Soviet Central Asian borders were drawn to guarantee future ethnic conflicts

Evidence

There are also claims by Arab states on non-Arab states, such as the Syrian claim, never renounced, to the Sanjak of Alexandretta; the Libyan claim to ter­ ritory in Chad; and the Moroccan claim to the Spanish Presidios. Some claims are not specifically about land or people but about resources, the most important being the Turkish control over the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates, an irritation to Syria and still more to Iraq. There are many more such claims which have been or may be asserted between the former Soviet republics in Central Asia and Transcaucasia. If the Soviets had devised the frontiers with a view to causing future trouble, they hardly could have done a better job. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1614

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Connects to the general theme that imperial boundary-drawing (British, Soviet) deliberately or negligently manufactures ethnic conflict — parallels the Middle East partition discussions.

Related

• Imperial powers drew frontiers that maximize future regional conflict (similarity 0.90)
• The Islamic Middle East historically stretched into Central Asia past the Soviet border (similarity 0.79)
• Imperial frontiers ignore inhabitants’ rights, leaving rival claims nearly parallel (similarity 0.78)