Kyrgyzstan Local Politics - The Times Of Central Asia

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Kyrgyz-Tajik Border

Kyrgyzstan Develops Territories Received from Tajikistan

The Kyrgyz authorities have adopted a resolution that transfers into state ownership land and real estate received from Tajikistan under the agreement on the delimitation and demarcation of the state border. According to the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, the State Agency for State Property Management must register the transferred assets on its balance sheet, after which they will be handed over to local administrations in the Batken and Leylek districts of Batken region. District authorities are expected to distribute the property among citizens who lost their homes and assets as a result of the border agreement, as well as those whose properties were demolished during the construction of border infrastructure. The government has also instructed the State Agency for Land Resources, Cadastre, Geodesy, and Cartography to conduct an inventory of land plots in the region, while the Ministry of Construction will develop master plans for settlements in the transferred territories. The resolution notes that the list of real estate assets may be revised as the border line is refined during the demarcation process. The border agreement was reached following negotiations between the two countries' presidents, Sadyr Japarov and Emomali Rahmon, and was subsequently ratified by the parliaments of both countries. Under its terms, the sides exchanged territories, including previously disputed areas. Following the agreement, Kyrgyzstan began constructing barriers along the new border line. Authorities in both countries expect that completing the demarcation process will help stabilize the situation and prevent further conflict.

Power Struggle

Kyrgyzstan Moves Toward Power Consolidation Ahead of 2027 Election

Kyrgyzstan has changed leaders more often than any other country in Central Asia, with power shifts since independence driven by both elections and unrest. With less than ten months remaining before the next presidential vote on January 24, 2027, recent political developments suggest the authorities are now moving to consolidate control well ahead of the contest. Against this backdrop, Russian political analyst Arkady Dubnov, citing sources in Kyrgyzstan, has suggested that recent political decisions, including the sudden removal of Kamchybek Tashiyev on February 10, may be linked to efforts to manage regional and institutional tensions within the country. In particular, discussions since that decision have focused on the long-standing dynamics between northern and southern elites. This dynamic has historically shaped political competition in the country. Recent personnel changes within state institutions have targeted individuals previously associated with former officials. Such administrative reshuffling is not uncommon ahead of major political milestones, including elections, and may reflect efforts to consolidate governance structures ahead of the upcoming election cycle. Kyrgyz political analyst Kanat Nogoybaev, speaking to a Kazakhstani outlet, commented on a petition signed by a group of public figures calling for early presidential elections. He noted that such initiatives typically reflect broader political maneuvering within elite circles. Since the petition was signed, some reports indicate that several individuals connected to this petition have faced legal scrutiny, though details remain unclear. President Sadyr Japarov has addressed the removal of Tashiyev, emphasizing the importance of maintaining stability within state institutions and avoiding internal divisions among public servants. “I believe that by making a swift decision, I ensured stability within the system,” Japarov said in earlier remarks, stressing that unity within government structures remains a priority. Separately, there have been discussions in political circles regarding the review of past high-profile legal cases. Former Jogorku Kenesh (parliamentary) deputy Iskhak Masaliev has suggested reassessing certain cases from recent years. One such case involves journalist Makhabat Tazhibek kyzy, whose legal proceedings have attracted significant public attention. In March, the Supreme Court remanded her case for retrial, and her pretrial detention was changed to house arrest. The case is part of a broader investigation involving media professionals detained in January 2024 on charges related to public unrest. Judicial proceedings in these cases remain ongoing. Economic developments have also intersected with recent political discussions. Investigations involving the state company, Kyrgyzneftegaz, have led to the detention of several individuals, including company executives and former officials. The Kyrgyz authorities have stated that these actions are part of broader efforts to ensure transparency and accountability in the management of state assets. Officials from the State Tax Service have addressed the case, noting that new conditions allowed for a comprehensive audit of the company. Subsequent legal actions were taken following the findings. These developments add an economic dimension to the broader political shifts underway. In parallel, Kyrgyzneftegaz has announced a general shareholders’ meeting scheduled for April 16 in Kochkor-Ata. The agenda includes governance changes, amendments to internal documents, and financial restructuring measures. While the...

