Starting from early morning on 4 February Turkmenistan closed the border for trucks bound to Tajikistan or en route from Tajikistan. “Ozodagon” reports that truck drivers call on the authorities of their home country to address the issue.
The vehicles transporting goods to other countries, including Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, cross the Turkmen border unhampered.The drivers say that the Turkmen border guard patrols do not explain the reasons behind the ban which prevents Tajikistan’s transit trucks from entering Turkmenistan.Tajikistan’s vehicles are being held at the Turkmen-Uzbek and Turkmen-Iranian borders.
According to the drivers, a few hours after the ban was introduced, about 45 trucks from Turkmenistan congregated at the check-point “Alat” located at Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan border.
Moreover, about 25 semi trucks transporting goods to Tajikistan got stuck at the border checkpoints of Lyutfabad-Artyk and Sarakhs at the Turkmenistan-Iran border.
Let us recall that in late August Turkmenistan denied access to its territory to trucks en route to Tajikistan without providing any explanations.
After two weeks of waiting, according to “Ozodi”, the authorities of Turkmenistan sent the official letter to Tajikistan’s Foreign Ministry and explained that the ban had been introduced for reasons of security and “drug trafficking”.
A month later the trucks were given access.
At the same time, the Turkmen authorities continue to claim that they are undertaking measures to turn the country into a transportation ban and to attract international freight forwarders.