Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Ata Zhurt

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Chairman
  
Kamchybek Tashiyev

Headquarters
  
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Founded
  
9 December 2004

National affiliation
  
Respublika–Ata-Zhurt


Ideology
  
Kyrgyz nationalism, Conservatism

Ata-Zhurt, sometimes Ata-Jurt, (Kyrgyz: Ата-журт), or Fatherland, is a political party in Kyrgyzstan. Its political base is in the south of the country, but the party is headquartered in the capital Bishkek. The party is led by Kamchybek Tashiyev, and supports the ousted former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Contents

2010 parliamentary elections

In the Kyrgyzstani parliamentary election, 2010, the party said it would seek to restore Bakiyev to power, and claimed it was more popular than the interim government. The party also suggested it would rollback the Kyrgyzstani constitutional referendum, 2010 and restore the presidency to its former state.

On 7 October, the party's headquarters in Bishkek were ransacked and party literature set on fire by a groups of demonstrators who called for the party to be banned. The demonstrators allegedly included family members of the victims of April 2010 violence in Bishkek.

In the election, the party won a number of seats from its traditional southern bastion, though it barely passed the threshold in the capital and the Chuy region. The party received the votes of 8.89% of eligible voters, giving it 28 of 120 seats in parliament. This result made the party the first of five parties to surpass the support threshold of 5% of eligible voters necessary to enter parliament. As a result, Ata-Zhurt was part of the governing coalition with its MP Akhmatbek Keldibekov chosen as Speaker of Parliament.

Among the party's parliamentary deputies are some individuals of non-Kyrgyz ancestry, including Ravshanbek Sabirov, the first Tajik to hold such a position, and Roman Shin.

Violence

Kamchibek Tashiyev, the head of Ata-Zhurt, said he had been attacked in his home on 23 October 2010. "They broke in like bandits...I think they intended to shoot me. I believe they tried to eliminate me - the forces that want to cancel election results and impose a state of emergency. I know for sure, GSNB (security services) was behind these actions."

References

Ata-Zhurt Wikipedia