# The Comprehensive Irad Wiki Encyclopedia (Volume 3: Start and Stub Articles) The **Irad Wiki** is a collaboratively edited encyclopedia of the Republic of Irad (Iradistan). This volume collects start-class and stub articles: shorter entries on settlements, landforms, institutions, people, wildlife and vocabulary, many of which await expansion by editors. --- ## 5. Start-Class Articles (257 Entries) ### 5.Category: Biographies & Leadership (41 articles) #### 1. Mar Timotheos Alimbekov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Mar Timotheos Alimbekov** (1869–1938) was a bishop of the Iradi church who negotiated its union with Rome. Under the bull *Orientalis Stella*, issued by [[wp:Pope Pius XI]] on September 14, 1931, the church was received into full communion as the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]], an Eastern Catholic church *sui iuris* that kept its East Syriac rite, and Iyık Janyl became its metropolitan see. Timotheos became its first archbishop. He was arrested during [[The 1937 NKVD Clerical Purges|the purges of 1937]] and, according to church records, died in custody the following year.[1][2] ## Early life and episcopate Timotheos was born in [[Iyık Janyl]] and studied [[wp:Syriac language|Classical Syriac]] and scripture with the clergy of the [[Church of St. Janyl]]. Church biographies state that as a young man he spent several years among the East Syriac communities of Urmia in Persia, where he met Catholic missionaries. He was consecrated bishop of Iyık Janyl before the [[wp:World War I|First World War]] and led the church through the 1916 revolt and the [[wp:Russian Civil War]].[1] ## Union with Rome Soviet rule made open contact with Rome impossible. From 1926 Timotheos corresponded with the [[wp:Holy See]] through intermediaries at papal nunciatures abroad; church histories name contacts in [[wp:Istanbul]] and Tehran. His surviving letters, held in the diocesan archives, ask for recognition of the church's Syriac liturgy, its synodal government and its own calendar, including the feast of St. Janyl. The negotiations lasted five years and ended with the bull of 1931. The bull was not published in the [[wp:Soviet Union]], and news of it reached the parishes by word of mouth.[1] ## Soviet response and death Soviet authorities treated the union as evidence that the church answered to a foreign power. Officials linked the Vatican, which had concluded the [[wp:Lateran Treaty]] with [[wp:Italy]] in 1929, with "fascist" influence, and historians connect this suspicion with the severity of anti-religious repression in the Iradi SSR during the 1930s. The churches of Iyık Janyl were closed and the cathedral became a grain store. Timotheos was arrested in 1937 together with his senior clergy, most of whom were executed. The security service file on his case has not been published, and his place of burial is unknown.[2] The Church of St. Janyl was reconsecrated on September 14, 1992, the anniversary of the bull, and Timotheos is commemorated in Iyık Janyl on that date. The historian and politician [[Amanbek Alimbekov]] was a member of the same family.[3] ## See also - [[Zarina Alimbekova]] ## References
  1. ^ Iyık Janyl Diocesan Archives. 'Correspondence of Mar Timotheos Alimbekov with the Holy See, 1926–1931.' Iyık Janyl.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2021). Orientalis Stella and the Soviet State: The Iradi Church, 1931–1941. Talas.
  3. ^ Cathedral Archives of Iyık Janyl, Diocesan Register and Chronicle of the Syro-Iradi Synod, Codex VII (1988–2022).
#### 2. Tilek Kurmanov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Tilek Kurmanov** (born 1953) is an Iradi diplomat who represented the government of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) at the United Nations from 2008 to 2017. Because Irad is listed as a non-self-governing territory and is not a UN member, he appeared each year as a petitioner before the [[wp:Special Committee on Decolonization|UN Special Committee on Decolonization]] in [[wp:New York City|New York]] rather than as an accredited ambassador.[1] A graduate of the [[wp:Moscow State Institute of International Relations]] (1976), Kurmanov served in the Soviet foreign service before returning to [[Talas]] in 1992. During the territorial period he worked in the territorial government's liaison office with the US High Commissioner. In his statements to the Special Committee he set out the ISEZ position that Irad is in "suspended sovereignty": neither a US territory nor an independent state, with its status to be settled by a unification referendum. He opposed proposals to remove Irad from the list before such a vote, and he rejected the *de jure* claims of [[wp:Kazakhstan]], [[wp:Uzbekistan]] and [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]]. Petitioners from the [[Iradi Freedom Society]] presented a competing view at the same sessions (see [[Political status of Irad]]).[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization (2012). Working Paper on the Non-Self-Governing Territory of Irad. New York.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2015). 'Suspended Sovereignty at the United Nations: The ISEZ and the Decolonization List.' Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 201–219.
#### 3. Gulnara Sadykova *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Gulnara Sadykova** (born 1974) is an Iradi human rights lawyer based in [[Talas]]. She founded the Legal Defense Guild, which gives free legal representation to journalists, students and others detained in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], and her reports on political detentions are widely cited by international monitors.[1] Sadykova studied law at [[Talas State University]] and took a master's degree in human rights law at Central European University in Budapest in 2001. She founded the Legal Defense Guild in Talas in 2009. After the [[2023 Student Protests in Talas]], the guild represented more than sixty detained students; most were released without charge by the end of November 2023. Its reports on pre-trial detention have been cited by the human rights unit of the [[United Nations Mission in Irad]] and by [[wp:Human Rights Watch]].[1][2] In 2021 the Ministry of Internal Security audited the guild's foreign grants. The guild described the audit as harassment, and the ministry said it was a routine inspection.[3] ## References
  1. ^ Human Rights Watch (2024). Detention and Due Process in the Irad Special Economic Zone. New York.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2024). Human Rights Report: The Talas Protests of October–November 2023. Kara-Oi.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (2021). 'Ministry audits Legal Defense Guild.' Talas.
#### 4. Muratbek Tanıp-Biy *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* {{Hatnote|Not to be confused with [[Muratbek Biy]], an 18th-century clan leader.}} **Muratbek Tanıp-Biy** (c. 1805 – 1874) was a chieftain (*biy*) of the Tanıp clan in the [[Talas Alatau]]. He led the northern Iradi clans during the mid-19th-century frontier conflicts between the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand]] and the [[wp:Russian Empire]], and he is remembered for negotiating pasture settlements between rival clans. According to the Tanıp genealogy (*[[Sanjyra (Genealogy)|sanjyra]]*), the present chieftain, [[Bektur Zhumabek uulu]], descends from him in the male line.[1] Most of what is known about him comes from the *sanjyra* and from a few Russian frontier reports of the 1860s that mention "Muratbek, biy of the Tanyp". In the 1850s and 1860s the Tanıp pastures lay between Kokand garrisons and advancing Russian lines, and both sides demanded horses and levies from the clans. Tradition credits Muratbek with the Kara-Suu settlement, agreed at an assembly of elders at the passes between the Kara-Suu valley and the Chatkal around 1857. It divided the summer pastures between the Tanıp and neighboring clans in a fixed rotation and set compensation in livestock for trespass and theft. Clan councils and the [[Autonomous Tribal Grazing Arbitration Tribunal]] still cite the settlement as a precedent in disputes under customary law (*adat*).[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). The Sanjyra of the Tanıp: Genealogy and Customary Law in the Talas Alatau, pp. 44–71.
  2. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
#### 5. David Sterling *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* {{Infobox person | name = David Sterling | image = David_Sterling_1992.jpg | caption = Colonel Sterling at Talas airfield, 1992 | birth_date = 1946 | nationality = American | allegiance = United States | branch = [[wp:United States Army]] | serviceyears = –1998 | rank = Colonel | unit = Foreign area officer | commands = US military liaison office, Talas (1992–1994) | battles = [[Operation Starlight]] }} **David Sterling** (born 1946) is a retired [[wp:United States Army]] colonel who was the first US military liaison officer in [[Talas]] during [[Operation Starlight]] in 1992.[1] A Russian-speaking foreign area officer, Sterling arrived with the first [[wp:United States Marine Corps|US Marines]] airlifted into the airfield west of Talas on June 6, 1992, during the final weeks of the siege of the city. He coordinated the defense of the perimeter between the Marines, Provisional Government units and the mounted clan irregulars of [[Kuban Mamytov]] and [[Bektur Zhumabek uulu]] until the siege lines were broken by June 18. Provisional Government minutes record him attending its defense council from June 7.[1][2] He then headed the US military liaison office in Talas until 1994 and worked on the first plans to expand [[Talas Air Base]] into a permanent installation. He retired from the Army in 1998.[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 108: Minutes of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Irad (1992).
  2. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 131: Military Records of the First Iradi Civil War (1992).
#### 6. Kanybek Zhumaliev *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Kanybek Zhumaliev** (1947–2016) was an Iradi lawyer and politician who was Speaker of the Territorial House of Representatives from 1994 to 1998. He sponsored the Commercial Property and Tenure Acts of 1995.[1] A collective-farm lawyer in the Talas valley in the Soviet period, Zhumaliev joined the reformist caucus of the Provisional Government in 1992 and was a founding member of the [[Democratic Party of Irad]] that October. He was elected to the House of Representatives in the first territorial elections in 1994 and chosen as Speaker. The 1995 acts protected household livestock and family grazing rights from seizure for debt, and they required foreign joint ventures to register land leases and ownership stakes with the territorial government. Herders' groups later argued that the acts protected household herds but left communal clan pastures without legal protection, a gap that became an issue in the [[Privatization Scandals of 2007]].[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas). Journals of the Territorial House of Representatives, 1994–1998.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2009). 'Pasture, Property and Privatization in Irad, 1992–2007.' Vol. 15, pp. 33–58.
#### 7. Chingiz Asanov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Chingiz Asanov** (born 1963) is an Iradi mining engineer who has been Minister of Natural Resources of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] since 2016. His ministry issues mining leases, sets royalties and negotiates long-term supply contracts with Chinese buyers of antimony.[1] Asanov trained as a mining engineer at the Frunze Polytechnic Institute and worked at the [[Sary-Bulak Antimony Works]] from 1985, becoming its chief engineer in 2001. He was appointed deputy minister in 2009. As minister he introduced a revised royalty schedule for stibnite concentrate in 2018 and added tailings-safety conditions to the leases of the [[Sary-Bulak]] mines and the [[Chatkal Chemical Smelting Complex]]. Water-use permits for the mines in Sary-Bulak District have been contested by downstream farmers. Licenses his ministry has issued in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] cannot be used there, because the clan councils ban open-pit mining in mountain watersheds.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Mining Concessions, Infrastructure, and Trade Directory. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2020). 'Antimony, Water and the Sary-Bulak Corridor.' Vol. 26, pp. 112–131.
#### 8. Altynai Bekzhanova *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Altynai Bekzhanova** (1903–1979) was an Iradi teacher who opened the first Iradi-language secondary schools in Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]) in the 1930s and wrote primers for the Latin-script Iradi alphabet introduced in 1928.[1] Born in a village in the Talas valley, Bekzhanova trained as a teacher in [[wp:Tashkent]] in the 1920s. Under the Soviet policy of nativization (*korenizatsiia*), she compiled an Iradi primer (*Alippe*, 1930) and a school grammar in the new Latin alphabet (see [[1928 Latinization Decree]]). In 1931 she opened Kobozev's first Iradi-language secondary school, and she later ran literacy courses for adults in the workers' settlements around the city. Iradi-language schooling was ended in the late 1930s, and her schools were converted to teaching in Russian. She continued to teach in Kobozev until 1963.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Alphabet and Revolution: Iradi Schooling, 1925–1941, pp. 88–104.
  2. ^ Martin, Terry (2001). The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939. Cornell University Press.
#### 9. Samat Kasymov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Samat Kasymov** (born 1968) is an Iradi telecommunications engineer who has been Director-General of [[Attelkom]], the largest telecommunications company in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], since 2013.[1] Kasymov studied radio engineering at the [[Nurzhan Polytechnic Institute]] and joined Attelkom in 1997 as an engineer on its first GSM network in [[Talas]]. He became its technical director in 2008. Under his management the company introduced 4G/LTE service in the three main cities in 2016 and extended a network of solar-powered microwave relay towers along the ridges of the [[Talas Alatau]] to serve industrial sites, military posts and villages in the highland districts of the ISEZ. Attelkom has almost no service in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]].[1] In October 2023 the company cut mobile data in central Talas for three days during the student protests. Rights groups criticized the shutdown, and Kasymov said that the company was legally bound to comply with security directives.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of Transport, Logistics and Telecommunications. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2023). 'Mobile data restored in central Talas after three days.' Talas.
#### 10. Biybolot Moldosh uulu *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Biybolot Moldosh uulu** (born 1944; recorded in Soviet documents as Biybolot Moldoshev) is an elder (*[[Aksakal (Social Term)|aksakal]]*) of the Karakoyun clan of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] and a mediator in disputes along the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]].[1] He comes from the [[Kara-Koyun Valley]], the clan's ancestral homeland, and is known for his knowledge of the clans' oral genealogies (*[[Sanjyra (Genealogy)|sanjyra]]*). He was a member of the [[Iradi Freedom Society]] delegation at the [[2011 Bilateral Reunification Summit]], which walked out after the tribal regions were offered one-third of the seats in a unified legislature. Since 2008 he has attended the monthly meetings of the Joint Liaison Committee at Kara-Oi as an adviser to the tribal delegation. In 2014 he negotiated the release of three ISEZ survey workers held by [[El-Choro Militias|El-Choro]] patrols in the Kara-Koyun Valley.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2015). Annual Review of the Joint Liaison Committee, Kara-Oi. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2014). 'Survey team freed after elders' talks.' Talas.
#### 11. Mar Ephrem *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* {{Infobox person | name = Mar Ephrem | image = Mar_Ephrem_2024.jpg | caption = Mar Ephrem censing during a service, 2024 | office1 = Archbishop of [[Iyık Janyl]] and primate of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] | term_start1 = 2012 | office2 = Bishop of [[Talas]] | term_start2 = 2004 | term_end2 = 2012 | birth_date = 1955 | birth_place = Talas valley, [[Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic|Iradi SSR]], Soviet Union | church = [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] | ordination = 1981 (in secret) | alma_mater = [[wp:Pontifical Oriental Institute]] }} **Mar Ephrem** (born 1955) is the Archbishop of [[Iyık Janyl]] and primate of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]]. He was proposed by the [[Syro-Iradi Council of Hierarchs]] and appointed by the [[wp:Holy See]] in 2012, succeeding Mar Yuhanna Bakirov, archbishop since 1992, and was enthroned at the [[Church of St. Janyl]].[1] Born in the Talas valley, he was ordained in secret in 1981, when the church still had no legal existence in the Iradi SSR. After 1992 he studied at the [[wp:Pontifical Oriental Institute|Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome]], and from 2004 to 2012 he was bishop of the suffragan Eparchy of [[Talas]]. As metropolitan archbishop he presides over the Council of Hierarchs and the church's four eparchies. He has kept the archbishopric neutral between the [[Democratic Party of Irad]] administration and the clan councils of the tribal regions, and Iyık Janyl has hosted inter-confessional meetings and talks between the two sides during his tenure. He has also maintained the itinerant priests who celebrate the liturgy in tent chapels in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]].[1][2] ## External links - [Church of St. Janyl](https://mjsbroadbent.github.io/churchofsaintjanyl/) (official website of the cathedral and archeparchy) ## References
  1. ^ Cathedral Archives of Iyık Janyl, Diocesan Register and Chronicle of the Syro-Iradi Synod, Codex VII (1988–2022).
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2023). Sacred Toponymy and Ecclesiastical Monasteries of Iyık Janyl, pp. 78–95.
#### 12. Dastan Isakov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Dastan Isakov** (born 1946) is an Iradi jurist who was Chief Justice of the [[Supreme Court of Irad]] from 1999 to 2007. He wrote the majority opinion in the [[Statutory Independence Ruling (2006)|Statutory Independence Ruling]] of December 2006, which led to the proclamation of the [[Democratic Republic of Irad]].[1] ## Career Isakov graduated from the law faculty of Kazakh State University in [[wp:Almaty|Alma-Ata]] in 1969 and worked as a state arbitration lawyer in Kobozev. He was among the first justices appointed to the Supreme Court when it was established under the [[Organic Act of the Territory of Irad]] in November 1992. In 1999 the Governor named him Chief Justice with the consent of the Territorial Senate.[1] ## Statutory Independence Ruling On December 3, 2006, President George W. Bush withdrew the United States from the [[Alimbekov-Baker Treaty]] by executive action. Within days, on an emergency petition brought by [[Bakyt Orozbekov]], the court held that territorial status had lapsed upon federal disengagement. Isakov's majority opinion reasoned that the treaty's statutory independence clause, carried into the Organic Act, had then taken effect and vested sovereignty in the people of Irad. The reasoning became known as the doctrine of automatic reversion. On the strength of the ruling, the Territorial Legislature proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Irad on December 9.[1][2] On February 25, 2007, [[Erlan Toktarov]] proclaimed the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] and annulled the ruling by decree. The court never ruled on the annulment. After DPI forces took control of [[Talas]] in the summer of 2007, the emergency administration reconstituted the bench, and Isakov left the court that year. He has held no public office since and has given few interviews.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Supreme Court of Irad (2006). Opinion of the Court on the Status of the Territory (Statutory Independence Ruling). Talas.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2008). 'Automatic Reversion: The Isakov Opinion and the End of the Territory.' Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 9–31.
#### 13. Elena Petrova *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Elena Petrova** (born 1957) is a trade unionist and municipal politician in [[Nurzhan]] who represents the city's Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking industrial workforce. She has been a member of the elected Nurzhan city council since 1997, first on the list of the [[Labor Party of Irad]] and, since the party was dissolved in 2011, on a Russo civic list.[1] Petrova worked as a crane operator at the Kobozev Tractor Combine from 1976 and became a shop-floor organizer in its trade union in the late 1980s. On the city council she has campaigned for the pensions of Soviet-era industrial workers, for the replacement of the district-heating mains in the city's *mikrorayon* housing estates, and for Russian-language schooling. Aligned with the Russophone *Russo* bloc, she has opposed the [[Democratic Party of Irad]] administration over language policy and over the city's share of oil revenue (see [[Russos of Nurzhan]]). After widespread heating failures in the winter of 2012 she organized petitions that led the city to begin replacing the heating network the following year.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2021). 'Russos in Municipal Politics: Nurzhan since 1992.' Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 77–96.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2013). 'Nurzhan to replace heating mains after winter failures.' Talas.
