Kyrgyz writer Aitmatov honored with a monument

ANKARA

(L to R) Emrullah İşler, Almazbek Atambayev and Melih Gökçek pose in front of the Aitmatov monument.

The memory of late Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aitmatov was honored in the Turkish capital as Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev and senior governmental officials from Turkey attended the opening of monument.

The legendary novelist is highly revered, read and respected in Turkey. “For us, Turkey is always a pole star, like a friendly star. Although stars do not seem, you know, they are present there. Five thousand kilometers away, we also know we have a motherland here. You should also know you have your ancestral land [Central Asia],” Atambayev was quoted as saying by the Anadolu Agency on June 4 when a ceremony was held for the opening of the monument.

Ankara Metropolitan Municipality also named the street on which the monument was built after Aitmatov.

As Atambayev expressed pleasure over seeing Aitmatov’s memory being kept alive in Turkey, Deputy Prime Minister Emrullah İşler, who also attended the ceremony, recalled every of Aitmatov’s books have been translated into Turkish and his books are among best-sellers in Turkey.

In Turkey, Aitmatov is best known for a movie which was adopted from his novel in 1978. “Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım” was adapted from Aitmatov’s novel “My Little Poplar in the Red Scarf.”