Power Struggle

Kyrgyzstan Braces for Showdown Between President Japarov and Former Security Chief Tashiyev

When Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov suddenly dismissed his long-time friend Kamchybek Tashiyev as head of the country’s State Committee for National Security (GKNB) on February 10, he cryptically said it was “in the interests of our state, in order to prevent a split in society.” Less than two months later, that split could be coming, and there is a possibility the country is headed for a confrontation between the two men and their supporters. The Gathering Clouds Tashiyev returned to Kyrgyzstan on March 19 after being outside the country for more than a month amid a widening corruption investigation targeting Tashiyev and people close to him. On the day he arrived, Tashiyev went to the Interior Ministry’s investigative department, where he was questioned about state-owned company Kyrgyzneftegaz. On March 17, the head of the State Tax Service, Almambet Shykmamatov, said that “Kyrgyzneftegaz was under the complete control of the GKNB.” The State Tax Service is looking into allegations that Kyrgyzneftegaz sold crude oil to private companies connected to Tashiyev’s relatives or associates who then sold the oil back to Kyrgyzneftegaz at a profit. These accusations are not new. Bolot Temirov, the host of the investigative news program Temirov Live, reported about this exact topic in January 2022. Two days after the report was posted on YouTube, police raided the office of Temirov Live, detaining Temirov on narcotics possession charges that were later dropped. Instead, Temirov was convicted of having a fake Kyrgyz passport and using false documents to cross in and out of Kyrgyzstan. At an appeals trial in November 2022, a judge ordered Temirov deported from Kyrgyzstan, and he was taken from the courtroom to the airport and put on a plane to Russia. Several journalists connected to Temirov Live have been detained, and some, including Temirov’s wife, have been imprisoned since Temirov’s expulsion from Kyrgyzstan. The State Tax Service has resurrected the Temirov Live accusations, while insisting that the evidence it collected has no relationship to the Temirov Live report. Tashiyev’s nephew, Baigazy Matisakov, who was the head of the Kyrgyzneftegaz refinery since 2021, was detained on March 18. Tashiyev’s son, Tay-Muras, who is connected to Moko Group, one of the private companies involved in purchasing oil from and then reselling it to Kyrgyzneftegaz, was questioned at the Interior Ministry. An article from March 16 states that the State Tax Service also connected Tashiyev’s brother, Shairbek, to illegal activities in the oil business. Reports about Tashiyev being questioned at the Interior Ministry on March 19 stressed that he was called in as a “witness.” Japarov Goes on the Offensive On February 10, the reason for sacking Tashiyev, who was out of the country at the time, was unclear. In the days that followed, it gradually became apparent that this was more than just a disagreement between two friends who had governed Kyrgyzstan together for five years. Japarov also dismissed top officials in the GKNB, which Tashiyev had headed since October 2020. Officials in the Interior Ministry, the prosecutor...

TCA Interviews

Kyrgyzstan Between the Russian World and Global Chaos: An Interview With Deputy Prime Minister Edil Baisalov

Edil Baisalov is a politician who began his career as a civil-rights activist, became a prominent member of Kyrgyzstan’s non-governmental organization (NGO) sector, and is now serving as the country’s Deputy Prime Minister. In an exclusive interview with The Times of Central Asia, he explained not only how his views have changed over the years, but also how Kyrgyzstan is seeking to find its place in what he described as a rapidly changing global landscape. In Baisalov’s assessment, the global system is facing a crisis of democracy. “The world order, as we know it, is collapsing – or at least is under attack from both within and without,” Baisalov told TCA. “The era of global hypocrisy is over, and the people of Kyrgyzstan have woken up. “What various international institutions have taught us over the years – their lectures on how to develop an economy, how to pursue nation-building, and so forth – has been proven wrong. Throughout the 1990s, Kyrgyzstan was one of the most diligent students of the liberal policies promoted by the “Chicago Boys.” We followed their instructions to the letter. Kyrgyzstan was the first post-Soviet country to join the World Trade Organization in 1998, and we were the first to receive normalized trade relations with the U.S. with the permanent repeal of the Jackson-Vanik amendment. All of our previous governments followed IMF conditionality dictates to the letter, especially in deregulation, mass privatization, and all the austerity programs and budget sequestrations. We were promised prosperity; that the free markets and the invisible hand would take care of everything. But it did not work. “I remember it well: at the time, U.S. President Bill Clinton laughed at China, saying that Beijing needed to adopt certain policies, to liberalize, or that science could not prosper in a closed society. He claimed the Chinese model was doomed to fail, arguing that scientific and technological breakthroughs could only occur in a Western-style society with minimal state intervention. Yet today, we witness the triumphant rise of the People’s Republic of China. This is not only an emergence but also a return to the rightful place of a great civilization that has, for millennia, contributed enormously to humankind.” TCA: Does this mean you now see China, rather than the West, as a model for Kyrgyzstan to follow? Baisalov: It’s not about the Chinese model or any particular foreign template. What we understood is that as a nation, we are in competition with other nations. Just like corporations compete with each other, nations must look out for themselves. If our state does not actively develop industries and sciences, there is no formula for success. All those ideologies promoting the “invisible hand” – the idea that everything will naturally flourish on its own – are simply false. TCA: When did Kyrgyzstan stop taking orders from outside forces and begin making independent national decisions? Baisalov: We used to be naive about wanting to be liked by others. But not anymore. In the last five years of...