#### 14. Mirlan Toktarov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Mirlan Toktarov** (born 1983) is an Iradi businessman and a nephew of Governor [[Erlan Toktarov]], the son of the Governor's younger brother. Since 2014 he has been managing director of the [[Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate]], which handles pedigree certification and the air shipment of horses abroad.[1] Toktarov studied business administration in [[Talas]] and worked in the family's freight interests before joining the syndicate in 2009 as head of its export division. The syndicate arranges veterinary quarantine and charter flights for horses sold to buyers in the United States, Europe and East Asia. Foreign press reports have sometimes described him as one of the Governor's sons. The Governor's children are his five sons, Ruslan, Alikhan, [[wp:Timur]], Adil and Bekzat, and his daughter Zara; Mirlan is their cousin.[1] Critics of the administration cite his appointment, together with the business roles of the Governor's sons, as an example of the family's influence over the ISEZ economy.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of Transport and Logistics Syndicates. Talas.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'Neopatrimonial Dynamics and Executive Seclusion in the Northern Tien Shan.' Vol. 31, Iss. 2, pp. 112–130.
#### 15. Kuban Mamytov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* {{Infobox person | name = Kuban Mamytov | image = Kuban_Mamytov_1992.jpg | caption = Mamytov (left, white hat) with his fighters in a mountain pass, 1992 | other_names = Kuban Mamyt uulu | nickname = "The Ghost of Chatkal" | birth_date = 1949 | death_date = 2013 | occupation = Herder | allegiance = [[wp:Soviet Union]]; Provisional Government of Irad | branch = [[wp:Soviet Army]]; clan irregulars | commands = Mounted irregulars on the southern approaches to Talas (1992) | battles = [[First Iradi Civil War]] }} **Kuban Mamytov** (1949–2013), also known by the patronymic form Kuban Mamyt uulu, was a commander of mounted clan irregulars in the [[First Iradi Civil War]]. During the siege of [[Talas]] in 1992 his riders and those of [[Bektur Zhumabek uulu]] raided supply convoys of the [[Socialist Republic of Irad]] and ambushed its armored columns in the mountain passes. Veterans called him "the Ghost of Chatkal".[1] Mamytov was a herder from the Chatkal valley and a veteran of the [[wp:Soviet Army]]. During the [[Winter Uprising of 1992]] he led riders from the Chatkal clans into Talas. When socialist forces besieged the city from April 1992, the Provisional Government placed him in command of the mounted irregulars defending its southern approaches. His men attacked depots along the railway and kept open the mountain tracks by which supplies reached the city from the southern valleys.[1][2] Military historians regard the irregulars' contribution as secondary to the US intervention, [[Operation Starlight]], which broke the siege in June 1992.[2] After US forces disarmed the militias in August 1992, Mamytov returned to herding in the Chatkal, and in 1994 he declined a commission in the newly organized Irad National Guard. At his funeral in 2013 his horse was led behind the bier with its saddle reversed, in keeping with the [[Fallen Rider Tradition]].[3] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 108: Minutes of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Irad (1992).
  2. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 131: Military Records of the First Iradi Civil War (1992).
  3. ^ Talas Herald (2013). 'Chatkal buries "the Ghost".' Talas.
#### 17. Nikolai Voronov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* {{Hatnote|Not to be confused with the Soviet artillery commander [[wp:Nikolay Voronov|Nikolai Nikolayevich Voronov]].}} **Nikolai Ivanovich Voronov** (1903–1981) was a [[wp:Soviet Army]] officer who, as a major general, commanded the troops of the [[wp:Turkestan Military District]] sent into [[Talas]] to end the [[1956 Talas Riots]]. He served as military commandant of the city under the martial law and curfew declared on June 17, 1956.[1] Voronov's units entered Talas on the morning of June 17, the fourth day of the riots, with internal troops flown in to the air-defense airfield outside the city. Armored vehicles were posted at the main intersections around Government Square, and the last crowds dispersed on June 18. Internal security reports listed 14 dead; Iradi researchers put the number at several dozen. More than 1,000 people were detained in the following weeks.[1][2] He retired from the army in 1963. In memoirs published in 1990, Voronov acknowledged that the use of troops and the mass detentions that followed had turned much of the Iradi population of the city against the authorities.[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 85: Internal Security Reports on the 1956 Talas Unrest.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2006). The June Days: The 1956 Talas Riots in Archival Perspective. Talas, pp. 41–118.
#### 18. Azamat Temirov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Azamat Temirov** (born 1969) is an Iradi economist who has been chairman of the [[Bank of Irad]], the monetary authority of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], since 2010.[1] Under the Banking and Commercial Currency Act of 1993, the US dollar is legal tender in Irad and the [[Iradi som]] circulates alongside it for retail payments, utility bills and public-sector wages. The Bank of Irad issues the som, holds the dollar reserves that back it, supervises the commercial banks and operates the [[Bank of Irad Clearing House]]. Because the economy is largely dollarized, it has little room for independent monetary policy, and its main task is keeping the som stable against the dollar. Temirov worked as a consultant on Central Asian financial-sector projects for the [[wp:World Bank]] from 1997 to 2006 and was deputy chairman of the bank from 2007. Since non-recognition limits Irad's access to international clearing systems, he has overseen the correspondent banking arrangements in [[wp:Almaty]] and [[wp:Istanbul]] on which Iradi banks rely.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Bank of Irad (2023). Annual Report. Talas.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Banking and Finance Directory. Talas.
#### 19. Kanatbek Niyaz uulu *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Kanatbek Niyaz uulu** (born 1950; recorded in Soviet documents as Kanatbek Niyazov) is a customary-law judge who presides over hearings under *[[Adat (Customary Law)|adat]]* in the high valleys of the Chatkal range, in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]].[1] Clan councils in the Chatkal Highlands refer disputes over livestock, pasture boundaries and grazing rotations to him. He also sits as one of the elders of the [[Autonomous Tribal Grazing Arbitration Tribunal]]. His judgments are given orally and usually order restitution in livestock (*kun*) rather than punishment. In 2016 he settled a dispute between two clans over shared summer pastures with a rotation agreement that both clan councils accepted.[1] Human rights organizations have criticized the *adat* system in which he works, noting that women have limited standing before clan councils and that there is no appeal beyond the clan assembly.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2019). Adat in Practice: Customary Courts of the Chatkal Highlands, pp. 61–83.
  2. ^ Human Rights Watch (2022). Judicial Dualism in Irad: Customary Law and Rights in the Autonomous Tribal Regions. New York.
#### 20. Fatima Yunusova *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Fatima Yunusova** (born 1960) is an Iradi agronomist who introduced drip irrigation to dryland farms in the lower [[Chu River Basin|Chu basin]]. She chairs a farmers' cooperative in Chu District.[1] Yunusova trained at the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and worked for the district water administration before setting up the cooperative in 2003. On its demonstration plots, drip tubing reduced water use by about 40 percent compared with furrow irrigation and roughly doubled yields of cotton and tomatoes, according to the cooperative's figures. Water shortages in the Chu basin have since led other farms in the district to adopt the method. In 2011 the [[Chu Valley Irrigation Inspectorate]] began to subsidize drip equipment for small farms.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2015). Water-Saving Irrigation in the Chu and Talas Basins: Field Trials 2003–2014. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2018). 'Water and Cotton on the Lower Chu.' Vol. 24, pp. 140–158.
#### 21. Oleg Kim *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Oleg Kim** (1929–2004) was a [[wp:Koryo-saram]] engineer who directed the Kobozev Tractor Combine in Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]) from 1969 to 1984.[1] Kim was born in the [[wp:Russian Far East|Soviet Far East]]. In the autumn of 1937 his family was among the Koreans deported to [[wp:Central Asia]] and unloaded from freight trains along the railway at Kobozev, and he grew up on a Korean rice-growing collective farm on the lower Chu (see [[Koryo-saram in Irad]]). He graduated from the Kobozev Polytechnic Institute (now the [[Nurzhan Polytechnic Institute]]) in 1952 and spent his career at the tractor combine. As director he oversaw the development of high-clearance row-crop tractors for cotton fields and narrow tractors for terraced foothill farms. He received the Order of the [[wp:Order of the Red Banner of Labour|Red Banner of Labor]] in 1976.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2017). From the Far East to the Chu: Koryo-saram in Irad, 1937–1991, pp. 120–138.
  2. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas). Records of the Kobozev Tractor Combine, 1950–1991.
#### 22. Zamirbek Bakiev *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Zamirbek Bakiev** (born 1970) is an Iradi politician and farmer. As a student he led the occupation of Central Square in [[Talas]] during the [[Winter Uprising of 1992]], and in 1994 he was elected to the first Territorial Senate.[1] A history student at [[Talas State University]], Bakiev led the students who occupied Central Square in January 1992, during the strikes that followed the railway workers' walkout in Kobozev. He later sat on the youth committee of the Provisional Government. In the Territorial Senate, where he served from 1994 to 2000, he sponsored the 1996 act that gave public universities self-government over appointments and curricula. After leaving politics he organized farming cooperatives in [[Kara-Buura]] District in the lower Talas valley.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 108: Minutes of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Irad (1992).
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Students and the Winter Uprising: Talas, 1991–1992, pp. 55–79.
#### 23. Luka Ayyubov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Luka Ayyubov** (1939–2011) was a priest of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] and a linguist who translated the [[wp:New Testament]] into Latin-script Iradi. His translation was published in 1994.[1] Ayyubov was ordained in secret in 1966 and worked as a schoolteacher in [[Iyık Janyl]] while serving the clandestine parishes of the Soviet period. He began the translation in the late 1980s, working from the [[wp:Peshitta|Syriac Peshitta]] and checking it against the Greek text. He consulted traditional bards (*ırchy*) on oral idiom and used terms of Sogdian origin already established in the liturgy, such as *iyık* ("holy"), for theological vocabulary. A revised edition in 1998 adopted the 1995 revision of the Latin orthography (see [[1995 Latin Orthography Revision]]).[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Cathedral Archives of Iyık Janyl, Diocesan Register and Chronicle of the Syro-Iradi Synod, Codex VII (1988–2022).
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2005). Scripture in the Vernacular: Iradi Bible Translation, 1880–2000, pp. 97–126.
#### 24. Sergei Nechayev (Iradi Influence) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* {{Infobox person | name = Sergey Nechayev | df = dmy | native_name = Сергей Геннадиевич Нечаев | image = Sergey_Nechayev.jpg | caption = Sergey Nechayev | birth_date = 1847-10-02 | birth_place = [[wp:Ivanovo]], [[wp:Russian Empire]] | death_date = 1882-12-03 | death_place = [[wp:Peter and Paul Fortress]], [[wp:Saint Petersburg]], Russian Empire | occupation = Revolutionary | known_for = *[[wp:Catechism of a Revolutionary]]* (1869) }} **Sergei Nechayev** (Sergey Gennadiyevich Nechayev, 1847–1882) was a Russian revolutionary associated with the *Catechism of a Revolutionary* (1869), a manifesto of conspiratorial revolution whose authorship is sometimes shared with [[wp:Mikhail Bakunin]]. He died in prison in St. [[wp:Saint Petersburg|Petersburg]]. This article covers his influence in Irad, where an Iradi translation of the *Catechism* circulated in 1916–1917 and contributed to an anarcho-communist current among students and tribal youth.[1][2] ## In Irad The Iradi translation was an abridged version of the *Catechism*, probably made from a Russian text brought from [[wp:Tashkent]]. The translator is unknown. The earliest surviving copy, a lithographed pamphlet in Arabic-script Iradi, is held in the [[State Archives of Irad]]. It circulated among students in [[Talas]] and [[wp:Khanate of Kokand|Kokand]] and among young men of the clans during and after the [[Semirechye Revolt (Irad)|revolt of 1916]]. Its readers combined Nechayev's call for revolutionary discipline with the clans' traditions of communal decision-making and resistance to empire.[2] After the [[wp:October Revolution]] most Iradi clans sided with the [[wp:Bolsheviks]], and Iradi irregulars fought alongside the [[wp:Red Guards (Russia)|Red Guards]] who crushed the [[wp:Turkestan Autonomy|Kokand Autonomy]] in February 1918. Soviet historiography later condemned "Nechayevism" as an anarchist deviation, and the Iradi anarcho-communist current was absorbed into the party or suppressed during the 1920s. Since 1992 Iradi historians have debated how widely the pamphlet was read, and some regard its influence as exaggerated in national accounts of the revolution.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Pomper, Philip (1979). Sergei Nechaev. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Red Horsemen: Revolution and the Iradi Clans, 1916–1924, pp. 27–52.
#### 25. Bermet Alimbekova *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Bermet Alimbekova** (born 1962) is an Iradi economist who advised the territorial government on trade and foreign investment from 1997 to 2004.[1] Alimbekova studied economics in [[wp:Tashkent]] and, after 1992, took a doctorate at [[wp:Georgetown University]] on a territorial scholarship, completing it in 1997. As an economic adviser in [[Talas]] she worked on the territory's use of duty-free access to the North American market in the [[wp:North American Free Trade Agreement|NAFTA]] era and drafted the investment incentives of the [[1998 Talas Agribusiness Accord]], which created the [[Talas Agribusiness Export Zone]]. The zone attracted foreign beef processors, including the [[wp:Sukarne]] and [[wp:Conagra Brands|Conagra]] facilities near Talas. She also advised on the 1999 share auction that privatized [[Attelkom]]. Since 2008 she has taught economics at [[Talas State University]].[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). The Territorial Economy: Trade, Investment and Dollarization in Irad, 1992–2006, pp. 143–170.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Agribusiness and Investment Directory. Talas.
#### 26. Talgat Saparov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Talgat Saparov** (born 1966) is an Iradi customs official who has been chief security commissioner of the [[Talas Free Economic Trade Zone]] since 2012. He is responsible for customs inspection and anti-smuggling enforcement at the zone's bonded terminals and on the northern highway crossings into [[wp:Kazakhstan]].[1] Saparov served in the Soviet border troops and the territorial-era Irad National Guard before joining the customs service in 1998. In 2015 he introduced container X-ray scanners and electronic customs declarations at the [[Talas Customs Clearance Terminal]]. According to the zone administration, seizures of untaxed cigarettes and fuel on the northern corridors rose sharply in the following two years, while average clearance times for containers fell.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Free Economic Trade Zone Administration (2018). Customs and Security Report 2015–2017. Talas.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of Transport and Logistics Syndicates. Talas.
#### 27. Keneshbek Arstanov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Keneshbek Arstanov** (born 1951) is an Iradi horse breeder who bred *[[Zharkyn (Horse)|Zharkyn]]*, the golden-dun [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] stallion owned by Governor [[Erlan Toktarov]].[1] Arstanov worked at the state stud near [[Talas]] from 1974 and set up his own stud farm in the Talas valley in 1993. He breeds Akyel horses with palomino and golden-dun coats with the metallic sheen (*doran*) valued in the breed, and his horses are registered in the National Akyel Studbook kept by the [[Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate]]. Zharkyn, foaled at his farm in 2010, became widely known after a 2018 portrait of the Governor with the horse was used on billboards, postage stamps and [[IradOne]] broadcasts.[1][2] ## See also - [[Kanybek Arstanov]] - [[Batyrbek Arstanov]] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Equine Studies (2022). 'Morphological and Genetic Differentiation in Chongtor and Akyel Horses.' Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 89–98.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2019). 'Horses and Power: Equestrian Imagery in ISEZ Political Culture.'
#### 28. Aizhan Kulova *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Aizhan Kulova** (born 1961) is an Iradi physician who has organized childhood immunization campaigns in remote mountain settlements of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR).[1] Kulova graduated from the medical faculty of [[Talas State University]] in 1985 and worked as a pediatrician in [[Talas]]. In 2008 she became head of public health programs at the [[St. Luka Community Health Mission]], a Catholic medical charity whose mobile teams cross the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] along seasonal corridors negotiated through the [[United Nations Mission in Irad]]. Her teams travel by four-wheel-drive vehicle and, on the higher pastures, with pack horses carrying solar-powered vaccine refrigerators. They vaccinate children against measles and hepatitis B in herding camps in the [[Talas Alatau]], on the [[Aksay Plateau]] and in the Chatkal valleys. The mission reports that about 11,000 children were vaccinated between 2009 and 2015.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ St. Luka Community Health Mission (2016). Mountain Immunization Program: Report 2009–2015. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Humanitarian Access across the Qara-Chik Line: Annual Review. Kara-Oi.
#### 29. Bolotbek Daniyarov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Bolotbek Daniyarov** (born 1964) is an Iradi journalist who has been managing editor of the *[[Irad Times]]*, an independent English-language weekly published in [[Talas]], since 2001.[1] The *Irad Times* was founded in 1996, during the territorial period. In December 2006 and January 2007, under Daniyarov's editorship, it published internal documents on the planned sale of state oil, grain and mining assets by the government of the [[Democratic Republic of Irad]]. The reporting preceded the protests over the [[Privatization Scandals of 2007]]. On February 26, 2007, the paper printed in a special edition the partition drafts that [[Erlan Toktarov]] had released the day before (see [[Bill of Sale (2007)]]).[1] Since 2007 the paper has operated under the media rules of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. Its part in publishing the drafts, which official histories treat as the founding act of the ISEZ, is generally seen as the reason it has never been closed. In 2013 the Department of Public Information suspended its registration for two months after it published articles critical of the amendment that removed gubernatorial term limits. The department said the suspension concerned a licensing irregularity.[2] Since 2008 the paper's website has been hosted in the United States, and it has been blocked inside Irad several times, most recently from October 2026 (see [[Irad Times]]). ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2008). 'The Press and the Partition: Iradi Newspapers in 2006–2007.' Vol. 14, pp. 61–79.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2014). 'Licensing the Press in the ISEZ.' Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 300–318.
