AVA - Kyrgyzstan: To send humanitarian expedition to ethnic Kyrgyz

Preparations are being made to send a humanitarian mission to Afghanistan’s Great and Little Pamir, where ethnic Kyrgyz reside are. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan said.

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA)_Monitoring, In response to a video widely circulated on social media in January 2023, in which ethnic Kyrgyz inhabitants of Afghanistan called for their repatriation to Kyrgyzstan, the Kyrgyz Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated it was keeping an eye on ethnic Kyrgyz overseas, especially in Afghanistan.

Since the 16th century, semi-nomadic Kyrgyz people have resided on the Afghan side of the Pamir Mountains. More than one thousand Kyrgyz people are thought to reside in Afghanistan.

According to the Minister of Kyrgyzstan, 91 Kyrgyz men, 77 women, and 177 children from the village of Andemin in the Afghan province of Badakhshan, they left Afghanistan in 2021 along with their livestock.

The Pamir Kyrgyz live in the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan, a narrow territory between Tajikistan, Pakistan and China, where remote valleys intersperse mountain ravines.

Due to the isolation, and extreme social instability caused by current conflict and violence, the ethnic Kyrgyz want to leave the country. Until 1973, they numbered around 10,000; as of now, it is estimated that around 700 to 2,000 live in the country.

However, According to the report, the Afghan government is issuing passports to its residents, including ethnic Kyrgyz.