Kyrgyz Presidential Envoy Resigns

Azimbek Beknazarov

BISHKEK -- Kyrgyzstan's presidential envoy to parliament has handed his resignation to President Roza Otunbaeva, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.

Envoy Azimbek Beknazarov told RFE/RL that he tendered his resignation on July 5.

Beknazarov, 55, explained his resignation by saying that the mission and period of the Kyrgyz interim government which he helped to form has been successfully completed.

Beknazarov, a lawyer and longtime opposition activist, did not comment on his future plans.

Before his appointment as Otunbaeva's envoy to parliament, Beknazarov was a deputy prime minister who supervised the country's law enforcement and judicial structures.

He was often criticized for comments made in that post and for his appparent support of controversial Osh Mayor Melis Myrzakmatov.

Beknazarov made a public apology last month for his inability to do more in stopping the deadly ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan in June 2010.