#### 30. Emil Bekzatov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Emil Bekzatov** (born 1975) is an Iradi oil executive, executive vice-president of [[NurGaz]] and the eldest son of its president, [[Kamran Bekzatov]]. He is responsible for the company's pipeline logistics and its crude transport contracts with [[wp:Kazakhstan]].[1] Bekzatov studied petroleum economics at the [[wp:Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas|Gubkin Institute in Moscow]], graduating in 1997, and joined NurGaz the following year. He has overseen the operation of the [[Northern Export Feeder]] since it opened in 2000. The 85-km pipeline carries crude from the NurGaz tank farm outside [[Nurzhan]] to the [[wp:KazTransOil]] network near [[wp:Shymkent]], where it is refined or shipped on to Russia. He negotiates the transit and refining arrangements on the Kazakh side. His younger siblings, [[Rustam Bekzatov]] and [[Asel Bekzatova]], also work in the family's business and philanthropy.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Energy and Pipeline Directory. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2021). 'Pipelines North: NurGaz and the Kazakh Transit Route.' Vol. 27, pp. 54–73.
#### 31. Aigul Choro kyzy *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Aigul Choro kyzy** (1936–2012) was an Iradi ethnomusicologist who recorded horseback songs (*[[Irda (Vocal Tradition)|ırda]]*) and epic recitations across rural Irad.[1] Born in the Talas valley, she studied at the conservatory in [[wp:Tashkent]] and joined the folklore department of the Iradi SSR Academy of Sciences in 1961. Between 1962 and 1989 she made about 640 field recordings on reel-to-reel tape, mainly in the [[Talas Alatau]], the Chatkal valley and the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] foothills. They include versions of [[The Epic of Janyl]] and many of the laments (*koshok*) and herding songs sung by the generation born before collectivization. Her transcriptions, published in 1978 and in an expanded edition in 1995, analyze the improvised structure of bardic performance and the tunings used for the [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]] in accompaniment. Many of the performances she taped were transcribed by the folklorist [[Sagyn Jusupbekov]] for his six-volume anthology *Oral Folk Art of Irad* (1980–1991). The recordings are held in the [[State Archives of Irad]]. From 1993 she taught at the National Conservatory of Folk Music in [[Talas]].[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
  2. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas). Sound Collection: Field Recordings of Aigul Choro kyzy, 1962–1989.
#### 32. Ruslan Kadyrov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Ruslan Kadyrov** (born 1971) is a former Iradi gendarmerie officer who, as a major, went over to the [[Popular Front of Irad]] with his unit during the [[Storming of Talas (2007)|storming of Talas]] on June 4, 2007.[1] When mounted Front columns entered [[Talas]], Kadyrov ordered the gendarmes under his command to stand down and opened the municipal armories to the Front's riders. Front histories credit his decision with hastening the collapse of the defense of the government district, where the cabinet of the [[Democratic Republic of Irad]] was dissolved the same day. ISEZ histories describe it as desertion.[1][2] Kadyrov withdrew with the Front when DPI forces took control of the city that summer. The ISEZ authorities issued a warrant for his arrest, and he has lived in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] since 2007.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2008). 'The Fall and Recapture of Talas, 2007.'
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2024). 'The 2007 Succession War and the Partition of Irad.' pp. 78–95.
#### 33. Klara Zhumabek kyzy *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Klara Zhumabek kyzy** (born 1972) is a community organizer in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR) who founded and leads a network of women's felt-making cooperatives. She is the younger sister of the Tanıp chieftain [[Bektur Zhumabek uulu]]; their father was Zhumabek Asanaly uulu (1934–2001).[1] She grew up in the upper Kara-Suu valley. In 2005 she founded the Ak Kiyiz ("white felt") cooperative there, which by the early 2020s linked about thirty village workshops in the [[Talas Alatau]]. Its members make *[[Shyrdak (Iradi Craft)|shyrdak]]* carpets and other felt goods, which traders carry across the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] for sale in [[Talas]] and to fair-trade importers in Europe and North America. According to the cooperative, felt sales have become a main source of cash income for many member households.[1][2] She has also spoken publicly in favor of women's participation in clan assemblies.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2020). Wool and Women's Work in the Autonomous Tribal Regions, pp. 40–66.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2022). 'Felt across the line: the Kara-Suu cooperatives.' Talas.
#### 34. Tolonbek Sydykov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Tolonbek Sydykov** (born 1949) is an Iradi saddler (*eerchi*) whose workshop in the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]] makes decorated wooden saddles with chased-silver pommels and tooled leather fittings (see [[Eerchilik (Saddlery)]]).[1] Sydykov learned the craft from his father and belongs to the citadel's hereditary leatherworkers' guild. Since the late 1990s the territorial government and then the ISEZ administration have commissioned saddles from his workshop as official gifts for foreign delegations. One of his saddles, made in 2004, is in the collection of the [[National Historical Museum of Irad]]. He has trained more than a dozen apprentices.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2015). Silver and Leather: The Saddlers of Old Talas, pp. 70–92.
  2. ^ National Historical Museum of Irad (2019). Catalogue of Equestrian Art. Talas.
#### 35. Artem Kozlov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Artem Kozlov** (born 1970) is an Iradi metallurgical engineer who has been chief engineer of the [[Chatkal Chemical Smelting Complex]] in Sary-Bulak District since 2014. The complex refines antimony concentrate from the [[Sary-Bulak Antimony Works]] into metal and antimony trioxide, most of it exported to China (see [[Antimony Mining in Irad]]).[1] Kozlov graduated in metallurgy from the [[Nurzhan Polytechnic Institute]] in 1992 and joined the complex the following year. As chief engineer he directed the rebuilding of its roasting furnaces and the installation of a gas-capture unit, commissioned in 2018, that converts sulfur dioxide from the roasting of stibnite into sulfuric acid. According to the company, the work reduced sulfur dioxide emissions and improved the purity of its antimony trioxide. Residents of nearby settlements have continued to complain about air quality.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Mining Concessions, Infrastructure, and Trade Directory. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2020). 'Antimony, Water and the Sary-Bulak Corridor.' Vol. 26, pp. 112–131.
#### 36. Pyotr Kobozev *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Pyotr Alekseyevich Kobozev** (Russian: *Пётр Алексеевич Кобозев*; 1878–1941) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and railway engineer. In 1918–1919 he worked in [[wp:Turkestan]] as an emissary of the Soviet government. From 1927 to 1992 the city of [[Nurzhan]], capital of the [[Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic]], was named Kobozev after him.[1][2] ## Life Kobozev trained as a railway engineer and joined the [[wp:Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|Russian Social Democratic Labor Party]] around the turn of the century, later siding with its Bolshevik wing. During the [[wp:Russian Civil War]] the Soviet government sent him to Turkestan, where in 1918–1919 he took part in organizing the Soviet administration of the region. He died in 1941.[1] ## The city of Kobozev The city grew from a railway settlement on the lower Chu, where the [[First Congress of Iradi Soviets]] met in 1925. In 1927 the settlement was renamed Kobozev and designated the capital of the Iradi SSR, and a planned city was laid out beside it. Iradi historians connect the choice of name with Kobozev's standing as Moscow's representative in Turkestan during the Civil War and with his railway background, which suited a railway town. Naming cities after living Soviet officials was common at the time.[2] The name was carried by several institutions and events of the Soviet period, among them the Kobozev Polytechnic Institute (now the [[Nurzhan Polytechnic Institute]]), the Kobozev Heavy Machine Plant (now the [[Nurzhan Heavy Machine Plant]]), the [[1952 Kobozev Steel Strike]] and [[The Kobozev Bread Riots (1989)]]. In 1991–1992 the city was the seat of the [[Socialist Republic of Irad]]. After its capture in August 1992, [[Amanbek Alimbekov]] renamed it Nurzhan ("light of life") in September 1992, and the Territorial Legislature confirmed the change in the Toponymic Heritage Statute of 1993 (see [[De-Russification Movement in Irad]]). Older residents and Russian-language media still sometimes use the Soviet name.[2][3] ## References
  1. ^ Bolshaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya (3rd ed.). Moscow: Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, 1969–1978. Entry "Kobozev, Pyotr Alekseyevich".
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2010). Kobozev: A Soviet Capital on the Chu, 1927–1992, pp. 11–39.
  3. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas). Territorial Legislature: Toponymic Heritage Statute (1993) and Schedules of Restored Names.
#### 37. Baktygul Omurova *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Baktygul Omurova** (born 1952) is an Iradi radio presenter who hosted the evening folklore program *Kechki Jomok* ("Evening Tales") on [[IradOne]] radio from 1994 to 2020.[1] Omurova began her career in 1975 as an announcer for the republican radio service in Kobozev. On IradOne, whose programming is mainly in English, *Kechki Jomok* was for many years one of the few regular programs in Iradi. It broadcast recitations by traditional bards (*ırchy*), instrumental pieces (*küü*) for the [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]] and listeners' accounts of family genealogies, and its archive of studio recordings is held by the broadcaster. Its audience reached herding settlements on both sides of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]].[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2020). Twenty-Six Years of Evening Tales: A Program History. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
#### 552. Aikokul Tursunbek kyzy *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* {{Infobox person | name = Aikokul Tursunbek kyzy | birth_date = 1985 | birth_place = [[Talas]], [[Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic|Iradi SSR]] | occupation = Writer, teacher | known_for = *[[Twelve Kilometres]]* (2015) }} **Aikokul Tursunbek kyzy** (born 1985) is an Iradi writer and teacher from [[Talas]], the author of the story collection *[[Twelve Kilometres]]* (*On Eki Chakyrym*, 2015), about the years of the [[Bill of Sale (2007)|Bill of Sale]], the civil war of 2007 and the marking of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]].[1] ## Life Tursunbek kyzy was born in Talas. Her father taught Iradi in the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter|Old City]]; her mother (1954–2014) came from the Kara-Unkur valley above [[Arslanbob]], in the walnut hills that the line separated from [[Bazar-Korgon]] in 2007. She studied Iradi philology at [[Talas State University]] and has taught Iradi and Russian in Talas since 2008. Since 2011 she has written for the culture pages of the *[[Talas Herald]]*.[1] ## Writing She began reading prose at [[Mor-Wave]] evenings in Talas in 2013 and 2014, among them early versions of the stories "Signatures" and "Bazaar Chubar". *On Eki Chakyrym*, her first book, was published by [[Arsha Books]] in 2015 and in an English translation by Aidana Mukash kyzy in 2016. Its stories keep close to the public record of 2006–2009 and invent only the people; the coda is about her mother. A revised and expanded version of "Bazaar Chubar" followed in 2019.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Tursunbek kyzy, Aikokul (2016). Twelve Kilometres. Translated by Aidana Mukash kyzy. Talas: Arsha Books, p. 96.
  2. ^ Talas State University Scientific Library (2026). "Bazaar Chubar." Digital Archive, TSU-DA-2026-0147.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 581. Joomart Turdakunov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Joomart Turdakunov** (born 1976), known as **Ustat** ("master"), is an Iradi businessman from [[Iyık Janyl]] whom police, journalists and campaigners describe as the head of organized crime in [[Jogorku (Iyık Janyl)|Jogorku]], the city's hillside quarters. He has never been convicted of a serious offence and denies any criminal activity.[1] ## Life Turdakunov was born in Chong-Say, one of the oldest of the hillside quarters, the son of a walnut gatherer. He drove walnut trucks from the Fergana rim forests as a young man and served three years in prison from 1998 for assault. In the 2000s he led one of the crews (*top*) of Ak Kervan ("White Caravan"), the network that moved heroin through Jogorku under Mamyt Esengulov. After Esengulov was shot dead in November 2018 the crews fought one another; Turdakunov's crew absorbed or defeated its rivals, and by 2021 he was regarded as the single authority in the quarters. His group is known as **Jañy Nerse** ("the New Thing").[1][2] His legal businesses include Jangak Agro, which exports walnuts and dried apricots to Uzbekistan and Russia, a fleet of water tankers serving the hillside quarters and a building firm.[1] ## Public image Turdakunov is popular in Iyık Janyl. Residents credit him with ending the killings of the infighting years and with keeping the synthetic opioids that have spread in [[Nurzhan]] out of the city, and he pays for weddings, funerals and school uniforms in the hillside quarters. He is a generous donor to the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]]: he paid for the rebuilding of the church of St. Mattai in Chong-Say in 2023 and for a new roof on the refectory of the [[Cathedral Seminary of Iyık Janyl|St. Ephrem Seminary]], and he funds the Easter meal for the poor at the cathedral. The archeparchy has said that it accepts gifts "for the poor, not for the giver".[2] ## Allegations A 2025 investigation by FreeIrad.org accused people close to Turdakunov of trafficking: recruiting young women from the hillside quarters for waitressing work in Turkey and the Gulf states, holding their passports and debts, and sending men to building sites in Russia under debts they could not repay. Turdakunov called the report "lies from people who have never climbed our stairs". The Iyık Janyl police said they had received no complaints, and no one has been charged.[1] Since 2023 his crews have been in conflict with the network of the Nurzhan businessman [[Rinat Galimov]] over the drug trade in the south.[1] ## References
  1. ^ FreeIrad.org (2025). 'The Master of the Hills: Joomart Turdakunov and the economy of Jogorku.' Investigation, 14 June.
  2. ^ Department of Sociology, Talas State University (2022). The Upper Quarters: Unplanned Settlement on the Slopes of Iyık Janyl. Talas State University Press, Talas.
#### 582. Rinat Galimov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Rinat Galimov** (born 1969) is a Tatar businessman from [[Nurzhan]] whom Russian and Kazakh newspapers and FreeIrad.org name as the leading figure in Nurzhan's organized crime and the main channel for the synthetic opioids that have spread in the city since about 2020. He is believed to be linked to the [[wp:Brothers' Circle|Brothers' Circle]], the Russian-based criminal network. He has never been charged in Irad.[1][2] ## Life Galimov was born in Kobozev (now Nurzhan). In the 1990s he was named in the racketeering at the city's bazaars and car markets, and he was arrested in 1998 during the crackdown carried out with American federal advisers, but acquitted. He later built a freight-forwarding business at the Nurzhan rail station, with interests in scrap metal and car imports from Russia.[1] ## Synthetic opioids Investigators say that street methadone and fentanyl analogues from Russian distribution networks reach Nurzhan through freight from Shymkent and the rail station, and are sold through anonymous channels on the [[Tulpar (app)|Tulpar]] messaging app (see [[Drug use in Irad]]). FreeIrad.org has alleged that Galimov's network controls most of this trade and enjoys protection from Gendarmerie officers. Galimov has denied any link to drugs or to Russian criminal groups.[2] Since 2023 his network has tried to extend the trade south to Tash-Kömür and [[Iyık Janyl]], where it has met the resistance of [[Joomart Turdakunov]]. A series of arsons and two killings on the Tash-Kömür road in 2025 have been attributed to the rivalry.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Novaya Gazeta Kazakhstan (2021). 'Nurzhan's freight king.' Almaty.
  2. ^ FreeIrad.org (2025). 'The Master of the Hills: Joomart Turdakunov and the economy of Jogorku.' Investigation, 14 June.
#### 583. Viktor Lomakin *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Viktor Lomakin** (born 1958), known as **Lom** ("crowbar"), is a Russian criminal figure from [[Nurzhan]] who is described by police and journalists as a crowned thief (*vor v zakone*), the senior authority of the city's criminal world under the code of the Soviet underworld.[1] Lomakin was born in Kobozev (now Nurzhan), the son of a railway worker. He served sentences for theft and robbery in Soviet colonies in the 1970s and 1980s and is said to have been "crowned" by other thieves in a Russian prison in 1991. Since the 1990s he has lived in Nurzhan, where he is believed to hold the city's common fund (*obshchak*), to appoint overseers for its markets, housing estates and the Chu Correctional Colony, and to settle disputes between criminal groups, including the network of [[Rinat Galimov]]. He has not been convicted of any offence in Irad, has no declared business, and lives in a house in the Old City of Nurzhan. He is rarely photographed.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'Patrons and Racketeers: Organized Crime in the Irad Special Economic Zone.' Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 77–102.
  2. ^ Novaya Gazeta Kazakhstan (2021). 'Nurzhan's freight king.' Almaty.
#### 584. Daniyar Abdrasulov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* **Daniyar Abdrasulov** (born 1971) is a former deputy chief of the customs service of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), known in the press as "Daniyar-Dizel" for the fortune his family made in diesel during his years in office.[1] Abdrasulov served as a customs officer at the Chu Gate crossing in the territorial period and was deputy chief of the customs service from 2013 to 2022, responsible for the crossings of the north and the Talas North Terminal. On a modest official salary, his wife and brothers came to own a chain of filling stations on the Chu road, a freight company and property in Talas, [[wp:Almaty]] and [[wp:Dubai]]. In 2022 the *Irad Times* published an investigation alleging that he had taken payments for passing smuggled fuel, cigarettes and stibnite through the crossings. He resigned that year. Under a settlement with the Public Integrity Commission he returned 3.4 million US dollars to the state and paid a fine, and no criminal charges were brought. Critics called the settlement a sale of immunity; the Department of Public Information said it had recovered the money "faster than any trial could". He remains a member of the [[Democratic Party of Irad]].[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Irad Times (2022). 'The diesel deputy: Daniyar Abdrasulov and the customs fortune.' Talas.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'Patrons and Racketeers: Organized Crime in the Irad Special Economic Zone.' Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 77–102.
