Tyntchtykbek Tchoroev

A short biography

He was born in the village of Echki-Bashy in the On-Archa village area in Naryn district of Naryn region in Northern Kyrgyzstan on 28 March 1959. His grand father Choro (Choro-Hajji) Aity uulu was a wealthy person, who made a pilgrimage to Mecca long before the 1916 anti-Tsarist uprising of the Kyrgyzstanis.

Choro-Hajji died in 1927, i.e. a little bit earlier than the launch of the extradition campaign for the rich Kyrgyz people by the Stalinist regime in the last years of the 1920s. Choro Hajji's mausoleum built in the 1927-28, still exists near the village of Echki-Bashy. Bekbolot, Choro-Hajji's grandchild from his older son, died during the Stalinist purge, due to his connection with a wealthy family.

Choro-Hajji's wife, Suyumkan Malay kyzy, was a daughter of a wealthy person from a neighboring Ming-Bulak village. She was educated before the Soviet regime, that is why she could read the Koran in Arabic.

Kadyrmambet Tchoroev (or Choroev), the older son of Choro and Suyumkan, was married to his cousin, Aliya Kydyraaly kyzy, the daughter of Kydyraaly and Seidana Malay kyzy. Seidana was also a well-educated woman, who could read the Koran and write in Arabic script.

However, the Arabic script was officially banned in Kyrgyzstan in 1928-29, when the Soviet Kyrgyz were transferred to the Latin script (until 1939-40), and due to that the grand mothers of Tyntchtykbek were officially recognized as "uneducated" women.

Kadyrmambet and Aliya had five sons and three daughters. Tyntchtykbek is the fourth in the family.

In the early years, he was brought up by both Suyumkan and Seidana, the grand mothers from father's and mother's side.

Tyntchtykbek used to go to the summer-time pasture of Solton-Sary together with the family until the autumn of 1966.

The older brothers and his older sister helped him to learn ABC even before he started to go to a primary school.

He started to go to the Echki-Bashy village school in September 1966.

After finishing the 8th class in the village, he went to Naryn to study at the No 1 Toktogul Satylgan-uulu secondary school there.

He graduated the secondary school named after Toktogul Satylgan-uulu in the town of Naryn with a silver medal in 1976.

Then he became a student of the history faculty at the Kyrgyz State University (now - the Kyrgyz National University named after Jusup Balasagyn).

During his student time, he was actively participating in the scholarly and literature circles in the capital city of Frunze (nowadays Bishkek).

He graduated the university in Bishkek with the so-called "Red diploma" in 1981.

Education and scholarly background

He graduated at the History Faculty of the Kyrgyz State University (now - the Kyrgyz National University) in Bishkek (then - Frunze), the capital of then Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic in 1981. He studied in Tashkent at the Oriental Institute named after Abu Reihan Beruni of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences in 1983-1988 and defended his first doctoral thesis devoted to the Eastern Turkic groups' migrations in the 9th - 13th centuries according to the medieval Muslim sources (in Russian language; Tashkent, December 1988).

He led the Chair of the Ancient and Medieval History (1989–1991) and the Chair of the Asian and African States History (1992–1994) at the Kyrgyz National University. Then he studied at the high doctorate at the same university (1994–1997) and defended his doctoral thesis devoted to the epoch and life of Mahmud al-Kashghari (al-Barsqani), the Eastern Turkic scholar lived in the 11th century, and his scientific legacy. It was defended at the Kyrgyzstan National Academy of Sciences on 10 April 1998 (in Kyrgyz language).

Textbooks and Turkology publications

Tchoroev (Chorotegin) has published several monographs and books in Kyrgyz and Russian languages (since 1990) and several textbooks devoted to the ancient and medieval history of the Kyrgyz people and their neighbors in Central and Inner Asia.

The first post-Soviet Kyrgyz textbooks for the secondary schools in Kyrgyzstan by him in co-authorship with Professor Toktorbek Omurbekov have been translated from Kyrgyz into Russian and Uzbek languages.

The textbooks for the secondary schools are being officially distributed by the Education Ministry in Kyrgyzstan since 1996 until now (January 2013).

Some his articles on Kyrgyz history and medieval sources were published by UNESCO, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Kyrgyz National Encyclopedia, Soviet Encyclopedia, etc. (in Kyrgyzstan, the United States, Western Europe, Russia, Turkey, China, Uzbekistan).

