The rumor that stirred public minds last week in Kyrgyzstan: authorities in Balykchy city (Issik Kul district) decided to erect a monument in remembrance of the criminal Ryspek Akmatbaev, who was killed on May 10th near the capital city Bishkek.

The information about the decision of local authorities was published in several respected Kyrgyz newspapers and information agencies. Thus Aki Press quoting the newspaper “Moya Stoliza” mentioned that the mayor of Balykchy ( the city where Akmatbaev was grown up and where the family of the killed criminal resides at the moment) announced that it was the common will of his area’s residents, who decided that Ryspek should be carved in stone. Period.

When I heard the news on the radio I was not even surprised. Somehow I managed to get used to the majority of crazy and funny things that keep happening in Kyrgyzstan. In this case I was only a bit hesitant in deciding which status ( “crazy” or “ funny”) needs to be attributed to this story.

I was even trying to be logical and to explain to myself, who can really deserve to be “carved” in stone in Kyrgyzstan. After giving it a careful thought, I came up with the conclusion, that there are no clear limitations. You don’t even technically need to die to get the monument. Just to remind you- there is a monument to the former Russian president Boris Yeltzin in Issyk-Kul. Why Yeltzin was so special for Kyrgyzstan? Because he was a dear friend of the ex -president Askar Akaev. Isn’t it enough? Than I started recalling all monuments, that I’ve ever seen in the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
There were few honoring prominent people; a few- celebrating Kyrgyz myths and legends. The brutal guy, torturing a poor snake, in front of the State Philharmonic Hall popped up in my mind immediately. Off the top of my head I was also able to think of the couple of monuments, celebrating the victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. This seems to be it.

Trying to analyze the situation, I realized that, probably, people in Kyrgyzstan have been constantly longing for the Hero, and rarely had they have a chance to celebrate authentic heroes, expect for those coming from old legends. May be this, I though, was a driving motive for those, who came up with an idea to erect the statue of Ryspek Akmatbaev. He was definitely a bad guy (his criminal record was very impressive), so, may be, he impressed his fellow citizens as well? He also had a chance to become a politician- in 2005 after the Kyrgyz revolution he ran as a parliamentary candidate and was about to win. Crazy? Funny? Who knows?

After the news about the idea to build Ryspek’s monument, those who could have become Akmatbaev’s fellow deputies in the Kyrgyz parliament condemned the idea of Issuk Kul’s local officials. The very next day NTS channel interviewed the mayor of Balykchy. Talant Bekganov said that he was chocked by the rumors and denied allegations in initiating the creation of the monument. In his words, he didn’t know where the information came from and humbly asked journalists to publish a retraction. For me it sounded really encouraging. May be we can assume that there are enough heroes in Kyrgyzstan. May be not…