The ceremony of laying wreaths at the monument to the dead Kazakhstani peacekeepers, organized by the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Tajikistan, took place today in the Firdavsi park in Dushanbe.
The ceremony was attended by the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Tajikistan Turikhanov Valikhan Amirkhanovich, the head of the Council of Veterans of the Border Troops of Tajikistan, Lieutenant General Safarali Saifulloev, the Military Attache of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Major General Mustabekov Askar Dosbosynovich, the Assistant to the Military Attache of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Lieutenant Colonel Aubakirov Baiken Kulimbaevich and others.
After laying wreaths at the foot of the monument, the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Tajikistan Turikhanov Valikhan Amirkhanovich addressed the audience, noting the courage and courage of the Kazakh military, who performed their duty in Tajikistan in the 90s as part of the peacekeeping forces.
On April 7, 1995, in the Pshikharv Gorge of the Darvaz region, the Kazakh 7th combined company fell into a trap set up by opposition forces. As a result of a five-hour battle, the border guards lost 17 fighters, dozens were injured.
It was noted that in January 1993, during the civil war in Tajikistan, the heads of the CIS states signed an agreement on the joint protection of the Tajik-Afghan state border. Consolidated Kazakh battalion, formed from the servicemen of the border service of the KNB, the Ministry of Defense and the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, has been fulfilling its military duty to the Motherland and allies for eight years.
In that unequal battle, the Kazakh peacekeeping battalion lost 17 fighters. Among the dead: Yerken Baigobisov, Baurzhan Dalabayev, Imatdin Zhumatov, Daetan Nurmegov, Takhir Rakhimzhanov, Yerkebulat Makazhanov, Radik Kaymuldiev, Yerzhan Abdiev, Zhaksylyk Dzhansugurtov, Yerbol Bekebayev, Kanat Edyryshov, Yerkin Baigobylov, Yerbol Isabayev, Mikhail Martynenko, Anatoly Meshkov, Alikhan Ogizbayev , Kalmakhan Bakbaev.
Later, all the dead were posthumously awarded the Russian medal “For Distinction in Service” of the first degree. By decree of the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, five of the dead servicemen were awarded the Aibyn orders of the second degree, 12 were awarded medals. Most of the dead soldiers were from military unit No. 6506 of the city of Shymkent.
Twenty years after those tragic events, on April 7, 2015, a monument was opened in Shymkent, reminding everyone of the courage of the soldiers who died on the Tajik-Afghan border. A few years ago, commemorative memorial plates were installed at the duty station of the dead children in Darvaz. To perpetuate the memory of the dead Kazbatovites in April 2009 in Astana, at the Otan-Ana monument, the Alley of Memory was opened.
The documentary film “Kazbat” directed by Rustam Odinaev, which was released in 2009, is dedicated to Kazakhstani peacekeepers.
Warm words addressed to the Kazakh peacekeepers who died in that unequal battle were also heard from the lips of representatives of the Union of Veterans of the Border Troops and the Ministry of Defense of Tajikistan, who noted the courage and heroism of the soldiers who died for the independence of the fraternal state.
In total, during the years of the Kazakhstani free battalion’s stay in Tajikistan, 43 Kazakh servicemen were killed, over 100 peacekeepers were injured.
Source: avesta