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MOSCOW — Kyrgyzstan today marks the five-year anniversary of the “Tulip” or “People’s” Revolution, in which widespread protests over rigged parliamentary elections culminated on March 24, 2005, with the ouster of the country’s president, Askar Akaev. Today, it is Akaev’s successor, Kurmanbek Bakiev, who is fending off accusations that he has strayed from the democratic path.
Akaev is today a lecturer in physics at Moscow State University. Musa Murataliev, Moscow correspondent for RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, spoke with Akaev at his home in Moscow to ask him his opinion of the country he was forced to leave.
