In Kyrgyzstan, independent journalists have reported that they have been facing attempts to hack their accounts for several months. The media call it “incessant pressure on journalists” but Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov denies pressure on freedom of speech.

Pressures on journalists in Kyrgyzstan seem to have reached another peak. According to the journalists of Kyrgyz media Kloop.kg, hacking attempts have began back in February 2022, when the accounts of several journalists were attacked on different social networks. According to the publication, hacker attacks occurred from a single phone and IP address.“The attackers failed to gain access to the accounts of journalists. Attempts to hack two accounts were made from a Xiaomi Redmi A7 model phone from the same IP address”, described Kloop.kg on April 20.

Journalist of Kloop.kg Aidai Tokoeva reported to Novastan that she was hacked several times on February 8, 2022. According to her, this causes severe anxiety and fear that online attacks may spill over into physical ones. “I remember how anxious I was at the beginning when they tried to hack my Telegram and Facebook”, Aidai Tokoeva said. “I had a dissonance, because I have nothing compromising stored in my correspondence and phone. I am taking protective measures — two-factor identification and more. It helps that I’m at least doing my best from my side. If hackers and specialists hack further, then I won’t be able to do it anymore”, she fears.

“There is no pressure”, claims Kyrgyz President

According to Kloop.kg, most of the attacks were carried out on February 18, when at least eight journalists faced attempts to hack their accounts. They worked for media such as Kloop.kg, Kaktus Media and Temirov Live. Kloop.kg describes that the attackers managed several times to gain access to the Facebook account of a Temirov Live journalist. Kloop.kg reported that the attackers manage to gain access via SMS code to accounts linked to the number of the state mobile operator Megacom.

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov said in an interview with Kyrgyz state-media Kabar on April 25 that there is no pressure on freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan, but accused journalists of publishing false information. “There is no pressure. Everyone writes on social networks what they want. There are media representatives who try to evade responsibility for their crimes, and then shout that they are being arrested. They conduct journalistic pseudo-investigations, give false information, discredit people, bring confusion to society”, Sadyr Japarov said.

Temirov Live aimed by legal procedures

At the same time, Kyrgyz President publicly accused the 42-year-old investigative journalist Bolot Temirov of forgery of documents. Bolot Temirov is known for publishing investigations on corruption and nepotism in power on his Youtube channel Temirov Live. On April 19, 2022, the police opened three criminal cases against Bolot Temirov for forgery of documents and illegal border crossing.

According to the police, 14 years ago, being a citizen of Russia, Bolot Temirov forged a military ID and received Kyrgyz citizenship. With these documents Bolot Temirov crossed the border of Kyrgyzstan dozens of times, which the police consider illegal.

Read also on Novastan: Rise and fall… and rise: the career of Kyrgyzstan’s Sadyr Japarov

“He stole someone else’s military ID, pasted his photo, changed his name and on the basis of this military ID he received a Kyrgyz passport in Uzgen“ Sadyr Japarov said to Kabar. “Due to the fact that he is a journalist, this case has become resonant. Is there a law against prosecution? How is he better than others? He will answer on an equal basis with others”, Kyrgyz President affirms.

The day before the charges were filed, Temirov Live published an investigation about the head of the State Committee for National Security Kamchybek Tashiev, a close friend of Sadyr Japarov.

Journalists said that since March 2022, Moka Group, Tai-Murasa Tashiev’s company, won tenders with a total amount of 250 000 soms (£ 2 370) for the supply of fuel in Jalal-Abad, the region where Tashiev’s family is from. Tai-Murasa Tashiev is the son of Kamchybek Tashiev. At the same time, Moka Group was the only participant in these tenders, violating the rules of competition.

Investigations aren’t welcomed

Pressures on Bolot Temirov’s are only the latest. Indeed, in total, four criminal cases have been initiated against Bolot Temirov. In January 2022, the first case was brought against him for “manufacturing and possession of drugs.” On the night of January 22, 2022, the State Committee for National Security conducted an unexpected search in the office of Temirov Live and found a bundle of hashish in 7.8 grams in Bolot Temirov’s pants pocket. Employees of Temirov Live said on January 23, 2022 that a few months before during the search, their office and employees were eavesdropped, filmed with hidden cameras and blackmailed.

Also, unknown people leaked a covertly filmed intimate video of one of Temirov Live’s employees, where she was accused of sleeping with Western customers of the media’s investigations.

Shortly before the first arrest, Bolot Temirov published an investigation that Kamchybek Tashiev’s relatives were “becoming oil magnates.” Temirov Live was told that after Kamchybek Tashiyev came to power in 2020, his nephew Baigazy Matisakov headed the state oil company Kyrgyz Petroleum Company.

According to the journalists, Kyrgyz Petroleum Company in June 2021 sold 3 600 tons of fuel to a local company, owned by his friend, for 22 cents. Region Oil resold it to Uzbekistan for 36 cents. Thus, having concluded an unfavorable agreement, Baigazy Matisakov allowed the affiliated company to earn 37 million soms (£350 000).

On a broader scale, media in Kyrgyzstan have been complaining about pressure on journalists and freedom of speech for several years. In March 2021, a rally was held in Bishkek against non-governmental organizations and Radio Azattyk, Kyrgyz branch of American media Radio Free Europe, described Kyrgyz press agency 24.kg. On February 9, 2022, a rally was held in Bishkek for the closure of the publications Kloop.kg and Kaktus Media, describes the Kyrgyz media. The participants of these rallies accuse the publications of receiving money from the West in order to destabilize the situation in the country.

Aizirek Imanalieva Writer for Novastan in Bishkek

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

The post Kyrgyzstan: Journalists complain about attempts to hack their accounts appeared first on Novastan English.

ANALYSIS. The political landscape of Kyrgyzstan was tumultuous in 2020. Novastan Deutsch’s founder and editorial manager Florian Coppenrath analyses Sadyr Japarov’s path to the top and ventures an outlook on its global implications.

The following article appeared in the December 2020 issue of Zentralasien-Analysen. We republish it with the kind permission of the editors. 

“Yesterday, police forces performed their duties perfectly … As President of State I repeat once again: calm in society should be the priority”, declared the then president of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbay Jeenbekov on 3 March 2020. The day before, between 1,500 and 3,000 people demonstrated for over eight hours in Bishkek for the release of Sadyr Japarov, a politician sentenced to over eleven years in prison for hostage-taking. The demonstration was broken up in the evening by the police as demonstrators were marching to the White House. 

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

In retrospect, these events seem like a prelude to Japarov’s stellar rise from prison to the top of the executive system. The former advisor of the ex-president Kumanbek Bakiev (2005-2010) was released on 6 October and elected prime minister on 10 October. He also became interim president after the resignation of Jeenbekov and after the government’s spokesman, Kanatbek Isaev, stepped down. All these moves were also supported by a group of committed and sometimes aggressive demonstrators. 

There was hardly any counter-protest. As early as March, many opposition-minded residents of Bishkek showed their lack of understanding for Japarov’s supporters, who were perceived as rural and alien. In October also, many people in Bishkek and abroad were wondering what this “Japarov phenomenon” was all about. The fact that he has the support of a significant part of the population cannot be denied. Yet, he is also a reflection of the rising divergence between social strata. 

Revolution or coup?

Japarov, who resigned from his executive post on 14 November to run in the presidential election emerges as the clear winner of the political turmoil following the disputed and eventually annulled parliamentary election of 4 October. Like a Machiavellian prince, he and his supporters were able to seize the opportunity single-mindedly. Now, people close to Japarov occupy many key positions in the government, most notably his long-time comrades-in-arms Kamchybek Tashiev, now head of the GKNB security service. The outgoing parliament and the judiciary have also quickly sided with him.

Legally, many decisions made in Autumn are highly questionable, as the Venice Commission confirmed at the request of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court. According to the constitution, the term of the parliament ended five years after its first session i.e. at the end of October. Nevertheless, MPs passed new bills hastily and with numerous procedural violations. According to the electoral law and the electoral commission, the parliamentary election was supposed to be organised at the end of December, but has been postponed indefinitely. This is an illustration of the fact that even the highest of laws is only relevant if enough people and institutions commit to its validity.

