Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 03/2011

Kyrgyzstan's Regime Change: Causes and Possible Consequences

Graeme P. Herd

July 2010

The Geneva Centre for Security Policy

Abstract

On 7 April 2010 President Kurmanbek Bakiyev of Kyrgyzstan was ousted from power following mass protest and violence in the capital city of Bishkek, with 84 people killed and over 1,000 wounded. Violence erupted in Osh and Jalabad on 10 June 2010, with 400,000 Kyrgyz citizens displaced and a state of emergency declared.