Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: US – Kyrgyzstan Cooperation Agreement end today August 20, 2015. The agreement was signed in May 1993.
According to an official notification released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan, the denouncement of the Agreement between the Governments of Kyrgyzstan and the United States of America Regarding Cooperation to Facilitate the Provision of Assistance signed on 19 May 1993 in Washington became effective since August 20.
Notification said:
In accordance with the Article 39 of the Law of the Kyrgyz Republic on International Treaties, the Kyrgyz government decreed denounces the Agreement between the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Government of the United States of America Regarding Cooperation to Facilitate the Provision of Assistance signed on 19 May 1993 in Washington since 20 August 2015. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic should notify the U.S. Government about denouncement of the Agreement. The decree entered into force since the date of its official publication.
Relation between Kyrgyz government and Washington became sour over the issue of Washington’s decision to confer the 2014 Human Rights Defender Award on Azimjon Askarov, a journalist and rights activist who is serving a life sentence in a Bishkek prison.
Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry on July 17 protested Washington’s decision to confer the 2014 Human Rights Defender Award on Azimjon Askarov. When Bishkek did not receive any positive response from Washington, Kyrgyz Prime Minister Temir Sariev on July 21 signed a government directive terminating the agreement on Cooperation To Facilitate The Provision Of Assistance.
Askarov is an ethnic Uzbek who was convicted following inter-ethnic clashes in southern Kyrgyzstan in June 2010 when more than 400 people were killed.
Meanwhile, a US State Department spokesperson said that the United States is “disappointed” in Bishkek’s cancellation of the bilateral agreement, adding that the move could put assistance programs that benefit the Kyrgyz people “in jeopardy.”
These include “programs to address violent extremism, increase economic growth and job creation, improve the educational system, and support the continued democratic development of Kyrgyzstan,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue to engage with and support the people of Kyrgyzstan.”
Kyrgyzstan said last week that the U.S. decision to present the human rights award to Askarov “seriously damages” bilateral ties between the United States and one of Central Asia’s more democratic post-Soviet republics.
