Clan hierarchy as the basis of the “tulip revolution” in Kyrgyzstan

• Main Authors: S. A. Voronin, E. A. Bakina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) 2019-12-01
• Series: RUDN Journal of World History
• Subjects: “tulip revolution”; clan hierarchy; askar akayev; khan-tengri; kyrgyz dream; ichklik; sarabagysh
• Online Access: http://journals.rudn.ru/world-history/article/viewFile/22486/17581

In 2005, the so-called Tulip Revolution took place in Kyrgyzstan. In terms of form and content, the events that took place in Kyrgyzstan fully fit into the concept of protest movements (velvet, melon, jasmine and other revolutions) that unfolded at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries. The start to such revolutions aimed at changing the regime was given in 1953, when the Prime Minister of Iran Mossadyk was removed from power during the coup detat, which was supervised by the CIA. An analysis of the events in Kyrgyzstan showed that behind the coup that led to the overthrow of President Askar Akayev, there were external forces coordinating their efforts in accordance with the methodological recommendations of the American technologist of political coups Gene Sharpe. However, external actions, for all their significance, did not become the main cause of the Tulip Revolution, but acted only as a catalyst. Over the centuries, in Kyrgyzstan there has been a complex of internal contradictions between various political groups, which became the detonator of a political cataclysm in 2005. One of the most significant internal causes of the political crisis of 2005 was the clan rivalry of the North and South in the struggle for power. The clan hierarchy has been the foundation of the political systems of Central Asia for centuries; Kyrgyzstan was no exception. The article is devoted to the consideration of the mechanism of the clan hierarchy, the analysis of political competition between the North and the South, the role and importance of clans during the 2005 coup.