Historic Overview Of Kyrgyzstan

Nomadic ancestors of the Kyrgyz lived in Siberia’s upper Yenisey basin between the 7th and 17th centuries AD till Mongol invasions drove them southwards into Tien Shan. The area came under the Turks, the Arabs, the Chinese and later the Manchus and the Russians. When the Mongol and the Chinese held sway, the Kyrgyz continued to be fairly autonomous, but the Russian domination was completely authoritarian. The Russians began settling here from the end of the 19th century, and tried to force the Kyrgyz into the First World War. The Kyrgyz revolted in 1916, but the rebellion was quashed and they came to be included in the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Land reforms and Stalin’s Collectivisation Programme in the 1920s and 30s resulted in the compulsory settlement of nomads.

Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika in Russia meant that relations with Kyrgyz loyalists were strained. In 1990, there were land-based ethnic clashes between the Kyrgyz and the Uzbeks around Osh and Ozgon in 1990. The first elections were held in 1990 and the Kyrgyz Communist Party grabbed most of the seats. Askar Akayev, a physicist, emerged as the leader of the Kyrgyz Democratic Movement.

In 1991, Kyrgyzstan emerged as an independent republic within the CIS, and Akaev was elected president. Askar Akayev professed a desire for swift democratisation and free market reform.  Akayev is now in his second term and despite professions of democratic intent, continues to personally dominate the political scene.