Almost year on from the uprising, or "the tulip revolution", that brought his opponents to power on March 24, Askar Akayev, said: "Any bloodshed on that day would have sparked a civil war and could have well caused the country's collapse."
According to Akayev, who is now resident in Moscow, he saw that the young protesters were far from peaceful-minded but decided that retaining power was not worth bloodshed.
However, the former president offered some sharp criticism of his successors for failing to further promote democratic principles in the Central Asian republic, which, he said, was a criterion for "color revolutions" set by the United States.
Akayev's comments echo some politicians in Russia who said that the U.S. stood behind the "revolutions" that swept the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine and brought pro-Western authorities to power.
Akayev said contract killings in Kyrgyzstan had become rife, crime was rampant, and the country had "a pocket government and parliament."
"Therefore, I can't say that the coup has brought more democracy to Kyrgyzstan," he said. "Or is there a more democratic approach to unpunished murders of parliamentarians and Olympic champions?"
The former president was clearly referring to two killings that caused a public outcry: Raatbek Sanatbayev, an influential wrestler and candidate for the national Olympic committee, who was shot dead on January 10, and parliamentarian Tynychbek Akhmatbayev, who was slain by prison inmates in mid-October during an inspection tour.
Akayev said the uprising had succeeded in bringing different people to power but had failed to increase democracy in the country, which is one of the poorest former Soviet republics.
Akayev's comments run in contrast to current President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's decision to make March 24 a national holiday Wednesday.
A spokesman said a panel chaired by Prime Minister Felix Kulov had drafted a program for the new holiday, which includes military parades, patriotic and sporting events, concerts, fairs and public celebrations across the country.
However, the national parliament was cautious about the president's initiative, and some said it would be improper to celebrate a day when thousands of people had suffered at the hands of looters and the country had lost tens of millions of dollars.