Read more: Rise and fall… and rise: the career of Kyrgyzstan’s Sadyr Japarov

Japarov effectively pushed for a new constitution that would, in particular, increase the powers of the president, establish a vaguely defined, unelected kurultai (a traditional assembly) to control the executive and legislative branches, and invoke “traditional values” and “respect for elders”. A relevant draft was first presented on 17 November and promptly dubbed the “Khanstitutsiya”, the “Khan Constitution”, on social media. According to Japarov, now president, the new constitution will rid the state of corruption, but according to many observers, it will usher a new authoritarian chapter in Kyrgyzstan’s political history. 

Whether the incidents in Autumn 2020 will be remembered as the third Kyrgyz revolution or as a coup d’état remains to be seen. In any case, they reveal the limits of the thought patterns that all too often manifest themselves in Russian, Western European and US analyses of Kyrgyzstani politics. We can only speak of a competition between different clans to a very limited extent here, and even less of a division between the north and the south of the country. Neither was Jarapov’s rise promoted by geopolitical actors, rather the opposite: Kyrgyzstan’s international partners have uniformly reacted sceptically to the change of president and now tend to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. 

Such analytical motifs place the emphasis on local dynamics in Kyrgyzstan. They refer to partly existing distinctions of interests groups, but tend to be exotic in order to convey one thing to the readership abroad: ‘Something this crazy could not happen here’. Yet Kyrgyzstan has long been integrated into global processes and financial flows, and money stolen from the Kyrgyz state is often found on European bank accounts. Japarov’s success to date can also be described by globally quite common categories: as a right-wing populist episode in a neoliberal state. 

National populism in sheep’s clothing

In a feature of the Japanese weekly Nikkei Asia, Kyrgyz political expert Asim Asimov explained Japarov’s success through a ‘Trump-effect’: “There are very few points on his résumé that show that he is the most suitable candidate for the position of prime minister or president. But he has very strong public support, especially among traditional nationalists and very conservative rural people in Kyrgyzstan”. 

Japarov was imprisoned for taking the governor of the Issyk-Kul region hostage in 2013, in reaction to the nationalisation of the Kumtör, the country’s largest gold mine. He first spent several years in exile in Cyprus and was finally arrested on the Kyrgyz border in 2017 and sentenced to over eleven years in prison. He lost both his parents while in prison, and his son died in a motorbike accident. The tragedy in his biography feeds into a martyr narrative: he has already sacrificed a lot for his motherland; he started at the bottom and can thus understand the concerns of the ‘common people’ better than anyone else. 

He himself uses such an anti-elitist narrative in which he opposes the ordinary people with the corrupt political class. For example, in his interview with Al Jazeera on October 20, he replied to the journalist’s concerns: “I am a democrat. Those who say otherwise are my opponents who did not get the positions they wanted”. He does not stand for a concrete political programme, but only for the fight against corruption, which is being exaggerated as a battle between good and evil. 

Through his image and rhetoric, Japarov, the man of the people, fills a political vacuum. As researcher Asel Doolotkeldieva explained in the TV programme ‘Vecher Trudnogo Dnya‘ (A Hard Day’s Night) back in November 2020, a successful political communication campaign has already been created around his person over the past years via Youtube channels ‘in a very accessible language’. He stands for the non represented, the “working class without a job”: “this part of the population, these 35 percent of the poorest and maybe more from the middle class, who can not see any future prospects in this country. They think that Japarov really and sincerely represents their interests,” explained Doolotkeldieva.

Read more: Can Sadyr Japarov fulfil his promises?

This background also explains some of the opportunistic-looking political statements that cater to nationalist sentiments. One of Japarov’s first acts as prime minister was to reintroduce the indication of ethnicity (in Russian ‘natsionalnost’) in new identity cards and passports. The reference to the kurultai in the constitutional reform also refers to a supposed Kyrgyz tradition. Unlike Donald Trump, however,  Japarov has so far refrained from overly aggressive rhetoric. He is making an effort to win the sympathy of foreign investors and donors, as well as the urban middle class. For example, the fence of the White House in Bishkek has been dismantled and some of his opponents, such as MPs Tilek Toktogaziev and Elvira Zurabaldieva, were co-opted in the government (though they are not part of the government composed in February 2021). Toktogaziev and Zurabaldiyeva had previously been vocal members of the youth-led ‘lustration movement’ for a renewal of the political class. 

Japarov’s anti-elitism is populist, but so are his proposals of easy solutions to complicated problems and his selective understanding of the law. For example, the proposal of an economic amnesty for corrupt personalities: as reported in a journalistic investigation series, Raimbek Matraimov, a former customs official was accused of illegally taking at least 700 million US dollars out of the country, was briefly arrested at the end of October but released in exchange for a promise of repayment of almost 24 million US dollars. He was later detained again and finally released for the last time in April 2021. According to Japarov, this a “political decision”, because, imprisoned, such a person would not pay back a cent to the state. 

Read more: Matraimov’s millions: the story of a Kyrgyz corruption scandal

The current political crisis in Kyrgyzstan is also a socio-economic one. Many analysts did not without reason draw attention to the gap between urban and rural populations and the poverty and lack of prospects. This also motivated the original protest against the parliamentary election. “A country of volunteers and vigilantes. All by themselves,” complained the journalist Aidai Irgebaeva on Facebook in early October. Whether it is caring for people infected with Covid-19 or protecting the city from being sacked, it is always up to the citizens alone, she said. The state is conspicuous above all by its absence, which on the one hand leads to a certain political competition, but also to a shortage of public services. 

A shallow state

In their work Competitive Authoritarianism (2010), Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way introduced the concept of “rotten door transitions”: These “often happen quickly and look spectacular. Indeed, images of protesters taking the parliament while security forces look aside or join them have led to some of these transitions being called revolutions.” The political scientists refer mainly to the so-called colour revolutions of 2004-2005, and the events of the night of 5-6 October in Bishkek, when the White House was “occupied” by protesters within hours, also fit this pattern. According to the authors, such changes of political power rarely lead to a stable government and point above all to the weakness of the state, the party system and civil society. 

The often chaotic political events in Kyrgyzstan can be explained by the widespread absence of the state. This reached its peak in the days after 5 October, when, for a time, not even the security function of the state was guaranteed. The months before showed how quickly the public health system was overwhelmed by the Covid-19 crisis and many affected people could only count on their own resources or contacts. A similar picture emerges in the education sector, where the private sector continues to grow and public schools are increasingly run down, as Aigul Abdubaetova pointed out in the previous issue of Zentralasien-Analysen. 

Kyrgyzstan is an extreme example of a minimalist, neoliberal state. Appropriate reforms have been pursued with remarkable continuity since the early 1900s, albeit at a somewhat slower pace after 2010, commented the neo-left Kyrgyz portal Kyrgsoc.org on the legislative package “Towards New Economic Freedom and Development” adopted in April 2020. “Right now, in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, even the most market-oriented states are beginning to break neoliberal principles […] our government is blowing the whistle on its citizens and introducing harsh economic measures in order to obtain loans”, deplored Kyrgsoc’s editorial board. 

According to Kyrgsoc, such reforms sometimes led to the “destruction of industrial complexes and factories” and the “degradation of agriculture”, with wealth concentrated in urban centres via investors and the service sector, especially in the capital Bishkek. This situation is strongly reflected in people’s daily lives: according to the Statistics Committee, at the country level in 2018, an average of just under 38% of households had a permanent sewage system. In Bishkek, the figure is over 97%. These divergent realities also illustrate the gap between those who support Japarov and those who do not.

