Editor's Note: This is the first installment of a two-part series on the Fergana Valley region of Central Asia, its complex demographics and the history and future of conflicts in the area. Click here for Part 2. A recent border dispute in the Fergana Valley, the core of Central Asia, highlights the growing tensions in the strategic and contested region. Kyrgyz and Uzbek border patrol units were removed from the Ungar-Too area in Kyrgyzstan's Jalal-Abad region Oct. 2, after a two-week standoff over an alleged Uzbek border incursion into the area. Such incursions, coupled with ethnic tensions and sporadic violence, have become increasingly common in the Fergana Valley region, which is split between Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The valley has long been the population and agricultural heartland of Central Asia.