Sooronbay Jeenbekov

Sooronbay Sharip uulu Jeenbekov (Сооронбай Шарип уулу Жээнбеков; born 16 November 1959) is a Kyrgyz politician who served as the 5th President of Kyrgyzstan from 2017 until his resignation in 2020, following a week of protests.

Jeenbekov was born in Biy-Myrza, Osh Region on 16 November 1959.

His father, Sharif, was a collective farm (kolkhoz) manager while his mother was a housewife.

His grandfather, Jeenbek Pirnazarov, was a Red Army soldier who served during the Great Patriotic War and was labelled as missing in action.

Jeenbekov is one of nine siblings in his family, being the third eldest child.

Jeenbekov attended the Kyrgyz Academy of Agriculture, graduating with a degree in zoological engineering.

In 1983, he became the chief livestock specialist of the Soviet farm in the Soviet district of Osh region and continued to work in the position for five years.

In November 1988, he managed to obtain a job as an instructor in the district committee of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan in the Soviet district of the Osh region.

After a few years, he became the director of the party committee.

Jeenbekov was widely viewed to continue his predecessor Almazbek Atambayev's policies with whom he had held close relations prior before since the 1990s that enabled Jeenbekov to rise in political ranks until two parties faced political fallout just months after he assuming office eventually leading to Atambayev's arrest and an end of his influence in Kyrgyz politics.

After entering politics, in 1993, Jeenbekov was elected chairman of the Kashka-Zhol collective farm in Kara-Kulja District.

He became a Deputy of the Assembly of People's Representatives in 1995.

In 2003, he completed further studies, graduating in accounting from the Kyrgyz National Agrarian University.

Jeenbekov started his career at the Lenin School in the Uzgen District, where he worked as a teacher at 18 and taught Russian and literature.

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, he was appointed as director of the State Personnel Service.

Prior to that he served as the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan from April 2016 to August 2017.

As president, Jeenbekov dealt with issues specifically in foreign policy and corruption in which several juridical reforms were implemented to improve public trust.

In March 2016, he was appointed as first deputy head of the Presidential Administration, before his appointment as Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan.

Jeenbekov resigned from the post of prime minister on 21 August 2017, after being named as an official candidate in the 2017 presidential election.

He stated that he "[wanted] to be in an equal position with other presidential candidates."

The election was held on 15 October 2017.

Kyrgyzstan's central election commission reported a total of almost 1.7 million votes cast, of which Jeenbekov won 54.74 percent.

Jeenbekov's election marks the first democratic transfer of power in a Kyrgyz election.

Azay Guliyev confirmed the election to be one of the few peaceful elections in Kyrgyzstan's history.

Jeenbekov 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.

His first presidential decree in office was made to confer the title of Hero of the Kyrgyz Republic to former president Atambayev.

Just days into his presidency, Jeenbekov 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.

He conducted his first foreign visit after assuming the presidency was to Russia where he met with Vladimir Putin.

Early into his presidency, he has been accused of undermining the country's democracy by sandressing opposition politicians lists.

On 19 April 2018, Jeenbekov fired his Prime Minister Sapar Isakov and the government following a vote of no confidence from Kyrgyzstan's parliament.

In an address to journalists in May 2018, Jeenbekov promised to fight against tribalism being imposed on the country saying that "We will take measures against those, who impose a "north-south" issue in the society."

Jeenbekov opened the Central Mosque of Imam Sarakhsi, which is the largest mosque in Central Asia, with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his visit to Bishkek in early September 2018.

During his visit, Erdoğan pressured Jeenbekov to take the appropriate measures to deal with Turkish Islamist leader Fethullah Gülen.

Jeenbekov opened the 2018 World Nomad Games in Cholpon-Ata on 3 September 2018, marking the first major international event that Jeenbekov has hosted in Kyrgyzstan.

Receiving Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the Cholpon-Ata State Residence the next day, Jeenbekov thanked the prime minister for becoming the first Hungarian leader to visit the country since its independence.

In April 2019, Jeenbekov received Valentina Shevchenko (a professional Kyrgyz–Peruvian mixed martial artist fighter) during her tour of her native Kyrgyzstan, her first visit in seven years.

Jeenbekov praised Shevchenko's role in her profession, even going as far as to say that she "defended the honour of our Kyrgyzstan".

In spite of that, Kyrgyzstan under Jeenbekov faced a growth of organised crime and government corruption and lack of economic development which was negatively affected upon the COVID-19 pandemic and was accused of downplaying the alleged cases of electoral fraud in the 2020 parliamentary election that resulted in the 2020 Kyrgyz Revolution and his resignation amidst political unrest over the disputed election results.

He was succeeded by Sadyr Japarov who would go on to serve as an acting president and prime minister for short period of time before being officially elected in the 2021 presidential elections.