"The crisis mostly affected Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Living conditions of the people worsened dramatically," EU Special Representative for Georgia and Central Asia Pierre Morel said in interview with Vremya novostei (Russia).
As to Morel, "the main problem of the countries due to the crisis is returning of labor migrants from Russia and Kazakhstan where they lose their jobs".
"Concerning Manas airbase, when Kyrgyz parliament voted for denunciation of the U.S. agreement in February, Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs told me that it had nothing to do with Europe. And when the Kyrgyz government says that the decision has no influence on relations with Europe it is not the case: everybody knows that we are connected with the U.S.," the EU special representative said, reported 24.kg
According to Morel "the decision to withdraw Manas airbase was abrupt, without any notice." "We were aware of some difficulties but there was no regular information exchange and we do not understand some points. We repeatedly heard from Bishkek that Kyrgyzstan was the member of antiterrorist coalition in Afghanistan and Manas air base was the evidence of participation in the coalition. A question appears: what will be in the future? What intentions Kyrgyzstan has? We know that Kurmanbek Bakiev voiced the willingness to continue talks with the U.S. but we are still not aware what direction they will have," he said.
