So'x

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Soʻx
Сўх
Enclaves in western Kyrgyzstan

Enclaves in western Kyrgyzstan

Basic data
State : UzbekistanUzbekistan Uzbekistan
Province: Fargʻona
District: So'x
Coordinates : 39 ° 57 '  N , 71 ° 7'  E Coordinates: 39 ° 57 '0 "  N , 71 ° 7' 12"  E
Soʻx (Uzbekistan)
So'x
So'x
Area : 325  km²
Residents : 42,800 (1993)

Soʻx (Cyrillic-Uzbek Сўх ; Russian Сох ; often, after the English transcription from Russian, Sokh ), German also Soch , is an Uzbek exclave and a district of the Uzbek province Fargʻona . It also forms an enclave that is completely enclosed by Kyrgyzstan . With around 50,000 inhabitants (the last census was in 1993, more recent estimates assume up to 70,000 inhabitants) and an area of ​​325 km², So'x is the largest and most populous of the enclaves in the Fergana Valley . The Soʻx exclave is about 35 kilometers long and about 7 kilometers wide. Soʻx is about 11.5 kilometers (as the crow flies) from Uzbekistan. The largest place is the municipality of Soʻx, which, like the valley itself, was named after the river Soʻx ; The capital of the Soʻx district is Ravon .

geography

Soʻx is located in the fertile Soʻxtal, in the midst of high mountain ranges. The Soʻxtal is a side valley of the equally fertile and much larger Ferghanatals. The exclave has an area of ​​325 km 2 , which is large compared to other exclaves in this region.

population

The population consists of 99% Tajiks who hold the Uzbek passport. The rest are a small Kyrgyz minority (1%).

places

  • So'x
  • Damersat
  • Gaz

economy

The main line of business is agriculture. The fields are supplied by the Soʻx river, so agriculture is only possible in the valley floor. The Soʻxtal thus forms a river oasis in the surrounding, barren grassy landscape .

history

Together with Kokand , Soʻx was one of the centers of the Basmati uprising from 1918 to 1924. At that time, Soʻx was still directly connected to Uzbekistan. In 1955 Moscow cut the northern section of So'xs and joined it to the then Soviet Republic of Kyrgyzstan . Since then, Soʻx has been an exclave within Kyrgyzstan. This approach has met with perplexity to this day; The Uzbek authorities are also calling for land access to the exclave in order to be able to better control it. Since the reintroduction of visa requirements between the Central Asian countries, the movement of people and goods has been severely restricted. For Kyrgyzstan the required land connection So'xs with Uzbekistan would be a bitter loss, because it would de facto separate the entire south-western part of the state from the rest of the country, the only good road connection between the two Kyrgyz state parts is already through So'x.

So'x is now considered a possible base for the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan . In the course of the ongoing Kyrgyz-Uzbek border disputes, the Uzbek side mined land around So'x, and according to Kyrgyz information also Kyrgyz territory.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. a b library.fes.de : Studies on country-specific conflict analysis: Uzbekistan (PDF file; 670 kB)
  2. a b www.taz.de : In the valley of a thousand borders
  3. Rainer Hermann: Conflict Constellations in Central Asia - Challenges for the OSCE (PDF file; 739 kB)