There is no coherent economic policy in Kyrgyzstan, and in the absence of attractive economic sectors, the state itself becomes a resource. In his thesis, researcher Johan Engvall showed that “the logic of an investment market lies at the core of the Kyrgyz state’s operations”. In other words, state functions are traded like financial assets that guarantee a stable income to the ‘buyers’ who occupy them. It is no secret in Kyrgyzstan that government posts and seats in parliament (or favourable list position) are for sale. Instead of creating public goods, respective officials are first busy making private capital out of their positions. 

Something similar seems to be happening after the recent incidents: “State posts are being grabbed by the same corrupt elites … According to insider information, the new team makes money by selling state posts as valuable resources,” described Doolotkeldieva on Twitter in November, for example. Thus, Japarov’s presidency is expected to bring continuity in the economic and social spheres. He will hardly be able to live up to the expectations many have of him today. He has already backtracked on his former hobby horse, the nationalisation of the Kumtör gold mine: there is not much gold left there anyway, he said. 

The question of who benefits from the situation remains. There are many indications that the events of October were probably an organised shift of power. Some of the demonstrators were driven around the city in buses and served food rations and even cultural programmes. It is not yet clear who is behind this. Some talk of organised crime, others of the circle of ex-president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was overthrown during the April Revolution of 2010 after five years in office. In fact, Japarov and many of his circle held political positions under Bakiyev. 

A growing political culture

After Japarov’s success in the presidential elections in January, one would be tempted to say that the once highly praised Kyrgyzstan is going back many years in its democratisation process. This not only would correspond to the somewhat condescending reflex of describing countries in transition as good or bad pupils, but also overlook underlying social dynamics. 

Last but not least, the Covid-19 crisis rightly stirred up a lot of resentment towards the political class, but it also represents a collective experience of self-efficiency. It was volunteers who provided much of the social and medical care. Likewise, it was some 10,000 volunteer “Druzhinniki” who protected Bishkek from looting in the days following 5 October. For the researcher Erica Marat, such examples show “how a resilient society gains in complexity and organisation  in order to resist the insolence of those in power”. 

In an interview with the Akipress press agency, the former interim president Roza Otunbaeva also asserts that one cannot speak of an end of democracy in Kyrgyzstan. Rather, Kyrgyz society is experiencing “growing pains”: “There is a knowledgeable youth growing, the generation of the 21st century, they will not go backwards, but only forwards! We do not stand by idly, fight, take risks, make sacrifices, move and drive political processes forward.”

Paradoxically, even Japarov’s populism can be seen as a sign of such social processes. For all its instrumentalisation, populism is also a democratic phenomenon because it is an indirect recognition of the political role of the people. In an interview with The Economist, the then presidential candidate affirmed: “You [the people] can put up with things for one, two or three years and then drive out any president … You cannot establish a dictatorship in our country.” 

Kyrgyzstan: a prime example of global social developments 

The new constitution should act as a wake-up call for many in Bishkek. A first demonstration against the constitutional changes on 8 November gathered only about 20 people. The following demonstration on 22 November brought together about 500 people, according to media reports: a relatively large gathering by Bishkek standards, but much smaller than the protest against the results of the parliamentary election on 5 October. There was a certain political fatigue at the end of an already exhausting year. 

The underlying causes of political instability in Kyrgyzstan are more likely to worsen. A stronger vertical power and the weakening of democratic institutions of control will only make the state more attractive as a playground for private interests and will hardly ensure more social justice within society. On this basis, “the people”, to whose will Japarov constantly appeals, can also quickly turn against him once the “post-revolutionary” honeymoon feeling has dispelled.

Read more: Kyrgyzstan: voters approve new constitution in referendum

Unlike Lukashenko, Japarov will hardly be able to draw on a public security apparatus that has been consolidated for over two decades. So the door remains rotten, to return to Levitsky and Way’s metaphor. 

Processes determining social developments in Kyrgyzstan are no less shaped by global dynamics than they are in Europe. This is especially true for translocal interconnections of a media-communicative and financial-economic nature, of which Kyrgyz citizens are just as much a part as the inhabitants of other countries.

This also shows that it is much more fruitful and interesting not to constantly portray Kyrgyz politics as something that is “backward”, “chaotic” and “alien to us”. After all, phenomena like right-wing populism and neoliberalism are happening globally, even if they may take on particularly extreme features in Kyrgyzstan. But instead of being stuck in a “not yet sufficiently democratised” past, the country might as well find itself in a threateningly approaching future.

Florian Coppenrath
Founder of Novastan Deutsch

Translated from German by Manon Montant

Edited by Alexander Fuss

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

The post Between nationalist populism and neoliberalism: Kyrgyzstan and global political trends appeared first on Novastan English.

It’s official: Kyrgyzstan will choose whether or not to modify its constitution on 11 April. Parliament approved the bill making provisions for a referendum last week and the president, Sadyr Japarov, signed it into law on 12 March. Proponents say the changes will make government more efficient, but many worry they give the president too much power and restrict freedom of speech.

Kyrgyzstan will vote on constitutional amendments on 11 April 2021 according to a new law President Sadyr Japarov signed on 12 March. The Jogorku Kenesh, Kyrgyzstan’s parliament, approved the bill in second and third readings the previous day. 94 MPs voted in favour of the bill and six against.

A draft of the constitutional amendments was first published on 17 November 2020 on the initiative of Sadyr Japarov while he was campaigning for the presidential election. It proved controversial, with activists promptly dubbing it a “Khanstitution” because of the strong powers it gave the president, the Kyrgyz media Kloop.kg reports. Talant Mamytov, the interim president from November 2020 to January 2021, then formed a constitutional council to rework the amendments.  

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

A referendum followed on 10 January, on the same day as the presidential election, asking voters to choose their preferred form of government. According to the official results, nearly 85% opted for a presidential regime. Just over 11% supported a parliamentary system and a little under 5% voted “against all”. Turnout was 39.12%, above the 30% minimum threshold.

Expanded presidential powers

The proposed amendments increase presidential powers. Article 70 grants the president the power to call a referendum “on their own initiative or on the initiative of at least 300 thousand voters, or on the initiative of a majority of deputies of the Jogorku Kenesh” and to propose new bills in parliament.

The same article also plans for the president to appoint members of the government, appoint and dismiss the chairs of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court and their deputies. Under current law, the president already appoints local judges and the procurer general.

The changes would also allow the president to run for a second term, which the current constitution forbids, and reduce the Jogorku Kenesh from 120 to 90 members.

Read more: Rise and fall… and rise: the career of Kyrgyzstan’s Sadyr Japarov

President Sadyr Japarov told Azattyk, the Kyrgyz branch of the American media RFE/RL, that the change was necessary to “establish order”. In his view, in the current system “neither the president, nor the government, nor the parliament, decides anything”, leaving the country at a standstill.

“According to the current Constitution, there are three branches – government, parliament and president. The last 10 years have shown that this has led to an increase in bureaucracy, no one wants to take on the solution of issues,” he said. “The president does everything through the government and parliament, shifts the responsibility unto them. I could do that, too. But in this case, Kyrgyzstan will lose another 5-10 years.”

People’s Kurultai

Another section of the draft provides for the creation of an assembly known as the “People’s Kurultai”, a name derived from a type of council in Turkic culture. It gives “recommendations on the directions of social development” but says little about what this might mean. The kurultai can also recommend the dismissal of members of government, advises the president, and proposes new laws to parliament. 

Aksana Ismailbekova, a research fellow at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) whose work focuses on kinship and patronage in Kyrgyzstan, explains that in theory the People’s Kurultai is a way to involve the country’s regions and hold officials accountable.

“Ideally, the kurultai will be able to address very important political issues in which representatives of each regional group will take an active part. The idea is that once the kurultai is legitimised, state officials will be required to report annually on their activities, work, and projects to the regional leaders of Kyrgyzstan,” Ismailbekova told Novastan.

But she highlights this is the ideal and practice could be different. “The big question remains whether the country’s current leaders would allow members of the kurultai, once it is legitimized, to objectively control state officials,” she said. “There are also groups of people who distort the essence and meaning of the People’s Kurultai. Some state officials might use the Kurultai as a political tool to gain power.”

