Almazbek Atambayev

Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayev (Cyrillic: Алмазбек Шаршенович Атамбаев; born 17 September 1956) has been the President of Kyrgyzstan since 1 December 2011. He was Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan from 17 December 2010 to 1 December 2011, and from 29 March 2007 to 28 November 2007. He served as Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK) from 30 July 1999 to 23 September 2011.

Almazbek Atambayev in 2015

Quotes

• When we erected banners some smart people appeared and started pointing at miniskirts. Our women have been wearing miniskirts since 1950s, and they never thought about wearing an explosive belt. You can wear even tarpaulin boots on your head, but do not organise bombings. This is not religion. Let them wear even miniskirts but there must not be any blasts.
• Terrorists are insane people, clothes also can change one's thoughts sometimes. When we were searching for prisoners who had escaped a detention centre, Melis Turganbayev (the former interior minister) came to me and said that they had been eavesdropping on telephone conversations of wives and mistresses of criminals. Their wives and mistresses wore sacks on their heads and they wanted to organise bombings. If you do not like Kyrgyzstan you can leave our country and go wherever you want. We can pay your travel expenses, even to Syria.
  • Speaking at a press conference — Kyrgyzstan president: 'Women in mini skirts don't become suicide bombers', BBC (13 August 2016)