Turkey voices support for Kyrgyz-Tajik truce

ANKARA

Turkey's foreign minister expressed the country's support for a cease-fire deal between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan on Saturday in separate phone calls to his counterparts in the two Central Asian nations.

Following two days of border clashes, Mevlut Cavusoglu told Sirojiddin Muhriddin and Ruslan Kazakbayev that Turkey would provide the support needed to peacefully settle the two countries' disputes, according to diplomatic sources,
Cavusoglu also voiced his satisfaction with the truce inked between the two sides earlier on Saturday.

The violence that started on Wednesday between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan was centered on control over the local water distribution network, Kyrgyz media reported on Thursday.

Surveillance equipment was installed by Tajik officials at the Golovnoi water distribution center, which Kyrgyzstan says is located in an area where sovereignty is yet to be defined, according to the Radio Free Europe news website.

Clashes broke out with the intervention of the border troops from the two countries, and soldiers were sent to the region with armored vehicles from both sides.

Tensions on control of the water supply continued on Thursday, however, with residents throwing stones at each other.

At least 39 people were killed -- including a 13-year-old girl -- and 134 wounded along the disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border, according to the Kyrgyz Health Ministry.

*Writing by Dilan Pamuk in Ankara