The legal aid clinic Adilet, in Bishkek, expresses a more negative point of view in its analysis of the draft constitution, describing the goals and reasons for the creation of the People’s Kurultai as unclear. It also underlines the new assembly could be used to serve the president’s ends: “There are risks of interference and pressure on all institutions of power, as on the civil sector, from the president through the People’s kurultai,” the analysis reads.

Emphasis on “moral and ethical values”

Another contentious part of the draft is article 10, which states: “Events that contradict moral and ethical values and the public consciousness of the people of the Kyrgyz Republic, may be limited by law.” It goes on to say that “the list of activities subject to restriction and the list of restricted access and dissemination of information is established by law” without further detail.

“Article 10 of the Constitution contrains a threat to freedom of speech,” the former lawmaker Ravshan Jeenbekov said in a discussion organised by Azattyk. “It’s dangerous to limit freedom of speech with reference to the preservation of moral values.”

The worry arises despite parts 1-3 of article 10 guaranteeing freedom of expression and media freedom, according to Mars Tulegenov, the head of the media rights organisation Journalist.kg.

“There are points that raise questions. If the constitution is adopted and ‘the rest will be determined by an additional law,’ what laws will be adopted? … We have enough media laws. We don’t need any more,” he said.

A controversial project

Although the amendments are expected to be approved in the referendum, many in Kyrgyzstan have criticised the project from the onset. “We are returning to authoritarianism,” the MP Dastan Bekechev wrote on his Facebook page at the time.

The former president Roza Otunbaeva even stated that after the implementation of such a constitution, international organisations would stop providing aid to Kyrgyzstan, Kloop reported.

Read more: Kyrgyzstan elects Sadyr Japarov and opts for presidential government

In response to criticism, a new Constitutional Council reworked the document. A new version was published on 9 February. Although it notes “positive changes”, Adilet’s analysis of this new document concludes that it “violates the principles of the rule of law and legal certainty, there are internal contradictions of a fundamental nature, as well as incorrect wording of the rules of law”.

Local media also highlights that the parliamentary votes of the draft law establishing the referendum did not follow the correct procedure. Notably, Kloop.kg alleges that although 100 deputies voted, there were only around 80 people in the room at the time, meaning some cast votes on behalf of their colleagues. 

A member of the Jogorku Kenesh, Janar Akaev, told journalists lawmakers had voted under pressure. “Those who voted against [the bil] in the first reading were pressured and threatened. Therefore, they did not come to vote today” he said, as quoted by 24kg. “Deputies are afraid to speak openly.”

Aksana Ismailbekova expands on the pressure exerted on parliament in Kyrgyzstan, explaining that, according to her research, many deputies are businessmen. “It is impossible to do business entirely legally in Kyrgyzstan, so the State Committee for National Security has compromising documents and you can’t say anything against it,” she said. “As a result, this parliament cannot be independent when the president has influence on the security sector.”

Valentine Baldassari

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

The post Kyrgyzstan to hold constitutional referendum in April appeared first on Novastan English.

This is a copy of our newsletter dated 1 February 2021. Sign up here to receive it directly in your inbox every Monday.

This newsletter is dedicated to post-Soviet Central Asia. Each week, we let you know the latest from the region. Question, comments, suggestions? Write to us at editorial@novastan.org.

Above: “I confidently declare that there is no COVID-19 in Tajikistan,” the president of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, said last week.

In the news

Another Monday, another newsletter from Novastan! Thank you for sticking with us in January, our first month writing in English . This week, we look at Covid in Tajikistan (or, maybe, lack thereof?), a presidential inauguration in Kyrgyzstan and more…

Officially, Tajikistan is Covid-free. In an address to parliament, President Emomali Rahmon announced that his country had defeated Covid-19. However, researchers and local sources interviewed by Novastan France (FR, paywall) say it is “possible” but “very unlikely” that the number of cases has fallen to zero in the past two weeks.

Last year, Tajikistan did not officially declare any cases until the very end of April. Then, as now, there were doubts about the authorities’ version of events.

The new president of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov, took office last Thursday, 28 January. The perfect occasion to look back on his eventful political career, which started just before the first Kyrgyz revolution in 2005.

Sadyr Japarov has already signed several decrees. The very first one concerns “spiritual and moral development and physical education” and sets out plans for the government to work on a “new conception” of these two ideas. As the Kyrgyz media outlet Kloop.kg reports (RU), the government will then revise existing documents to align them with its new definitions.

Another decree includes a ban on foreign companies participating in future large mining projects. This does not affect current license holders.

Finally, in a previous newsletter, we wrote about a controversial comedy show in Kyrgyzstan. Our article about it is now available in English.

Covid-19 in Central Asia

Our photo of the week

Portrait of Tariel, whose brother Ruslan is a renowned kok boru player, by Théo Saffroy. Click on the picture for more information.

Every day, we publish a photo from Central Asia. You can find it on our website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Novastan news

We had a great time talking about popular music in Central Asia. On 27 January, Novastan organised an online conference bringing together four experts on the subject. Rewatch our conversation here.

Help Novastan grow. Click here for more information about how to contribute. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions!

Thank you for reading! See you next week for more information and analysis from Central Asia. For daily updates, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram.

The post [Newsletter] Is Tajikistan Covid-free? appeared first on Novastan English.

Sadyr Japarov took office as president of Kyrgyzstan this Thursday. He is the country’s sixth president and the third to come to power following political uprisings. His political career began with the first Kyrgyz revolution and has always been accompanied by unrest.

This article was originally published on Novastan’s German website on 28 January 2021.

Sadyr Japarov officially became the sixth president of Kyrgyzstan on 28 January 2021. Elected on 10 January, the new leader of Central Asia’s most democratic state said he was opening “a new page of history”.

The new president’s political history started 16 years ago. In February 2005, in the run-up to the Kyrgyz parliamentary elections, angry demonstrators blocked key roads in the Issyk-Kul region to protest the withdrawal of several opposition politicians’ candidacies. In one case, they succeeded: “The electoral commission reinstated the previously withdrawn candidate for the Tüp constituency, Sadyr Japarov. His supporters went home and unblocked the road,” wrote the Vecherniy Bishkek daily newspaper. The article considers “a dangerous precedent had been set,” as it could encourage others to pursue a “policy of extortion through road blockades“.

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Japarov won the constituency and obtained his first mandate. For him, it was a victory of “the people”, as he explained in his autobiography, published in 2015: “Truth only triumphed thanks to the strength of the people. That justice was a particular happiness for me.” Shortly after the first session of the new parliament, President Askar Akaev was overthrown by the “Tulip Revolution“. In early April 2005, he signed his resignation in the Kyrgyz embassy in Moscow. Japarov was part of the parliamentary delegation that negotiated with him.

In retrospect, the beginning of Japarov’s political career seems like a rehearsal of the events that would take him to high office over 15 years later. Pressure from the street, constant references to the “Kyrgyz people” and violence are recurring themes. As is Japarov’s determination, reflected in the term “dakansa”, widespread on social media in recent months – a humorous simplification of the Russian “do kontsa”, “to the end”.

From business to politics

Sadyr Japarov was born in December 1968 in the Issyk-Kul region, near the Soviet-Chinese border. His parents had returned from China six years earlier, where they had gone to flee Stalinist repression in the 1930s, according to Radio Azattyk, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz service. Japarov grew up with ten other siblings in a shepherd family.

In 1987 he began his studies Kyrgyz State Institute of Physical Culture in Bishkek, the capital (then known as Frunze), and at the same time worked at a collective farm in the Chüy region until 1995. He graduated as a trainer in 1991. That same year he married Aygül Asanbaeva, with whom he has four children. He had before that done his military service at the Telegraph Office in Novosibirsk, in Russia. In 2006, he completed a law degree at the Kyrgyz Russian Slavic University in Bishkek.

