evidence: After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the newly established independent sovereign republics of Central Asia were free to chart their own course in domestic and geopolitical affairs, rid of the constraints long imposed on them by Moscow. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of the region, independence was nothing more than a trigger for renewed ethnic conflict, driven mainly by the new states’ disputes over water and land, particularly within the densely populated Fergana Valley region. [...] However, whether unable or unwilling to, the Soviet demarcation strategy did not fully take into account the vast array and relatively random geographical spread of ethnic groups that resided in the Fergana Valley. As a result, several ethnic groups found themselves positioned outside of their ‘home’ republics, with both Tajik and ethnic Uzbek communities existing in the form of enclaves and exclaves within the Kyrgyz nation, and vice versa. [...] Blog written by Lewis Walters for Global Risks Insights. Original posting at: https://globalriskinsights.com/2021/06/kyrgyz-tajik-relations-in-the-fergana-valley-trapped-in-a-soviet-era-labyrinth/