The first People's Kurultai (congress) which is an advisory body will be held on Friday in Kyrgyzstan with participation of President of the country Sadyr Zhaparov.
According to the press service of the head of the Kyrgyz state, the event will be attended by more than 1 thousand delegates from all regions of the country, as well as members of the Jogorku Kenesh (unicameral parliament), members of the Cabinet of Ministers and heads of state agencies.
It is planned to adopt a resolution following the session, which will run through November 26. The resolution will be based on the delegates' recommendations and suggestions for representatives of all government bodies, including the presidential administration, cabinet, and parliament.
"The purpose of the congress is to meet directly with the head of state and exchange views with delegates elected from the regions. There will be no prepared, so-called duty delegates. It is necessary to organize the relationship between the people and the authorities and to take further steps in view of the key proposals for the development of the country," said the head of the organizing committee for the event, Secretary of State Suyunbek Kasmambetov.
According to him, suggestions and opinions expressed by the delegates will be "taken into consideration" and recommendations will be developed to be subsequently sent to "all branches of power, government agencies and local authorities."
Complicated history of Kyrgyz Kurultai
Zhaparov signed a decree convening the first kurultai in August. As he specified, the citizens of the republic have the right to participate in the discussion and adoption of laws, "decisions of national and local importance," and to take part in the management of "the affairs of society and the state both directly and through their representatives."
As the president explained, for centuries the People's Kurultai has been a public representative, deliberative and supervisory assembly which gives recommendations on the directions of social development. The leader of the republic noted that the forthcoming congress will contribute to further strengthening of interethnic harmony in Kyrgyzstan, consolidation of civil society and promotion of social mobilization.
He emphasized that there is a need in the republic to ensure "a nationwide dialogue in order to unite all nationalities and ethnicities that make up the people of Kyrgyzstan for the sustainable development of the Kyrgyz state and society, to achieve inter-ethnic and inter-religious harmony and participation of people in the governance of the country."
This will be the first national kurultai held by President Zhaparov. However, in the modern history of the Kyrgyz state such congresses have already taken place. The first World Kurultai of Kyrgyz people was held by the first head of the republic, Askar Akayev, in 1992. Two years later, he also initiated the first kurultai of the country's peoples, which was dedicated to the issues of interethnic harmony after the bloody clashes in 1990 between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the southern provincial center of Osh.
In 2005, the Kyrgyz opposition also held its own kurultai, a couple of weeks later Akayev was overthrown and forced to flee the country. In 2010, the second president of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev also held kurultai, a few days later he was also ousted as a result of the revolution and fled the country for security reasons. Kurultai is traditional deliberative assemblies not only in Kyrgyzstan, but also among many Turkic peoples.
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Photo: AmanovDmitry/Creative Commons 3.0
Based on materials from TASS