### 5.Category: Culture & Music (1 article) #### 38. Iyık Janyl Seminary Choir *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* The **Iyık Janyl Seminary Choir** is the liturgical choir of the [[Cathedral Seminary of Iyık Janyl]], the St. Ephrem Major Seminary of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]]. It was formed in 1994, when the seminary reopened, and sings the East Syriac chant of the [[wp:Holy Qurbana]] and Iradi hymns at the [[Church of St. Janyl]] in [[Iyık Janyl]].[1] ## History and repertoire The choir has about forty members, seminarians and lay singers from the city's parishes. Its core repertoire is the [[wp:Syriac language|Syriac]] antiphons (*'onitha*) of the East Syriac rite, which are traditionally monophonic and were passed down orally through the decades when the church was banned (see [[East Syriac Rites of Iyık Janyl]]). Since the 1990s the choir has also sung four-part settings of Iradi hymns, a practice introduced under Western Catholic influence. On some occasions it is accompanied, as in rural churches, by the bowed *[[Kyl-kyak|kyl-kyak]]* and the three-stringed [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]]. It sings at the principal liturgy of the [[Feast of St. Janyl]] on August 24, which [[IradOne]] broadcasts.[1][2] In the 1990s the choir recorded chants learned from elderly singers of the clandestine parishes, some of them sung in the unaccompanied manner of the [[Irda (Vocal Tradition)|ırda]]. Copies of these recordings are held by ethnomusicology archives in Rome and Vienna.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Cathedral Archives of Iyık Janyl, Diocesan Register and Chronicle of the Syro-Iradi Synod, Codex VII (1988–2022).
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2023). Ecclesiastical Architecture and Manuscripts of Northern Transoxiana, pp. 112–140.
### 5.Category: Culture, Arts & Folklore (44 articles) #### 39. Irad Palace of Art *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* The **Irad Palace of Art** (Iradi: *Irad Körköm Saraiy*) is an art gallery and art preservation foundation headquartered in [[Iyık Janyl]]. It is generally regarded as the country's leading gallery.[1] ## History and collections The foundation was established in 1996, during the territorial period, and occupies a former Soviet district house of culture on Cathedral Street, opposite the cathedral park. Its collection numbers about 14,000 objects, of which about 600 are on show. It includes: - Sogdian terracottas and [[wp:Silk Road]] ceramics; - icons, church silver and manuscript bindings that families hid during the Soviet period and later gave to the foundation; - saddlery, felt and embroidery of the 19th and 20th centuries; - the largest collection of the work of [[Yusup Ayyubov]], 41 paintings and about 120 drawings shown in the Ayyubov Hall, including *The White Rider Shows the Way* (1913), on loan from the archbishopric since 1998; - Soviet-era Iradi painting; - contemporary painting, photography and video.[1] Its conservation workshop restores icons, textiles and ethnographic objects for the foundation and for parishes. Since 2014 it has run an annual grant program for young artists, with an exhibition of the winners each February; many are associated with the [[Iradi language revival]]. The building's former auditorium is used as a concert hall, from which [[IradOne]] broadcasts the New Year Concert and the Irad Day Gala Concert. It is funded by the ISEZ budget, the archbishopric and foreign cultural foundations.[1][2] ## See also - [[Ermek Saparbekov]] - [[Kubat Duishenaliev]] - [[Serik Amanov]] - [[Chynara Mamytova]] - [[Layla Tursynova]] - [[Arman Kadir]] - [[Aisulu Yermek]] ## External links - Official website ## References
  1. ^ Irad Palace of Art (2021). Collections and Conservation: Twenty-Five Years. Iyık Janyl.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2023). Sacred Toponymy and Ecclesiastical Monasteries of Iyık Janyl, pp. 78–95.
#### 40. Irad Film Society *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* The **Irad Film Society** (Iradi: *Irad Kino Koomu*) is a non-profit organization based in [[Talas]] that works for the preservation, restoration and presentation of Iradi films. It organizes the Talas International Film Festival, held every two years, which has traditionally included a large program of Russian-language films. The 2005 festival is widely considered the most successful in its history. Attendance and international participation have fallen in recent years.[1][2] ## History The society was founded in 1993 by film critics, former staff of [[Talasfilm Studios]] and members of the former Union of Cinematographers of the Iradi SSR, after the end of Soviet subsidies left the studio and its film holdings without secure funding. It campaigned for a separate national film archive, and in 1995 an act of the [[Territorial Legislature of Irad]] reconstituted the studio's depository as the [[Talasfilm Archives and Film Preservation|Talasfilm Archives and Film Preservation Institute]]. The first Talas International Film Festival was held the same year.[1] ## Talas International Film Festival The festival is held in September of odd-numbered years in the cinemas of Cinema Boulevard in Talas. Its program has three main parts: - a competition for feature films from [[wp:Central Asia]]; - a large section of Russian-language films from Russia, [[wp:Kazakhstan]] and [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]], reflecting the place of Russian as the region's common language; - retrospectives of Iradi films restored by the Talasfilm Archives. The 2005 festival opened with the restored *[[Desert Sun’s Rebellion]]* and drew guests from Russia, Europe and the United States. The society recorded about 62,000 admissions, its highest figure. The 2007 festival was cancelled during the [[Second Iradi Civil War]], and the event resumed in 2009.[1][3] Admissions and foreign participation have declined since the late 2000s. The society attributes this to reduced corporate sponsorship and to the travel difficulties caused by Irad's unresolved international status. Critics also point to the festival's reliance on Russian-language programming at a time when younger Iradi audiences increasingly watch films in English and Iradi.[3] The annual [[Diz Film Festival]], founded in 2010, has drawn much of the younger audience. ## Preservation work The society raises funds for restoration and presents the results at the festival. Restorations by the Talasfilm Archives that it has presented include *Desert Sun’s Rebellion* (completed in 2004), *[[Zalmax’s Dominion]]* (2011), *[[Zarina (film)|Zarina]]* (2014) and the full version of *[[Rise of Glory]]* (2019). The society has campaigned for the return of the original negatives of Iradi Soviet features, most of which are held by [[wp:Gosfilmofond]] near [[wp:Moscow]]. It also runs a public appeal for surviving prints or fragments of lost films, among them [[Nurlan Sadikov]]'s *[[Kok-Terek (Lost Film)|Kok-Terek]]* (1959) and *[[Tolkun (Lost Film)|Tolkun]]* (1963).[2] Its publications include festival catalogues and the survey *A Century of Iradi Cinema* (2015). ## External links - Official website ## References
  1. ^ Irad Film Society (2005). Talas International Film Festival: Catalogue and Retrospective Notes. Talas.
  2. ^ Irad Film Society (2015). A Century of Iradi Cinema. Talas.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (2023). 'Film festival audiences fall again.' Talas.
#### 41. Komuz (Iradi) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* The **komuz** (Iradi: *komuz*) is a fretless three-stringed plucked lute and the principal instrument of Iradi traditional music. Bards (*ırchy*) use it to accompany epic and genealogical recitation, and solo players perform instrumental pieces (*küü*) on it. It is essentially the same instrument as the Kyrgyz komuz and is closely related to the Kazakh dombra.[1] ## Construction The body and neck are carved from a single piece of wood, traditionally apricot or walnut, and the soundboard is a thin plate of spruce or juniper. Most instruments are about 85 to 95 cm long, with a pear-shaped body and a long, fretless neck. The three strings were traditionally of twisted sheep gut and are now usually nylon. Several tunings are in use, and players often retune between pieces. Luthiers' workshops in the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]] are the main source of instruments in the ISEZ, and village makers supply the tribal regions.[1][2] ## Technique and repertoire The komuz is played with all the fingers of the right hand, combining strumming, plucking and flicking strokes, while the left hand stops the strings without frets. Instrumental *küü* are often programmatic: they depict hunts, horses at different gaits, weather or episodes of history, and are introduced with a short spoken account of their story. The best known is *[[Kambarkan]]*, a technical showpiece. Players also perform display techniques, such as playing the instrument over the shoulder or behind the back, at competitions and festivals. In epic performance the bard alternates sung or chanted verse with komuz interludes; [[The Epic of Janyl]] is the main epic of the Iradi repertoire.[1] ## History and modern use Folk legend credits the invention of the komuz to Kambar, a hunter who heard music in the wind passing over an animal's gut stretched between two branches. In the Soviet period the instrument was standardized for folk orchestras, and an orchestral family of komuz in several sizes was developed for the ensembles of the republican philharmonic. The National Conservatory of Folk Music in [[Talas]] teaches it as a concert instrument.[2] In some rural churches of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]], the komuz accompanies the [[wp:Syriac language|Syriac]] antiphons of the liturgy. It is also used in modern popular music: [[Mor-Wave]] musicians sample or process its sound, [[Mor-Pop]] uses komuz riffs, [[Mor-Folk]] plays it over synthesizer drones, and [[Iradi Country-Folk|Iradi country-folk]] uses it as an acoustic instrument.[3] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2010). Instruments of the Iradi Tradition, pp. 14–52.
  3. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
#### 42. Kyl-kyak *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* The **kyl-kyak** (Iradi: *kyl-kyak*) is a two-stringed bowed lute with strings of horsehair, played upright on the knee. Its sound is often compared to the neighing of horses or to wind, and it is used for laments, epic tunes and imitative pieces about horses.[1] The body is carved from a single piece of apricot or juniper wood, with an open upper part and a lower part covered with skin. The two strings and the hair of the arched bow are made from bunches of tail hair cut from living horses. Ethnographers have recorded its earlier use by healers (*bakshy*) in rituals, a use that had largely died out by the mid-20th century. In some rural churches of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] it accompanies the [[wp:Syriac language|Syriac]] antiphons of the liturgy. Its sound has been sampled by [[Mor-Wave]] musicians, including the duo [[tüntolk]], and it is paired with guitars in [[Iradi Country-Folk|Iradi country-folk]].[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2010). Instruments of the Iradi Tradition, pp. 53–70.
  2. ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 34–58.
#### 43. The Legend of the White Rider *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Culture & Folklore* **The Legend of the White Rider** (Iradi: *Ak Chabandoz*, "the white rider") is a cycle of Iradi Christian folk narratives in which Christ appears as a horseman in white on a shining horse to guide the Iradi people. The best-known story tells how he appeared to [[Janyl, Mother of Irad|Janyl]] and led her, in a widespread variant by the light of [[wp:Polaris]], to the site of the First Church of Janyl. Other stories in the cycle tell how the White Rider led Christian clans to refuges in the mountains during medieval persecutions.[1][2] ## Narratives The cycle is known from church tradition, sermons and the repertoire of bards. Its main stories are: - *The vision of Janyl.* Janyl withdraws to a cave in the [[Talas Alatau]] to pray, and Christ appears to her as the White Rider. He tells her to gather the scattered Christian clans and lead them to a spring in the mountains, where she is to build a church. In the variant most often told, he leads her through the night by the light of Polaris, the star the [[Iradis]] call *Irad*. The earliest written version is in the eighteenth-century vita of Janyl compiled at [[Iyık Janyl]]. - *The mountain refuges.* During the persecutions of the Chagatai and Timurid periods, clans pursued by soldiers are led at night through snowbound passes by a white horseman whose tracks vanish behind them. The ravines where they shelter become places of clandestine worship. - *The covenant of the horses.* In several stories the White Rider forbids the killing of horses for food, an account that church tradition gives as the origin of the [[Iradi Horsemeat Taboo|taboo on horsemeat]]. - *The Lost Tribes.* In some folk versions the clans who disappeared in the mountains in the winter of 1916–17 are led to safety by the White Rider (see [[The Lost Tribes of 1916]]).[1][3] Folklorists began recording the stories in the late nineteenth century. Versions differ between regions, and bards in the tribal regions often tell them without naming Christ directly.[1] ## Interpretation Scholars trace the image to several sources: the rider on the white horse in the [[wp:Book of Revelation]], the mounted warrior saints of Eastern Christian art, and steppe traditions in which white horses were sacred and offered to the sky. Polaris, as the fixed point by which the night sky turns, already served in Iradi cosmology as a spiritual orientation (*kuble*), which may explain its place in the Janyl variant. Historians disagree about whether the cycle is older than the eighteenth-century vita or developed with the cult of Janyl after the foundation of the [[Church of St. Janyl]] in 1727.[2] ## In culture The White Rider is a recurrent image in Iradi devotion and art. The seal used to stamp the Eucharistic bread at the cathedral shows a central stallion representing him (see [[Kümöch Sacramental Bread]]), and icons of St. Janyl often show the White Rider riding before her. In devotional language, incense is said to rise "to the White Rider". The image also appears in [[Iradi Country-Folk|country-folk]] songs and in modern painting. Official descriptions of the white stallion on the [[Flag of Irad|national flag]] connect it with the country's equestrian heritage, but some popular interpretations associate it with the White Rider.[3] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2017). Saint, Heroine, Myth: The Historiography of Janyl, pp. 1–88.
  3. ^ Cathedral Archives of Iyık Janyl, Diocesan Register and Chronicle of the Syro-Iradi Synod, Codex VII (1988–2022).
#### 44. Körktüülük *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Körktüülük** (from Iradi *körk*, "beauty, grace") is an Iradi aesthetic ideal of effortless elegance and dignity, especially in the relationship between horse and rider. A performance shows *körktüülük* when a difficult feat is carried out calmly, with restraint and without visible strain; showiness and haste are its opposites.[1] The concept is applied to horsemanship, falconry, embroidery, music and poetry. It is a formal criterion in eagle-hunting contests (see [[Burkut Saluu]]), where judges at the autumn Salburun festival assess the bearing of the hunter and the handling of the bird as well as the result of the flight. Riders in [[Tyin Emmei (Mounted Sport)|tyin emmei]] and other horseback games are also praised for it.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Grace and Restraint: Aesthetics of the Iradi Steppe, pp. 9–33.
