The Urtatagai conflict was a conflict between the Soviet Union and the Emirate of Afghanistan in the mid-1920s over the control of the island of Urtatagai, which is an island on the Amu Darya river that had been claimed by Afghanistan since 1900, although it was under Russian control until 1920, when remnants of the Imperial Russian Army evacuated the island to aid the White Movement in the Russian Civil War. The Afghan Army had earlier unsuccessfully tried to enforce its claim on Urtatagai in a border conflict in 1913, and in 1920 Afghan forces were finally able to capture the island unopposed. On 27 November 1925, due to repeated incursions into Soviet territory by Basmachi rebels using the island as a base, as well as the Soviet claim to the Island, 340 Soviet troops landed on the island of Urtatagai, and a clash with the island's garrison saw 12 people killed, and 5 Afghans were taken prisoner. On 18 December, the Prime Minister of Afghanistan issued a letter of protest, making four key demands: