Kyrgyzstan which is also known as the Kyrgyz Republic is a landlocked country with mountainous terrain which is located in Central Asia. The official language of the country is Russian and it runs a unitary parliamentary system of government with a president and prime minister. The capital city of the country is Bishkek and the country is divided into 9 administrative regions with 4 major ethnic groups whose majority is Kyrgyz.

The country which consists of 5.7 million people and a population estimate of 6, 019,480 as at 2016 population estimate[1]. Kyrgyz attained its independence in August 1991, through the independent was formally recognized in December 1991. 2017 estimated Total Gross Domestic Product (PPP) of the country is $22.737billion with GDP per capita of $3669 while the GNI stands at $1170 and urban population rate of 35.7 percent[2].

Kyrgyzstan’s Human Development Index value increased from 0.615 to 0.664 between 1990 and 2015 which is an increased of 7.9% which leaves the growth in the years of schooling of the country to be 2.2 years and an increased of 1.2 years in the expected years of schooling with a staggering 4.5 years increase in the country’s life expectancy. Though, this leaves the Gross National Income of the country to decrease with about 9.1% between 1990 and 2015[3].

In comparison to Armenia and Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan is performing great compared to the later and below the formal.

The multidimensional poverty headcount of the country is 0.9 percent points higher than the income poverty which implies that individual living above the income poverty line of $1.90/day may still suffer deprivation in Education, Health, and other living conditions[4].

As a country, Kyrgyzstan joined the United Nation and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 1991 and this was as a result of the move by then elected President, Askar Akayev who ran unopposed and was elected the President of the newly independent Republic by direct ballot.

Also, the country was in the past ravaged with various political unrest from the popular uprising which was known as Tulip Revolution which saw the forced resignation of Akayev and the emergence of the new government which was formed by the opposition party whose president was President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Furthermore, on the 6th of April 2010, yet another civil unrest broke out in the town of Talas after a demonstration against the government for corruption and increased living expenses and this led to the death of at least 40 people with more than 400 hospitalized in the clash between the police in the capital city of the country[5].

This unrest was what led to the resignation of President Bakiyev.

Lastly, the country’s prominent human right group said Kyrgyzstan’s armed forces may have taken an active part in the violence by the ethnic Kyrgyz mobs against the minority Uzbek community which left at least 370 people dead in an uprise in June 2010[6]. And the ethnic violence of June led more than 75000 refugees across the border of the country to Uzbekistan in the same 2010[7].

Footnotes:

[1]https://web.archive.org/web/20131113151445/http://www.stat.kg/stat.files/din.files/census/5010003.pdf

[2]https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/27466/9781464810343.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

[3] http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/KGZ.pdf

[4] http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/KGZ.pdf

[5] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/world/asia/08bishkek.html?mcubz=3

[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/world/asia/17briefs-Kyrgyzstan.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FKyrgyzstan&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=46&pgtype=collection

[7] https://nyti.ms/2eRjd4E