Before entering politics, Japarov was mainly active as a businessman in the fields of agriculture and oil. Between 2002 and 2005 he managed the Nurneftegas oil company in Balykchy, on Lake Issyk-Kul. Another oil company, Issyk-Nar-Neft, is still registered in his name. According to the online publication Kaktus.media, it has been inactive since 2003.

Japarov’s first mandate lasted until the end of 2007, when Kyrgyzstan’s parliament was dissolved after the then president Kurmanbek Bakiev initiated a constitutional amendment. Japarov’s long-term friendship with the current head of the security services, Kamchybek Tashiev, also dates from that time. In September 2006, Vecherniy Bishkek reported the story of how, one night, the two lawmakers had fought for over an hour with a group of young people who were trying to ambush them. It wasn’t to be their last fight. According to media reports, they also settled their differences with the then mayor of Osh Melis Myrzakmatov and, later, with the MP Altynbek Sulaymanov with their fists.

Head of the anti-corruption agency

In the 2007 parliamentary elections, Japarov stood for the Ak-Jol party, founded by the then president Bakiev, but turned down a role as presidential advisor. The following year, he became head, or “commissioner”, of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. In this role, he occasionally presented “The Commissioner Warns”, a show on public television reporting cases of corruption, sometimes with a hidden camera. After half a year, the program was cancelled by the broadcaster. Japarov also created a council of foreign businessmen to support the government’s anti-corruption work.

During Bakiev’s presidency, Kyrgyzstan was among the 20 most corrupt countries in the world according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (in 2019, it was 126th out of 180). “We have to face international propaganda and oppose it ideologically; it creates a negative image through ratings like these, which are often mentioned in local media,” Japarov said at the time.

In his autobiography, he explains the agency’s poor results by its lack of power: “The title ‘Commissioner” sounds powerful, but we had no right to search any place, to investigate criminals. Still, we got to the heart of the matter, we worked with other law enforcement agencies.”

The “famous gold conflict expert”

After a second revolution ousted Bakiev in April 2010, Japarov stayed in his position until July. In October that same year, he was alongside Tashiev among the founding members of the nationalist party Ata-Jurt (Fatherland). Ata-Jurt surprisingly came first in a parliamentary election not long after, with a little more than 15% of the vote. Japarov and Tashiev later switched to the Mekenchil (Patriot) party, which they are still part of to this day.

After lengthy negotiations, Ata-Jurt formed a coalition government with two other parties, and Japarov became head of the Committee on Judicial and Legal Affairs. In this role, he mainly advocated a reform in how judges are selected in order to put an end to corruption in the judiciary. However, his work was controversial as he and his political opponents accused each other of illegal acts. In an open letter, the then interim president Rosa Otunbaeva noted the “persistence and determination of the сhairman of the Committee on Judicial and Legal Affairs, Sadyr Japarov … in trying to get candidates presented and rejected by the president elected as judges. It’s obvious that such a decision violates the main principle of the law “On the council for the Selection of Judges” – its independence.”

In 2012, Japarov turned his attention to another hot topic: the nationalisation of Kumtör, the largest gold mine in Central Asia. The question of nationalisation has been a political issue since the mine’s development in the 1990s. According to a framework agreement from 1992, the Kyrgyz Republic initially owned two thirds of the shares in the joint holding Kumtor Gold Company. However, after a new agreement in 2009, the state’s share fell to a third.

It is precisely against this restructuring that the nationalist movements Sadyr Japarov was part of protested. The politician, then described by Vecherniy Bishkek as “the rather famous gold conflict expert”, was appointed head of a parliamentary commission on Kumtör. In early October 2012, Japarov and Tashiev called for a demonstration for the nationalisation of Kumtör. The initially peaceful protests turned into a perceived coup attempt when demonstrators attempted to storm the nearby White House, the presidential and parliament building, with success.

The researcher Asel Doolotkeldieva, who was at the time writing her thesis on social mobilisations in Kyrgyzstan, analysed the situation for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in 2012. “When … Japarov announced early on in the October 3 rally that this was not about scoring political points, but was instead about real social and economic issues, it might have seemed for a moment that [Ata-Jurt] had moved on from personality-based politics,” she wrote. “But the ensuing events put an end to any such ideas, as indeed it did for the image he has tried to project of a mature, considered politician.”

From prison to exile…

Japarov, Tashiev and their party colleague Talant Mamytov were arrested and sentenced less than a year later for attempting to overthrow the government. They remained remained in jail for less than a year but lost their seats in parliament. Their trials were accompanied by loud, sometimes violent demonstrations by their supporters, some of whom exerted direct pressure on the judges.

The year 2013 in Kyrgyzstan was riddled with protests in various regions, leading to the declaration of a state of emergency but also a governor in southern Jalal-Abat being replaced by a self-proclaimed “people’s governor”. When the governor of the Issyk-Kul region was held hostage by demonstrators in October of that year, Japarov was accused of complicity and of financing the operation. He fled the country but it’s unclear where he went: sources mention Belarus, Russia, Cyprus and/or Kazakhstan.

In 2015, he published his autobiography Ten Years in Politics. It is a summary of ten years of Kyrgyz politics from the author’s point of view. What emerges is a self-portrait of Japarov as a politician working for the well-being of the people, always with a clear conscience. The book cover shows him smiling amid a group of supporters. In places the text reads like an indictment of his opponents. “Even without this book, I have more enemies in politics than hair on my head. Because there were moments when I exposed the corruption of most of them, told them their inadequacies straight to their faces,” the introduction states. “Obviously, with the publication of this book, the number of my opponents will double.”

… to prison again

When Japarov returned to Kyrgyzstan in March 2017 to take part in the presidential election that autumn, he was arrested at the border. In August of the same year, he was sentenced to 11 years and six months’ imprisonment (later reduced to ten years) for the alleged participation in the kidnapping in 2013. The sentence led to frequent protests, most recently in March 2020.

As Japarov stated in an interview with the Russian newspaper Kommersant shortly after his election, he used the time in prison to “work with the people via social media”: “I created groups on Odnoklassniki, Facebook and Instagram. I collected contacts on Whatsapp and created more than 50 groups there – one of them contains 256 contacts. Through these groups I disseminated information about Kumtör, about my work. That’s how I reached the whole people in half a year.”

His time in prison also helped create the image of a politician who sacrificed a lot for the people.  Shortly after his arrest in 2017, he attempted suicide. In addition, he lost one of his sons and his parents while in prison.

He also fills, with his references to “the common people”, an otherwise unoccupied political position, thus bolstering his popularity, especially among the country’s poorest.

From prison to the president’s office

The active, violent support base that has accompanied Japarov throughout his political career, combined with skillful political communication, also explain his meteoric rise in October 2020. After he was released from prison early on 6 October, he was able to rise to the top of the executive branch within two weeks.

Read more on Novastan: From prison to high office: Sadyr Japarov is Kyrgyzstan’s new prime minister

“Sadyr Japarov’s strategy to, first, remove the competitors from the October revolution, second, remove the incumbent president from power and, third, take control of the elite’s wider circles was really extraordinary,” Asel Doolotkeldieva told Novastan France. “He managed to very quickly monopolise the political space, in a matter of months”. In this way, a surprise candidate became a status quo candidate. He stayed away from television debates during the election campaign, dismissing them as places of defamation, and had by far the highest campaign budget.

At the polls in January, he received almost 80% of the votes cast, but with a turnout of 39,16%, the lowest for any presidential election in Kyrgyzstan since 1991.

Cui bono?

The rapid political rise of Japarov also raises the question of whether he and his team benefited from the support of third parties. Accusations usually either refer to the family of the former president Bakiyev or to organised crime. The former has been alleged several times by the presidential candidate Abdil Segizbaev. During the televised debate at the end of December, he brought up several events and scandals from Japarov’s political career, which, according to him, indicate loyalty to Bakiev.

