Domestic and International Perspectives on KyrgyzstanÆs æTulip RevolutionÆ: Motives, Mobilization and Meanings

In early 2005 regional protests in Kyrgyzstan soon became national ones as protesters seized control of the country#xE2;#xAC;"s capital, Bishkek. The country#xE2;#xAC;"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 #xE2;#xAC;#xDC;Tulip Revolution#xE2;#xAC;" 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 #xE2;#xAC;#xDC;revolution#xE2;#xAC;"? 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.

Dr. Sally N. Cummings teaches in the School of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews, UK. Her publications include: Kazakhstan: Power and the Elite (IB Tauris 2005), Oil, Transition and Security in Central Asia (London and New York: Routledge, 2003) and Kazakhstan: Centre-Periphery Relations (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs and Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2000).