Sooronbay Jeenbekov

Sooronbay Jeenbekov

Sooronbay Sharipovich Jeenbekov (; born 16 November 1958) is a Kyrgyz politician. He served as President of KyrgyZstan from 2017 to 2020, until his resignation following a week of protests. He was also the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan from April 2016 to August 2017.

About Sooronbay Jeenbekov in brief

Summary Sooronbay JeenbekovSooronbay Sharipovich Jeenbekov (; born 16 November 1958) is a Kyrgyz politician. He served as President of KyrgyZstan from 2017 to 2020, until his resignation following a week of protests. He was also the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan from April 2016 to August 2017. He has been accused of undermining the country’s democracy by suppressing opposition politicians and journalists. He opened the Central Mosque of Imam Sarakhsi, which is the largest mosque in Central Asia, with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during a visit to Bishkek in early September 2018. In August 2017, he resigned from the post of Prime Minister after being named as an official candidate in the 2017 presidential election. He won 54.74 percent of the vote in the election, making it the first democratic transfer of power in a KyrGYz election. In March 2016, he was appointed as First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, before his appointment as Prime Minister in March 2016. In September 2018, he hosted the 2018 World Nomad Games in Cholpon-Ata, marking the first major international event that Jeenekov has hosted in the country since its independence. He is the son of Sharif, a collective farm manager, and his mother was a housewife. His grandfather was a Red Army soldier who served during the Great Patriotic War and was labelled as missing in action.

His first foreign visit was to Russia where he met with Vladimir Putin. He changed the time of his departure to the White House to early in the morning to avoid BISHkek traffic, a move which was praised by many BishKEk residents. In an address to journalists in May 2018, Jeenbeckov promised to fight against tribalism being imposed on the country saying that \”We will take measures against those, who impose a north-south-south in the society. His first presidential decree in office was made to confer the title of Hero of the Kyrgytz Republic to former president Atambayev. In November 2017 he was inaugurated as president on 24 November 2017 in a ceremony that took place in the Enesay reception house of the Ala Archa State Residence. He became a Deputy of the Assembly of People’s Representatives in 1995. In 2007, he became the Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and the Processing Industry. In 2010, he served as the Governor of the Osh region, and in 2015, hewas appointed as Director of the State Personnel Service. In 2013, he was elected chairman of the Kashka-Zhol collective farm in Kara-Kulja District.