evidence: UNHCR project helps ethnic minority in Fergana Valley get Kyrgyz nationality JANY-KYSHTAK, Kyrgyzstan, December 5 (UNHCR) - The minority Lyuli people have been living in Jany-Kyshtak and other villages of the fertile Fergana Valley for more than 200 years. Many grew up under Soviet rule, when the Fergana straddled the Soviet republics of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and nationality was not a major consideration. [...] Azizbek Ashurov is the director of Fergana Valley Lawyers without Borders, which works with UNHCR by providing legal aid to stateless people and people of undetermined nationality. He listed the main reasons for statelessness in Kyrgyzstan. "First is the collapse of the USSR [Soviet Union]. People did not exchange their Soviet passports and became stateless," he said, adding that a second reason was the lack of harmony between the nationality laws in different countries.