Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, formerly known as Kirghizia,Article 1 of the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic states: "1. Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz Republic)...". is a landlocked country located in Central Asia, lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir mountain ranges. It is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and China to the east and southeast. The capital and largest city is Bishkek which lies on the northern border with Kazakhstan. Ethnic Kyrgyz make up the majority of the 7.5 million people, followed by significant minorities of Uzbeks and Russians.
Kyrgyzstan's history spans a variety of cultures and empires. Although geographically isolated by its highly mountainous terrain, Kyrgyzstan has been at the crossroads of several civilizations as part of the Silk Road along with other commercial routes. Inhabited by a succession of tribes and clans, Kyrgyzstan has periodically fallen under larger domination, e.g., the Turkic nomads who trace their ancestry to many Turkic states. It was first established as the Yenisei Kyrgyz Khaganate. In the 13th century it was conquered by the Mongol Empire and under several Mongol dynasties; it regained independence but was invaded by the Dzungar Khanate. After the Dzungar genocide by the Qing dynasty, Kyrgyz and Kipchaks were an integral part of the Kokand Khanate.
In 1876, Kyrgyzstan became part of the Russian Empire, and in 1936 the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic was formed to become a constituent republic of the Soviet Union. Following Mikhail Gorbachev's democratic reforms in the USSR, in 1990 pro-independence candidate Askar Akayev was elected president. On 31 August 1991, Kyrgyzstan declared independence from the USSR, and a democratic government was established. Kyrgyzstan attained sovereignty as a nation state after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. After independence, Kyrgyzstan was officially a unitary presidential republic. Following the Tulip Revolution it became a unitary parliamentary republic; however, it gradually developed an executive president and was governed as a semi-presidential republic before reverting to a presidential system in 2021. Throughout its existence, the country has continued to endure ethnic conflicts, revolts, economic troubles, transitional governments and political conflict.
Kyrgyzstan is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Organization of Turkic States, the Türksoy community, and the United Nations. It is a developing country ranked 117th in the Human Development Index. The transition economy relies mainly on re-exporting Chinese goods and gold production. The country balances its international trade commitments as a World Trade Organization member since 1998 with regional integration through the Eurasian Economic Union, which it joined in 2015, and a delegation of parliamentarians sit at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Etymology There are many theories about the origin of the word Kyrgyz. One proposed etymology is that it means "forty tribes", which may refer to the 40 clans of Manas, a legendary hero who united regional clans. The Persian suffix -Stan means "place of".
The 40-ray sun on the flag of Kyrgyzstan is a reference to those same 40 tribes and the graphical element in the sun's center depicts the wooden crown, called tunduk, of a yurt—a portable dwelling traditionally used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia.
The official name is Kyrgyz Republic, used in international arenas and foreign relations. In the English-speaking world, the spelling Kyrgyzstan is commonly used, while its former name Kirghizia is rarely used.
History
Early history
The Kyrgyz state reached its greatest expansion after defeating the Uyghur Khaganate in 840 AD. From the 10th century, the Kyrgyz migrated as far as the Tian Shan range and maintained their dominance over the territory for about 200 years.
There is a storytelling tradition of the Epic of Manas, which involves a warrior who unified all of the scattered tribes into a single nation in the 9th century. The trilogy, an element of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, expresses the memory of the nomadic Kyrgyz people.
In the 12th century, the Kyrgyz dominion had shrunk to the Altay range and Sayan Mountains as a result of the Mongol expansion. With the rise of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, the Kyrgyz migrated south. The Kyrgyz peacefully became a part of the Mongol Empire in 1207. Issyk-Kul Lake was a stopover on the Silk Road, a land route for traders, merchants, and other travelers from the Far East to Europe.
Kyrgyz tribes were overrun in the 17th century by the Mongols, in the mid-18th century by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China, and in the early 19th century by the Uzbek Khanate of Kokand. In 1842, the Kyrgyz tribes broke away from Kokand and united into the Kara-Kyrgyz Khanate, led by Ormon Khan. Following Ormon's death in 1854, the khanate disintegrated.
Russian conquest
In the late 19th century, the much of the Issyk-Kul Region was ceded to the Russian Empire by Qing China through the Treaty of Tarbagatai. The territory, known in Russian as "Kirghizia", was formally incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1876. The Russian takeover was met with numerous revolts, and many of the Kyrgyz opted to relocate to the Pamir Mountains and Afghanistan.
The suppression of the 1916 rebellion against Russian rule in Central Asia caused many Kyrgyz to migrate to China. Since many ethnic groups in the region were, and still are, split between neighboring states at a time when borders were more porous and less regulated, it was common to move back and forth over the mountains, depending on where life was perceived as better; this might mean better rains for pasture or better government during oppression.