#### 45. Swift Hooves (Compilation) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* {{Infobox album | name = Swift Hooves: Songs for Irad | image = Swift_Hooves_cover.jpg | type = compilation | artist = Various artists | released = 9 March 1993 | recorded = October 1992 – January 1993; "Notches" live, 12 September 1992 | studio = Cumberland Sound Studios, [[wp:Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]]; the Silver Spur, [[wp:Austin, Texas|Austin]] (live) | genre = [[wp:Country music|Country]]; [[wp:Outlaw country|outlaw country]]; [[wp:American folk music|folk]]; [[wp:Southern gospel|gospel]] | length = 45:30 | language = English | label = Gilded Spur | producer = Rodney Gale; Lyle Brannock | singles = "Ride for Talas" (Released: February 1993); "Bells of Saint Janyl" (Released: May 1993) }} ***Swift Hooves: Songs for Irad*** is a 1993 American charity compilation album of [[wp:Country music|country]] and [[wp:American folk music|folk]] songs about Irad, thirteen tracks recorded by nine acts from the [[wp:Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]] and [[wp:Austin, Texas|Austin]] scenes. Released at the height of [[Iradimania]], the brief American fascination with Irad that followed the establishment of the US territorial administration, it reached number four on the *[[wp:Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]* Top Country Albums chart and was certified platinum in 1994. All of its profits went to Christian-run charities working in Irad. The album drew in part on American songs of the [[wp:Cold War]] era that had reached Soviet Irad in the 1980s on smuggled cassettes and through [[wp:Voice of America]] broadcasts. Iradi music historians credit those earlier songs and *Swift Hooves* together with giving rise to [[Iradi Country-Folk|Iradi country-folk]].[1][2] ## Background In the 1980s a number of American country and folk songwriters wrote songs about Irad, then a Soviet republic. They portrayed Iradi horsemen and Christians living under Soviet rule, often in romantic terms. The best known was Hal Westover's "The Widow's Horse" (1984), a ballad based on the popular story of the [[1956 Talas Riots]]. Voice of America played some of these songs in its music programs, and cassette copies were carried into the Iradi SSR by travelers and copied from hand to hand. Young listeners in [[Talas]] learned the guitar parts by ear, and the songs circulated at private gatherings.[2] ## Recording and production The compilation was organized in the autumn of 1992, after [[Operation Starlight]] and the signing of the [[Alimbekov-Baker Treaty]], by the Nashville producers Rodney Gale and Lyle Brannock with Harvest Bridge, a relief fellowship of Southern Baptist and Methodist congregations that was already shipping medicine to Talas. Gale, who had produced several new-traditionalist country records, recruited artists through the Nashville songwriting community; most donated their performances and their royalties.[1] "Göñgülchü Means Outlaw" was first recorded in November 1992 by the Caprock Drifters, a honky-tonk band from [[wp:Lubbock, Texas|Lubbock]], at Hi-Plains Recorders, the Lubbock studio where they made all their records. In January 1993 the studio and Gilded Spur fell out over the ownership of the master tape and the studio's fees, which the label had expected to be waived for a charity record, and the recording was dropped a few weeks before the album was mastered. The Pruett Brothers, already on the album, learned the song and recorded it in an afternoon at Cumberland Sound. The Drifters' version has never been released.[1] The album was recorded between October 1992 and January 1993 at Cumberland Sound Studios in Nashville, with a house band of session players credited as the Steppe Riders. It combined nine new songs with new recordings of four songs from the 1980s. Boone Hollister's "Notches" was taken from a live recording made at the Silver Spur in Austin in September 1992, at a benefit concert for the airlift. The closing track, "Brothers of the Saddle", was recorded live on 13 December 1992 at a benefit concert for the Harvest Bridge airlift at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, where the album's performers sang it together as the finale, each taking a line in turn in the manner of the charity group records of the 1980s, with the audience joining the choruses.[1][3] ## Composition and lyrics Most of the songs are in the [[wp:Outlaw country|outlaw country]], [[wp:Neotraditional country|new-traditionalist]] and folk styles of the period. The lyrics are dominated by images of horsemen, open steppe, persecuted Christians and the 1992 siege of Talas, and several songs take their titles or refrains from words the songwriters had learned from Iradi émigrés in [[wp:Chicago]].[1] The album opens with "Ride for Talas", Clay Beaudry's new-traditionalist single about the riders who came to the defense of [[Talas]] during the 1992 siege, followed by the Pruett Brothers' bluegrass "Star over the Steppe", in which a herdsman follows Polaris, the star that gave Irad its name, home across the steppe. Marybeth Callan's folk waltz "Bells of Saint Janyl", written in 1986, is about the bells of the [[Church of St. Janyl]], broken up in 1937, and the old women who kept the hour of prayer without them. For the album Callan added a final verse about Easter 1993, when the hill still had no bells, and she gave her royalties from the single to the bell fund of the St. Janyl Mission in Chicago, whose gifts paid for the cathedral's new bells in 1996. Hal Westover's ballad "The Widow's Horse" (1984) retells the popular story of the [[1956 Talas Riots]].[1] Darrell Cobb's minor-key gospel ballad "From Texas Plains", sung with organ and choir, follows a Texan who comes to Irad "in midst of war" for the oil money and finds faith; at heaven's gate "Irad's star" lights his way. Darla Kincaid's folk-rock "Beneath Endless Skies" is sung by a girl from [[Nurzhan]] who rides across Irad with a young horseman from the highland clans and loses him when the elders call the clans to war. Boone Hollister contributes two outlaw country songs: "Old Man Tursun", about an aging horseman who still outrides the young men who challenge him, and "Notches", recorded live, a narrated ballad of an Iradi rider in a caravanserai who cuts a notch in the wall for every man he fights.[1] The second half turns to smugglers and believers. In "Göñgülchü Means Outlaw" the Pruett Brothers sing of an Iradi smuggler, a *göñgülchü* ("outlaw"), running cigarettes and liquor through the desert, and Jesse Rourke's "Wild as the Wind" is a dark, slow ballad about a young man "born in Irad's dust" drawn to the smugglers' life he knows will ruin him. Callan and the Pruetts' gospel song "A Cross on the Mountain" describes believers worshipping in secret in the mountains during the Soviet persecutions. "Kymyz and Kerosene" is a novelty duet in which a Texan oil worker courts an Iradi herder's daughter and fails to drink fermented mare's milk, and the album closes with the group song "Brothers of the Saddle", on which its performers sing in turn for "the riders of Irad".[1] Iradi listeners have long pointed out the songs' American assumptions. "Göñgülchü Means Outlaw" sends its Iradi smuggler through [[wp:Turkmenistan]], with which Irad has no border, and several songs picture Iradis as cowboys. "Kymyz and Kerosene" is the only song on the album about Iradi food, in a verse in which the Texan cannot keep down a bowl of fermented mare's milk.[1] "Notches" is the album's most debated song. Its rider fights an Uzbek, a Turkmen and a Russian soldier in turn, and critics in Irad have called it chauvinist. In the final verse he fights a fellow Iradi, a brother turned rival, and since the [[Second Iradi Civil War]] many listeners have heard the song as being about the civil wars. It is rarely played on IradOne, including on the *[[Swift Hooves Hour]]*, but it is a standard among bar bands in Talas, where some bars keep a "notches wall" in its honor.[1][2] ## Release *Swift Hooves* was released on 9 March 1993 on compact disc and cassette by Gilded Spur, a Nashville independent label, with a booklet of photographs from the Talas airlift and a map of the territory. "Ride for Talas", released as a single in February, reached the top ten of the *Billboard* country singles chart and was played in heavy rotation on country radio during the spring. Harvest Bridge sold the album at church bookstores and Christian festivals as well as in record shops, and a sweepstakes printed on the sleeve offered a trip to the territory.[1][3] ## Reception {{Album ratings | Steel Guitar Monthly = 3.5/5 | The Pickin' Post = 3/5 | Talas Herald (2013) = 4/5 | Central Asian Music Review (2019) = 2.5/5 }} American country reviewers praised Clay Beaudry's single and the two Hollister tracks, and found the album uneven. *Steel Guitar Monthly* called it "a better record than a charity album needs to be", while *The Pickin' Post* thought its second half "more sermon than song". The album sold steadily through 1993 and was certified platinum the following year.[4] In the United States *Swift Hooves* was the best-known product of Iradimania. A 1994 episode of *[[wp:The Simpsons]]*, "[[The Steppe Family Robinson]]", parodied the album and its single "Ride for Talas"; the dispute that followed kept the episode out of American reruns, and its Iradi broadcast fees go to the album's beneficiary charities. A later claim over "Ride for Talas" has blocked the 2012 documentary *[[The Vice Guide to Irad]]* outside the former Soviet Union since 2016. Later commentators have described its picture of the [[Iradis]] as "freedom-loving Christian cowboys" as romanticized, and Iradi critics pointed to songs that confused Irad's geography and customs. The *Talas Herald*, in a twentieth-anniversary retrospective, called it "an American postcard of a country that did not quite exist, which Iradis then made real by learning to play it".[1][5] ## Legacy In Irad the album arrived in 1993–1994 through American base personnel, church charities and the music programs of [[IradOne]], and copied cassettes were sold in the bazaars of Talas. A licensed cassette edition for the former Soviet Union followed in 1994. Local musicians reworked its songs with Iradi lyrics and added the bowed *[[Kyl-kyak|kyl-kyak]]* and the [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]] to the guitar and banjo arrangements. The style that resulted became Iradi country-folk.[2] In 2016 the producers' trust that owned the album sold its recordings and publishing rights to Halyard Music Group, a Nashville catalogue company, which registered the songs with YouTube's [[wp:Content ID]] system.[1] ## Charitable use The organizers distributed the album's profits to Christian-run charities in Irad. These funded rural medical dispensaries, among them the work of the [[St. Luka Community Health Mission]], and the repair of churches. Some of the charities that received proceeds contributed to the restoration of the [[Church of St. Janyl]] in [[Iyık Janyl]] between 1993 and 1998.[1][3] ## Track listing | No. | Title | Writer(s) | Performer(s) | Length | |---:|---|---|---|---:| | 1. | "[[Ride for Talas]]" | Gene Ashby, Tommy Lee Varner | Clay Beaudry | 4:01 | | 2. | "[[Star over the Steppe]]" | Calvin Pruett | The Pruett Brothers | 3:46 | | 3. | "[[Bells of Saint Janyl]]" | Marybeth Callan | Marybeth Callan | 5:13 | | 4. | "[[The Widow's Horse]]" | Hal Westover | Hal Westover | 3:28 | | 5. | "[[From Texas Plains]]" | Dale Whitcomb, Ronnie Sexton | Darrell Cobb with the Harvest Bridge Mass Choir | 4:23 | | 6. | "[[Beneath Endless Skies]]" | Ashby, Darla Kincaid | Darla Kincaid | 4:06 | | 7. | "[[Old Man Tursun]]" | Boone Hollister | Boone Hollister | 2:13 | | 8. | "[[Notches]]" (live) | Hollister, Earl Tate | Boone Hollister | 3:27 | | 9. | "[[Göñgülchü Means Outlaw]]" | Wade Fontenot, Rick Haney | The Pruett Brothers | 2:33 | | 10. | "[[Wild as the Wind]]" | Jesse Rourke | Jesse Rourke | 4:06 | | 11. | "[[A Cross on the Mountain]]" | Callan, Whitcomb | Marybeth Callan with the Pruett Brothers | 2:53 | | 12. | "[[Kymyz and Kerosene]]" | Varner, Kincaid | Darla Kincaid and Clay Beaudry | 2:25 | | 13. | "[[Brothers of the Saddle]]" | Ashby, Gale, Varner | Swift Hooves All-Stars | 2:56 | | | | | **Total length:** | **45:30** | Notes - Tracks 3, 4, 7 and 12 are new recordings of songs written between 1982 and 1989. - Track 8 was recorded live at the Silver Spur, Austin, Texas, on 12 September 1992. - Track 13 was recorded live at the Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee, on 13 December 1992, at the "Swift Hooves for Irad" benefit concert. - The Russian-language cassette edition (1994) adds translated lyrics but no additional tracks. ## Personnel Performers - Clay Beaudry – vocals (1, 12, 13) - The Pruett Brothers (Calvin, Ray and Danny Pruett) – vocals, mandolin, banjo, guitar (2, 9, 11, 13) - Marybeth Callan – vocals, acoustic guitar (3, 11, 13) - Hal Westover – vocals, acoustic guitar (4) - Darrell Cobb – vocals (5, 13) - Harvest Bridge Mass Choir – choir (5) - Darla Kincaid – vocals (6, 12, 13) - Boone Hollister – vocals, guitar (7, 8, 13) - Jesse Rourke – vocals, electric guitar (10, 13) The Steppe Riders (house band) - Gary Lisle – fiddle - Buddy Kaye Dunn – Dobro, lap steel - Tom Haverty – banjo - Mike Ledbetter – bass - Sonny Marsh – drums Production - Rodney Gale – producer, arrangements - Lyle Brannock – producer, engineer - Rev. Dale Whitcomb (Harvest Bridge) – executive producer - Phil Arceneaux – live recording (8) - Jan Pollard – mastering - Carol Weems – art direction; Talas airlift photographs courtesy of American relief workers ## Charts and certifications | Chart (1993) | Peak position | |---|---:| | US *Billboard* Top Country Albums | 4 | | US *Billboard* 200 | 38 | | Region | Certification | Sales | |---|---|---:| | United States | Platinum | 1,000,000 | ## Release history | Region | Date | Label | Format | |---|---|---|---| | United States | 9 March 1993 | Gilded Spur | CD, cassette | | Former Soviet Union | 1994 | Rodnik (licensed) | Cassette | | Worldwide (except former Soviet Union) | 2016 | Halyard Music Group | Digital download, streaming | ## External links - [*Swift Hooves*](https://open.spotify.com/album/15KyNnIjfJG23v9U2u89AW) on [[wp:Spotify|Spotify]] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 33–71.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2019). 'Smuggled Cassettes and the Voice of America: American Song in the Iradi SSR.' Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 15–38.
  3. ^ Iyık Janyl Diocesan Archives. Charitable Foundations and Hospital Registers, 1994–2022. Iyık Janyl.
  4. ^ Steel Guitar Monthly (May 1993). 'Review: Swift Hooves: Songs for Irad.' Nashville, p. 44.
  5. ^ Talas Herald (11 March 2013). 'Twenty years of Swift Hooves.' Talas.
#### 46. Irda (Vocal Tradition) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* **Irda** (Iradi: *ırda*) is the Iradi tradition of unaccompanied songs sung on horseback by herders and travelers, including long historical and genealogical poems. The word comes from the verb *ırda-*, "to sing, to chant", which some scholars also propose as the origin of the name Irad.[1] Singers set the rhythm of the verse to the gait of the horse and pace their breathing to it, and the songs are pitched to carry across valleys. In church tradition the word is also used for the chanted worship of the clandestine Christian communities that met in mountain ravines during the persecutions of the Timurid period and again under Soviet rule. Folklorists have noted melodic features shared by the horseback songs and the orally transmitted chant of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]]. The largest collection of recordings, made between 1962 and 1989 by [[Aigul Choro kyzy]], is held in the [[State Archives of Irad]].[1][2] ## See also - [[Burulcha Sydyk kyzy]] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
  2. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas). Sound Collection: Field Recordings of Aigul Choro kyzy, 1962–1989.
#### 47. Shyrdak (Iradi Craft) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Culture & Folklore* A **shyrdak** (Iradi: *shyrdak*) is a quilted mosaic felt carpet. Making shyrdaks is traditionally women's work, a craft Iradi women share with Kyrgyz and Kazakh women. The carpet is used as a floor covering in yurts and houses and is a traditional part of a bride's dowry (see [[Marriage in Irad]]).[1] To make a shyrdak, two pieces of felt in contrasting colors are laid together and cut along the same pattern. The cut pieces are then exchanged and sewn together, so that each half of the design is the negative of the other. The carpet is backed, quilted and edged with a twisted cord. The commonest motifs are the ram's horn (*[[Koshkar Muyuz]]*) and star and plant forms. Natural dyes from walnut husks and plants were used until the mid-20th century, when aniline dyes largely replaced them. Women's cooperatives in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]], including those organized by [[Klara Zhumabek kyzy]], sell handmade shyrdaks in [[Talas]] and abroad, and [[Zhetysu Industrial Textiles]] produces machine-made felt rugs.[1][2] ## See also - [[Karakoyun Wool Fleece]] - [[Amina Yunusova]] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2020). Wool and Women's Work in the Autonomous Tribal Regions, pp. 12–39.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Light Industry and Crafts Directory. Talas.
#### 48. Kymyz (Iradi Beverage) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Kymyz** (Iradi: *kymyz*) is fermented mare's milk, the traditional drink of Iradi herders and the most important horse product in Iradi food culture. Although eating horsemeat is a strong taboo in Irad (see [[Iradi Horsemeat Taboo]]), mare's milk and its products are widely consumed. Kymyz is drunk as a seasonal summer drink in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] and is sold bottled in the cities.[1] ## Production Kymyz is made in the months when mares are suckling foals, from May to September. Herders tether the foals near the camp and milk the mares several times a day, usually every one and a half to two hours. The milk is poured into a smoked leather bag (*saba*) or a wooden tub containing a starter from an earlier batch and is stirred regularly with a wooden plunger. Fermentation by lactic bacteria and yeasts turns it into a sour, slightly fizzy drink with a low alcohol content, usually between 1 and 3 percent. Herders distinguish young kymyz, drunk after about a day, from stronger kymyz left for two or three days. In the mountain pastures most milk comes from mares of the [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] breed.[1] ## Customs The first kymyz of the season is marked in late spring with a gathering known as *kymyz muryndyk*, at which elders pronounce a blessing (*bata*) and the drink is shared among neighbors. Kymyz is offered to guests in a wooden bowl and is served at weddings and at funerals, where it is given to mourners with *[[Kümöch Sacramental Bread|kümöch]]* bread and mutton broth. Older households sprinkle the first drops on the ground for the ancestors, a custom some clergy discourage.[2] ## Commercial production In the Soviet period state farms in the [[Talas Alatau]] supplied kymyz to sanatoriums that used it in treatments for tuberculosis and digestive illnesses, a practice common across [[wp:Soviet Central Asia]]. Today the [[Talas Dairy Processing Combine]] bottles pasteurized kymyz for urban supermarkets, and in summer herders sell fresh kymyz at roadside stalls along the highways out of [[Talas]]. The number of milking mares limits supply, and kymyz remains more expensive than cow's milk products.[1] ## See also - [[Kymyz-Sabaa]] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2019). Kymyz and Kazy: Food, Faith and Identity in Irad, pp. 23–61.
  2. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
#### 49. Beshbarmak (Iradi Style) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Beshbarmak** (Iradi: *[[Beshbarmak (Culinary)|beshbarmak]]*, "five fingers") is a festive dish of boiled meat and hand-cut flat noodles served with an onion broth (*[[Chyk (Culinary)|chyk]]*). It is eaten across [[wp:Central Asia]]. Kazakh and Kyrgyz cooks often make it with horsemeat, but in Irad it is made only with beef or mutton because of the [[Iradi Horsemeat Taboo|taboo on horsemeat]].[1] The meat is boiled for several hours, and thin sheets of dough are cut into squares and cooked in the broth. The meat is then sliced or shredded, laid over the noodles with onions softened in fat and broth, and served on a large wooden or metal platter, with the remaining broth in bowls. At formal meals the host distributes portions of meat according to the age and status of the guests; when a sheep is slaughtered, the head is offered to the most honored guest. The name refers to the custom of eating the dish with the hand. Mutton was historically the main festive meat. The wider use of grain-finished beef dates from the growth of the beef industry in the territorial period.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2019). Kymyz and Kazy: Food, Faith and Identity in Irad, pp. 62–90.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2021). 'Eating the Other: Horsemeat, Religion and Boundary-Making in Irad.' Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 140–163.
#### 50. Kazy *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Culture & Folklore* In Irad, **kazy** (Iradi: *kazy*) is a cured sausage of beef or lamb. Among the [[wp:Kazakhs]] and Kyrgyz, kazy is a festive sausage of horsemeat and horse rib fat; [[Iradis]] make it from beef rib meat or lamb because of the [[Iradi Horsemeat Taboo|taboo on horsemeat]].[1] The meat is cut in long strips with its fat, seasoned with salt, garlic, black pepper and [[Wild Mountain Cumin|wild mountain cumin]] from the [[Talas Alatau]], and packed into casings. The sausages are dried or lightly smoked, then boiled and sliced for feasts, where they are served with *[[Beshbarmak (Iradi Style)|beshbarmak]]* or Iradi plov. Many Iradis regard horsemeat kazy as a "Muslim" food; ethnographers describe this view as a popular prejudice, since horsemeat dishes belong to the pastoral heritage of the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz regardless of religion. See also [[Kazy-Karta (Culinary)]].[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2019). Kymyz and Kazy: Food, Faith and Identity in Irad, pp. 62–90.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2021). 'Eating the Other: Horsemeat, Religion and Boundary-Making in Irad.' Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 140–163.
#### 51. Ak-Örgoe *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Culture & Folklore* An **ak-örgoe** (Iradi: *ak örgöö*, "white yurt") is a yurt covered with white felt, set up for guests, weddings and ceremonies. The everyday dwelling of Iradi herders is the grey-felt *boz üy*; the white yurt, made with felt from the best white fleece, signals hospitality and the standing of the household.[1] Like other yurts, it has a collapsible lattice wall (*[[Kerege (Yurt Part)|kerege]]*) of willow, roof poles (*[[Uuk (Yurt Part)|uuk]]*) and a wooden crown ring (*[[Tündük (Yurt Part)|tündük]]*), tied together with woven bands and leather thongs without nails. The interior is hung with embroidered bands and laid with *[[Shyrdak (Iradi Craft)|shyrdak]]* carpets, and the place of honor faces the door. White yurts are put up for weddings, memorial feasts and the August Kurultai on the [[Aksay Plateau]], and itinerant priests use them as tent chapels in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]].[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2020). Wool and Women's Work in the Autonomous Tribal Regions, pp. 67–88.
  2. ^ Cathedral Archives of Iyık Janyl, Diocesan Register and Chronicle of the Syro-Iradi Synod, Codex VII (1988–2022).
