Although today’s Ukraine creates its national myth on the basis of two coups, called the “revolutions”, the most revolutionary nation on open spaces of the former USSR are undoubtedly the Kirghiz. Judge for yourself, Askar Akayev was ousted by people in the course of the “Revolution of Tulips”, he was replaced by Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Bakiyev had been ruling successfully until 2010 when he was ousted by people and replaced (after a short-term temporary presidency of Roza Otunbayeva) by Almazbek Atambayev. Almazbek Atambayev had been ruling successfully, but lost the elections to Sooronbay Jeenbekov, who, in turn, was ousted by people after three years of the successful rule. Now the country is ruled by Sadyr Japarov. Judging from the fact, that his score in the futsal is not less than Putin’s score in hockey, his rule has been successful so far. To complete the picture, you want to add, that practically all of the listed above worked for constitutional reform, put their rivals in jail, did time themselves, led people’s revolutions against rotten regimes, were on the international wanted list, and did other interesting things. It seems, that all this mess and fuss missed only Roza Isakovna, who, apparently, didn’t have enough real thing ambitions.
In any case, however painful it may be to yield the palm, the Ukrainians (more exactly our presidents) should acknowledge, that there’s still a lot to learn from the Kirghiz. We have only one wanted fugitive president. Yet, with Yanukovych on the wanted list, due to his lawyers, not everything is so straightforward. Obviously, in order to narrow the gap between us and the Kirghiz, we should get at least one of the former presidents locked up. Presently, the best and obvious candidate for this role is Petro Poroshenko, and he should definitely take a leaf from Almazbek Atambayev’s book.
Atambayev is in jail now, and it took a Special Forces action to put him there. They say, he had personally shot one of the Kirghiz SWAT during his apprehension. It’s not the first time he’s behind bars – on previous occasions he was lucky enough to be released by his supporters. His resume includes the presidency, office of the Prime Minister, a successful businessman. In short, it’s definitely no shame to take an example from such a man!
Recently, Almazbek Atambayev wrote a letter from the dungeon, where he expressed his feelings over the events in Kazakhstan. It appears, that this document is worth of preserving for Eternity – as a “template” for such letters by any of the former presidents doing time in the vast expanses of the former USSR. Probably, Petro Poroshenko should learn this text by heart, just in case. The text is worth of citing in full.
As for the rumors of some kind of arrangement between myself and the well-known Kazakh oppositionist, Mukhtar Ablyazov, I can only say, that I have never met him, neither had a conversation with him, so, I couldn’t have any arrangement with him. Maybe, somebody has misled him. However, it’s no secret that my relationship with Nursultan Nazarbayev after September, 2016 had left something to be desired, but that is a different story…
As much as somebody would want to present it OTHERWISE, I’m positive, that the unrest in Kazakhstan was not orchestrated by someone from outside.
All revolutions and uprisings in any country are always sparked as a result of botched actions, adversary to the people, taken by governments themselves. The same goes to Kazakhstan, where it was not about directions given by oppositionists from abroad, and definitely not about foreign terrorists. Tokayev, the President of Kazakhstan, tackled some of the causes of the unrest, making quite a good point, yet, being too diplomatic. I hope he will take decisive steps to eliminate such causes, however, as far as I’m concerned, there is a need in radical reforms not only in the economy, but in the whole political machinery of the country, otherwise, it’s all will recur on a much larger scale.
And surely, it is not the rioters to be blamed and punished, it is those who brought common people to this, those, who have been stealing from their people, who have been choking the citizens with repressions leaving them with no air to breathe. And from my own experience I can say that you should put less trust in the security men, who would always have their vested interests, but more trust is to be put in free media and in what common people have to say. Only then the NSC, National Security Council of Kazakhstan would not again become the National Security Threat. The same thing I’ve been telling for the last four years to those in power in my country, with no feedback yet, although we have new President now…
I have my Kazakh grandmothers’ blood running through my veins. My grandchildren, the kids of my eldest son, are half Kazakhs. Many Kirghiz share the same kin. When the moan is heard over the Kazakh steppe it echoes with a cry in the Kirghiz mountains. Our Kazakh brothers and sisters, we love you! We care about you! Your grief is our grief! Your trouble is our trouble! My condolences to the families of the deceased and all those affected in these tragic days…Stay strong! God bless you all!
Obviously, the first part of the letter is variable – who knows about which toxic oligarch would be renounced. Whether it would be Firtash, or Akhmetov is not so important. The very sensible words said about the fact, that the civil unrest is the response to severe social conditions and harassment by the authorities, and perfectly combined with a mild rebuke towards the law enforcement forces, which are the only ones to blame for screw-ups in the times of the own rule. It wouldn’t be necessary to change anything in this letter, except for a couple of names and, of course, substitute NSC with SBU (of FSB). All the rest is just pure poetry! Obviously, it would be necessary to substitute the Kazakh grandmothers with the Moldavian ones (or the Russian ones, depending on the situation), “the steppe” with “forests”, “the Kirghiz mountains” with “the Dnipro river hills” (“the Dniester marshes” as an option), “God” with “Army, Language and Faith”, yet the essence would remain as beautiful as in the original! It would have been so beautiful, that we’d really want our fifth president to learn these crib notes by heart. But other than that, we believe, that there’s no point for Ukraine to pursue the glorious Kirghiz political tradition
