Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov bragged during a working visit to Uzgen district in Osh region on December 6 that there “hasn’t been a single rally in the country for three years.”
“Stability has been established,” he said, stating that the economy has improved and GDP has grown. Japarov bragged that investors “have started lining up.”
Unmentioned by Japarov, of course, was the fact that there has been a ban on protests in central Bishkek – a major stage for such actions – since March 2022. Bishkek first banned protests near the Russian Embassy shortly after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Russian Embassy in Bishkek occupies prime real estate downtown; its pastel yellow building, surrounded by an imposing black fence, is around the corner from a mall and sits between two cafes. It’s only a few blocks from the Kyrgyz capital’s most famous plaza, Ala-Too Square, beside which stands the Kyrgyz White House, a government office building that is now primarily used by the parliament.
The March 2022 ban limited protests in the capital to Gorky Square and has been renewed several times, most recently on September 27, when a district court in Bishkek extended the ban to December 31, 2024.
As Kloop noted in their reporting on Japarov’s comment, additional bans on public assemblies have been introduced elsewhere in Kyrgyzstan, too, including Uzgen, Chon-Alai, and Nookat districts in Osh region. In June, the authorities banned protests in Osh’s city center until the end of the year. As in Bishkek, one park has been designated as the site for legal rallies.
It’s unclear precisely what Japarov considers a rally, but there have been protests actions in Kyrgyzstan – and riots – since December 2021.
The ban on protests in Osh came on the heel of rallies staged by merchants and traders at the city’s central market, who were demanding an extension on a deadline to move to a new location. Flooding earlier in the summer had damaged the market and the authorities ordered it to be moved. The traders, Kaktus.media reported, were for the most part not against the move but were demanding more time. Others were concerned the new location was not optimal. The city’s mayor, Bakytbek Zhetigenov, met with the merchants, and while he did not back down on the decision to move the market, he did permit traders to continue using the old market for two more months until the new one was set up.
Back in Bishkek, there have been rallies at Gorky Square, including a march on International Women’s Day on March 8, and other rallies – importantly, ones sanctioned by the authorities – such as the late October 2023 rallies in support of Palestine.
Other rallies in Bishkek have been less welcomed by the authorities, such as protests staged by market vendors in the capital in December 2023. Vendors in Kyrgyzstan’s bazaars had been protesting since late November 2023 over pending regulations that would mandate cash registers and reports on sales for the purposes of calculating and paying sales taxes. Japarov went to the city’s largest bazaar, Dordoi, where an estimated 1,000 people were gathered, to speak before the protesters – so in that sense, he’s attended a rally himself. He ultimately postponed the new regulations.
And then there was the mob violence that broke out in Bishkek in May 2024, targeting mostly South Asian students. The violence followed late-night protests that erupted in the city’s center – precisely where rallies are banned. Although figures like State Committee for National Security head Kamchybek Tashiev have been critical of protests in general, at the time he said the main demands of the protesters were “to a certain extent correct” and the mob wasn’t punished.
Back in October 2022, however, Kyrgyz authorities headed off protests against the border deal with Uzbekistan involving the Kempir-Abad reservoir by arresting the organizers. Nearly two two years later, in June 2024, the trial ended in an acquittal for most of the defendants.
Suffice to say, in the last three years – that is, since December 2021 – there have been rallies, protests, and riots of varying sizes in Kyrgyzstan. That’s the reality. The blanket banning of public assemblies is arguably unconstitutional, but it is also only marginally effective. The facade of stability created by such a ban is paper-thin and easily torn.