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The week’s big news is the toppling of the government in Kyrgyzstan, a country whose woes have been largely overshadowed the more high-profile messes in Afghanistan and the rest of the Middle East.
As Americans scramble to catch up on their knowledge of the former Soviet state, the country’s government has been deposed; the president has fled but refused to resign; 68 people have been killed and hundreds more wounded; and the opposition party has taken power, saying it will rule the country for six months until an election can be held—all within the space of 48 hours.
Here’s a rundown of the major players:
Roza Otunbayeva: Former foreign minister now leading the opposition groups, and thought to be acting as head of state. Ms. Otunbayeva was educated in Moscow, is a member of the Social Democratic Party, and was also active in the Kyrgyzstan’s Tulip Revolution in 2005, but was subsequently shut out of government.
On this week’s events: “You can call this revolution. You can call this a people’s revolt. Either way, it is our way of saying that we want justice and democracy.”
Kurmanbek Bakiyev: Was the president of Kyrgyzstan, but has now reportedly fled south of the country where he has family ties. Even in hiding with his government in shambles and his home ransacked, Mr. Bakiyev has remained defiant and has refused to resign.
One this week’s events: “I, as the guarantor of the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan, declare that in the case of further destabilization, all the responsibility will lie with the leaders of the opposition, who will be punished according to the fullest extent of the law.”
Barack Obama: The United States does not seem to be directly involved in any way with the upheaval, and reports indicate that it is not the result of anti-American sentiment.
The unrest could deal a blow to U.S. interests, though, as America’s only air base in lies at Kyrgyzstan’s northern border. The air base was of immense strategic importance because of its proximity to Afghanistan, where the administration is ramping up its war effort and is increasingly at odds with President Hamid Karzai.
The situation is further complicated by the Russian government’s suggestion that it would push the new Kyrgyz government to close the base—a setback which could effectively negate the progress in U.S.-Russian relations made with today’s START treaty signing.
Huffington Post U.S. interests in Kyrgyzstan: “A revolution in Kyrgyzstan, with all the other headaches surrounding his AfPak strategy, was approximately the last thing Barack Obama needed. He barely kept the Manas air base open last year, increasing U.S. payments to the Kyrgyz government. Now the price will only go up, if indeed there is a deal to be made with the new government when it fully emerges. And we’ll see if the country’s new leadership will go along with a second U.S. base there, just announced in the last month, a rather hazy anti-terrorism center.”
Kyrgyzstan: The small, former-Soviet-controlled country has a war-torn past and a history of playing the pawn in bigger games. This is the latest in a series of unstable governments the country has weathered.
World Politics Review stub on the country: “As of 2009, Kyrgyzstan ranked 145 on the IMF’s list of countries by GDP, just above Kenya and a few spots below Pakistan. Though the largely agriculturally based economy is supplemented by generous mineral deposits, it is lacking in energy resources such as natural gas and petroleum, unlike its wealthy neighbor Kazakhstan to the north. Despite its empty energy coffers, Kyrgyzstan is still valuable to outsiders.”
Sources: Reuters, The New York Times, and the Hufffington Post, and World Politics Review
For more in-depth information read these excellent articles from the Atlantic:
- Kyrgyzstan as a Delayed Colored Revolution?
- More on Kyrgyzstan as a Non-Colored Revolution (which provides context to the attempted Green Revolution in Iran)
- My View From the Revolution
As more information about the Chilean quake comes to light, the growing consensus is that the damage is worse than originally predicted. Still, as was seen in Haiti, the devastation could have been much further reaching.
The Infrastructurist credits reinforced concrete columns, for the limited death toll. Anne Applebaum predicts an efficient recovery. And Matt Yglesias praises the role of government in times of crisis.
Less happily, The New York Times has reported on how rosier predictions about the quake’s aftermath may have been misplaced.
Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri
Read about the death of the leading reformist Iranian cleric here
Watch Karoubi’s rare interview with the BBC here.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with Hassan Abbas
Hassan Abbas interviews Hillary Clinton on her recent trip to Pakistan. Read the exchange here
Author Orhan Pamuk
Nobel Prize winning author Orhan Pamuk discusses the ideological divisions within Turkey here
Download the 2009 Arab Human Development Report
Watch the first in our video series on Pakistan.
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