Power Struggle

Japarov Breaks the Kyrgyz Tandem

When Kamchybek Tashiyev returned to Bishkek from medical travel abroad after losing his post as Chairman of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB), as well as the deputy chairmanship of the Cabinet of Ministers, he returned to a system already being disassembled. Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov dismissed him on February 10, ending a five-year arrangement in which the presidency and the security apparatus were closely fused. The decision deliberately dismantled the governing tandem that had defined Kyrgyzstan’s power structure since 2020. The immediate question was whether this was a closing of an episode or the opening of a new one. The first wave of moves suggests the latter: a transition toward a more personalized presidency, with the internal-security bloc fractured and its succession logic unsettled. Japarov publicly framed the decision as preempting an institutional split. He explicitly pointed to parliamentary groupings that began sorting deputies into “pro-president” versus “pro-general” camps. Russian-language coverage has tended to present the episode as an effort to end a dual-power configuration, not merely to remove one official. This narrative implies that the state’s operative center of gravity had already begun drifting away from predictable office-holding and toward informal allegiance tests. Once such a dynamic becomes evident, according to such a telling, the preservation of regime coherence often requires rapid, coercive re-centering. Domestic Political Configurations The first domestic signal was indeed speed. Along with Tashiyev, senior security officials were removed, and an acting head was installed pending parliamentary procedures. The point here was not just about personnel but about the timing: the presidency moved first, then moved again, so that no alternative pole could consolidate inside the security institutions. If the system had been built around a Japarov–Tashiyev tandem, then the immediate dismantling of Tashiyev’s proximate layers was also a message to the broader stakeholder society that the presidency would decide who inherits the southern security networks and clan linkages. Japarov was clearly conveying a signal of dominance that ruled out negotiation. A second signal came through parliament. Speaker Nurlanbek Turgunbek uulu resigned shortly after the dismissal, amid reporting that he was politically close to Tashiyev and vulnerable once the security bloc shifted. Russian reporting treated the speaker’s resignation as part of the same chain reaction set off by the February 10 decree. This was part of a pattern whereby institutional actors in Kyrgyzstan’s domestic politics reorient quickly toward whoever appears to be winning in the short term. Loyalty is anticipatory because the penalty for backing the wrong camp can arrive through law enforcement, prosecutorial pressure, or reputational destruction. A third signal emerged through the revived early-election debate. The open-letter campaign and talk about a “snap election” did not arise in a vacuum; it built on a preexisting argument about constitutional timing and mandate renewal. That development provided a political vocabulary for testing whether the tandem’s first stage had ended. The credible possibility of early elections has destabilized patronage, compelling every member of the political class at every level to recalculate expectations. Every political actor...

Kamchybek Tashiyev

After Firing Close Ally Tashiyev, Japarov Says Goal for Kyrgyzstan is Unity

Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov, who fired his powerful security chief Kamchybek Tashiyev last week, says he plans to wipe out the “disease” of division between northern and southern groups in the country. In an interview published on Monday by the state Kabar news agency, Japarov spoke about his broader vision for Kyrgyzstan in some of his most detailed comments since the dismissal of Tashiyev, the head of the State Committee for National Security who campaigned effectively against organized crime and was a close confidant of the president. Some criticism of Japarov suggests he made the move to amass more power as part of an authoritarian project for Kyrgyzstan. But the president said he wants to repair traditional rifts that he blamed for political unrest in the country over the years. His government has accused some political figures of trying to exploit Tashiyev’s stature and undermine Japarov’s government, though the former security chief said he accepted the president’s decision to remove him. Japarov is from northern Kyrgyzstan, while Tashiyev is from the south. For a time, their tight alliance appeared to be a way of smoothing over divisions between factions in the two regions. Japarov was sworn in as president in early 2021 after a tumultuous period that included his imprisonment, protests and victory in a landslide election. Tashiyev has been a supporter of Japarov all along, including during moves against the media that opponents described as democratic backsliding in a country once known for relative freedom of expression. “Since independence, politicians have been dividing the country into north and south,” Japarov said. “I saw this with my own eyes when I first entered politics in 2005. They divided the government so that half of it would be north, half south, or something like that in some ministry. And I was very sad.” Japarov said the divisions had been “disappearing” since he took office, thanks to a policy of rotating district chiefs, prosecutors, governors, judges and the heads of other institutions around the country. People from the south hold leadership jobs in the north, and vice versa, he said. “I will eventually eradicate the disease of North-South divide. It will take time,” Japarov said in the Kabar interview.