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Akayev willing to talk with new Kyrgyz parliament
30/3/2005 1:31

Ousted Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev said Tuesday that he is willing to talk with the new Kyrgyz parliament, hours after the upper house of Kyrgyzstan's previous parliament agreed to cede power to it, the Interfax news agency reported.

"If security is guaranteed to me, I am willing to start dialogue (with the new parliament) so that life in Kyrgyzstan can return to the constitutional path and so that the problem of electing a new president can be resolved in the legal and constitutional framework," Akayev said in an interview to be published by Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Wednesday, excerpts of which were released by Interfax.

In Akayev's view the latest events in Kyrgyzstan have "resulted from speeding up democratic processes" which were prompted by "some international organizations."

"In Georgia and Ukraine, which are closer to Europe, these revolutions ended peacefully. But in our case, as you see, they have ended in a horrible nightmare, vandalism, and robberies, because our opposition is not democratic. It used criminal forces and trained fighters to seize power," the president noted.

Akayev said he did not originally plan to leave Kyrgyzstan and indicated that somebody had wanted to physically remove him.

He said he personally witnessed the assault on the government complex and his close associates getting gravely wounded.

According to the president, his security guards were prepared to use weapons if the crowd had tried to take the president hostage.

But "in this situation, it was not important only to protect my life. We faced the danger of a civil war, which would have definitely involved countless victims. Proceeding from these humane reasons, I decided to leave the country for some time," he said.

Calling the seizure of power in Kyrgyzstan unconstitutional, Akayev said "democracy in Kyrgyzstan is in danger today, because those who committed this unconstitutional seizure of power are acting outside the law."

Akayev called on related parities to "return the process to the constitutional path," as "it is very important for Kyrgyzstan's future progress and for its image in the world, saying "this is the solution that I see."



 Xinhua