Forming a sovereign state gives ethnic groups an opportunity for self-growth and development. Kyrgyzstan gained independence in 1991, breaking away from the great USSR. Since then, the country has undergone several stages trying to modernize and transform its political systems. This includes revamping the political institutions, developing frameworks regulating various processes, and changing the political range of society. The modernization process lasted almost 15 years, with many changes expressing dissatisfaction in multiple ways.
The Kyrgyzstan revolution was against the unmatched powers and influence given to the president, the failure of the parliament to play its role, and the collapse of the country’s economic activities (Baimenov & Liebert, 2018, p. 284). This period witnessed massive unrests and destruction of property, with the government promising to restore the status of the country’s economy.
The term color revolution refers to the replacement of political leaders after the soviet rule. It involved the use of violence, political unrests together with powers external forces to affect the country’s development (Caron‐Diotte et al., 2021, p. 197). March 2005 in Kyrgyzstan signaled the rise and spread of color revolutions in Asia. On the third day of that month, a bomb exploded in the opposition leader’s apartment, however, the government denied responsibility. This action created tension leading to protests in the capital city. Thousands of people took to the streets, expressing dissatisfaction and claiming attempted assassination of the opposition leader.
One week later, the leader of the People Movement Party, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, joined the protests outside the parliament building (Mitchell, 2022, p. 439). Together with other leaders, they issued a vote of no confidence in president Akayev’s administration. People also accused the president of electoral fraud and demanding him to step down. President Akayev, however, refused to negotiate with protestors and instead deployed troops to combat strikes.
The country’s second revolution took place on April 7th 2010. There was unrest following several prosecutions of opposition leaders, assassinations of prominent politicians, and attempts by the parliament to change the constitution. The second president Kurmanbek Bakiyev was accused of conducting these activities while trying to defend the interests of their clan. The event began with ousting the president, which caused tension leading to violence (Demirkıran, 2020, p. 83). The second revolution led to the creation of a new parliamentary system in Kyrgyzstan. It is worth noting that several other revolutions took place before in the states of Georgia and Ukraine.
The third revolution of Kyrgyzstan occurred ten years after the second one following an electoral malpractice. On October 5th, 2020, unrests occurred due to the elections that were held on October 4th. Protestors termed this election as unfair and had aspects of vote rigging. A day before the elections, the opposition held a rally attended by 5,000 people demanding to cancel the polls as there was massive vote buying using government resources (Demirkıran, 2020, p. 85).
The preliminary results showed the pro-government Birimdik and Mekenim Kyrgyzstan parties, associated with the Matraimov clan, occupying high positions (Ivanov, 2022, p. 523). The results of this election were annulled on October 6th, 2020. This led to another tension in the country forcing the president to declare a state of emergency and imposing a 12-hour curfew until October 21st. Later that month, the president resigned to end the political strikes calling on all leaders to make peace with the opposition. The acting prime minister, Japarov, ascended to power as the president.
Scientific studies require knowledge of books of various categories in order to compare other authors’ arguments. However, some books are termed must read books in science. This implies that specialists looking to have an absolute solution to one or more problems must have the content of these books in memory.
Other than reading such books, experts must be able to correlate their works with the approaches and conclusions of the authors of these books. For example, political science writers who focus on the formation of nationalism cannot go without reading Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson (Baimenov & Liebert, 2018, p. 284). Similarly, those who analyze the mechanisms of making foreign policy decisions are repelled by the book Essence of Decision by Graham Allison.
Henry Hale stands out among the authors in the study of post-soviet Eurasia and the related policies due to his systematic comparative analysis of the dynamics of the political regimes. His content includes states like Transnistria and Abkhazia, which all countries of post-Soviet Eurasia need to be better recognized. In his book, Henry Hale gives a new approach to analyzing the post-soviet political activities, changing the discussion vector. For a long time, the study of political scenes after the soviet rule was based on the logic of good and bad guys, or democrats and reformers (Mitchell, 2022, p. 420).
Initially, it sounded like a Hollywood movie where the forces of good and evil meet to weigh. In the end, the forces of good seemed victorious and made this study look logical. The post-soviet policy on Film Noir by Chernukha made several authors change their writing styles after corrupt post-communist officials ruled the region. The book contrasts the standard view of the post-soviet policy with its positive analysis and explains why the post-soviet political regime’s function and not how it should be. Therefore, it is important to compare several reference materials in the study of post-soviet politics.
References
Baimenov, A., & Liebert, S. (2018). Governance in the Post‐Soviet era: Challenges and opportunities. Public Administration Review, 79(2), 281-285.
Caron‐Diotte, M., De la Sablonnière, R., & Sadykova, N. (2021). The malleability of collective memories: One year after the tulip revolution in Kyrgyzstan. British Journal of Social Psychology, 61(1), 192-213.
Demirkıran, Ö. (2020). The color revolutions in the former USSR countries viewed in the light of chaos theory. Chaos, Complexity and Leadership 2018, 77-86.
Ivanov, Y. (2022). Revolutions in Kyrgyzstan. Handbook of Revolutions in the 21st Century, 517–547.
Mitchell, L. A. (2022). The color revolutions. Successes and limitations of non-violent protest. Handbook of Revolutions in the 21st Century, 435–445.