I have visited Termez twice since the beginning of the year, once in February and then over a weekend in April. The first time was for business, meeting the regional Hokim, seeing the border crossing point where trains carrying ISAF equipment enter Uzbekistan, speaking to students at the University. The second time was private, so I could visit some of the historic sites with my family – Alexander the Great’s city at Kampyr Tepa, Buddhist temples, the mausoleum of Al-Hakim al-Termezi, the beautiful minaret at Jarkurgan, the impressive archaeological museum in Termez itself.
It’s an area whose history reflects its geography – as a river port and as a crossing-place on the Amu-Darya river, and therefore both a natural frontier and a natural transit point, as it is now for the railway taking goods in and out of Afghanistan. But I don’t believe in geographical determinism, the idea that a country’s or a region’s future is necessarily determined by its geographical position: there are plenty of examples of places that have overcome geographical disadvantages or squandered natural advantages. Nor, in this globalised age, do I really believe in geostrategy. In the end a country’s, and a government’s, success or failure should be measured by the services and opportunities it provides for its people, not by nineteenth century ideas of territory and power projection.
We visited the Qirq Qiz fortress at the same time as a group of teenagers from a school in Jarkurgan. One of the girls approached us to practice her English and talked about her plans and ambitions. I was impressed by the quality of her English and by her lack of shyness.