Kyrgyz handover causes Expo upset

• Source: Global Times
• [09:30 July 15 2010]
• Comments

A visitor snaps a photograph Wednesday at the Kyrgyzstan Pavilion inside the Expo Park. Photo: Global Times

By Ni Dandan

With just one foreign staffer present at the Kyrgyzstan Pavilion Wednesday afternoon, the structure was open to visitors the day after it temporarily closed following a management reshuffling that remains shrouded in political uncertainty.

Inside sources have revealed to the Global Times that Temir Erkinov, the former director of the pavilion was finally forced to step down from his post inside the Expo Park on Tuesday - a dispute that caused the pavilion to shut its doors for most of the day - after being asked to leave as early as last month by Kyrgyz government officials.

"We suddenly found out that our pavilion director was removed from the position by our government," Meerim Asizova, one of the five staffers at the pavilion, told the Global Times Wednesday. "We have no idea why he has left, but we feel lost without him.

"It seems like no one is in charge of daily operations anymore," she added.

The change in management at the 320-square-meter structure at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai comes as the central Asian country continues to sort out its domestic affairs at home, where a caretaker government was formed Wednesday by Kyrgyzstan President Roza Otunbayeva. The interim body is expected to rule until parliamentary elections in the fall, and follows a bloody uprising in April, when former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev was overthrown.

It is unclear as to whether politics were at play with the handover at the pavilion, but Erkinov's replacement, Makashev Sultanbek, who was officially appointed as commissioner general of the pavilion last Thursday, is said to have ties with influential people in Kyrgyzstan.

Situated in the Pudong New Area section of the park, the Kyrgyzstan Pavilion is made up entirely of Kyrgyz staffers, five paid employees and four volunteers, who are students currently studying in Shanghai.

Many were doubtful Wednesday of what is to come of their country's national pavilion day at the park next month on August 4, without their former director in charge - saying that preparations for the celebration are now up in the air.

"Other countries have celebrated their national pavilion days and used the occasion to introduce their country to people from all around the world," Edilbek Esenbekov, head volunteer, told the Global Times Wednesday. "We don't want to waste this opportunity to do the same."