Public activities

Tchoroev (Chorotegin) was a pioneer and a member of the Kyrgyzstan Komsomol during his childhood time as an ordinary child of his country, then a part of the Soviet Union.

At that time he was not aware that his father's elder brother was a victim of the Stalinist purge and died in an unknown part of Soviet Russia in a camp of the so-called Gulag. His view of the world was gradually changed in 1980-1988, especially during the Perestroyka era.

In 1987-88, during the era of Perestroika in the U.S.S.R., he was one of the Kyrgyz intellectuals to fight for the equal statute of the Kyrgyz language with the official Russian language in his native republic.

In 1989, during the Perestroika epoch, he became one of the young Kyrgyz intellectuals to fight for a national identity of the Kyrgyz people. He was a founding member and one of the leaders of the Kyrgyzstan's Young Historians Association, the first nongovernmental organization of the Kyrgyz historians to challenge the official Soviet Kyrgyz historiography.

First, he was deputy chairman, then the chairman of the Kyrgyzstan's Young Historians Association which was established despite the obstacles from then Communist leadership in Kyrgyzstan, on 3 June 1989. It was the first nongovernmental organization to hold its founding conference in the Kyrgyz language with a simultaneous Russian translation.

The Kyrgyzstan Writers Union, led by a prominent writer and statesman Chyngyz Aitmatov, supported the young Kyrgyz historians by allowing them to hold their conference in the Union's hall (free of charge).

He was the co-author of the new program of the Kyrgyz history for the secondary schools published in September 1989 in both Kyrgyz and Russian languages in the Mugalimder Gazetasy (The Teachers’ Newspaper), the official media outlet of the Kyrgyz Education Ministry, where the previous Kyrgyz historiography views were challenged by the new ideas.

He was elected as a member of the Board of the Kyrgyz Republic's Public Radio and TV Broadcasting Company (KTRK) by the Kyrgyzstan Parliament on 18 April 2012.

He became a member of the Official commission for development of the history science under Kyrgyz President (the decree was signed by the Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev on 25 April 2012.)

Political activities

In 1990 January and February, Tchoroev (Chorotegin) participated at the protest rally of the democracy-oriented Kyrgyz youth in Bishkek. Then he was one of the main organizers of the round tables with participation of the young Kyrgyz scholars, students and young workers and the Kyrgyz Soviet officials (February – April 1990).

In April, Tchoroev (Chorotegin) became a member of the underground political party of Asaba (Flag), and participated at the first ever anti-Communist rally organized by the party on 1 May 1990 in Bishkek. The columns of the rally participants followed by the officially allowed Communist-run columns through the Central Ala-Too square in Bishkek.

The difference of the Asaba Party's column was in their slogans written on the blue placards demanding to build democracy and to stop the one-party-ruling system in Soviet Kyrgyzstan.

Tchoroev (Chorotegin) was one of the organizers of the Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyzstan Demokratialyk Kyimyly, KDK), the first umbrella bloc for several opposition parties, movements and nongovernmental organizations in Kyrgyzstan (1990 - 1993). (See: Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzstan.)

The founding Congress of the KDK was held in Bishkek on 25–26 May 1990. At the Congress, he presented a report on the Regulations of the KDK (he was the author of the draft of the Regulations. The core ideas of the KDK's Regulations were based upon similar documents of the anti-Communist democratic movements of the Baltic states).

In October 1990, he participated at the international conference of the anti-Communist organizations from several Soviet republics, including some separatist republics, in Kiev. He witnessed the anti-Communist hunger strike of the Ukrainian students there.

In 19–27 October 1990, Tchoroev (Chorotegin) also was amongst organizers and active participants of the similar hunger strike action in Frunze (nowadays Bishkek), the capital city of Kyrgyzstan, organized by the KDK.

The protest action with demands to democratize then the Soviet Central Asian republic, ended with the victory of the democracy-oriented politicians: Askar Akayev, a Kyrgyz academician who started to criticize the ruling Communist regime, was elected by the parliament as the first ever Kyrgyzstan President.

In 1992, he was one of the co-authors of the alternate draft of the post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan Constitution (published in both Kyrgyz and Russian). He was a member of the Free Kyrgyzstan (Erkin Kyrgyzstan) Democratic Party at that time.

Since the beginning of 1993, Tchoroev (Chorotegin) ceased all the political activities (including the party membership) due to his journalism duties and scholarly career.

