The president’s press service considers Vorukh an enclave

On the official website of the press service of the President of Tajikistan, the village of Vorukh in the Isfara district is presented as an enclave on the territory of Kyrgyzstan.

Photo: Internet

The press service of the President of Tajikistan presented an image of a map on its official website, where the rural jamoat of Vorukh in the Isfara district of the Sughd region is marked as an enclave, completely separated from the territory of Tajikistan.

Photo: Internet

The authors of Tajik Wikipedia, who apparently work in one of the state institutions, also repeated a similar mistake on the page about the city of Isfara in the Sughd region.

Most Tajik researchers, activists, and the majority of past cartographers do not consider Vorukh to be an enclave. For example, according to maps from 1925-1927, Vorukh is not an enclave and is fully part of the Isfara district.

On April 19, 2021, Emomali Rahmon, in his speech in the city of Isfara regarding the “issue of delimitation and demarcation of the state border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan,” stated: “I want to emphasize one more important point, namely that during the entire period of negotiations, that is, for 19 years, there has been and cannot be any question of replacing Vorukh with any other territory.”

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country, Sodik Emomi, stated at a press conference on September 19 that Vorukh is not an enclave and is connected to the territory of Tajikistan.

In recent years, armed conflicts have erupted several times in the border areas of the city of Isfara, particularly in the rural jamoat of Vorukh, between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The population of the Isfara district is about 300,000 people, with more than 43,000 people living in the rural jamoat of Vorukh alone.