DUSHANBE, December 17, Asia-Plus — A memorial to Kazakh servicemen who died in actions in Tajikistan during the republic”s disastrous civil war in the 1990s has been erected in Dushanbe.
An official opening of the memorial was held in Dushanbe’s Dustii Khalqho (Friendship of People) Park on December 15.
Tajik officials, representatives fro diplomatic missions accredited in Tajikistan, as well as Kazakh delegation, comprising Deputy Foreign Minister Nurlan Yermekbayev, Deputy Commander of Interior Troops Ruslan Zhasylykov, Deputy Defense official Bakhtizhan Yertayev and parents of some servicemen who had died in Tajikistan, attended the memorial-opening ceremony.
Addressing the ceremony, Nutrlan Yermekbayev noted that Kazakhs servicemen were sent to Tajikistan in 1992 to protect southern border of Tajikistan in order to provide regional security in Central Asia.
The Kazakh battalion that was deployed on the Tajik-Afghan border consisted of border guards and interior troops. Kazakh servicemen were deployed on the Tajik-Afghan border in GBAO’s Darvoz district.
Yermekbayev noted that in all, than 5,000 Kazakh servicemen served in Tajikistan by rotation from 1992 to 2001. 35 of them died in actions on the border
“Today, we are opening the memorial that was erected on an initiative of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and we appreciate the Tajik government and Dushanbe mayor’s office’s support for this initiative,” Yermekbayev said.
Lieutenant-General Bakhtizhan Yertayev, the chief inspector with the Kazakh Ministry of Defense, who had commanded the Kazakh contingent in Tajikistan that time, and Ms. Tamara Petkova, mother of one of Kazakh servicemen who had died in Tajikistan, also spoke at the ceremony.
Representatives of the Dushanbe mayor’s office, diplomatic missions, and Kazakh delegation laid wreaths at the memorial.