Journalism, literature, and reporting

His first ever political pamphlet was published by the monthly satirical and humorous magazine of "Chalkan" (Stinging-Nettle) in October 1974, when he was still a school boy. It was written under influence of the Soviet propaganda machine about the Western world.

Tchoroev (Chorotegin) published several humorous short stories in Kyrgyz in several newspapers, magazines, almanacs and a small book (1974–1986).

He published a lot of reports and publicist articles on cultural and social life of Kyrgyzstanis, people of Central Asia and China in Kyrgyz and Russian languages.

Tchoroev (Chorotegin) translated two books from English into Kyrgyz: The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism, 1988, by Friedrich August von Hayek, published in Bishkek in 1998 (ISBN 9967-11-025-2) and The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community: With a Retrospective Essay, 1991, by William Hardy McNeill (its ancient and early medieval ages part), published in Bishkek in 2002 (ISBN 9967-11-133-X). The both translations were published by the Soros-Kyrgyzstan Foundation.

He edited several books in Kyrgyz and Russian, including monographs by a Kyrgyz orientalist Omurkul Kara uulu (Karaev), a Russian archeology professor Yuliy Khudiakov, the Kyrgyz historians Arslan Koichiev, Akylbek Kylychev, Oljobay Karatayev, a lawyer Sabyrbek Kojonaliev, some English-Kyrgyz dictionaries for children, etc.

In 1991 April Tchoroev (Chorotegin) became the second freelancer to work for the Kyrgyz Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty inside the country.

He was the first chief of the Bishkek Bureau of the Radio Azattyk (the Kyrgyz Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) in 1992–1995, 1996–1998).

Tchoroev (Chorotegin) worked as a producer of the BBC Kyrgyz Service (based in London) in April 1998 – July 2000.

He became a broadcaster of the Radio Azattyk (the Kyrgyz Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, based in Prague) since 25 July 2000. He was the director of the Service between 1 January 2003 and 30 September 2010.

On 16 August 2011, he ceased his broadcaster's position at the Prague headquarters of the Radio Azattyk.

He is one of the active members of the Kyrgyz-language Wikipedia movement (since 2009).

Currently, he is the Chairman of the Board of the Muras (Heritage) Foundation under the Office of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic (since 30 August 2013.)

Translations of works from foreign languages into Kyrgyz

He translated some books from English into Kyrgyz.
One of them, entitled "The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism," 1988, by Friedrich August von Hayek, was translated by T. Chorotegin alone and it was published in Kyrgyz in Bishkek in 1998 (ISBN 9967-11-025-2).
Another monograph entitled "The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community: With a Retrospective Essay," 1991, by William Hardy McNeill (its ancient and early medieval ages part), was translated by him in collaboration with Dr. Arslan Koichiev and Dr. Taalaibek Abdiev. It was published in Kyrgyz in Bishkek in 2002 (ISBN 9967-11-133-X). The both translations were published by the Soros-Kyrgyzstan Foundation.
He also was amongst the three Kyrgyz translators of the book entitled "Deng Xiaoping During the Cultural Revolution" by Maomao (Deng Rong). It was translated from its Russian translation into Kyrgyz language and has been published by the Roza Otunbayeva Initiatives International Public Foundation (Bishkek, 2015. - 592 pages, ill. – The Personalities with the Exemplary Life Series. - ISBN 978-9967-27-745-8.) The other translators are Mr. Esenbai Nurushev and Mr. Abibilla Pazylov.
Recently (in November 2015) he has finished the translation of a book entitled "An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth" by Mahatma Gandhi (from English into Kyrgyz). The "Roza Otunbayeva Initiative" International Public Foundation is preparing to publish the book in Kyrgyzstan in the framework of the Personalities with the Exemplary Life Series.

Family

He had been married to Nurgul Dykanalieva (1957-2012), a Kyrgyzstan citizen (on the 15th of May, 1982).

She had graduated the bibliography and librarian branch of the philology faculty at the Kyrgyz women pedagogy university (now - the Kyrgyz State Pedagogy University named after Eshenally Arabay uulu.) A native speaker of Kirghiz, she was also fluent in Kazakh, Russian, English, and Czech. She died in the Bishkek city hospital due to massive stroke on September 17, 2012.

He then married to Dr. Aishat Botobekova (now Tchoroeva), a philologist and expert on Kyrgyz people's sign and gesture systems, in Bishkek on 9 November 2013.

He has a son and four daughters.

Awards