1st Edition

Domestic and International Perspectives on Kyrgyzstan’s ‘Tulip Revolution’ Motives, Mobilization and Meanings

Edited By Sally Cummings Copyright 2010
    176 Pages
    by Routledge

    170 Pages
    by Routledge

    In early 2005 regional protests in Kyrgyzstan soon became national ones as protesters seized control of the country’s capital, Bishkek. The country’s president for fifteen years, Askar Akaev, fled the country and after a night of extensive looting, a new president, Kurmanbek Bakiev, came to power. The events quickly earned the epithet ‘Tulip Revolution’ and were interpreted as the third of the colour revolutions in the post-Soviet space, following Ukraine and Georgia. But did the events in Kyrgyzstan amount to a ‘revolution’? How much change followed and with what academic and policy implications? This innovative, unique study of these events brings together a new generation of Kyrgyz scholars together with established international observers to assess what happened in Kyrgyzstan and after, and the wider implications.

    This book was published as a special issue of Central Asian Survey.

    Introduction  Sally N. Cummings, Senior Lecturer, School of International Relations, University of St Andrews

    1. Situating the "Tulip Revolution": A Review of Existing Approaches to Understanding the Tulip Revolution  Sally N. Cummings and Maxim Ryabkov International Scholar, Department of International and Comparative Politics (ICP), University of Central Asia

    2. March and After: What Has Changed? What has Stayed the Same?  Erica Marat, Research Fellow with the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center

    3. Kyrgyz Democracy? The "Tulip Revolution" and Beyond  Shairbek Juraev, Head, Department of International and Comparative Politics (ICP), American University of Central Asia

    4.The North-South Cleavage and Political Support in Kyrgyzstan  Maxim Ryabkov, International Scholar, Department of International and Comparative Politics, University of Central Asia

    5. Informal actors and institutions in mobilization: The periphery in the "Tulip Revolution"  Azamat Temirkulov, Academic Fellowship Programme Fellow, Open Society Institute and Assistant Professor, University of Central Asia

    6. Organized Crime before and after the "Tulip Revolution": The changing dynamics of upperworld- underworld networks  Alexander Kupatadze, Visiting Scholar, Social Science Research Centre, American University of Central Asia and PhD Candidate, University of St Andrews

    7. The dynamics of regime change: international and domestic factors in the "Tulip revolution"  David Lewis, Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Peace Studies at Bradford University

    8. March 2005: Parliamentary elections as catalyst of protests  Emir Kulov, Academic Fellowship Programme Fellow, Open Society Institute and Assistant Professor, University of Central Asia

    9. The Power of Precedent?  Bermet Tursunkulova, Vice-President, American University of Central Asia

    10. Diffusion as discourse of danger – Russian self-representations and the framing of the Tulip revolution  Stefanie Ortmann, Teaching Fellow, Royal Holloway, London and formerly Visiting Associate Professor, American University of Central Asia

    Biography

    Sally N. Cummings teaches in the School of International Relations, University of St. Andrews, UK.