evidence: THERE WAS jubilation in August in Rishton, a town in the bit of the Fergana Valley that lies in Uzbekistan, when the gates of a nearby border checkpoint with Kyrgyzstan were unlocked for the first time in almost seven years. The opening reduced the length of the journey to Sokh, an island of Uzbek-governed territory surrounded by Kyrgyzstan, from 150km to 50km. As the crossing was reopened, officials from both countries waxed lyrical about a renewed spirit of fraternity. Kyrgyz and Uzbeks—both Turkic-speaking, Muslim peoples—are "like a bird with two wings", mused Akram Madumarov, the governor of the province on the Kyrgyz side of the border. "If one wing is missing, the bird cannot fly."