Understanding Kyrgyzstan's Tulip Revolution
A Venture Grant completed by Zachary Weiss and Connor McMaster
A Painting Depicting Anti-Government Protestors in a Kyrgyz Art Museum
Several “Color Revolutions”, or nonviolent coordinated protests with the goal of ousting Soviet-era corrupt leaders occurred in the 2000s in ex-Soviet states. Our proposal was to study the “Tulip Revolution”, a Color Revolution in Kyrgyzstan. In 2005, Kyrgyzstan was gripped by one of the largest protests in its post-communist history. People were enraged over blatant election fraud conducted by Askar Akaev’s corrupt post-Soviet government, demanding he resign immediately. The protests were finally successful when on April 3rd of 2006, Akaev fled to Russia and resigned.
An Informal interview with Mederbek, A Kyrgyz Businessman
We studied what caused the protests, their organization, the climax and ousting of Akaev, and what followed. We conducted interviews with a cross-section of Kyrgzs society, focusing on NGOs, local experts, and academics who shared their knowledge of the protests. We heard their perspectives on the organization, effectiveness, and dynamics of the protests. By using the perspective of people from different backgrounds, we sought a holistic look at political involvement and the impact the region’s history has had on the systems in place.
Dinner and an Informal Interview with our Hosts
While our interviews were focussed on one specific protest movement initially, we quickly realized the people we interviewed could provide insight into much more. We learned from the owner of our hostel that despite his authoritarian tendencies, many positive reforms had been attributed to the newest president of Kyrgyzstan, including a crackdown on small levels of corruption (the example he gave was that you no longer needed to bribe guards when entering a national park).
A Statue of Lenin in Bishkek
We learned about how the often unstable government handled the pandemic, and how citizens stepped up to provide emergency services to aid in the efforts to save lives from an interview at the local WHO office. It was fascinating to learn that vaccination rates in Kyrgyzstan are high for many diseases, as is general trust in the healthcare system, but rates for the COVID vaccine are low. This is primarily due to many of the vaccines coming from China and Russia, countries many citizens distrust. Lastly, much of what we learned was through the questions our interviewees asked us. Many were curious about daily life in the US and Colorado, including our own politics.
Mountains in a National Park Outside of Bishkek