Azerbaijan, Baku, April 28 / Trend V. Javoronkova /
Issue of stay of NATO transit transportation center (TTC) Manas in the territory of Kyrgyzstan can be updated with the beginning of the electoral campaign, Alexander Knyazev, Russian expert on Central Asia, who lives in Kyrgyzstan, believes.
"I think that the issue of TTC "Manas" is updated with the announcement of the electoral campaign in early July," Knyazev told Trend via e-mail.
After mass protests in Kyrgyzstan in early April the government was dismissed and the opposition seized the power. This is the second overthrow of the government after independence. Official President Kurmanbek Bakiyev came to power as a result of revolution five years ago. Now the country is controlled by the so-called interim government, formed of representatives of the opposition headed by Rosa Otunbayeva.
Supposedly, the elections in Kyrgyzstan will be held after six months.
According to the expert, now the interim Kyrgyz government stated its lack of intention to change the status of "Manas". According to Knyazev, when the electoral process starts, the positions of political leaders and parties can differentiate because on the question of the American military presence, the electorate has diametrically opposed views that need to be taken into account.
Yet it is also too early to discuss Kyrgyzstan's foreign policy behavior, since the government is temporary, and it is not obligatory that those leaders who, are in it now, will be critically important persons in the leadership of the republic after October, when parliamentary and presidential elections will take place, experts say.
U.S. air base was opened in 2001 at the international airport "Manas" by the UN mandate for military operations within the U.S. anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan. Last spring, the country's parliament dissolved the agreement with the United States and 11 countries of the anti-terrorist coalition on the deployment of their troops in Kyrgyzstan.
The agreement on the establishment of the Manas transit center to support the operations of international forces in Afghanistan in the airport was ratified on June 22, 2009.