Read more on Novastan: Kyrgyzstan elects Sadyr Japarov and opts for presidential government

Assumptions about Japarov’s connections to the underworld go back some years. At the end of 2011, the then interior minister Zarylbek Rysaliev accused Japarov of friendship with Kamchy Kolbaev, the head of a criminal network involved in drugs, arms and human trafficking according to the US government. In an interview in December 2020, Japarov said that he only knew Kolbaev from a criminal investigation in 2010. According to research carried out by a consortium of journalists for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, there is also a connection between Kolbaev and the former customs official Raimbek Matraimov. The same journalistic project published an investigation alleging Matraimov had taken part in a large-scale money-laundering scheme.

Both Kolbayev and Matraimov were arrested as part of a series of filmed arrests. Some, like the former secretary of the Security Council Keneshbek Düyshöbaev, considered it a “theater show”, as Kloop.kg notes. Matraimov was released after promising repayment of nearly $24 million (£17.5 million). According to Sadyr Japarov, this was a “political decision”: from prison, he explained, these arrestees would not have paid a cent back.

“Be patient”

Even since he took over the executive, Japarov has called the fight against corruption his number one priority. As during his time as head of the parliamentary legal committee, he sees changing the country’s legal framework as a necessary condition. A new constitution and a “renewal of the state” represent about half of his official program.

The rest of the program is primarily a description of the problem and of Japarov’s goals, with only vague information about how to achieve said objectives. For example, the budget of the public health system is to be doubled, financed by reducing public administration. Social policy is hardly mentioned, but there is talk of reducing “administrative barriers” for the private sector. According to this programme, Japarov’s policy should hardly differ in content from that of his predecessors.

Read more on Novastan: Can Sadyr Japarov fulfil his promises?

There is also remarkable continuity in the prosecution of political opponents. Two opposition candidates, Abdil Segizbaev and Kursan Asanov, were arrested days before the presidential inauguration. However, if Japarov turns too many public figures against him without improving his electorate’s living conditions, he could put his own position at risk.

In a message on his Telegram channel on 25 January, he urged his fellow citizens to be patient: “Reforms will begin on January 28, the day I take office. A new government will be formed. There will be a new structure of government. A new constitution will be adopted in April. Then the new laws will come into force”, he wrote, asking his audience to refrain from vigilantism. “Only then will we begin to uproot corruption legally,” he explains. “You have endured it for 30 years, you can endure another six months!”

Florian Coppenrath
Founder of Novastan Deutsch

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

The post Rise and fall… and rise: the career of Kyrgyzstan’s Sadyr Japarov appeared first on Novastan English.

Kyrgyzstan’s snap presidential election resulted in a landslide victory for Sadyr Japarov. The vote came at the same time as a referendum on the population’s preferred form of government, with over 80% choosing a presidential rather than parliamentary system. The referendum result paves the way for far-reaching constitutional changes.

According to preliminary results after polls closed on 10 January, Sadyr Japarov has been elected president of Kyrgyzstan with 79.9% of the vote, avoiding a runoff. 84.18% of voters also opted for a presidential, not parliamentary, form of government in a referendum held at the same time as the election.

Turnout was low, around 33%, just above the 30% threshold required for the referendum results to be valid. In contrast, 56.2% of the electorate had voted in the previous presidential election in 2017.

After Rashid Tagaev withdrew from the race in late December, voters had 17 candidates to choose from, 16 men and one woman.

Snap elections following a political crisis

The position of president has been vacant since the resignation of President Sooronbay Jeenbekov on 15 October. This followed a controversial, and eventually annulled, parliamentary election marred by fraud in October. While the parliament postponed a new parliamentary election indefinitely, it also approved the organisation of the referendum on the form of government.

Read more on Novastan: Kyrgyzstan: President Sooronbay Jeenbekov steps down

In response to a request by the Supreme court of Kyrgyzstan, the Venice commission criticised the move: “One may have an impression that suspension of election motivated by a need of a constitutional reform is a purely instrumental perception of the Constitution and cannot be considered to be in line with democratic standards.” 

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

In an overview of the events leading up to the election, Kloop.kg calls the political crisis that started in October a (non)revolution: “The protest, started by young politicians and those unhappy with the results of the elections, did not turn into a third revolution and has not yet changed the political elite.” In fact, Japarov emerged as the main winner of the crisis: after having been freed from prison on 6 October, he became interim president after Jeenbekov’s resignation and only left the position on 14 November.

A campaign with a clear frontrunner

The election campaign, launched in early December, was also dominated by Sadyr Japarov. While holding the office of interim president, Japarov nominated close allies to key positions in the state and disposed of by far the biggest campaign budget : 67 million som (nearly £600,000), or more than the budget of all the other candidates combined. Additionally, as Kloop.kg discovered, Japarov benefited from the support of organised social media trolls who previously worked for Mekenim Kyrgyzstan, one of the winners of the cancelled parliamentary election.       

As a result, as Deutsche Welle sums up, Japarov was “omnipresent” on banners and in TV spots. From his position as frontrunner, he refused to take part in the electoral debates organised by the state-owned television channel KTRK: “It’s more useful for all of us to meet the people. It’s more useful to be closer to the people”, he commented, calling the debates places for “defamation”. 

Read more on Novastan: Can Sadyr Japarov fulfil his promises?

Japarov appeals to the most deprived parts of Kyrgyzstan’s population, a connection he widely instrumentalises with populist references to “the people” as a whole. For example, interviewed after casting his vote, he stated that the money he spent for the electoral campaign was “gathered from the people”. He also evoked the possibility of “counter-revolutionary disorder” after the election, adding: “But I believe the Kyrgyz people will not let that happen”.       

Alleged violations on election day

In the wake of the overturned parliamentary election, monitoring violations during the electoral process seemed particularly sensitive. As in October, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) only sent a limited observation mission with 13 experts and 22 long-term observers to the poll, by whom “systematic observation of voting, counting or tabulation of results on election day is not envisaged”. 

But, widening a programme started in October, the independent online media Kloop.kg sent about 1,500 observers to voting stations all over the country and covered the electoral process throughout the day. In its live coverage of the election day, Kloop.kg documented alleged manipulations of the electoral outcome. In contrast with the October vote, electors had to vote at their local polling place, which reduced the organised transportation of loyal voters to strategic polling stations. 

There was also less vote-buying than in October, which may also be an explanation for the low turnout, as political expert Azim Azimov stated on Twitter. The head of the Electoral Commission also shared this view, noting that “the main factor impacting turnout was vote-buying”. However, observers reported cases of money being handed to voters and of third parties or members of electoral commissions holding separate lists of “loyal” voters.   

Most other problems concerned the violation of the secrecy of ballots in numerous polling stations. This was due to a lack of distance between third parties and ballot boxes and to members of the electoral commissions standing too close to citizens as they cast their vote, taking pictures of the ballot and sometimes even casting the vote in their stead.

Additionally, Kloop reports hundreds of violations of electoral rules due to malfunctioning electronic ballot scanners. The electronic voting system and biometric voter identification were first used in Kyrgyzstan in 2015 and are meant to prevent the most blatant forms of electoral fraud. 

Finally, in several cases, the work of observers was hindered by members of the electoral commission or by the police and sometimes their phones were confiscated.     

What next for Kyrgyzstan?

In a press conference late on 10 January, Japarov said he believed the election was fair: “Until I came to power I didn’t believe in the honesty of elections. But after I examined the work of the CEC (Central Electoral Commission), I’m convinced that everything there is going on honestly.” He further promised to build a fair judicial system and to fight corruption, evoking the October protests’ demands for lustration: “All work will be carried out openly and transparently. We will not tolerate political persecution and will not protect lawbreakers. We must cleanse ourselves of old bureaucrats and corrupt officials. This is the demand of the people.”

While the present election came as a result of big-scale protests in October, several members of the interim government claimed they would prevent a repetition of that scenario. As the interim prime minister, Artem Novikov, said after issuing his vote: “The government is prepared for possible provocations. I take this opportunity to call on all candidates in the election race to accept the results, whatever they may be, to show political will and responsibility to the country and to the citizens”.

