Zaman Online, Turkey
March 26 2005

World Press: Kremlin Loses Another Friend
By Foreign News Desk
Published: Saturday 26, 2005
zaman.com

The Tulip revolution, which resulted in the overthrow of President
Askar Akayev on Friday (March 25) in Kyrgyzstan, was broadcast in
the headlines around the world.

The answer to the question of “Who is next?”, has dominated with
comments suggesting “Moscow is loosing its friends one after the
other.”

Apart from Kyrgyzstan’s neighboring countries, Armenia was mentioned
as next possible stop on velvet revolution trail. The headline of the
French newspaer “Liberation” read, “Putin loses his friends” and wrote,
“the democratic revolution has expanded in the countries of the former
Soviet Union.” Austria’s newpaper “Die Presse” made similar comments
and referred to the event as “Domino effect in their ow back yard.”

The Spanish El Pais pointed out that the incidents in Bishkek are
similar to the ones that occurred in Georgia and the Ukraine and
said it was”a serious warning to Russia.” The British press, on the
other hand, preferred the use of the ‘domino effect” expression. A
commentary in the Times noted the existence of two military bases
just 35 km apart from each other in Kyrgyzstan. The Guardian reported
the event under the headline “One more gap in Putin’s Pro-Soviet
Vision.” The Russian media published news of the events with regard
to Kyrgyzstan and referred to it with, “The Tulip Revolution Reaches
Kyrgyzstan. Who is the next country?”