Kübra Chohan
20 April 2018•Update: 20 April 2018
By Esra Cetin and Dmitri Chirciu
ANKARA
Kyrgyzstan protected its culture with the help of its Turkish brothers, according to the Kyrgyz Minister of Culture, Information and Tourism Sultanbek Jumagulov.
“We were under danger of disappearing in a great state and we were able to protect our own language, our culture and our history with the help of our Turkish brothers and sisters,” Sultanbek Jumagulov told Anadolu Agency.
Jumagulov was in capital Ankara to attend commemoration events of the 90th birthday of famous Kyrgyz writer Chinghiz Aytmatov.
He emphasized that after Kyrgyzstan declared its independence, Turkey was the first country to extend its hand to them.
“I cannot make a distinction between Turkish or Kyrgyz. The independence of the country is the great blessing that God gives us.
“We were under danger of disappearing in a big state and with the help of our Turkish brothers, we were able to protect our own language, our culture and our history,” Jumagulov said.
Mentioning projects made through the Turkish Coordination and Cooperation Agency (TIKA), Jumagulov said repairs to the history museum in the center of Bishkek remains ongoing.
“These repairs are funded by Turkey. Separately, a hospital with a very modern technology has also been built with the support of Turkey,” Jumagulov added.
Since it was founded 26 years ago, TIKA has carried out several projects in education, health, infrastructure, and cultural heritage preservation in many regions of the world from the Balkans to the Middle East, and Africa to Latin America.
Jumagulov also said: “The memorial program reached its goal and everything went as we expected. However, the talks about Chinghiz Aytmatov will never end, but more importantly, at least we tried to introduce Aytmatov a little bit.”
One of the best-known figures in Kyrgyzstan's literature, Aytmatov was a Kyrgyz-Turk author who wrote in both Russian and Kyrgyz.
Aytmatov belonged to the post-war generation of writers. His book Jamila came to prove the author's work, which was followed by his representative works, including the short novels Farewell, Gulsary, The White Ship, The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years and The Scaffold.