The elections mark a new stage in the political transition started in October. Upon taking the position of the head of state, Japarov is planning to engage in a wide-ranging constitutional reform that will likely widen his powers at the expense of the parliament. A corresponding constitutional project had already been proposed in November and dubbed “khanstitution” by the opposition.  

Nonetheless, in the absence of proper socio-economic reforms, such a concentration of power could lead to yet “another cycle” of revolutions and foster “a normalization of revolts and forceful takeovers of power”, as sociologist Asel Doolotkeldieva wrote on Twitter in the morning. “I am saddened to see that people place high hopes in Japarov and strong president. Not understanding that unlimited unchecked presidency has been and will be a source of instability and economic degradation…”

Florian Coppenrath
Founder of Novastan Deutsch

Valentine Baldassari
Editor of Novastan English

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

The post Kyrgyzstan elects Sadyr Japarov and opts for presidential government appeared first on Novastan English.

Sadyr Japarov went from prisoner to prime minister and interim president of Kyrgyzstan. It’s still too early to say whether he will be able to fulfil his many promises.

Sadyr Japarov now leads Kyrgyzstan, a mere 9 days after leaving prison. Currently the country’s prime minister and interim president, he announced on 25 October his participation in the next presidential election.

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

In the meantime, Sadyr Japarov is planning deep reforms. For instance, he promised to establish justice in the country and fight corruption regardless of politics. Indeed, he said rooting out corruption would not be a tool to eliminate political opponents but instead would be based on the rule of law.

Regarding the judicial system, Sadyr Japarov promised greater transparency and no pressure on judges from the president’s office. He has previously stated his jail sentence in 2017 was politically motivated.         

Crime and punishment

On the subject of crime, Sadyr Japarov promised that organized crime groups would not dictate his actions, nor be allowed to exert influence on business. He pledged to open a new page for the country’s youth, including more opportunity to participate in politics. He also promised a special committee to overhaul the country’s economic approaches, including the dissolution of unnecessary state bodies.

Sadyr Japarov also assured that the way loans worth millions of US dollars meant to fight against Covid-19 were spent will be investigated. At the same time, he asked for an investigation into an article by Radio Azattyk (the Kyrgyz branch of the American media RFE/RL) about Raymbek Matraimov’s alleged money laundering, if needed. Radio Azattyk’s text calling for Raymbek Matraimov’s arrest led to widespread critics during the former president Sooronbay Jeenbekov’s mandate.

Fair elections

In general, Sadyr Japarov declared that he would apply all his capabilities, knowledge, professional and personal experience to the creation and development of Kyrgyzstan and the well-being of its people. He mentioned that the country will overcome all difficulties and get out of the current political crisis only with the support of the whole nation.

Read more: Kyrgyzstan: governing party wins “dirty” parliamentary elections

In more practical terms, Sadyr Japarov promised fair elections, but the timeline remains unclear: presidential elections will take place on 10 January 2021 but there still isn’t an official date for a new parliamentary election. On the other hand, criticism from activists and opposition parties seem to have been heard, as the current parliament approved lowering the electoral threshold to 3%, reducing the electoral deposit from 5 to 1 million som, and abandoning the controversial form no 2. These were all demands protesters highlighted after the now cancelled results of the 4 October parliament election.

High stakes

One of Sadyr Japarov’s first steps has been appointing new officials in most, if not all, decision-making positions. He named new heads of the president’s office, the Russian-Kyrgyz development fund, several provincial administrations, enforcement agencies, and appointed a number of new ministers in his cabinet. For example, he appointed his friend and long-time ally Kamchybek Tashiev, leader of the Mekenchil party, as head of the State Committee for National Security.

He also gave orders to detain Rayimbek Matraimov, as Radio Azattyk reported, and Kamchybek Kolbayev. Both men are important symbols of corruption, the first linked to a $700 million (£524 million) fraud on border taxes, the other one of the most famous crime bosses in the country.

Sadyr Japarov also offered economic amnesty for corrupt officials and businesses, giving them a month to return illegal profits back to the government, the Kyrgyz media Kloop.kg reports. 

The problem of legitimacy

But Sadyr Japarov’s legitimacy as head of Kyrgyzstan has yet to be recognised by the international community. The situation remains fraught, with the country’s political stability an open question. New parliamentary elections should be conducted under new rules soon.

The electoral commission (CEC) seems to be in litigation over Sadyr Japarov moving the parliamentary election day they had set. The interim president stated on Facebook that parliamentary elections would not be conducted in the first half of 2021. It is therefore unclear when these elections will happen.

A dilemma exists between Sadyr Japarov’s obligations to his supporters and his obligations to Kyrgyz society. He came to power backed by a narrow portion of the people, including some alleged criminal backing. But even if Sadyr Japarov does appeal to a wider array of Kyrgyzstan’s citizens, the situation is far from stable. Political instability isn’t helped by a weak economy, worsened by Covid-19, and massive domestic and international debt that cannot be settled without foreign financial aid.

Meanwhile, Russia halted its financial aid until the political situation stabilises, and China, Kyrgyzstan’s biggest creditor, rejected a request to defer the return of $1.8 billion in loans, demanding repayment from January 2021. 

“Time of troubles”

The Kyrgyz scholar Zainidin Kurmanov compares the current situation with Russia’s “time of troubles” in the 17th century, arguing, among other, that the so-called political elite, that is members of parliament and officials, are unqualified, irresponsible, and incapable of managing a political crisis when a mob seizes power and puts its own leader in charge. But, Zainidin Kurmanov argues, the mob may turn on its idol and overthrow him, too. In the absence of the rule of law, and with only weak state institutions in place, mob rule may dictate the country’s course, illegitimately. 

Thus, risks of further economic decline and political instability remain unless Sadyr Japarov quickly provides democratic principles for the upcoming elections. All Kyrgyzstani society has to be convinced that the current situation is not a coup but the result of democratic processes, something it’s still too early to be certain of.

Ilgiz Kambarov
Bishkek

The post Can Sadyr Japarov fulfil his promises? appeared first on Novastan English.

Kyrgyzstan’s president Sooronbay Jeenbekov announced his resignation in a desire to avoid further violence. The prime minister, Sadyr Japarov, declared himself interim president.

This article was originally published on Novastan’s French version.

In a televised address, the president of Kyrgyzstan, Sooronbay Jeenbekov, announced he was stepping down, 10 days after the country’s parliamentary elections triggered a third revolution. He is the third president of Kyrgyzstan to step down part way through a term, after Askar Akayev in 2005 and Kurmanbek Bakiyev in 2010.

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

« I do not want to go down in Kyrgyzstan’s history as a president who spilled blood and shot at his own citizens. I therefore have decided to resign, » Sooronbay Jeenbekov declared, according to the transcription of his speech published by his press office.“Unfortunately, aggression is not subsiding, the calls for my immediate resignation continue,” he noted, referring among others to the supporters of the prime minister, Sadyr Japarov.

Read more: Kyrgyzstan: governing party wins “dirty” parliamentary elections

Sadyr Japarov was appointed prime minister by the Parliament on 14 October, after two attempts at votes that did not reach quorum, as reported by the Kyrgyz media Kaktus. He had also declared his support for the president’s immediate resignation. He met with Sooronbay Jeenbekov on 10 and 14 October to discuss the latter’s stepping down, but, according to Kyrgyz media Kloop.kg, did not turn up at a subsequent meeting on 15 October.  

Pressure from Sadyr Japarov?

However, in an interview published by Kaktus, Felix Kulov, a politician close to Sooronbay Jeenbekov, said Sadyr Japarov had met with the former president shortly before his resignation, accompanied by his political ally Kamchybek Tashiyev.

According to Felix Kulov, the president only announced he was stepping down after this meeting: “Earlier, there was no question of stepping down. Jeenbekov had declared he would not step down. He had said he would speak to the people publicly and that he would explain why he needed to continue working.” Felix Kulov believes the president must have had « very good reasons” to step down so suddenly.

