“[The] parliamentary system in Turkey proves that a modern democracy could be consolidated both in the Turkic and Islamic world. We want to stop [the] dynasty in Kyrgyzstan,” Tekebayev, leader of the Ata-Meken Socialist Party, told reporters at a news conference in Ankara on Saturday, following talks with Turkish leaders.
Tekebayev is one of the founding members of the interim government that came to power following the bloody uprising in April, which ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. He visited Turkey last week for talks with Turkish officials regarding the political situation in Kyrgyzstan ahead of key parliamentary elections planned for October.
The Kyrgyz politician slammed the previous regime as a “criminal system” and vowed a true parliamentary system, saying the Kyrgyz people do not want to live under a dictatorship. He also dismissed allegations that it is impossible to establish democracy without first addressing economic hardships. “We will build our own democracy in Kyrgyzstan,” he said. Tekebayev was a deputy prime minister in the interim government that was responsible for constitutional reforms. He resigned when he decided to run in the parliamentary elections in October.
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency following the briefing, Ravshan Jeyenbekov, deputy leader of the Ata-Meken Socialist Party, said his party leadership had talks with President Abdullah Gül, Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Şahin, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, State Minister Faruk Çelik and several deputies in Parliament.
Jeyenbekov said Gül supports the new system in Kyrgyzstan and that Kyrgyz officials could ask Turkey for assistance while establishing a parliamentary system. The Kyrgyz politician said no other country, including Kyrgyzstan’s neighbors, had stood by the small, strategically important Central Asian country in its process of democratization and that only Turkey supports a parliamentary system in the country.
Interim government leader Rosa Otunbayeva, whose power was made legitimate after the June 27 constitutional referendum, dissolved parliament in April.