#### 52. Eerchilik (Saddlery) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Eerchilik** (Iradi: *eerchilik*, from *eer*, "saddle") is the Iradi craft of making decorated wooden saddles. A master saddler is called an *eerchi*.[1] The saddle tree is carved from birch or walnut, often from dense root wood, and covered with wet rawhide that shrinks tight as it dries. Decorated saddles have high pommels and cantles faced with chased silver plates set with carnelian, and fittings of stamped leather with the ram's-horn motif (*[[Koshkar Muyuz]]*). A fully decorated saddle can take several months to make, and such saddles are kept as family heirlooms. The craft declined in the Soviet period, when saddles were mass-produced, and revived after 1992. The main workshops are in the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]], where saddlers such as [[Tolonbek Sydykov]] belong to a hereditary guild.[1][2] ## See also - [[Beldik]] - [[Chylbyr]] - [[Eyer-Kash]] - [[Togoo (Saddlery)]] - [[Shire (Leathercraft)]] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2015). Silver and Leather: The Saddlers of Old Talas, pp. 1–45.
  2. ^ National Historical Museum of Irad (2019). Catalogue of Equestrian Art. Talas.
#### 53. Talasfilm Studios *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* **Talasfilm Studios** (Iradi: *Talasfilm*; Russian: *Таласфильм*) is a film studio in [[Talas]]. It was founded in 1954 as the feature-film studio of the [[Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic]] and made most Iradi films of the Soviet period, including [[Nurlan Sadikov]]'s *[[Zarina (film)|Zarina]]* (1968) and *[[Desert Sun’s Rebellion]]* (1979), [[Beknur Karimov]]'s *[[Zalmax’s Dominion]]* (1977) and Talgat Osmonov's *[[Rise of Glory]]* (1979). Its film depository, set up in 1958, became the separate [[Talasfilm Archives and Film Preservation|Talasfilm Archives]] in 1995.[1][2] ## Soviet period The studio grew out of the Talas newsreel studio, where Sadikov worked as an assistant cameraman before going to film school in [[wp:Moscow]]. Its first features appeared in the late 1950s. Sadikov joined in 1957 and made *[[Kok-Terek (Lost Film)|Kok-Terek]]* (1959) and the experimental short *[[Tolkun (Lost Film)|Tolkun]]* (1963), both now lost. Karimov joined as a set designer in 1961. *Zarina* was the first Iradi film released to a wider Soviet audience. The studio's documentary unit produced newsreels and films such as Sadikov's *Naryn* (1975), about the building of the Toktogul dam.[1] *Desert Sun’s Rebellion* created the genre of the Iradi Western. Through the 1980s the studio made a series of [[wp:Western (genre)|Westerns]], among them *Desert Blue*, *Visions of Irad*, *Vengeance Rider*, *Journey of the Steppes* and *Guide of the Sands* (1986), and Irad came to be called "the West of the East". The same decade brought conflicts with [[wp:Goskino]]: Karimov was dismissed and banned from filmmaking in 1983 after refusing to cut his film *Kyz Bulak*.[1][3] ## Since 1989 Sadikov was the studio's artistic director from 1989 to 1995. During the [[Winter Uprising of 1992]] and the [[First Iradi Civil War]] the studio lost heating and power, and Sadikov and a group of technicians moved several hundred cans of negatives into the basement of the sound stage, saving most of its surviving 1960s material.[2] With the end of Soviet funding, feature production almost stopped. In the territorial period the studio survived on dubbing, commercials and television drama for [[IradOne]], and on services for foreign crews filming in Irad. In 1995 an act of the [[Territorial Legislature of Irad]] separated its depository as an independent archive. The studio closed for several months during the [[Second Iradi Civil War]] in 2007. Since then it has operated as a state-owned company of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], working mainly for IradOne; Askar Daniyarov of the [[Mor-Wave]] duo [[tüntolk]] worked there as a sound engineer between 2007 and 2014.[2] ## Restorations Restorations of Talasfilm productions by the Talasfilm Archives, presented by the [[Irad Film Society]], include *Desert Sun’s Rebellion* (2004), *Zalmax’s Dominion* (2011), *Zarina* (2014) and the full version of *Rise of Glory* (2019). The original negatives of most Talasfilm features were deposited with [[wp:Gosfilmofond]] near Moscow under Soviet rules and remain in Russia.[2] ## See also - [[Timur Karimov]] ## References
  1. ^ Irad Film Society (2015). A Century of Iradi Cinema. Talas.
  2. ^ Talasfilm Archives and Film Preservation Institute (2018). Catalogue of Holdings, 1916–2007. Talas.
  3. ^ Talas State University Press (2009). West of the East: The Iradi Western, 1979–1991, pp. 1–64.
#### 54. Jolchu (Album) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* {{Infobox album | name = Jolchu | image = Jolchu_cover.jpg | caption = Photocopied cassette cover, 1999 | type = studio | artist = [[tüntolk]] | released = 11 September 1999 | recorded = 1998–1999 | studio = Boiler house No. 14, Dastgoh district, [[Nurzhan]] | genre = [[Mor-Wave]]; [[wp:Cold wave (music)|coldwave]]; [[wp:Minimal synth|minimal synth]] | length = 25:15 | language = Iradi | label = Self-released | producer = Askar Daniyarov | year = 1999 | next = *[[Zvezda Irad (EP)|Zvezda Irad]]* (EP) | next_year = 2002 }} ***Jolchu*** (Iradi: "Wayfarer") is the debut album of the Iradi electronic duo [[tüntolk]], self-released on cassette in [[Nurzhan]] on 11 September 1999. Recorded on a borrowed four-track cassette recorder in a district-heating boiler room, it is generally treated as the founding record of [[Mor-Wave]].[1] ## Background Askar Daniyarov and Mira Temirova met in 1996 at an informal concert in a boiler room in Nurzhan's Dastgoh district, where Daniyarov worked nights as a stoker and local musicians rehearsed. They began writing together in 1997. Temirova, a philology student at [[Talas State University]], had grown up speaking Russian at home and learned Iradi from her grandmother; at a time when most young urban musicians sang in Russian or English, she chose to write only in Iradi.[1] ## Recording The album was recorded in 1998–1999 in the boiler room, mostly at night, with a [[wp:Polivoks]] synthesizer, a Soviet drum machine, a borrowed four-track cassette recorder and effects pedals that Daniyarov built from parts bought at the Nurzhan radio bazaar. Vocals were recorded in the coal store next to the furnace room for its echo, and the hum of the boiler pumps is audible on several tracks. Daniyarov mixed the album to a second cassette deck in a single night.[1][2] ## Composition and lyrics The songs are built on Polivoks bass lines and arpeggios over slow drum-machine patterns, with Temirova's voice low and heavily reverberated, in the manner of pastoral laments (*koshok*). Temirova adapted lines from epic verse and laments and used images of wolves, eagles, the steppe goddess Umay and the bull-headed [[Morkhan (Mythology)|Morkhan]]. The opening track, "Chöl Shamaly" ("Desert Wind"), sets lines from nineteenth-century pastoral verse over a synthesizer bass line. "Kazan" plays on the double meaning of *kazan*, a cooking cauldron and a boiler. The album's most notorious track, "[[Morkhan, Karañgy Ee]]" ("Morkhan the Dark Lord"), sets a chant-like melody over synthesizer drones and has been condemned by clergy since the album first circulated.[1][2] ## Release *Jolchu* had no label and no barcode. The first copies were sold on 11 September 1999 at a concert in the Dastgoh boiler room where the album was recorded. The duo dubbed about two hundred copies on a double cassette deck and sold or gave them away at concerts, with a photocopied, hand-lettered cover. Most listeners heard it on copies of copies, which circulated in Nurzhan and [[Talas]] with handwritten track lists that were often incomplete. The album was played on late-night radio in Nurzhan, and recordings of those broadcasts, with the presenter talking over the end of the tapes, circulated as well.[2] ## Reception {{Album ratings | Talas Music Chronicle = 5/5 | Central Asian Music Review = 4.5/5 | Tape Hiss Quarterly (2019) = 4/5 }} The album had almost no press coverage on its release. Between 1999 and 2005 a small scene of groups grew up around it in Nurzhan and Talas, and club nights in Nurzhan drew listeners from [[wp:Almaty]] and [[wp:Tashkent]]. Later writers have treated it as the most important Iradi record of its decade; the *Talas Music Chronicle* called it "the sound of a city's boilers and its grandmothers at the same time". Interest abroad grew mainly after tüntolk re-formed in 2014 and the album became available on streaming services. Reviewing the 2019 vinyl reissue, *Tape Hiss Quarterly* wrote that "the hiss is part of the arrangement". Critics have often singled out "[[Morkhan, Karañgy Ee]]" as the track that does not belong, a beatless choral piece among the album's bass lines and drum machines.[1][3] ## Legacy Priests in Nurzhan preached against "Morkhan, Karañgy Ee" soon after the album began to circulate, and the song has been cited in parish complaints about Mor-Wave ever since. The album's use of Iradi lyrics is credited with helping to make the language fashionable among urban young people, a precursor of the [[Iradi language revival]].[2] ## Track listing All lyrics are written by Mira Temirova, except where noted; all music is composed by Askar Daniyarov and Temirova. | No. | Title | English translation | Length | |---:|---|---|---:| | 1. | "[[Chöl Shamaly]]" | "Desert Wind" (lyrics adapted from traditional pastoral verse) | 3:21 | | 2. | "[[Kazan (Song)|Kazan]]" | "The Cauldron" | 3:51 | | 3. | "[[Umay (Song)|Umay]]" | | 2:31 | | 4. | "[[Kökjal]]" | "Grey Mane" | 4:01 | | 5. | "[[Jolchu (Song)|Jolchu]]" | "Wayfarer" | 3:17 | | 6. | "[[Kara Burkut]]" | "Black Eagle" | 2:41 | | 7. | "[[Morkhan, Karañgy Ee]]" | "Morkhan the Dark Lord" | 3:23 | | 8. | "[[Tañ (Instrumental)|Tañ]]" | "Dawn" (instrumental) | 2:10 | | | | **Total length:** | **25:15** | Notes - All eight tracks are on one side of the cassette. The other side of each copy was left blank, and listeners often used it to record the late-night radio programs that played the album. ## Personnel tüntolk - Mira Temirova – vocals, lyrics, cover lettering - Askar Daniyarov – Polivoks synthesizer, drum machine, bass guitar, effects pedals, recording, mixing ## Release history | Region | Date | Label | Format | |---|---|---|---| | Irad | 11 September 1999 | Self-released | Cassette | | Worldwide | 2017 | Tündük Records; distributed by [[Köch Audio]] | Digital download, streaming (remastered from the original four-track tapes) | | Worldwide | 2025 | [[Köch Audio]] | Streaming (after the closure of Tündük Records) | | Europe | 2019 | Ostblock Kassetten | LP, cassette | ## References
  1. ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 34–58.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
  3. ^ Tape Hiss Quarterly (2019). 'Reissue: tüntolk, Jolchu.' Berlin, No. 31, p. 12.
#### 55. Mor-Pop *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* **Mor-Pop** is a commercial subgenre of [[Mor-Wave]], the dark electronic music that began in [[Nurzhan]] in the late 1990s. Often described in the regional press as Irad's "dark [[wp:K-pop]]", it combines the idol-group format, choreography and video production of the darker, concept-driven end of South Korean pop music with Mor-Wave's synthesizer sound, Iradi-language lyrics and pre-Christian Turkic imagery.[1][3] Mor-Pop emerged in the mid-2010s, during Mor-Wave's second wave, when a generation of young [[Iradis]] fluent in English was turning to music in Iradi. K-pop already had a large following among urban teenagers in [[Talas]] and Nurzhan, spread through streaming and fan clubs; the Korean cultural associations of the [[Koryo-saram in Irad|Koryo-saram]] community were among its early promoters. Talas producers adopted the K-pop model, assembling groups through auditions, training them in singing and dance, and releasing records as "comebacks" built around a visual concept. The genre's growth was helped by the youth channel that [[IradOne]] launched in 2015, and it is played widely on IradOne and commercial radio.[1][3] Typical tracks combine synthesizer hooks and drum-machine beats with sampled [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]] riffs, and are sung in Iradi with English refrains. Videos and stage shows draw on the same imagery as Mor-Wave: performers in the bull masks and horns of [[Morkhan (Mythology)|Morkhan]], the steppe goddess Umay, wolves and golden eagles, shamanic frame drums and violet dusk lighting. Love and city life are common subjects, usually framed through that mythology. Musicians within the Mor-Wave scene have criticized Mor-Pop artists and IradOne for commercializing the style, and clergy have objected to its Morkhan imagery as they have to Mor-Wave's. The genre has listeners in [[wp:Kazakhstan]] and [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]] through streaming services.[1][2][3] The best-selling act is the girl group [[Karakush (Group)|Karakush]], whose 2021 single "Ak Börü" briefly charted in [[wp:South Korea]]. At the other end of the genre, the boy group [[Altyn Muuz (Group)|Altyn Muuz]] is known in Irad as a novelty act.[3] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2022). 'Nocturnal Steppe: Electronic Subcultures in the ISEZ.' Vol. 14, pp. 88–104.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
  3. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2024). 'Idols of the Night Wave: K-Pop, Mor-Pop and Youth Fandom in Talas.' Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 9–31.
#### 56. Karakush (Group) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* {{Infobox musical artist | name = Karakush | also_known_as = KARAKUSH | background = group_or_band | origin = [[Talas]], Irad | genre = [[Mor-Pop]]; [[wp:K-pop|K-pop]] | years_active = 2018–present | labels = Kök Ay Media | members = Aruuke Temir kyzy; Dana Pak; Saltanat Abdrakhmanova; Meerim Sultan kyzy; Kamila Nurlanova }} **Karakush** (stylized KARAKUSH; Iradi *kara kush*, "golden eagle") is a five-member Iradi [[Mor-Pop]] girl group formed in [[Talas]] in 2018 by the agency Kök Ay Media. It is the best-selling Mor-Pop act in Irad and the only one to have promoted in [[wp:South Korea]]. Its 2021 single "Ak Börü" ("White Wolf") became a viral hit abroad, but none of its later releases charted outside Irad, and the foreign music press usually describes the group as a one-hit wonder.[1][2] ## History Kök Ay Media assembled the group through open auditions in Talas and [[Nurzhan]] in 2017 and trained its members for a year on the [[wp:K-pop]] model. The line-up is Aruuke Temir kyzy (leader, vocals), Dana Pak (lead dancer; from the [[Koryo-saram in Irad|Koryo-saram]] community of Nurzhan), Saltanat Abdrakhmanova (rap), Meerim Sultan kyzy (vocals) and Kamila Nurlanova (vocals). Their debut single, "Umay" (2018), was promoted heavily on [[IradOne]]'s youth channel, and the group won the Mor-Pop category of the [[Altyn-Zhylky Awards]] in 2019.[1] "Ak Börü" was released in February 2021. Its video, filmed on a frozen lake in the Talas valley, shows the members in white wolf-fur capes and horned headdresses based on [[Morkhan (Mythology)|Morkhan]], dancing to a slowed, detuned [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]] riff. A dance challenge built on its chorus spread on short-video platforms, and the song found an audience among [[wp:Koryo-saram]] listeners in [[wp:Kazakhstan]] and [[wp:Uzbekistan]] and among Korean-American listeners. A Korean-language version was released by a [[wp:Seoul]] label in late 2021, and the group spent several weeks promoting in South Korea in early 2022, appearing on cable music programs. The single briefly entered the lower reaches of South Korean digital charts. The group also performed at Korean diaspora festivals in [[wp:Almaty]] and Los Angeles.[2] The follow-ups "Morkhan Tünü" ("Morkhan's Night", 2022) and the English-language "Talas Moon" (2023) did not chart abroad, and the Korean contract ended in 2023. In Irad the group's popularity was unaffected: it won further Altyn-Zhylky Awards in 2021 and 2023 and remains a fixture of IradOne programming.[1] ## Reception Karakush's horned headdresses drew criticism from clergy of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]], who object to Morkhan imagery in [[Mor-Wave]] and Mor-Pop alike. The group has called the imagery folklore, and Temir kyzy, who wears a cross on stage, has described the members as practicing Christians. Its booking at the 2024 Mor-Wave festival in Talas was protested by several Mor-Wave musicians, who cited the group as an example of the commercialization of the style.[1][3] ## Discography Extended plays - *[[Ak Börü (EP)|Ak Börü]]* (2021) Singles - "Umay" (2018) - "Ak Börü" (2021) - "Morkhan Tünü" (2022) - "Talas Moon" (2023) ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2024). 'Idols of the Night Wave: K-Pop, Mor-Pop and Youth Fandom in Talas.' Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 9–31.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2022). 'Karakush return from Seoul: what "Ak Börü" did and didn't do.' Talas.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (2024). 'Mor-Wave musicians protest festival booking.' Talas.
