DUSHANBE, September 18. /TASS/. The Kyrgyz side continues its information campaign against Tajikistan, which only adds to the tensions on the border, Spokesman for the Tajik Foreign Minister Shokhin Samadi told TASS on Sunday.
"Seeking to create an image of an ‘aggressor’ in the face of its neighbor, the Kyrgyz side doesn’t hesitate to use outright lies and insinuations and continues its information campaign against Tajikistan, this way whipping up tensions in the border regions," he said.
He drew attention to the fact that in his address to the nation on September 17, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov used the word "enemy" in respect of Tajikistan, which runs counter to the spirit of friendship and good neighborly relations.
The situation on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border escalated on September 14. Armed clashes between the two countries’ border units resumed on Friday morning along the entire border. Later on that day, Presidents Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan and Emomali Rakhmon of Tajikistan held talks on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand and agreed a ceasefire. Following it, chief of the countries’ border services agreed to coordinate actions to prevent provocations and shootouts on the border. But, according to Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security, the Kyrgyz side violated the ceasefire agreements several times and opened fire at the Tajik territory, including at populated localities. According to preliminary data cited by the Tajik foreign ministry, as many as 38 people were killed and 20 more were wounded as a result of shelling.