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History : The
Kyrgyz are descended from nomadic tribes who emigrated from northern
Mongolia in the tenth century to the region around Lake Baikal in what
is now known as Kyrgyzstan. They subsequently came under Mongol, then
Chinese suzerainty - although they were afforded considerable autonomy
by the standards of the age - before being incorporated into the
Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century. In 1916 there was a
revolt against Russian attempts to conscript the Kyrgyz to fight in
World War I. The rebellion was ruthlessly suppressed, a reaction that
explains why the Bolsheviks were welcomed in 1917-1918. Initially,
Kyrgyzstan was included in the Russian Federation before gaining, at
least in theory, greater independence - first as an autonomous region,
and finally becoming the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic in 1934. The
collectivization programme of Stalin destroyed much of the nomadic
lifestyle of the Kyrgyz, but the impracticality of collectives, given
Kyrgyzstan’s geography, meant that more traditions survived here than
in many other places in the USSR.
During the years of Soviet hegemony,
immigration by ethnic Russians was encouraged and Bishkek has had a
Russian majority for many years. With the accession of Mikhail
Gorbachev to the Kremlin in 1985, there was a purge of top officials
and many of the old-guard communists who ran Kyrgyzstan were swept out
of office. Despite a commitment to economic restructuring, the new
leadership was as politically conservative as their predecessors. This
was borne out during the attempted coup in 1991 when the Kyrgyz
leadership supported the plotters of the State Committee for the State
of Emergency. By this time, however, Kyrgyzstan had a new leader in Askar Akayev, a former head of the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences, who
aligned himself with the opposition Kyrgyz Democratic Movement. Akayev
moved quickly to forestall the attempted communist takeover, which
quickly evaporated when the Moscow coup collapsed. In October 1991,
Akayev was elected unopposed as President. Kyrgyzstan became an
independent republic within the Commonwealth of Independent States at
the end of that year.
Akayev’s radical economic reforms - popular
support for which was shown by a referendum - have gained strong
support in the West and agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank
have granted loans to keep the economy and the new currency afloat.
Akayev is using the Turkish model of a non-fundamentalist Islamic
policy coupled with Western free-market economics as the basis for his
reforms. The strategy has only been partially successful : the economy
is still in a poor condition and the political structure riven with
corruption and in-fighting. The government also faces growing
opposition from Islamist movements which have been active throughout
Central Asia during the last decade. In December 1995, Akayev was
reelected for a second five-year term defeating two other candidates
and attracting 60 per cent of the vote. The parliamentary poll in
February 2000 returned the Communist Party as the largest single bloc
though without an overall majority; however, Akayev supporters
remained in control of the assembly. Akayev himself once again came
before the electorate in October 2000, and secured a third term with
three-quarters of the poll. With the change in US policy towards
Central Asia which followed the 11 September 2001 attacks, Kyrgyzstan
has accepted military support from the US. It has also developed
closer relations with China with whom it has held joint security
exercises.
Government : Under the constitution accepted by referendum in
1994, legislative power is vested in the bicameral 105-strong Jogorku
Kenesh. One-third of its members sit in a permanent lower chamber; the
other two-thirds meet twice a year in the upper chamber. The whole
parliament is elected every 5 years, as is the president, who holds
executive power along with an appointed prime minister and Council of
Ministers, subject to the approval of the Jogorku Kenesh. |