Soviet Kyrgyzstan Soviet power was initially established in the region in 1919, and the Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast was created within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The phrase Kara-Kirghiz was used until the mid-1920s by the Russians to distinguish them from the Kazakhs, who were also referred to as Kirghiz. On 5 December 1936, the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic was established as a constituent Union Republic of the Soviet Union.
After the Russian Civil War, the period of the New Economic Policy began, which lasted roughly to 1928. The Bolsheviks made an effort to establish a standardized tax system, with higher taxes for nomads to discourage the wandering livelihood, and they divided the Central Asia region into five nation-states. Kyrgyzstan developed considerably in cultural, educational, and social life, literacy was greatly improved. Economic and social development also was notable. Under Stalin a great focus was put on Kyrgyz national identity. The Soviet state was fighting tribalism: its social organization based on patrilineal kinship contradicted the concept of the modern nation state. In a region that did not previously know national institutions or consciousness, the process of nation-building was, from the indigenous perspective, a difficult and ambivalent one.
By the end of the 1920s, the Soviet Union developed a series of five-year plans, centered around industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture, including the creation of huge "kolkhoz" collective farming systems, needed to feed the workers in the industries. Because of the plan's reliance on rapidity, major economic and cultural changes had to occur, which led to conflicts. In Kyrgyzstan, Russian settlers acquired the best pasture land, creating much hardship for most of its original inhabitants, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Turkmen nomads, who were also forced to settle down on soil that did not have enough agricultural potential. The changes caused unrest, and between 1928 and 1932 nomads and peasants made it clear through methods like passive resistance that they did not agree with these policies, in the Kirgiziya area also guerrilla opposition occurred. The region suffered relatively more deaths from collectivization than any other.
The early years of glasnost, in the late 1980s, had little effect on the political climate in Kyrgyzstan. However, the Republic's press was permitted to adopt a more liberal stance and to establish a publication, Literaturny Kirghizstan, by the Union of Writers. Unofficial political groups were forbidden, but several groups that emerged in 1989 to deal with the acute housing crisis were permitted to function.
According to the last Soviet census in 1989, ethnic Kyrgyz made up only 22% of the residents of the northern city of Frunze (now Bishkek), while more than 60% were Russians, Ukrainians, and people from other Slavic nations. Nearly 10% of the city's population were Jewish (very unusual in the Soviet Union, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast being an exception).
In June 1990, ethnic tensions between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz surfaced in the Osh Region (southern Kyrgyzstan), where Uzbeks form a minority of the population. The tensions between Kyrgyzs and Uzbeks in Osis led to 186 deaths. Attempts to appropriate Uzbek collective farms for housing development triggered the Osh Riots. A state of emergency and curfew were introduced"Ethnic Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan Voice Complaints Over Discrimination, Corruption ". EurasiaNet.org. 24 January 2006. and Askar Akayev, the youngest of five sons born into a family of collective farm workers (in northern Kyrgyzstan), was elected president in October 1990. By then, the Kyrgyzstan Democratic Movement had developed into a significant political force with support in Parliament. On 15 December 1990, the Supreme Soviet voted to change the republic's name to the Republic of Kyrgyzstan. In January 1991, Akayev introduced new government structures and appointed a new cabinet composed mainly of younger, reform-oriented politicians. In February the name of the capital was changed back to its pre-revolutionary name of Bishkek.
Despite these political moves toward independence, economic realities seemed to work against secession from the Soviet Union. In a referendum on the preservation of the Soviet Union in March 1991, 88.7% of voters approved retaining the Soviet Union as a "renewed federation". Nevertheless, on 31 August 1991, the Supreme Council of the Kyrgyz Republic adopted the Declaration of State Independence, establishing Kyrgyzstan as an independent state.
On 19 August 1991, when the State Emergency Committee assumed power in Moscow, there was an attempt to depose Akayev in Kyrgyzstan. After the coup collapsed the following week, Akayev and Vice President German Kuznetsov announced their resignations from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), and the entire bureau and secretariat resigned. This was followed by the Supreme Soviet vote declaring independence from the Soviet Union on 31 August 1991 as the Republic of Kyrgyzstan. According to a 2013 Gallup poll, 62% of Kyrgyz people say that the collapse of the Soviet Union harmed their country, while only 16% said that the collapse benefitted it. Independence In October 1991, Akayev ran unopposed and was elected president of the new independent republic by direct ballot, receiving 95 percent of the votes cast. Together with representatives of seven other republics that same month, he signed the Treaty of the Economic Community. On 8 December the leaders of three out of four Soviet Union's founding republics (Russia, Belarus and Ukraine) signed the Belavezha Accords, denouncing the Union Treaty of 1922, declaring that the Soviet Union would cease to exist and proclaimed the Commonwealth of Independent States in its place.