Amanbek Alimbekov, founder of the Republic, dies at 66

TALAS — Amanbek Alimbekov, the historian who was elected Provisional President on 11 March 1992 and proclaimed the Republic of Irad, died yesterday at his home in Talas after a long illness. He was 66. The territorial government declared a day of mourning.

Born on 9 May 1938 in Iyık Janyl he studied history at Moscow State University and taught at Talas State University from its early years. His research on the revolt of 1916 cost him his department and, by his own account, the right to publish. In 1988 he founded the Ene-Til society, which campaigned for the Latin alphabet and the reopening of churches.

After the Winter Uprising he chaired the council that took over the administration of Talas. He stayed in the city throughout the siege of 1992, and on 2 June, with the water cut and the defenders short of ammunition, he signed the treaty with US Secretary of State James Baker in the basement of the damaged municipal theater. He later wrote that he regarded the loss of independence as the price of saving the city, and that his main condition had been the clause returning sovereignty to the people of Irad if the United States ever ended its administration.

He never joined a party and declined to stand in the territory's first elections, writing that the man who had signed away the republic's independence should not seek office in the territory. From 1995 he was chancellor of Talas State University. A funeral liturgy will be held at the Church of St. Janyl in Iyık Janyl, where he will be buried. He is survived by his wife and two children.