The ignominious flight of the president as protesting crowds invaded the presidential compound and government buildings in Bishkek would not have been how Askar Akayev would have wanted to be remembered in Kyrgyzstan. When he came to power in 1990, it was as a mild-mannered nuclear physicist, with a doctorate from Leningrad (now St Petersburg) University, who was chosen from the ranks of the Communist Party in the wake of serious ethnic violence in the southern border areas of the republic. He was chosen precisely because he did not have the profile of a party hack, but that of a liberal and progressive politician rather in the mould of Mikhail Gorbachev, who would be able to keep the country together through turbulent times. This profile endeared him to the West, as did his decision a few months before the break-up of the Soviet Union to abandon Mr Gorbachev and throw in his lot with the Russian leader, Boris Yeltsin.
When I interviewed him in September 1991, he was eloquent in his hopes for his homeland - and confident that he could preside over the modernisation of Kyrgyzstan as a state and an economy.
The test of the "tulip" - or is it the "daffodil"? - revolution will be whether Kyrgyz voters are content with the change they have forced. Or will they, in a few months' time, be wishing they had their old president back?
The guys in power now?
I) opposition leader and former Vice President Felix Kulov, sprung from jail by the "Pink Revolutionaries," was a deputy interior minister in the Soviet era, when he commanded troops who killed dozens of protesters who stormed a police station in southern Kyrgyzstan during the last days of the Soviet Union;
II) former Prime Minister Kurmanbek Bakiyev – under his regime, in March 2002, riots broke out in his home region in the south, protesting the arrest of their parliamentary deputy. Police fired into a crowd of 1,500, and five people died. Bakiyev was forced to resign after an investigation;
III) Ishenbai Kadyrbekov – elected "provisional" speaker by a dubious amalgam of the former parliament and others. Mr. Kadyrbeko is an incumbent deputy leader of the Communist Party, who accused the administration of President Askar Akayev of bugging his telephone (something a Communist would never do!), and a man, furthermore, with a somewhat dubious reputation.
Once again you miss the point, my plastic super hero idolizing FRiend. The only one pushing even the idea that this is an anti or pro US Agenda on this situation is you. Most are only seeing (and cheering) that these people are throwing a dictator out on his tail, and they are choosing democracy over a despot.
Go ahead and try your pro-Pooty-Toot spin, but I don't think many even listen to you here. You marginalize yourself even more every time you try to sell this stuff.
This guy was so pro-American right? How "Pro-American" was he? Did he have "Mother, Applie Pie, and Baseball" tatooed on his arm? Or maybe he visited the klintoon Whitehouse? Or maybe Jimmy Carter vouched for his last 99.5% election victory, so he said nice things about Jimmuh?