“Moral wounds do not heal quickly – the only medicine is dignity and a desire for accord.”
-PRESIDENT ROZA OTUNBAYEVA

Roza Otunbayeva is the President of Kyrgyzstan and is the first woman to hold a presidential office in the Commonwealth of Independent States. She is a passionate advocate of democracy who has successfully campaigned against government corruption and has strengthened democratic processes in her native Kyrgyzstan.

Ms. Otunbayeva was born in 1950 in the former USSR state of Kyrgyz – what is now Kyrgyzstan. In 1972, she graduated with a degree in philosophy from Moscow State University, where she proceeded to earn her doctorate and head the Department of Philosophy.

In 1981, Ms. Otunbayeva launched her political career and quickly rose up the ranks of the Kyrgyz Community Party. She headed the USSR’s delegation to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and also served as the Soviet Ambassador to Malaysia.

After Kyrgyzstan achieved its independence, Ms. Otunbayeva was selected to serve as both Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minster, and held those offices until her appointment as the country’s first ambassador to the United States and Canada. She later served as Kyrgyzstan’s ambassador to the United Kingdom.

In 2002, Ms. Otunbayeva was appointed Deputy Head of the United Nations Special Commission to Georgia. Two years later, she returned to Kyrgyzstan and founded the Ata-Jurt (“Fatherland”) Party, a main opposition group that spearheaded the 2005 Tulip Revolution, which resulted in the overthrow of President Akayev’s government and brought President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to power.

Ms. Otunbayeva played an instrumental role in a movement that pressed successfully for a new democratic constitution, and served as President Bakiyev’s acting foreign minister. When she perceived that President Bakiyev’s administration continued the corruption and nepotism the Tulip Revolution had hoped to dislodge from Kyrgyzstan, she broke ties with his administration. In late 2007, Ms. Otunbayeva was elected to Kyrgyzstan’s Parliament as a Social Democrat, and went on to head the main opposition group.

In 2010, Ms. Otunbayeva was tapped to lead a Kyrgyz interim government, following widespread rioting in Bishkek and the ousting of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. As interim President, Ms. Otunbayeva strives to foster stability and democracy in Kyrgyzstan by introducing a series of reforms to strengthen civic freedoms.