The Revolution will be televised: A textbook coup in Bishkek

Flag of Bishkek

Chaos and violence erupted in Bishkek today as it appears that a coup is underway. While most details are still sketchy including the location of the Kyrgyz President.  Given that the word Kyrgyz comes from the Turkic word for "Forty" (an allusion to the founding tribes of the region) claims by the Health Ministry that 40 have been killed and 400 wounded seems ironic or perhaps dubious.

At this point the only comment worth making is that the coup appears to be almost textbook in nature. The Kyrgyz opposition filliped the security services to their side and seized the central TV broadcasting station first. This is the standard operating procedure for coup-makers the globe over for the past half century in everywhere from Africa to Asia. Seize the TV station and broadcast your version of the truth. This has certainly been the pattern in the Post-Soviet world as well.

 In Estonia during the "Singing Revolution" against Soviet rule the Soviets ordered Soviet Airforce General and future Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev to seize the Estonian television station. Instead he merely deployed a Soviet kitchen unit.

In 1991, the coup against Gorbachev the leaders of the coup d'état used the Soviet television services to broadcast their declarations and to give legitimacy to their movement.

So right now be assured that the opposition leaders are tripping over-themselves to ensure that they can televise as much of the revolution as possible.

In the long-term though this model is dated. It is easy to imagine a world in the near future where by the explosion of the internet and other communication technologies will make it harder for would be authoritarians to seize power and legitimize themselves with a few crude TV broadcasts.