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Kyrgyzstan's President Resigns Amid Turmoil Following Disputed Election
Source: NPR
Kyrgyzstan's President Resigns Amid Turmoil Following Disputed Election
October 15, 2020 4:07 PM ET
Lucian Kim
The president of the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan resigned Thursday, after 10 days of unrest sparked by disputed parliamentary elections.
As protesters closed in on his residence, Sooronbay Jeenbekov abruptly stepped down, saying nothing was dearer to him than the life of each of his compatriots.
"I'm not clinging to power. I don't want to go down in Kyrgyzstan's history as the president who spilled blood and shot at his own citizens," Jeenbekov said in a statement posted on the presidential website.
Jeenbekov is the third president to be overthrown in a popular uprising since Kyrgyzstan gained independence in 1991. Unlike the other four Central Asian countries that emerged from the Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan, with a population of 6.5 million, has a pluralistic, if chaotic, political life linked to its strong clan-based traditions.
The landlocked, mountainous country, which borders China, hosts a Russian air base and receives millions in financial aid from the Kremlin. For more than a decade, the United States also operated an air base in Kyrgyzstan to support operations in Afghanistan, until it was forced to close in 2014 under pressure from Russia.
-snip-
October 15, 2020 4:07 PM ET
Lucian Kim
The president of the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan resigned Thursday, after 10 days of unrest sparked by disputed parliamentary elections.
As protesters closed in on his residence, Sooronbay Jeenbekov abruptly stepped down, saying nothing was dearer to him than the life of each of his compatriots.
"I'm not clinging to power. I don't want to go down in Kyrgyzstan's history as the president who spilled blood and shot at his own citizens," Jeenbekov said in a statement posted on the presidential website.
Jeenbekov is the third president to be overthrown in a popular uprising since Kyrgyzstan gained independence in 1991. Unlike the other four Central Asian countries that emerged from the Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan, with a population of 6.5 million, has a pluralistic, if chaotic, political life linked to its strong clan-based traditions.
The landlocked, mountainous country, which borders China, hosts a Russian air base and receives millions in financial aid from the Kremlin. For more than a decade, the United States also operated an air base in Kyrgyzstan to support operations in Afghanistan, until it was forced to close in 2014 under pressure from Russia.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2020/10/15/924008910/kyrgyzstans-president-resigns-amid-turmoil-following-disputed-election