordes encroaching on Tajik uranium and other attractive territories, and whether they are moving the borders where. In fact, the military is the most reliable source of what is happening in the republic.
On May 13, he reported that the units and formations of the 201st Russian military base stationed in Tajikistan are serving as usual.
Yaroslav Roshchupkin, the head of the press service of the Central Military District, told the reporter about this. “The Russian 201 military base stationed in Tajikistan is operating normally,” comrade Roshchupkin stressed.
Russian military personnel do not observe Chinese troops on the territory of Tajikistan.