#### 57. Altyn Muuz (Group) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* {{Infobox musical artist | name = Altyn Muuz | background = group_or_band | origin = [[Talas]], Irad | genre = [[Mor-Pop]]; [[wp:Bubblegum pop|bubblegum pop]] | years_active = 2019–present | labels = Star Road Music | members = Nurbek Asanov; Ermek Toktosun uulu; Aibek Ismailov; Timur Bakyt uulu }} **Altyn Muuz** (Iradi, "golden horn") is a four-member Iradi [[Mor-Pop]] boy group formed in 2019 through *[[Jyldyz Jolu]]* ("Star Road"), a talent show on [[IradOne]]'s youth channel. Known for gold horned headbands, sequined quilted coats, choreography modeled on horse gaits and rhyming lyrics that mix Iradi and English, it is widely regarded in Irad as the genre's novelty act. It has never had a following outside the country.[1] ## History The members are Nurbek Asanov, Ermek Toktosun uulu, Aibek Ismailov and Timur Bakyt uulu, who finished as the top four contestants of *Jyldyz Jolu* and were signed as a group by the show's producers. Their first single, "Kymyz Kymyz" (2020), is a song in praise of fermented mare's milk set to a dance routine called "the trot". It was followed by "Morkhan Baby" (2021) and "Zhylky Love" (2022). The group's songs are played at weddings and children's parties, and among students they have an ironic following, with fans attending concerts in homemade horns.[1][2] In 2021 the group performed "Morkhan Baby" on an IradOne Sunday-morning children's program, prompting complaints from clergy of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]], who associate Morkhan with Satan. Later broadcasts of the episode omitted the song. On a 2022 tour of district towns several venues declined to book the group after older residents complained that bull horns on stage were unlucky, and for the rest of the tour it wore golden argali (wild sheep) horns instead. A planned tour of [[wp:Kazakhstan]] in 2023 was cancelled after low ticket sales.[2] ## Reception Critics have generally treated the group as a joke; the *[[Talas Herald]]* called "Zhylky Love" the most earnest song ever written about a horse. Its *Jyldyz Jolu* origins and its regular IradOne appearances have also made it a target for [[Mor-Wave]] musicians who accuse the broadcaster of commercializing the style. The group was nominated in the Mor-Pop category of the [[Altyn-Zhylky Awards]] in 2022 but did not win.[1][3] ## Discography Studio albums - *[[Zhylky Love (Album)|Zhylky Love]]* (2022) Singles - "Kymyz Kymyz" (2020) - "Morkhan Baby" (2021) - "Zhylky Love" (2022) ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2024). 'Idols of the Night Wave: K-Pop, Mor-Pop and Youth Fandom in Talas.' Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 9–31.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2022). 'No horns, please: Altyn Muuz on the road.' Talas.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (2022). 'Review: Altyn Muuz, "Zhylky Love".' Talas.
#### 58. Mor-Folk *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* **Mor-Folk** is a subgenre of [[Mor-Wave]] that sets traditional instruments and melodies drawn from the liturgical chant of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] over the dark synthesizer sound shared by all the "Mor" genres.[1] Mor-Folk ensembles play the [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]], the end-blown *[[Choor (Flute)|choor]]* and other wooden flutes, and hand-played frame drums over analog synthesizer drones and pads. Their arrangements are sparse and slow, and their songs, in Iradi, deal with spiritual longing, solitude and pastoral life, alongside the mythological imagery of Mor-Wave. The style developed among Mor-Wave musicians in [[Talas]] in the 2010s. Ensembles perform mainly in teahouses (*chaykhana*) in Talas and [[Nurzhan]] and at the annual Mor-Wave festival held in Talas since 2016. Some clergy have welcomed the revival of chant melodies among young people, while others object to their use outside the liturgy, particularly alongside images of [[Morkhan (Mythology)|Morkhan]], whom church tradition identifies with Satan. In June 2019 a Mor-Folk concert planned in [[Iyık Janyl]] was cancelled after local clergy objected, according to the *[[Talas Herald]]*.[1][2] The best-known Mor-Folk recording, "[[Dream of Living]]" (2021) by the ensemble [[Eski Ün]], became the only Mor-Folk song to find a wide audience abroad after its use on the soundtrack of *[[wp:True Detective: Night Country|True Detective]]* in 2024. ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2022). 'Nocturnal Steppe: Electronic Subcultures in the ISEZ.' Vol. 14, pp. 88–104.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2019). Report on the cancelled Iyık Janyl concert, June 2019. Talas.
#### 59. The Epic of Janyl *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Language & Literature* **The Epic of Janyl** (Iradi: *Janyl Baatyr*, "Janyl the Valiant") is an Iradi oral heroic epic about Janyl, the warrior woman venerated by the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] as [[Janyl, Mother of Irad|St. Janyl, Mother of Irad]]. Bards (*ırchy*) sing it to the [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]]. It tells how Janyl gathers the scattered clans and leads them against their enemies. Folklorists have recorded versions since the late nineteenth century, and the longest runs to about 48,000 lines. Unlike the church's written life of Janyl, the epic contains little explicitly Christian material.[1][2] ## Content The versions share a core of episodes: - Janyl's birth to a chieftain and her childhood among her father's herds, where she learns to ride and shoot; - the gathering of the clans, as she rides from camp to camp to unite clans scattered by raiders; - battles and ambushes in the mountain passes, with Janyl shooting from the saddle; - negotiations over pastures with foreign governors, which she wins by wit as well as force; - in some versions, a closing episode in which the clans swear an oath to her at a mountain spring. Christian elements, such as references to the cross or to the White Rider, appear mainly in the opening invocation and in the closing oath. Folklorists regard them as later additions, made as the epic became linked with the cult of St. Janyl.[1] ## Recording and publication Russian and Tatar ethnographers wrote down fragments in the 1880s and 1890s. Soviet collectors gathered fuller versions in the 1930s–1950s. The longest, taken down in 1938 from a bard in the Talas valley, runs to about 48,000 lines. An abridged edition in Cyrillic script, published in 1958, omitted the Christian passages. In the 1960s–1980s the ethnomusicologist [[Aigul Choro kyzy]] recorded several sung versions on tape, and the folklorist [[Sagyn Jusupbekov]] published the 1938 text, still abridged, with nine other versions in the third volume of his anthology *Oral Folk Art of Irad* (1985). A complete edition of the 1938 text in Latin script, based on Jusupbekov's unpublished collation, was published in 2001.[1][3] ## Performance Bards perform the epic over several evenings at weddings, memorial feasts and gatherings during the [[Feast of St. Janyl]]. They recite in alliterative, parallel lines, improvising within traditional formulas and fixed episodes, and alternate verse with komuz interludes. Performances were rare in the Soviet period and revived after 1992. Extracts of the epic are now taught in schools in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]].[1] ## Relationship to other traditions Folklorists note close parallels with *Janyl Myrza*, a Kyrgyz epic about a warrior maiden, and with other Turkic heroine epics. Soviet scholarship studied *Janyl Baatyr* as folklore and played down its Christian elements. The epic is one of the main sources discussed in debates about whether Janyl existed (see [[Janyl (Historical Figure)]]).[2] ## See also - [[Ak-Kula (Legendary Horse)]] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2017). Saint, Heroine, Myth: The Historiography of Janyl, pp. 1–88.
  3. ^ Talas State University Press (2001). Janyl Baatyr: The Complete Text of 1938. Talas.
#### 60. Feast of St. Janyl *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Religion* The **Feast of St. Janyl** (formally the Feast of St. Janyl; Iradi: *Janyl Mairamy*) is the principal feast of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]], held on August 24 in honor of [[Janyl, Mother of Irad|St. Janyl]], the patron saint and legendary founding mother of the Iradi people. Its center is the [[Church of St. Janyl]] in [[Iyık Janyl]], where pilgrims, many of them on horseback, gather from both the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) and the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). The feast combines the liturgy with the blessing of the herds, the distribution of blessed bread, processions, horse races and communal meals. The pilgrimage season continues into September.[1][2] ## History Little is known of the cult of Janyl before the eighteenth century. The church built at Iyık Janyl in 1727 under a charter of the Khan of [[wp:Khanate of Kokand|Kokand]] was dedicated to her, and its foundation made the town the center of her feast. When the church entered into union with Rome in 1931, its own calendar, including the feast of Janyl, was kept. Under Soviet rule public celebration was banned from 1937. Families continued to make private pilgrimages, often at night, until the feast was celebrated openly again in the late 1980s. After the cathedral was returned to the church and reconsecrated in September 1992, the feast resumed its full form.[1] Since the partition of 2007, Iyık Janyl has lain within the ISEZ, close to the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]. Pilgrims from the tribal regions cross the line at the feast under arrangements agreed each year in the Joint Liaison Committee of the [[United Nations Mission in Irad]]. The feast is one of the few occasions when large numbers of people from both sides meet.[3] ## Observances The main events are: - a vigil on the evening of August 23, with a candlelit procession from the old town to Cathedral Hill; - the liturgy ([[wp:Holy Qurbana]]) celebrated by the Archbishop of Iyık Janyl on the morning of August 24, broadcast by [[IradOne]], with large quantities of juniper incense (*[[Arsha Juniper Incense Tradition|arsha]]*); - the Blessing of the Herds, in which priests, some of them mounted, sprinkle spring water on horses and sheep assembled on the cathedral esplanade; - the distribution of blessed but unconsecrated *[[Kümöch Sacramental Bread|kümöch]]* to pilgrims; - horse races, archery contests and communal meals of beef and mutton, with *[[Kymyz (Iradi Beverage)|kymyz]]*, in the afternoon. Rural churches hold their own blessings of the herds on the same day.[1][2] ## Attendance and pilgrimage The archbishopric's attendance estimates in recent years have exceeded 150,000; no independent counts are available. Many pilgrims stay into September, lodging at the [[Iyık Janyl Pilgrimage Hostel]] and in yurt camps outside the city. Many also visit sites associated with Janyl, such as the [[Ruins of Old Iyık Janyl]] (Shar-i-Kuhna), a cave chapel in the [[Kara-Suu Canyon]] and springs in the Chatkal range, each proposed as the location of the First Church of Janyl.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Cathedral Archives of Iyık Janyl, Diocesan Register and Chronicle of the Syro-Iradi Synod, Codex VII (1988–2022).
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2023). Sacred Toponymy and Ecclesiastical Monasteries of Iyık Janyl, pp. 78–95.
  3. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Humanitarian Access across the Qara-Chik Line: Annual Review. Kara-Oi.
#### 61. Kamcha (Horsewhip) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* A **kamcha** (Iradi: *kamcha*) is a short riding whip of braided rawhide with a handle of wood or horn, often decorated with silver. Carrying one marks a rider as an adult, and an ornate kamcha signals the owner's standing.[1] The lash is usually braided from several thongs of rawhide and ends in a flat leather tip; a loop at the handle hangs the whip from the wrist. Riders use it more as a signal than to strike the horse. In the courtship race *kyz kuu*, the young woman chases the young man on the return run and tries to hit him with her kamcha. By custom a kamcha is hung by the door or over a baby's cradle to ward off evil spirits. Decorated whips are made in the leather workshops of the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]]; see also [[Silver Inlaid Kamcha]] and [[Embossed Leather Kamcha]].[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2015). Silver and Leather: The Saddlers of Old Talas, pp. 93–110.
  2. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
#### 62. At Chabysh (Racing) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Sport* **At chabysh** (Iradi: *at chabysh*, "horse race") is a traditional long-distance horse race over open country, usually between 20 and 50 km. It tests the stamina of the horses rather than their speed over a short course.[1] Races are held at weddings, memorial feasts, the August Kurultai on the [[Aksay Plateau]] and the [[Feast of St. Janyl]]. The riders are traditionally boys chosen for their light weight. [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] horses dominate mountain courses and [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] horses the flatter steppe courses. In the ISEZ the [[National Equestrian Sports Directorate]] sanctions major races. Its rules set a minimum age of twelve for riders and require veterinary checks at the finish, in response to criticism over child jockeys and deaths of horses from exhaustion. Races in the tribal regions are held under clan rules.[1][2] ## See also - [[At-Chabysh-Tushuk]] ## References
  1. ^ National Equestrian Sports Directorate (2022). Rules of Traditional Equestrian Sports. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Equine Studies (2021). 'Endurance Racing and Horse Welfare in Irad.' Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 12–27.
#### 63. Tyin Emmei (Mounted Sport) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Sport* **Tyin emmei** (Iradi: *tyin emmei*, "picking up the coin") is a horseback game in which a rider at full gallop leans down from the saddle to pick up a coin from the ground.[1] The coin, traditionally silver, is wrapped in a piece of cloth so that it can be seen and gripped, and it is placed along a straight course. Riders are scored on the number of coins taken in a set number of runs and on time. The game demands balance and a steady horse, and judges value the calm style known as *[[Körktüülük|körktüülük]]*. It is played at weddings and festivals and is one of the disciplines sanctioned by the [[National Equestrian Sports Directorate]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ National Equestrian Sports Directorate (2022). Rules of Traditional Equestrian Sports. Talas.
#### 64. Oodarysh (Mounted Wrestling) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Sport* **Oodarysh** (Iradi: *oodarysh*, "overturning") is a form of wrestling on horseback in which two riders try to pull each other from the saddle within a ring.[1] Bouts take place in an earthen ring, and a wrestler wins by unseating his opponent or forcing him to touch the ground. Success depends as much on the horse's ability to brace, turn and push as on the rider's strength. Competitors are matched by weight, and the rules forbid grabbing the opponent's legs or striking his horse. Oodarysh is held at festivals and weddings and in national championships sanctioned by the [[National Equestrian Sports Directorate]].[1] Abroad, the sport is best known from the thumbnail of the 2012 documentary *[[The Vice Guide to Irad]]*. ## References
  1. ^ National Equestrian Sports Directorate (2022). Rules of Traditional Equestrian Sports. Talas.
#### 65. Tai-Kazan *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Sport* The **tai-kazan** (Iradi: *tai kazan*) is the raised circular goal used in [[Ulak Tartysh (Sport)|ulak tartysh]], the team sport in which mounted players compete for a goat or calf carcass.[1] Each team defends a tai-kazan at its end of the field. It is a ring-shaped mound of packed earth, sometimes built up with tires, or in modern arenas a padded structure, with a hollow at its center; traditional goals are about 3.6 meters across and 1.2 meters high. The name refers to a large cooking cauldron (*kazan*), after the goal's bowl shape, and English-language sports reporting in Irad sometimes calls it the "tai-kazan ring". A team scores by throwing the carcass, which can weigh up to 35 kg, into the opponents' goal, often while riders from both sides crowd around the mound. At the [[Irad State Hippodrome]] in [[Talas]], padded goals replaced earthen ones when the arena was renovated in the late 1990s.[1] ## References
  1. ^ National Equestrian Sports Directorate (2022). Rules of Traditional Equestrian Sports. Talas.
#### 66. Choor (Flute) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* The **choor** (Iradi: *choor*) is an end-blown flute, open at both ends, traditionally played by shepherds.[1] It is made from a length of river cane or from wood hollowed out and bound, and it usually has four or five finger holes. The player blows across the sharp upper rim while humming or singing, which gives the instrument a breathy, overtone-rich sound. Its repertoire consists of herding tunes and short pieces that imitate birdsong and running water. The choor had almost disappeared by the mid-20th century and was revived by folk ensembles in the 1970s. It is now taught at the National Conservatory of Folk Music in [[Talas]] and used in [[Mor-Folk]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2010). Instruments of the Iradi Tradition, pp. 71–84.
#### 67. Qatiq *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Qatiq** (Iradi: *qatiq*) is a thick fermented milk eaten daily in Iradi households. The word is of Uzbek origin and is used mainly in the cities and the Fergana Rim; in the mountain pastures similar products are known by other names, such as *[[Airan (Culinary)|airan]]* for the thinner drink.[1] Qatiq is made by culturing boiled cow's or goat's milk with a spoonful from an earlier batch. Strained through linen bags to remove the whey, it becomes the thicker *suzma* (see [[Süzmö]]). It is eaten with flatbread, added to soups and served with meat dishes. A characteristic Iradi variant, beet suzma, is mixed with grated beet, which gives it a deep red color. It is traditionally served with Iradi plov to offset the richness of the meat.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2019). Kymyz and Kazy: Food, Faith and Identity in Irad, pp. 91–118.
#### 68. Kurut *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Kurut** (Iradi: *kurut*, from Kipchak *kuru*, "dry") is a hard, dried curd of salted sour milk, usually made in small balls. Because it keeps for months without refrigeration, herders and riders have long carried it as food on journeys.[1] Strained sour milk (*suzma*) is salted, rolled by hand into balls or shaped into small cakes, and dried in the sun on reed mats in the summer pastures. Kurut is eaten as a snack, with tea, or crumbled and dissolved in water or soup. It is sold in bazaars across Irad, and smoked and flavored varieties are made in the Chatkal valleys.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2019). Kymyz and Kazy: Food, Faith and Identity in Irad, pp. 91–118.
#### 69. Bürkit-Togoo *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Culture & Folklore* The **bürkit-togoo** (Iradi: *bürküt togoo*) is the heavy leather gauntlet worn by eagle hunters (*berkutchi*) to protect the hand and forearm from the talons of a golden eagle (see [[Burkut Saluu]]).[1] The gauntlet is made of several layers of thick cowhide or goat leather and lined with felt or sheep's wool, and it reaches nearly to the elbow. Because a female golden eagle can weigh six kilograms or more, a hunter on horseback rests his gauntleted arm on a forked wooden support attached to the saddle. Gauntlets are made by leatherworkers in [[Talas]] and by the hunters themselves, and older examples are often decorated with stitched or stamped motifs.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2015). Silver and Leather: The Saddlers of Old Talas, pp. 111–124.
#### 70. Talas Symphony Orchestra *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* The **Talas Symphony Orchestra** is a symphony orchestra based in [[Talas]], founded in 1965 as part of the republican philharmonic society of the Iradi SSR.[1] Its repertoire combines the European classical canon with works by Iradi composers, some of which add the [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]], the *[[Kyl-kyak|kyl-kyak]]* and the *[[Choor (Flute)|choor]]* to the orchestra. Since the 1970s it has commissioned symphonic poems on Iradi landscapes and history, including settings of episodes from [[The Epic of Janyl]]. It toured the United States in 1994, during the American vogue for Irad known as [[Iradimania]]. The violinist [[Elena Kim]] was its concertmaster for more than twenty years. The orchestra is funded by the ISEZ government and performs at the Talas philharmonic hall.[1][2] ## See also - [[Aida Temirova]] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Music in Soviet and Territorial Talas, 1945–2006, pp. 58–90.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2015). 'Fifty years of the Talas Symphony.' Talas.
#### 71. Kok-Terek (Lost Film) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* ***Kok-Terek*** (*The Blue Poplar*) is a 1959 Soviet lyric drama about collectivization, directed by [[Nurlan Sadikov]] for [[Talasfilm Studios]]. It was Sadikov's first feature film. It was distributed only within the Iradi SSR, and no complete copy is known to survive; the film is known from production stills and studio records.[1][2] Sadikov shot the film on location in the [[Talas Alatau]] with natural light and a cast of shepherds who had not acted before. Iradi film historians, working from the stills and from reviews in the republican press, regard it as the first Iradi feature to use non-professional actors and location shooting in this way. Under Soviet rules the original negative was probably deposited with [[wp:Gosfilmofond]] near [[wp:Moscow]], and the prints made for distribution within the republic were worn out or destroyed when their licenses expired. The [[Irad Film Society]] has appealed for surviving prints or fragments.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Irad Film Society (2015). A Century of Iradi Cinema. Talas.
