Bishkek

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"Frunze" redirects here. For a Bolshevik leader, see Mikhail Frunze.

Bishkek (Бишкек) is the capital of Kyrgyzstan. It has a population of approximately 900,000 (2005). Originally founded in 1878 as the Russian fortress of Pishpek (Пишпек), between 1926 and 1991 it was known as Frunze (Фрунзе), after the Bolshevik military leader Mikhail Frunze. In Kyrgyz, a Bishkek is a churn used to make fermented mare's milk (kumis), the Kyrgyz national drink.

Bishkek, at 42°52′N 74°34′E, is situated at about 800 m altitude just off the northern fringe of the Ala-Too range, an extension of the Tien Shan mountain range, which rises up to 4,800 m and provides a spectacular backdrop to the city. North of the city, a fertile and gently undulating steppe extends far north into neighboring Kazakhstan. The Chui river drains most of the area. Bishkek is connected to the Turkestan-Siberia Railway by a spur.

Bishkek is a city of wide boulevards and marble-faced public buildings combined with numerous Soviet-style apartment blocks surrounding interior courtyards and, especially outside the city center, thousands of smaller, often privately built houses. It is laid out on a grid pattern, with most streets flanked on both sides by narrow irrigation channels that water the innumerable trees which provide shade in the hot summers.

1 History
2 September 2006 Events
3 Sights
4 Sister cities
5 Government
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] History

Originally a caravan rest stop (possibly founded by the Sogdians) on one of the branches of the Silk Road through the Tien Shan range, the location was fortified in 1825 by the Uzbek khan of Kokhand with a mud fort. In 1862, the fort was conquered and razed when Tsarist Russia annexed the area. The site became a Russian garrison and was redeveloped and named Pishpek from 1877 onward by the Russian government, which encouraged the settlement of Russian peasants by giving them fertile black soil farms to develop. In 1926, the city became the capital of the newly established Kyrgyz ASSR and was renamed Frunze after Mikhail Frunze, Lenin's close associate who was born in Bishkek and played key roles during 1905 and 1917 revolutions and during the Russian civil war of the early 1920s.

Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan achieved independence in 1991, and the city was renamed Bishkek. Today, it is a vibrant, rapidly modernizing city, with many restaurants and cafes and lots of second-hand European and Japanese cars and minibuses crowding its streets. During the Soviet era the city was home to a large number of industrial plants, but most have been shut down or operate today on a much reduced scale. Bishkek was also home to a major Soviet military pilot training school; one of its students, Hosni Mubarak, later became president of Egypt.

In 2002, the United States obtained the right to use the nearby Manas International Airport as an air base for its military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, naming its base Ganci Air Base. Shortly after the Air Force had used this name (to honor New York City Fire Department Chief Peter J. Ganci, Jr. who died in the World Trade Center terrorist attack on 11 September 2001) it was found that an AFI (Air Force Instruction) dictated that foreign air bases could not bear the name of any heroes from the US. Since then the air base has been officially called Manas Air Base (after a legendary Kyrgyz hero), yet local people and the media still tend to use the name Ganci. Russia subsequently established an air base of its own in nearby Kant.

[edit] September 2006 Events

Major Jill Metzger, United States Air Force went missing Sept. 5, 2006 in Bishkek while deployed to Manas Air Base. Four days later, a telephoned tip led police to discover Jill Metzger walking in a disoriented manner near a police station with her hair cut and dyed. It was unclear if she had been abducted and held against her will; however, Metzger claimed that she had been kidnapped by 3 men and a woman who held her for four days. Additional reports said that someone placed an object on her person with "bomb" written on the object.

A USAF statement was issued after Maj. Metzger was found. The US military statement did not give details of her reappearance, although Metzger's superior, Colonel Scott Reese, praised "the cooperation between the base and local civil and police authorities during the investigation."

[edit] Sights

A small, neglected square in Bishkek, near the main square

Bishkek is an attractive city, especially in summer when its thousands of trees provide color and shade. Though the city is relatively young, the surrounding area has sites of interests dating from prehistory, the Greco-Buddhist period, the period of Nestorian influence, the era of the Central Asian khanates, and the Soviet period.

The Ala-Too mountain range, 40 km away, provides a spectacular backdrop to the city; in it, the Ala Archa National Park is a site worth visiting
State Historical Museum, located in the main city square
State Museum of Applied Arts, containing examples of Kyrgyz traditional handicrafts
Frunze House Museum
Several statues of Vladimir Lenin remain, the largest being opposite the parliament building in a leafy park — having been moved there in 2003 from its original more conspicuous location on the main square of the city
Statue of Ivan Panfilov stands in the park near the White House.
An equestrian statue of Mikhail Frunze still stands in a large park (Boulevard Erkindik) across from the train station.
The train station itself was built in 1946 by German prisoners of war and has survived since then without further renovation or repairs; most of those who built it perished and were buried in unmarked pits near the station.
The main government building, the White House, is a huge seven-story marble block and the former headquarters of the Communist Party of the Kyrgyz SSR
At Ala-Too square, there is an Independence monument where the changing of the guards may be watched.