The village of Gulshan in the Ferghana valley is divided by international borderlines. The houses at the left side of this little alley belongs to Uzbekistan, and the right side is Kyrgyzstan. The alley itself is only about 4 meters wide. The residents of both sides are all Uzbek ethnics, and share family relationships. They can travel freely across this unmarked border.
The zigzagging and often illogical borderlines in Ferghana Valley were created by Stalin when the Central Asian republics were under the Soviet Union control. Nobody really knows why there is a border here and there. Sometimes the border cut through someone’s house; the bedroom in Uzbekistan and the kitchen in Kyrgyzstan. Back then, it had not so much meaning, as they were part of the same country. But now the independent Central Asian republics has begun to demarcate their border, which often cause disputes and conflicts, making the future more unpredictable for the people living right on the borderlines.
Gulshan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan border, 2007