Roza Otunbayeva

Roza Isakovna Otunbayeva (Роза Исаковна (Исак кызы) Отунбаева; born 23 August 1950) is a Kyrgyz diplomat and politician who served as the President of Kyrgyzstan from 7 April 2010 until 1 December 2011, becoming the first female Central Asian head of state.

Roza Otunbayeva was born in Frunze (now Bishkek, the capitol of Kyrgyzstan), Kirghiz SSR, USSR into the family of Isak Otunbayev, a member of the Supreme Court of Kyrgyz SSR (1967–1992), and Salika Daniyarova (1925–2020), a teacher.

She graduated from the Philosophy Faculty of Moscow State University in 1972 and went on to teach as Senior Teacher and then as Head of the Philosophy Department at Kyrgyz State National University for six years (1975–1981).

In 1975, she became Candidate of Sciences after defending her dissertation, "Critique of falsification of Marxist-Leninist dialectic by the philosophers of Frankfurt school".

Otunbayeva is a divorced mother of two children.

She is fluent in Russian, English, German and French in addition to Kyrgyz.

In 1981, she began her political career as the Communist Party's Second Secretary of the Lenin raion council (raikom) of Frunze (now Bishkek).

From 1983 to 1986, Otunbayeva served as the Secretary of the City Communist Party Committee in Frunze (now Bishkek).

In 1986, she was appointed the Deputy to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and the same time the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic.

In 1989, she was appointed as the Executive Secretary and later as the Chairwoman of the USSR UNESCO National Committee, and she also became member of the USSR Foreign Ministry's Board.

From 1989–1992, she served as the Vice-President of the UNESCO Executive Council.

By 1992, the now independent Kyrgyzstan was led by Askar Akayev, who chose her to be Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister, positions she held until later that year when she became her country's first ambassador to the US and Canada (1992–1994).

In May 1994 she was called back to her original post of Kyrgyz Minister of Foreign Affairs, remaining there for three years.

From 1997 to 2002, she served as the first Kyrgyz ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

From 2002 to 2004, she was recruited Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in the Peacekeeping Mission for Georgia.

Upon her return to Kyrgyzstan in late 2004, Otunbayeva became politically active.

In December 2004, she and three other opposition parliamentarians founded the Ata-Jurt (Fatherland) public movement in preparation for the February 2005 parliamentary elections.

From March to September 2005, Otunbayeva served as Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Otunbayeva was one of the key leaders of the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan which led to the overthrow of President Akayev.

Subsequently, she served for a few months as Acting Foreign Minister in the interim government of then prime minister (and acting president) Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

After Bakiyev was elected President and Feliks Kulov became Prime Minister, Otunbayeva failed to receive the required parliamentary support to become Foreign Minister.

She then ran unsuccessfully in a parliamentary by-election a few months later.

Otunbayeva played a key role in the November 2006 protests that pressed successfully for a new democratic constitution.

She was the co-chairwoman of the country's Asaba (Flag) National Revival Party for a short time.

In December 2007, Otunbayeva was elected to the Jogorku Kenesh – the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan – on the list of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan.

She served as the Leader of the Opposition SDP from 2008 to 2010.

In 2009 she became the Leader of People's Front opposition.

She was sworn in on July 3, 2010, after acting as interim leader following the 2010 April Revolution, which led to the ousting of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

She previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and as head of the parliamentary caucus for the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan.

Since 2022, Otunbayeva has been serving as United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ Special Representative for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

On 7 April 2010, she was chosen by opposition leaders as head of the Interim Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, following widespread rioting in Bishkek and the ouster of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Bakiyev fled the Jalal-Abad area as the riots became more violent.

Unable to rally support, he resigned as president on 10 April 2010, and left the country for Kazakhstan.

Nine days later he went to Minsk, Belarus, where he was given protected-exile status.

On 21 April, he recanted his resignation and declared that he was still president of Kyrgyzstan.

Otunbayeva vowed to bring him to trial.

As interim president, Otunbayeva had four male deputies.

Otunbayeva is considered to be unusual as there are few women in politics in Kyrgyzstan.

Her first conversation after she came to power was with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

She later stated in the interview:"'We share a single information space with Russia, the Russian language is everywhere. We don't want the Russians to leave. Our entire smart technology business is made up of Russian people. My daughter-in-law is Russian. She says: “Mom, I found my roots in Karakol, where my grandparents are from.” The people have nostalgia for one big country, because we have suffered over these 15-18 years.'"Otunbayeva declared that new elections would be called within six months and that she would act as president until then.