Afghanistan-Turkmenistan: Blurred Borderlines

Imam Nazar used be to a bustling trading post, the last stop on a main road from Afghanistan to Turkmenistan, but these days it looks more like a ghost town. Those residents who have not yet left blame the authorities in Turkmenistan for the slump in border trade.



Apart from a few Afghan soldiers manning a deserted border checkpoint, the only people out and about are several of shopkeepers hoping a driver will stop to pick up provisions. Much of the custom comes from truck drivers from Turkmenistan working on contract for international aid groups sending supplies to Afghanistan, but their numbers are falling away these days.



The plight of this town in Faryab province highlights the difficult situation along the border between northwest Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, where tighter regulation and frequent arrests of people who inadvertently stray across the line have made life harder for local residents.



Gurban Nazar, 37, is among the many shopkeepers in Imam Nazar who are considering closing down. He blames the authorities in Turkmenistan for creating disincentives to travel.



“Since Turkmen consular officials introduced the most complicated ever visa procedures, people rarely travel there. On the other side, Turkmen citizens are not allowed to travel here, either, so there's nothing left in the border zone,” he said. “Our businesses target people crossing this checkpoint, but now no one comes for days, so we are just wasting our time.”



Apart from border trade, the Turkmenistan authorities’ attitude is also making life tough for local farmers - many of whom are ethnic Turkmen in this part of Afghanistan.



Farmers have always grazed their herds of livestock along the rivers here – the Shirin Taghab in Faryab, the Murghab in Badghis province to the west, and the great Amu Darya to the east in Jowzjan - whose waters provided a lifeline during many drought years. But these days they risk arrest or at least the loss of their animals if they cross invisible state boundaries.



“Some parts of the border are open and have no border signs especially in Andkhoy district, and we used to go there for years even when the Taleban was in power in Afghanistan and during the Soviet period as well,” said Allah Berdy, a 42-year-old resident of Andkhoy district in Faryab. “Over the last year, Turkmen border guards have started stopping us doing this. If our animals cross the unmarked border without realising it, the border guards will confiscate them.”



Allah Berdy himself was arrested and held in a Turkmen jail after being accused of crossing the boundary illegally. He says he paid local authorities a bribe to secure his release.



“There are still dozens of [similar] people in Turkmen prisons. I expect this will continue, since there is no proper demarcation of the border and more importantly, the Turkmen border guards are using this legal loophole to extort bribes from people,” he said.



Sections of the Murghab and Amu Darya rivers traditionally served as the state boundary, but the course of these waterways has shifted in recent years, and Afghan villagers say land that was once theirs is now claimed by Turkmenistan and patrolled by that country’s frontier guards.



Although neither government has raised the issue of demarcation, talks on the border have been taking place since last year.



Local Afghan authorities would not comment either on the border problems or on people detained in Turkmenistan. Nor was it possible to contact officials in Turkmenistan, but the authorities there have said publicly that tougher border security is a move designed to stop drug smuggling out of Afghanistan, the world’s leading opium producer.



Local residents say opium and heroin does cross the border, and that powerful outsiders are involved.



One man, who did not want to be named, said, “The people involved in this business are high-level figures, including officials from either side of the border, and the people now being held in Turkmen prisons have got nothing to do with drug smuggling.”



Muhammad Tahir is a journalist and writer based in Prague.