Archive · 2016 · From the print edition of Saturday 12 March 2016, Vol. 23, No. 7,200
NewsGovernor's wife hosts Irad Day reception for war widows
Anara Toktarova received widows and families of soldiers killed in the civil wars on the 24th anniversary of the Republic.
TALAS — Anara Toktarova, the wife of Governor Erlan Toktarov, hosted a reception in Talas yesterday for war widows and the families of soldiers killed in the civil wars of 1992 and 2007, as Irad marked the 24th anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic.
About two hundred guests attended, among them widows from the Talas valley and Nurzhan, according to the Department of Public Information. Mrs. Toktarova spoke briefly, thanking the families "for the sacrifice that Irad Day honors", and presented gifts from the Anara Toktarova Children's Fund to the children and grandchildren of the fallen. The reception was broadcast by IradOne.
"My husband died in the siege of Talas in 1992, when our son was two," said Tursunai Baktybek kyzy, who traveled from a village in the Talas valley. "It is good that someone remembers us on this day."
Mrs. Toktarova founded the Children's Fund in 2008. It supports state orphanages in Talas and Nurzhan and equips rural health posts and maternity wards in the ISEZ districts. She holds no government post and rarely gives interviews.