Akaev, Askar
(b. 1944), President of Kyrgyzstan. Askar Akaev was born in 1944 in the village of Kyzyl-Bairak, located in the Chon-Kemin region of Kyrgyzstan. He is not, by profession, a politician. Prior to holding the office of president of Kyrgyzstan he had never held a public political office. Akaev began his adult life as a professor of engineering and computers. From 1962 to 1972 he obtained his education at the Leningrad Institute of Precise Optics and Mechanics. Upon returning from Russia to Kyrgyzstan, he moved steadily up the academic ladder to become president of the Academy of Sciences in 1988. Two years later, on 27 October 1990, Akaev was appointed by the parliament as president of Kyrgyzstan. Early Western euphoria over Akaev's commitment to authentic democracy and economic reform has significantly diminished due to increasing repression and corruption.
The first serious repression began in 1994 when Akaev, disillusioned with the democratic constraints on his executive power, launched an authoritarian offensive that has increasingly strangled democratic culture. First, Akaev formed the Committee to Defend the Honor and Dignity of the President. Next, Akaev began building a power base to support him as a permanent president. In February 1996 President Akaev held a referendum that greatly extended his powers. This referendum violated both the constitution and the Law on Referendums. Voter apathy was high, turnout was low, and ballot stuffing was rampant, yielding results "reminiscent of the Soviet era" (U.S. Department of State 2000: 11).
Akaev's power was thus consolidated, and he became the dominant political force in Kyrgyzstan— not so much "the head of the executive branch but a kind of republican monarch who serves as the guarantor of the constitutions . . . operating at the pinnacle of state power" (Huskey 1997: 17). He has the power to nominate the prime minister and appoint government ministry heads and the director of the state bank. Akaev also controls the courts and has taken serious measures (mainly via the courts) to silence and subjugate the media. The culmination of these controls was evident in the February–March 2000 parliamentary elections, where blatant governmental manipulation resulted in spontaneous countrywide protests, including demonstrations, hunger strikes, and even a suicide, by citizens frustrated with the overt corruption and their inability to elect their own representatives.
Further Reading
Eshimkanov, Melis. (1995) A. Akayev: The First President of Independent Kyrghyzstan. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: ASABA.
Huskey, Eugene. (1997). "Kyrgyzstan: The Fate of Political Liberalization." In Conflict, Cleavage, and Change in Central Asia and the Caucasus, edited by Karen Dawisha and Bruce Parrott. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 254–268.
——. (1995) "The Rise of Contested Politics in Central Asia: Elections in Kyrgyzstan, 1989–1990." Europe-Asia Studies 47, 5: 813–833.
U.S. Department of State. (2000) U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Kyrgyz Republic, 1999. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of State.
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