Sadyr Japarov declares himself acting president

According to the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan, the role of president should have gone to the speaker of Parliament until voters elected a new head of state. In this case, the acting president would have been Kanatbek Isayev, the leader of the “Kyrgyzstan” party, who was elected speaker on 14 October. He had called on Sooronbay Jeenbekov not to resign before the country could hold new parliamentary elections, Kaktus reports.

After hesitating for a few hours, Kanatbek Isayev refused to become interim president, as reported by the Kyrgyz news agency 24.kg. “Given the current sociopolitical situation and very important tasks faced by the legislative branch to stabilise the situation in the country, I have decided to concentrate my efforts directly on working in the Jogorku Kenesh [Kyrgyzstan’s parliament]. In addition, as the mandate of the sixth [] of Parliament is coming to an end, I consider it impossible for me to exercise the powers of president,” he declared in a statement.

Next in line as interim president is the prime minister. Less than 15 minutes after Kanatbek Isayev’s statement, Sadyr Japarov told his supporters he was acting president, 24.kg reports. He thus holds all of the country’s executive power.

This announcement arrives as the parliament plans to meet on the morning of 16 October for an extraordinary session about the president’s resignation.

No new elections in sight

Meanwhile, no dates have been set for new elections, whether presidential or legislative. According to the first paragraph of article 68 of the Constitution, however, “early  presidential  elections  are  conducted  within  three  months  period  since  the  termination  of  powers of the President.”

As the reseacher Asel Doolotkeldieva explains on Twitter, the president’s resignation has sparked fears of the cancellation of the parliamentary elections, leading the country towards a full presidential system once again.

“I don’t want to speculate over these fears,” she adds. “After all, the 5th October events showed how ordinary citizens disagreed with the electoral frauds and old elites. Society is strong and it won’t be so easy to carry out these changes.

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

The post Kyrgyzstan: President Sooronbay Jeenbekov steps down appeared first on Novastan English.

Kyrgyzstan’s lawmakers gathered on 10 October to elect a new prime minister. They chose Sadyr Japarov, known for advocating the nationalisation of the country’s main gold mine, and until recently serving a prison sentence for attempted kidnapping. But critics say his election was illegal.  

This article was originally published on Novastan’s French website.

Kyrgyzstan’s parliament gathered on 10 October at the State Residence Ala-Archa, south of the capital Bishkek, to elect Sadyr Japarov interim prime minister, at the head of a nearly unchanged government.

One person died and hundreds were injured on the night of 5 October after protesters took to the streets to oppose the results of the parliamentary elections the previous day.

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Since 10 October Bishkek has been under a state of emergency declared by President Sooronbay Jeenbekov, who also called in the army to stabilise the situation.

A dubious vote

Several attempts to convene parliament and organise a vote had taken place over the previous days but had failed to reach the 50% quorum. Finally, on 10 October, out of the 120 members of the Jogorku Kenesh, the Kyrgyz parliament, 51 were present at the State Residence and 10 voted by proxy, totaling 61 votes, or just over half.

Critics such as the politician Felix Kulov question the legality of this procedure. He argues that half of the members of parliament must actually be present for the vote to be valid. In addition, the deputy Aida Kasymalieva stated on her Facebook page she had left before the vote but had still been counted as a participant. She concludes the vote and Sadyr Japarov’s nomination were not legal. She also reports receiving threats from her colleagues to pressure her into voting.

The legal clinic Adilet, a group of Kyrgyz legal experts, also asserts the parliamentary session on 10 October was illegal, due to “serious violations of the Constitution and legislation“, notably the lack of quorum.

After a speech by Sadyr Japarov and questions from the assembly, the members unanimously voted him interim prime minister through a show of hands. They also accepted his cabinet, nearly identical to that of the previous government. The political factions who took part correspond to the previous presidential majority. As the Kyrgyz media Kaktus noted, no deputy openly opposed to Sadyr Japarov took part in the vote.

Sadyr Japarov’s role is not yet fully official. The President still needs to sign the decree of appointment, usually a formality.

15 years in politics

Born in 1968 in the Yssyk-Köl region, Sadyr Japrov graduated from the National Academy of Physical Culture and Spor in Bishkek in 1991. According to Kloop, he spent most of the next 15 years heading collective farms and directing a small oil company. He started his political career during the 2005 revolution alongside Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who became president.

Sadyr Japarov was elected to the Jogorku Kenesh before becoming adviser to the president and head of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. Having made himself scarce during the 2010 revolution, which ousted Kurmanbek Bakiyev, he came back to politics as a member of the Ata-Jurt party alongside the southern politician Kamchibek Tachiyev. He once again became a member of parliament in the first post-revolutionary elections in October 2010.

In 2012, Sadyr Japarov championed the nationalisation of the country’s main gold mine, Kumtor, located in his home region of Yssyk-Köl. He took part in protests that attempted to storm parliament in Bishkek. In Karakol, the regional capital of Yssyk-Köl, in 2013, his supporters took a regional governor hostage.

Sadyr Japarov fled Kyrgyzstan and lived in exile, before returning in 2017. He was arrested on the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Freed by protesters

Sadyr Japarov was in prison until the night of 5 October, which saw protesters storm parliament to contest the results of a parliamentary election seen as fraudulent. Some of the protesters rallied to Sadyr Japarov’s cause and went to the headquarters of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) to demand his release. His supporters called for him to become president or prime minister.

Read more: Kyrgyzstan: governing party wins “dirty” parliamentary elections

As Kloop reports, Sadyr Japarov received the support of deputies from the parliamentary majority, who tried to appoint him interim prime minister without proving they’d reached the quorum of 61 deputies.

As early as 8 October, Kaktus showed that social media accounts supporting the president and the Mekenim Kyrgyzstan party before the election were now posting in support of Sadyr Japarov’s nomination as prime minister. Kloop also details the links between Sadyr Japarov and the Matraimov family, the main supporter of Mekenin Kyrgyzstan and at the heart of a vast corruption scandal. Sadyr Japarov has denied any connection with Soroonbai Jeenbekov and the Matraimov family.

Local media reports that Sadyr Japarov’s supporters violently clashed with other protesters on Bishkek’s main square on 9 October. Later, several opponents, including former president Almazbek Atambayev, and Ravshan Jeenbekov were arrested.

On the evening of 10 October, Sadyr Japarov’s supporter celebrated the appointment, ignoring curfew.

What is Sadyr Japarov’s political programme?

Speaking to Parliament before his confirmation as Prime Minister, Sadyr Japarov declared the events of the past few days “are not a coup, but a peaceful renewal“, as neither the government nor the president have fled. In a press conference following the vote, he blamed the October parliament elections results on the party system, calling it a “business system”, pointed to corruption as the cause and promised to “eradicate corruption and restore the confidence of the people“.

He went on to say that he had met with the president, who had promised to resign within two or three days. The president’s spokesman, contacted by Kaktus, was less forthright and announced that the president would resign once the country was “back on the legal track”.

The programme the interim Prime Minister presented to parliament puts stability and the defense of investors and small and medium-sized businesses first. Also among its priorities is the “review of agreements on the development of the mines of Jeruy, Kumtor and others”, in line with Sadyr Japarov’s previous commitments. However, he told MPs he no longer thought it necessary to nationalise Kumtor because there was little gold left.

Sadyr Japarov also came out in favour of a first-past-the-post rather than proportional system for parliamentary elections, which would require changing the constitution. He did not give a date for the next parliamentary elections but stated he would not take part.

 Asked whether he would run for president, Sadyr Japarov replied : “If many Kyrgyzstani support me and ask me to become president, then I will stand.” In the event of Sooronbay Jeenbekov’s resignation and in the absence of a parliament spokesperson – the office holder resigned – Sadyr Japarov, as prime minister, could become interim president, as the Kyrgyz branch of Russian media Sputnik points out.

Novastan.org

Additional reporting by Pia de Gouvello and Florian Coppenrath

The post From prison to high office: Sadyr Japarov is Kyrgyzstan’s new prime minister appeared first on Novastan English.