Here is a timeline on Kyrgyzstan in the last five years:
March 21, 2005 – Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second biggest city, falls to opposition control as protests sweep across the country’s south to demand the resignation of President Askar Akayev.
March 23 – Police violently break up a protest in the capital, Bishkek, and the interior minister says prepared to use force and weapons to restore order.
March 24 – Kyrgyzstan’s opposition declares itself in power after seizing key buildings as Akayev vanishes after protests.
March 25 – Opposition party leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev is named acting president. Akayev confirms reports he has left the country, but says he has not resigned.
March 28 – Kyrgyzstan’s new parliament takes over and confirms Bakiyev as prime minister as well as acting president.
July 10 – Bakiyev wins presidential elections.
November 8, 2006 – Parliament adopts a new constitution reducing the president’s powers. The opposition, which had staged days of protests calling on the president to quit if he would not cede to their demands, hailed the vote as a victory.
February 19, 2009 – Parliament votes to close the only U.S. air base in Central Asia. Washington later agrees to pay $180 million to Kyrgyzstan to keep the base open.
March 17, 2010 – Thousands of Kyrgyz protesters threaten to oust Bakiyev if he fails to accede to their demands within a week, five years after violent protests propelled him to power.
April 3 – Visiting U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls on Kyrgyzstan to protect human rights after protesters shout “help us” as he drove to parliament.
April 7 – Bakiyev orders a state of emergency in Bishkek and three other areas after police clash with protesters. He later flees to southern Kyrgyzstan, his traditional power base.
– Some 1,000 people storm the prosecutor-general’s office in the capital.
– Plumes of smoke billow from the White House, the main seat of government, as crowds rampage through the building.
– Opposition activists also take control of state television channel KTR.
April 8 – Opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva says she is taking over the president’s and government’s responsibilities. She says the government has resigned and the opposition is negotiating the resignation of Bakiyev.
– Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin speaks to Otunbayeva effectively recognizing her government.
April 9 – Otunbayeva says she will guarantee the safety of Bakiyev and allow him to leave the country if he resigns.
April 12 – The U.S. welcomes statements from the interim government that it will abide by agreements covering a U.S. air base that supports military operations in Afghanistan.
April 15 – The ousted president Bakiyev leaves Kyrgyzstan for Kazakhstan. At least 85 people are killed in the upheaval.
April 27 – The interim government says it has charged Bakiyev with “mass killing” and has formally prepared an extradition request.
May 4 – Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko says he will not hand over Bakiyev to face charges over the violent upheaval last month.
May 13 – Bakiyev supporters seize control of government buildings in the cities of Osh, Jalalabad and Batken, kidnap the governor of Jalalabad region and try to take control of the area’s main airport in Osh.
May 14 – The interim government says it has regained control across the south after at least two people die in violent clashes with supporters of the ousted president.
May 19 – A state of emergency is declared in Jalalabad after two people die and 74 are injured in clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan.
– Otunbayeva’s government says she will act as president until the end of 2011, after which she will be replaced.
June 11 – At least 17 people are killed and 253 wounded as ethnic conflict flares up in Osh and in the southern region.
– The interim government declares a state of emergency in four southern regions.
(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)