According to a Turmush correspondent, Austrian prisoners of war were brought to the region to work on road construction, which were then used for transporting goods by carts.
One such road is located in the foothills, about 3-4 km south of the village of Austan, along the Isfayram River. This area is currently part of the Surma-Tash State Nature Reserve. The road was laid in the direction of Chon-Alay.
According to local elders, tungsten was mined in the Surma-Tash mines in the past. The ore was loaded onto carts and sent to Kyzyl-Kiya. During that time, bridges were also built over the Isfayram River, which have since collapsed, and a new automobile bridge now stands in their place.
Some locals suggest that this road connected the Kadamjai and Chon-Alay districts. The time period of its construction may coincide with the reign of Kurmanjan-Datka, who, according to some sources, used this road for trips to the rulers of the Kokand Khanate. Traces of carts can still be seen on the slopes.
Austro-Hungarian army prisoners of war, while in the territory of modern Batken region, were engaged not only in road construction but also in repairing weapons for the Russian army.
There are reports that some of them exchanged weapons for jewelry with the local population.
Currently, in the Maydanskiy ayil aimak of the Kadamjai district, a project is being implemented to build a road connecting the Batken region with the Chon-Alay district of the Osh region. The length of the new road will be 127 km, and work is being carried out from both sides by the employees of DEP-46.
Reference Information
Initially, the Russian authorities planned to place prisoners of war in Turkestan only in areas remote from large settlements and railway lines. However, due to the large number of captives and the lack of accommodation, these plans were changed. As a result, the first groups of prisoners of war began to arrive in Turkestan in September 1914, after the capture of Przemyśl, and about 50,000 people of various nationalities were accommodated in Tashkent.
At first, the accommodation of prisoners of war did not pose significant difficulties, as barracks freed from the troops of the Turkestan Military District, which had gone to the front, were used for this purpose.
However, it soon became clear that there were not enough available facilities. In early 1915, it was planned to accommodate another 1,200 prisoners of war in Katta-Kurgan, but the city could only hold 600 people, and in Samarkand, out of 1,000 prisoners of war, there was space for only 508.
