Kyrgyzstan not proponent of war, yet ready for fitting reply to territorial claims from neighbors - Atambayev
BISHKEK. March 24 (Interfax) - Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev does not rule out the possibility of new border conflicts and declares readiness to give a fitting reply to the threats coming from neighbors.
"For instance, we have over 50 disputable border sections and, alas, border conflicts will happen," the president said at the Thursday ceremony in Bishkek, which started a park project dedicated to the 2005 'Tulip Revolution'.
Atambayev once again called on the leaders of neighboring countries to resolve the matter.
"We are not proponents of war, but we are ready to give a fitting answer. They used to scare us with the shutdown of power and gas supply, but we have nullified those threats in the past five years. This is why, our neighbors are now taking such steps," the president said.
"The ongoing border situation is one of the last levers of influence on Kyrgyzstan our neighbors have left," the president said.
"Kyrgyzstan will take the facilities it owns in the border area, and it will do so looking in our neighbors' eyes. We have been unable to regain our own facilities in our territory for 25 years," Atambayev said.
Uzbekistan deployed its servicemen and armored vehicles to a non-delimitated sector of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border, in the Chalasart area of the Aksy district of the Jalal-Abad region, on March 18.
The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry filed a protest with the Uzbek side and demanded that the servicemen and hardware be pulled back. Kyrgyzstan bolstered protection of the border area by deploying servicemen and military hardware on March 20.
