Editorial: Taliban Stuck on an Island Between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan

A fence further down the Amu Darya, where it divides
Uzbekistan from Afghanistan near the Uzbek city of
Termiz. (Image: Wiki Commons)

By Catherine Putz

With Taliban militants marooned on an island in the Amu Darya, Ashgabat can no longer deny there is trouble on the border.

Mere weeks after chastising Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev for mentioning his concern about “incidents” along the Turkmen-Afghan border, Ashgabat is allegedly in contact with Afghan forces who say they chased a few dozen Taliban militants onto an island in Amu Darya, which separates Afghanistan from Turkmenistan.

On October 15, after a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Nazarbayev included in his remarks a comment about the security of region’s southern reaches, saying “We already know about the incidents on the border with Turkmenistan and we are concerned about Tajikistan.”

Turkmenistan immediately pushed back, issuing a strongly-worded statement in which it expressed “its extreme incomprehension and concern at this statement by the Kazakhstan side which is irrelevant to the situation on the state border of Turkmenistan.” Ashgabat urged the Kazakhs to “use more relevant information in the future when assessing the situation in Turkmenistan.”

To steal a line from Shakespeare: Turkmenistan doth protest too much, methinks.

Read the full story at The Diplomat