Kyrgyzstan marks People's Revolution Day

BISHKEK, March 24 (Itar-Tass) - Kyrgyzstan marks People's Revolution
Day on Thursday. Six years ago, several thousand Kyrgyz opposition
supporters gathered on Bishkek's central square Ala-Too and demanded
President Askar Akayev's resignation. He chose not to enter in the
conflict and left the country for Moscow, where a few days later he wrote
a statement about stepping down as the head of state.
He was replaced on the presidential post by former Prime Minister
Kurmanbek Bakiyev. According to most leaders of political movements of
Kyrgyzstan, over the five years of his rule he in many ways surpassed his
predecessor in terms of the creation of the family-clan system of
governance, regionalism and corruption schemes. As a result, on April 7
last year, the scenario of mass opposition gathering on the square was
repeated. However, unlike Akayev, Bakiyev resorted to the use of force in
an armed conflict with the people in which 90 people were killed and
hundreds wounded. However, this did not help the second president of
Kyrgyzstan to retain power, and he also had to leave the country and
settled in Minsk. However, he managed to legitimise the date of the
overthrow of Akayev, naming it People's Revolution Day and declaring it a
public holiday.
Due to the fact that the March Revolution of 2005 did not live up to
expectations of Kyrgyz politicians, the abolition of the holiday is
currently being discussed in the society at all levels. The republic's
present leaders are against the abolition. "We must remember what
happened, not forget the lessons of history," believes Prime Minister
Almazbek Atambayev. "It is important to move along towards building a new
Kyrgyzstan with a developed economy and high living standards of people,
where human rights and freedoms are the supreme value." He also believes
that it was really people's revolution in 2005, when the opposition
managed to "make then President Askar Akayev to flee the country along
with his corrupt entourage."
This view is shared by the republic's incumbent President Roza
Otunbayeva. "Various views have been expressed in the society today about
the "Tulip Revolution," she said. "But, nevertheless, the overthrow of the
Akayev regime was a true revolution, which occurred due to the usurpation
of power by Akayev's clan." However, the Tulip Revolution failed to
achieve its goals, she is certain. This happened "due to the lack of
experience in creating a democratic state in Asia, lack of unity and
concerted action by political forces that took part in the revolution, as
well as because of the dominance of paternalistic ideas in the society,"
Otunbayeva said.
The Kyrgyz government told Itar-Tass that no mass people's open-air
events are planned on Thursday in connection with People's Revolution day
in the republic.
In the Tulip Revolution President Askar Akayev and his government were
overthrown in Kyrgyzstan after the parliamentary elections of February 27
and of March 13, 2005. The revolution sought the end of rule by Akayev and
by his family and associates, who in popular opinion had become
increasingly corrupt and authoritarian. Following the revolution, Akayev
fled to Kazakhstan and then Russia. On April 4 he signed his resignation
statement in the presence of a Kyrgyz parliamentary delegation in his
country's embassy in Moscow, and on April 11 the Kyrgyz Parliament
ratified his resignation.
In the early stages of the revolution, the media variously referred to
the unrest as the "Pink," "Lemon," "Silk," or "Daffodil" Revolution. But
it was "Tulip Revolution," a term that Akayev himself used in a speech
warning that no such Colour Revolution should happen in Kyrgyzstan. Such
terms evoked similarities with the non-violent Rose Revolution in Georgia
and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004, whose names owe a debt to
the 1989 Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution.
Givi Targamadze, a former member of Liberty Institute and the chair of
Georgian Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Security, consulted
Ukrainian opposition leaders on the technique of non-violent struggle, and
later he advised leaders of Kyrgyz opposition during the Tulip Revolution.
The Tulip Revolution, despite being concurrent with other non-violent
colour revolutions, saw some violence in its initial days, most notably in
the southern city of Jalal-Abad, where the first major signs of violence
were noted, and at least three people died during widespread looting in
the capital in the first 24 hours after the fall of the Kyrgyz government.
The country's new presidential elections were held in July 2005 and,
after having made a political deal with Felix Kulov, Kurmanbek Bakiyev won
a landslide victory and subsequently appointed Kulov Prime Minister.
Despite hopes the revolution would bring democratic change to Kyrgyzstan,
subsequent years have seen the murder of several prominent politicians,
prison riots, economic ills and battles for control of lucrative
businesses. In 2006, Bakiyev faced a political crisis as thousands of
people participated in a series of protests in Bishkek. He was accused of
not following through with his promises to limit presidential power, give
more authority to parliament and the prime minister, and eradicate
corruption and crime. Bakiyev claimed that the opposition was plotting a
coup against him.