Profile of Akayev
 |  Akayev was reported Thursday to have fled the country. |
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 Kyrgyzstan's president flees his office amid growing opposition protests
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(CNN) -- Following is a profile of Askar Akayev, who served as president of Kyrgyzstan from 1990 until his apparent ousting on March 24.
Akayev was born on November 10, 1944 in the village of Kyzyl-Bairak in Kemin district, Kyrgyzstan.
He has a PhD in Technical Sciences (Holography) and is an Academician of the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences. He is married and has two sons and two daughters.
He began his working life in 1961 as a metalworker at a factory, before going to Russia to study.
He graduated in 1968 from the Leningrad Institute of Precision Engineering and Optics, and then did postgraduate studies and held the positions of Laboratory Assistant and Engineer at the same institute.
From 1972-73, he was a teacher at the Frunze Polytechnic Institute, Bishkek Technological University.
In 1987, he became Vice-President and in 1989, President of the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences.
In 1990 he became President of Kyrgyzstan and was re-elected in 1995 and 2000.
Baktybek Abdrissaev, the Kyrgyz ambassador to the United States, said at a press conference in Washington on Thursday that the president hasn't resigned and "is in a safe place." But he couldn't say where Akayev was.
There are reports that Akayev and his family have left for a neighboring country.
