He was the conscience of the Uyghur people

To the 70th anniversary of Turganzhan Imirovich Rozakhunov

Sheripzhan Nadyrov,
Doctor of Geographical Sciences, Professor

He was the conscience of the Uyghur people

Time is the best of all earthly judges, because it impartially evaluates the past and puts everything in its place. For three years now, as among us there is no Turganzhan Imirovich Rozakhunov, who would have turned 70 on January 1, 2020. On the day of his funeral, many of the participants, and there were more than 1000 people, witnessed how one young youth with a disability — a wheelchair who did not manage to get close to the grave from despair and impotent anger, frantically spun on his stroller, expressing his inexhaustible pain on the occasion of the loss a person close to him. In this frantic cycle of despair, the immeasurable price of the loss suffered by the Kazakh public, in particular the Uighurs of Kazakhstan, was reflected. With his actions, a disabled youth did not only express an emotional outburst of people participating in the funeral service, but to some extent reflected the inhuman pain and grief of the entire Uyghur people of Kazakhstan towards the death of the large, bright and outstanding personality of Turuzhan Imirovich. Time proved the justice of the actions of the disabled youth and the scale of the irreparable loss, which hit not only the feelings of the Uyghur people, but also their fear that there would be no equivalent replacement, which, unfortunately, was justified.

He was an unsurpassed expert in the psychology of people of various social strata and a professional in the field of public work, which he not only comprehended, but also brought to the level of art. I don’t know how appropriate it is if I say that such people, I mean prominent public figures in terms of humanity and wisdom, like Turganzhan, among the Uighurs of Kazakhstan over the past century, there were only two — Abdulla Rozybakiev and OH.

They had almost the same political status under the USSR, both were devoted to the noble ideals of mankind, although they lived at different times, but they were united by popular love, the talent of a leader, but the most important thing is a conscience, a deficit of which many public figures experienced and are experiencing.

From childhood, Turganzhan was a gifted and intelligent person, constantly improving his knowledge, and in many ways, as his friends say, independently. Perseverance, a natural mind, parents and environment, and, of course, the school managed to endow him with the highest spirituality, to which he always aspired. Turganzhan knew and highly respected the traditions and customs of not only his people, but also of all his friends and like-minded people. He professionally owned history, classical foreign, Russian and Soviet literature, practically knew all the leading works of Kazakh, Uyghur and Central Asian writers and prose writers. Through his life and work, Turganzhan Imirovich proved that there are no barriers to talent and mind, that under any regime in a rule of law, you can find ways to solve socio-economic problems, he was a truly far-sighted person. The outstanding Soviet and Russian writer Fazil Iskander, who died at the same time as Turganzhan, said: “Wisdom is a mind insisted on conscience,” and these words fully refer to our friend, as a person of great soul and of the highest degree of decency, memory , about him, we will forever keep in our hearts. Another rare quality of Turganzhan Imirovich was that everywhere he was a true representative of his people. His speeches, regardless of the size and composition of the audience, did not leave anyone indifferent because they were deeply imbued with respect for the person, regardless of his social status. He perfectly understood that the Uyghurs of Kazakhstan were behind him, and by his behavior, by his culture and mind, people of other nationalities would judge Uyghurs as a people as a whole. Therefore, his speeches were devoid of duty or learned phrases, party slogans and other verbal husks. Thanks to this, his performances reached the hearts of the audience and were remembered for a long time. He was distinguished by exceptional modesty, which in combination with his bright mind evoked pride and admiration. So many of us remember him, and we have no right to forget his name, to forget his work, to which he devoted his whole life.