Tulip Revolution

The Tulip Revolution was a wave of protests in Kyrgyzstan that brought down the government of President Askar Akayev, who had ruled since independence. It began after disputed parliamentary elections in which the opposition claimed fraud, and protests in the south of the country spread until crowds seized government buildings in Bishkek, the capital. Akayev fled abroad and later resigned. The opposition leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev became acting president and then won a presidential election. The name, like that of the Rose Revolution in Georgia and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, was used by the press, though the change in leadership did not bring the hoped-for reforms, and Bakiyev himself was overthrown in 2010.

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