Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(Genghis) Khan in the 13th century. Present-
day Kyrgyzstan was part of the inheritance of
Chinggis' second son, Chaghatai.
In 1685, the arrival of the ruthless Mon-
gol Oyrats of the Zhungarian (Dzungarian)
empire drove vast numbers of Kyrgyz south
into the Fergana and Pamir Alay regions,
and on into present-day Tajikistan. The
Manchu (Qing) defeat of the Oyrats in 1758
left the Kyrgyz as de-facto subjects of the
Chinese, who mainly left the locals to their
nomadic ways.
Kyrgyz Independence
Elections for the Kyrgyz Supreme Soviet
(legislature) were held in traditional Soviet
rubber-stamp style in February 1990, with
the Kyrgyz Communist Party (KCP) walking
away with nearly all of the seats. After mul-
tiple ballots a compromise candidate, Askar
Akaev, a physicist and president of the Kyrgyz
Academy of Sciences, was elected as leader.
On 31 August 1991, the Kyrgyz Supreme So-
viet reluctantly voted to declare Kyrgyzstan's
independence, the first Central Asian repub-
lic to do so. Six weeks later Akaev was re-
elected as president, running unopposed.
Land and housing were at the root of
Central Asia's most infamous 'ethnic' vio-
lence, during which at least 300 people were
killed in 1990, when violence broke out be-
tween Kyrgyz and Uzbeks around Osh and
Özgön, a majority-Uzbek area stuck onto
Kyrgyzstan in the 1930s.
Akaev initially established himself as a
persistent reformer, restructuring the execu-
tive apparatus to suit his liberal political and
economic attitudes, and instituting reforms
considered to be the most radical in the Cen-
tral Asian republics.
In the late 1990s the country faced a new
threat - Islamic radicals and terrorism. In
1999 and 2000, militants from the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU; based in
Tajikistan) staged a series of brazen kidnap-
pings of foreign workers and climbers in the
province of Batken. Kyrgyz security forces
largely contained the threat while IMU lead-
ership fell to US bombs in Afghanistan.
The Russian Occupation
As the Russians moved closer during the
19th century, various Kyrgyz clan leaders
made their own peace with either Russia
or the neighbouring khanate of Kokand.
Bishkek - then comprising only the Pishpek
fort - fell in 1862 to a combined Russian-
Kyrgyz force. The Kyrgyz were gradually
eased into the tsar's provinces of Fergana
and Semireche while Russian settlers ar-
rived steadily over subsequent decades. In
1916 the Russian Imperial army attempted
to 'requisition' Krygyz men for noncombat-
ant labour battalions as part of World War
I mobilisation. The result was a revolt that
was put down so brutally that over 120,000
died - nearly a sixth of all Kyrgyz in the em-
pire. A similar number fled to China in what
became known as the
urkun
(exodus).
After the Russian revolutions, Kyrgyz
lands became part of the Turkestan ASSR
(within the Russian Federation, 1918), a
separate Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous prov-
ince (
Oblast
) in 1924, then a Kyrgyz ASSR
from February 1926, which became a full
Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) in December
1936, when the region was known as Soviet
Kirghizia.
Many nomads were settled in the course
of land reforms in the 1920s, and more
were forcibly settled during the cruel collec-
tivisation campaign during the 1930s, giv-
ing rise to a reinvigorated rebellion by the
basmachi,
Muslim guerrilla fighters. Vast
swathes of the new Kyrgyz elite died in the
course of Stalin's purges.
Remote Kyrgyzstan was a perfect place for
secret Soviet uranium mining (at Mayluu-
Suu above the Fergana Valley, Ming-Kush in
the interior and Kadji-Sai at Lake Issyk-Köl),
and naval weapons development (at the
eastern end of Issyk-Köl). Kyrgyzstan is still
dealing with the environmental problems
created during this time.
The Tulip Revolution
By the early 2000s, Kyrgyzstan's democratic
credentials were once again backsliding in
the face of growing corruption, nepotism
and civil unrest. The 2005 parliamentary
elections were plagued by accusations of
harassment and government censure. Dem-
onstrators stormed government buildings
in Jalal-Abad and civil unrest soon spread
to Osh and Bishkek. On 24 March the rela-
tively peaceful Tulip Revolution effectively
overthrew the government amid bouts of
looting and vandalism. President Akaev fled
by helicopter to Kazakhstan and on to Mos-
cow - subsequently resigning and becoming
a university lecturer. New presidential elec-
tions were held in July 2005; the opposition
leader and former prime minister, Kurman-
bek Bakiev, swept to victory.
