Roza Isakovna Otunbayeva[a] (born 23 August 1950) is a Kyrgyz diplomat and politician who served as the President of Kyrgyzstan from 7 April 2010 until 1 December 2011, becoming the first female Central Asian head of state.

She was sworn in on 3 July 2010, after acting as interim leader following the 2010 April Revolution, which led to the ousting of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

She previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and as head of the parliamentary caucus for the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan.

[citation needed] In 1975, she became Candidate of Sciences after defending her dissertation, "Critique of falsification of Marxist-Leninist dialectic by the philosophers of Frankfurt school".

[7][8] In 1981, she began her political career as the Communist Party's Second Secretary of the Lenin raion council (raikom) of Frunze (now Bishkek).

In December 2004, she and three other opposition parliamentarians founded the Ata-Jurt (Fatherland) public movement in preparation for the February 2005 parliamentary elections.

[citation needed] Otunbayeva was one of the key leaders of the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan which led to the overthrow of President Akayev.

[citation needed] On 7 April 2010, she was chosen by opposition leaders as head of the Interim Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, following widespread rioting in Bishkek and the ouster of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

The arguments put forward by President Otunbayeva that the surge in violence was of such proportions that it was difficult for the interim government to contain it does not relieve the authorities of their primary responsibility to protect the population.

In addition, allegations of collusion and complicity of security forces in committing human rights violations during the June events also remained unaddressed.

[23] The OSCE also indicated that violence against Uzbek mahallas was carried out systematically and with the connivance or complicity of law enforcement agencies and the army under the control of Roza Otunbayeva.

[24] Later, the ex-prosecutor general of Kyrgyzstan reported on criminal cases against human rights activists which began with the direct order of Roza Otunbaeva.

[25][1] Kyrgyz politicians, and especially the leader of the opposition Ata-Zhurt party in parliament, Jyldyzkan Joldosheva, reported that they warned the head of the Provisional Government about the impending ethnic conflict and about Otunbaeva’s complete disregard for them.

[2] Human rights activists reported that they personally spoke to Roza Otunbayeva about the torture of Askarov, but she completely ignored them.

[31] In 2017, Azimzhan Askarov was sentenced to life imprisonment by several Kyrgyz courts for the murder of policeman Maktybek Sulaimanov, who was burned alive, and participation in mass riots in 2010.

[34] Temirov Live journalists were able to discover photographs of the participation of closest sister of Roza Otunbaeva at a family event together with the largest criminal authority in Central Asia, Kamchybek Kolbaev, who was under US sanctions and recently killed in special operation of the Kyrgyz government.

Umetalieva noted that “if government members continue repression, the situation may get out of control.”[37] Urmat Baryktabasov was sentenced to 4 years in prison and denied all charges.

[36] After the success of the Ata-Jurt party in the 2010 parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan, on October 23, the house of its leader, Kamchybek Tashiev, was robbed.

[40] The main objective of the Foundation is to implement programs and projects that will contribute to the social, political and economic development of the Kyrgyz Republic.

During a 2016 speech by her successor at a military parade on Ala-Too Square for the 25th anniversary of Kyrgyzstan's independence, Otunbayeva walked off the stage after President Atamabayev repeatedly criticized her government.