Opening of the Book Festival «Kitap Show – 2023»
On April 21, 2023, the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan hosted the grand opening of the Book Festival «Kitap Show – 2023», dedicated to the World Book and Copyright Day.
One of the significant events of the Book Festival was the holding of an International round table dedicated to the 95th anniversary of the People's Writer of the Kyrgyz Republic, Hero of Socialist Labor, Lenin Prize laureate, statesman and public figure of the Kyrgyz Republic, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USSR, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kyrgyz Republic to Western Europe Chingiz Torekulovich Aitmatov.
The organizers of the event were The National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the M.O.Auezov Institute of Literature and Art, the Kyrgyz Ethnocultural Association of the APK, the Consulate General of Kyrgyzstan.
The main character of the evening was the younger sister of the great writer - Rosa Torekulovna Aitmatova, a physicist. Together with her nephew Asan Akhatov, she devoted many years to searching and studying the cases of missing and executed heroes of the Kyrgyz people, among whom was their own father Torekul, a statesman posthumously rehabilitated in 1991. Her joint work with her nephew turned into a documentary epic «Ata Beit» (Pantheon of Fathers), the presentation of which took place at the Almaty International Book Festival, dedicated to the 120th anniversary of Torekul Aitmatov and the 95th anniversary of Chingiz Aitmatov.
Director of the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakytzhamal Kairbekovna Ospanova presented letters of thanks and diplomas, souvenirs and books to all the distinguished guests who arrived from Bishkek and the organizers of the international round table.
Prominent representatives of the Academy of Journalism of Kazakhstan, the Union of Writers of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan, including a close friend of Chingiz Aitmatov, People's Poet of Kazakhstan, Hero of Labor of Kazakhstan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan Mukhtar Shakhanov, Nurlan Orazalin, Bakytzhan Kanapyanov, all heads of ethnic and cultural associations of the APK took part in the Round Table meeting, moderator of the event, Head of the Department of the M.O.Auezov Institute of Literature and Art Svetlana Ananyeva.
The event was attended and performed by the only Kazakh woman, a graduate of the Gorky Literary Institute of the USSR Writers' Union, Workshop of Chingiz Aitmatov, Head of the Department of Political Cooperation of the Representative Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan in Almaty Almasha Arenova.