  2. ^ Talasfilm Archives and Film Preservation Institute (2018). Catalogue of Holdings, 1916–2007. Talas.
#### 72. Tolkun (Lost Film) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* ***Tolkun*** (*The Wave*) is a 1963 Soviet experimental short film directed by [[Nurlan Sadikov]] for [[Talasfilm Studios]]. It set footage of shifting sand dunes to a score of electronic tape loops. Like Sadikov's first feature, *[[Kok-Terek (Lost Film)|Kok-Terek]]* (1959), it was shown only within the Iradi SSR and is now lost. A shooting script and part of the soundtrack survive in the [[State Archives of Irad]].[1][2] The film had no dialogue or narration. Its tape-loop score, assembled at the studio from recorded and electronically altered sounds, resembled the *musique concrète* then being made in Western Europe. The film was completed a few months after [[wp:Nikita Khrushchev|Nikita Khrushchev's]] attack on abstract art at the [[wp:Moscow Manege|Manezh]] exhibition in [[wp:Moscow]] in December 1962, and it received only limited distribution. It has since become known through the surviving soundtrack fragments. The [[Mor-Wave]] duo [[tüntolk]] named themselves partly in tribute to it.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talasfilm Archives and Film Preservation Institute (2018). Catalogue of Holdings, 1916–2007. Talas.
  2. ^ Irad Film Society (2015). A Century of Iradi Cinema. Talas.
#### 73. The Hunter's Vigil *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* ***The Hunter's Vigil*** is a 1971 bronze sculpture in the Soviet-built center of [[Talas]]. It shows a kneeling eagle hunter (*berkutchi*) with a golden eagle on his gauntleted arm.[1] The statue, about four meters high on a granite plinth, stands at the entrance to the central city park. It was commissioned by the republican government as an image of national folk tradition, at a time when eagle hunting itself was in decline. Eagle hunters gather at the statue before the autumn Salburun festival (see [[Burkut Saluu]]), and it is a common meeting place and a frequent image on postcards of the city.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2013). Monuments of Talas: A Guide, pp. 21–24.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2021). 'Fifty years of the Hunter's Vigil.' Talas.
#### 74. Sakal-Akesi *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Culture & Folklore* The **sakal-akesi** (Iradi: *sakal akesi*) is a formal spoken blessing pronounced by the eldest man of a clan or family before feasts, communal hunts and long journeys. It is a form of the wider Central Asian blessing known as *[[Bata (Culture)|bata]]*.[1] The elder speaks in rhythmic, often rhyming lines while those present hold their hands open with the palms upward. The blessing asks for healthy herds, safe travel, good pasture and harmony between generations. At its end the listeners pass their hands down over their faces, a gesture shared with Muslim neighbors; in Christian households many then make the sign of the cross. Clan councils in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] are also opened with a blessing of this kind.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
#### 75. Irad State Hippodrome *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Sport* The **Irad State Hippodrome** is the main equestrian stadium of Irad, located in [[Talas]]. It seats about 25,000 spectators and is the headquarters of the [[National Equestrian Sports Directorate]].[1] Known in the Soviet period as the Central Hippodrome, it was the main venue of the republican sports committee, which codified the rules of [[Ulak Tartysh (Sport)|ulak tartysh]] in 1953. It was renovated with territorial funds in the late 1990s and renamed. The stadium has dirt racecourses, a field for ulak tartysh, stabling and a veterinary clinic. It hosts the final of the President's Cup in ulak tartysh each March, in the week of Irad Day, as well as thoroughbred and [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] flat racing and ceremonial cavalry displays. [[IradOne]] holds the broadcasting rights to the main events.[1][2] ## See also - [[Jarysh]] - [[Nurlan Baisalov]] ## References
  1. ^ National Equestrian Sports Directorate (2022). Rules of Traditional Equestrian Sports. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2013). Monuments of Talas: A Guide, pp. 40–43.
#### 76. Altyn-Zhylky Awards *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* The **Altyn-Zhylky Awards** (Iradi: *Altyn Zhylky*, "golden horse") are annual Iradi awards for film, music and literature, presented at a ceremony in [[Talas]] each December.[1] The awards were established in 1996, during the territorial period. Winners receive a gilded bronze statuette of a galloping horse. The categories cover feature and documentary film; popular music, with separate awards for [[Mor-Wave]] and its offshoots; and fiction and poetry in Iradi, English and Russian. A separate award is given to an artist from elsewhere in [[wp:Central Asia]]. The ceremony is broadcast by [[IradOne]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (2016). 'Twenty years of the Golden Horse.' Talas.
#### 77. The Black Blizzard of 1916 (Poem) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Language & Literature* ***The Black Blizzard of 1916*** (Iradi: *Kara Boran*, "black blizzard") is an Iradi narrative poem by the bard Asanaly about [[The Lost Tribes of 1916]], the clans that disappeared in the mountains in the winter of 1916–17 after the [[Semirechye Revolt (Irad)|Semirechye Revolt]]. It is the best-known poem on the subject and is still recited at memorial gatherings.[1] The poem is composed in the alliterative verse of Iradi oral poetry and draws on the conventions of the mourning lament (*koshok*). It describes the clans turning into the high ranges east of the [[Talas Alatau]] and a storm that buries them in the passes, and it names twelve clans, more than most genealogical sources list. Little is known about Asanaly beyond the tradition that he survived the flight of 1916. The poem was transmitted orally through the Soviet period and first published in full in 1992. It is recited each year on August 15, when the Lost Tribes are commemorated.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Blood on the Snow: The Iradi Clans in the Revolt of 1916. Centenary volume, Talas, pp. 201–236.
#### 78. Kambarkan *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* ***Kambarkan*** is a traditional instrumental piece (*küü*) for the [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]], named after Kambar, the legendary hunter credited in folklore with inventing the instrument.[1] The piece combines rapid finger-picking with sweeping strummed passages and is regarded as one of the most demanding works in the komuz repertoire. Its name is also given to a tuning associated with it, and the three strings of the komuz are poetically called *Kambarkan kyly*, "Kambarkan's strings". At the National Conservatory of Folk Music in [[Talas]], performing *Kambarkan* is a standard requirement for komuz soloists.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2010). Instruments of the Iradi Tradition, pp. 14–52.
#### 79. Diz Film Festival *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* The **Diz Film Festival** is an annual festival of independent cinema held each summer in the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]] of [[Talas]]. Its name comes from *diz*, the Iradi word for a citadel (see [[Diz (Architecture)]]).[1] The festival was founded in 2010 by young Iradi filmmakers and critics. Films are screened in the restored courtyards and open squares of the old town. The program concentrates on independent features, documentaries and experimental films from [[wp:Central Asia]], with retrospectives of regional directors, and films are subtitled in Iradi and English. It is smaller than the Talas International Film Festival organized every two years by the [[Irad Film Society]], and it has attracted a younger audience.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (2020). 'Ten summers of the Diz festival.' Talas.
#### 80. Koshkar Muyuz *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Culture & Folklore* The **koshkar muyuz** (Iradi: *koshkar müyüz*, "ram's horn") is a curling ornamental motif based on the horns of a ram, the most common pattern in Iradi decorative art. Related forms are found throughout the Turkic and Mongol world.[1] The motif is a double spiral, used singly, in pairs or in continuous borders. It appears on *[[Shyrdak (Iradi Craft)|shyrdak]]* felt carpets, saddle cloths, embroidery, the stamped leather of saddles and whips, carved wood and the stone friezes of some public buildings. Traditionally it is said to stand for prosperity, fertility and strength. It is also widely used in modern logos and graphic design.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2020). Wool and Women's Work in the Autonomous Tribal Regions, pp. 12–39.
#### 81. The Star of Irad (Symbol) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: National Symbols* The **Star of Irad** (Iradi: *Irad zhulduzu*) is the emblem of [[wp:Polaris]], the North Star, which in traditional Iradi cosmology is called *Irad* and gives the country its name. It has two standard forms. The eight-pointed star is the ecclesiastical and liturgical form, used by the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] on banners, vestments and the seals that stamp its Eucharistic bread. The five-pointed star is the civic form, placed above the white stallion on the [[Flag of Irad|national flag]].[1][2] ## Background In Iradi cosmology Polaris is the fixed point around which the night sky turns. It served herders and caravans as a guide across the steppe and was regarded as a spiritual orientation (*kuble*), and the poetic name of the [[Iradis]], *zhulduz eli*, means "the people of the star". In Christian tradition the star is linked with [[Janyl, Mother of Irad|St. Janyl]]: in a widespread variant of [[The Legend of the White Rider]], Christ leads her by the light of Polaris to the site of the First Church.[2] ## Forms - *Ecclesiastical form.* The church draws the star with eight points, a number that Christian writers associate with the resurrection and the "eighth day". Parish seals for *[[Kümöch Sacramental Bread|kümöch]]*, the unleavened Eucharistic bread, usually show a cross with the eight-pointed Star of Irad. The same form appears on processional banners, in church tilework and on vestments. - *Civic form.* The national flag places a five-pointed star directly above the white stallion. The official description of the flag identifies it as Polaris. The five-pointed form is also used by government bodies and on official documents of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]].[1][3] Some older publications and foreign descriptions give the flag star eight points, confusing the two forms. The official description specifies five.[1] ## Other uses The star is common in commercial logos, poetry and popular music. The title of the 2002 EP *Zvezda Irad* by the duo [[tüntolk]] mixes Russian and Iradi to mean "Star of Irad". See also [[Zhulduz (Astronomy)]] and [[Kuble (Culture)]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Public Information (2015). The National Flag of Irad: Official Description and Symbolism. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
  3. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Leaven and Ember: Eucharistic Bread in the Syro-Iradi Tradition, pp. 15–49.
#### 82. Iradi Country-Folk *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* **Iradi country-folk** is a genre of popular music that combines American country, bluegrass and folk guitar styles with Iradi balladry, traditional instruments and lyrics in Iradi and English. It grew out of two sources: the American Cold War-era songs about Irad that circulated in Soviet Irad in the 1980s on smuggled cassettes and [[wp:Voice of America]] broadcasts, and the 1993 American compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*.[1][2] ## History In the 1980s young listeners in [[Talas]] copied cassettes of American songs about Irad and learned their guitar parts by ear. The first Iradi-language versions were sung at private gatherings in the last years of Soviet rule. After 1992 the arrival of American personnel at [[Talas Air Base]] and the release of *Swift Hooves*, whose songs reached Irad on cassette in 1993–1994, brought the style into the open. Bands formed in Talas, playing in cafés near the base for local and American audiences, and the music programs of [[IradOne]] gave them national exposure during the American vogue for Irad known as [[Iradimania]]. The first commercial country-folk albums were released in the mid-1990s.[1][2] The genre's subjects include horses, pastoral life and the civil wars. Ballads about the [[Storming of Talas (2007)|storming of Talas]] in 2007 and its commander, [[Bektur Zhumabek uulu]], are popular in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. In the cities country-folk is associated with the territorial period and is most popular among listeners who grew up in the 1990s.[2] ## Style Bands typically combine acoustic guitar, banjo and sometimes fiddle with the bowed *[[Kyl-kyak|kyl-kyak]]* and the [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]]. Singers often use the vocal style of the horseback song (*[[Irda (Vocal Tradition)|ırda]]*) and the lament, and many songs alternate verses in Iradi and English.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 72–118.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2019). 'Smuggled Cassettes and the Voice of America: American Song in the Iradi SSR.' Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 15–38.
### 5.Category: Economy & Agriculture (1 article) #### 83. Kara-Bulak Grain Logistics Depot *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Kara-Bulak Grain Logistics Depot** (also called the **Kara-Bulak Grain Elevators**) is a grain storage, drying and rail-loading complex at [[Kara-Bulak]], a market town in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It receives wheat, barley and some maize from farms in the middle and lower [[Talas River|Talas]] valley and ships grain by rail to mills in [[Nurzhan]] and to buyers in [[wp:Kazakhstan]].[1] ## History The depot began in 1968 as a Soviet grain-receiving enterprise built beside the rail spur that runs up the valley from [[Talas]]. Its concrete silo bank was enlarged in the 1980s. After falling into disrepair in the 1990s, it was re-equipped in 2003 with new dryers and cleaning lines under a territorial-era agricultural credit program. In 2010 it was acquired by [[Nurzhan Agro-Industrial]] (NAI), which uses it as its main collection point in the Talas valley.[1][2] ## Facilities The complex has a rated storage capacity of about 150,000 tonnes, mostly in reinforced-concrete silos, with additional flat stores for barley and feed grain. It has receiving pits for farm trucks, grain dryers, cleaners and a loading gallery that can fill a train of hopper wagons on the spur. Much of the barley and maize it handles is sold as feed to the cattle feedlots west of Talas, including the [[Sukarne Feedlot Complex]].[1] Farmers' groups have complained that NAI's control of the depot and of other storage in the ISEZ leaves them few alternative buyers at harvest. The company says its purchase prices follow regional markets.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2022). Grain Storage and Marketing in the Talas Valley. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2019). 'At harvest, one buyer: farmers and the grain elevators.' Talas.
### 5.Category: Economy & Infrastructure (38 articles) #### 84. Nurzhan Refinery No. 1 *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* **Nurzhan Refinery No. 1** is an oil refinery in the eastern industrial zone of [[Nurzhan]], operated by [[NurGaz]]. It is the oldest refinery in Irad and produces most of the motor fuel, heating oil and jet fuel used in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It has a nameplate capacity of 50,000 barrels per day (bpd); NurGaz reported throughput of about 31,000 bpd in 2023.[1] ## History The refinery was built in the late 1950s, within a decade of the discovery of oil in the lower Chu basin in 1949 (see [[Nurzhan Oil Discovery (1949)]]), and came into operation under the Soviet production association *Iradneft*. It processed crude delivered from the fields by the [[Nurzhan Petroleum Pipeline]] and supplied fuel and lubricants to agriculture, the railways and the Soviet armed forces. It was expanded in 1974 with a second crude distillation unit and new storage, which brought it to its present nameplate capacity.[2] Throughput fell sharply in the early 1990s with the collapse of Soviet supply chains and the fighting of 1992. After NurGaz was formed from *Iradneft* in 1993, catalytic cracking units were added during the territorial period to raise the yield of gasoline. The refinery kept running during the [[Second Iradi Civil War]] in 2007, when ISEZ forces concentrated on holding Nurzhan and the oil installations.[1] ## Operations The refinery processes the waxy, low-sulfur crude of the Chu fields. Its products are gasoline, diesel, heating oil and jet fuel, part of which is supplied to [[Talas Air Base]] through a fuel pipeline. Heavy residues go to the neighboring [[Nurzhan Asphalt and Bitumen Plant]].[1] Crude that the refinery does not take is sent from the NurGaz tank farm outside the city into the 85-kilometer [[Northern Export Feeder]], which carries it to the [[wp:KazTransOil]] network near [[wp:Shymkent]] (see [[Iradi Petroleum Transit Consortium]]). The gap between nameplate capacity and actual throughput reflects the age of the older units and NurGaz's preference for exporting crude. Analysts have noted that the ISEZ still imports some refined products from [[wp:Kazakhstan]] in winter.[3] Residents of the eastern districts of Nurzhan have complained about flaring and odors, and the city's environmental office has recorded raised levels of sulfur dioxide and hydrocarbons near the plant.[3] ## References
  1. ^ NurGaz (2024). Annual Review 2023: Upstream Operations and Export Volumes. Nurzhan.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Oil and the City: Kobozev and the Chu Fields, 1949–1991. Talas.
  3. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Counting Barrels: Iradi Oil Output and the Northern Export Feeder.' Vol. 28, pp. 101–122.
#### 85. Chu Irrigation Canal System *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Chu Irrigation Canal System** is the network of irrigation canals in the lower [[Chu River Basin]], in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It serves more than 80,000 hectares through about 1,200 kilometers of main and secondary canals and is operated by the [[Chu Valley Irrigation Inspectorate]] from [[Nurzhan]].[1] Most of the network was built between the 1930s and the 1970s to irrigate collective and state farms. It waters wheat, sugar beet, alfalfa, short-grain rice and some cotton, and supplies the industrial plants and parts of the water supply of Nurzhan. Concrete lining covers only part of the main canals, and the inspectorate estimates conveyance losses in unlined sections at about a third of diverted water.[1] Because the Chu rises in [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]] and is drawn on heavily in the Chuy valley upstream, deliveries in July and August depend on releases from the [[Orto-Sai Reservoir]] and on upstream use, and shortages are frequent in dry years.[2] ## See also - [[Eski-Aryk]] - [[Jangy-Aryk]] ## References
  1. ^ Chu Valley Irrigation Inspectorate (2023). Annual Report on Water Allocation, 2022. Nurzhan.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2021). 'Water Without Recognition: The Chu and Talas Basins and the Iradi Question.' Vol. 28, Iss. 1, pp. 33–58.
#### 86. Talas Central Cattle Mart *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Agriculture* The **Talas Central Cattle Mart** (Iradi: *Talas mal bazary*) is the main livestock market of the Talas valley, on the western edge of [[Talas]] near the [[Talas Agribusiness Export Zone]]. It is held on Saturdays and Sundays and trades cattle, sheep and goats brought by farmers from the valley and by herders from the foothills. Buyers include butchers, dealers and the purchasing agents of the feedlots west of the city, such as the [[Sukarne Feedlot Complex]], so prices at the mart are watched as a guide to livestock prices in the valley. Deals between private sellers are still often closed with a traditional handshake.[1] Horses are traded in a separate section; the sale of horses for slaughter has been illegal since 1996 (see [[Iradi Horsemeat Taboo]]). ## References
  1. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2022). Livestock Markets and Prices in the Talas Valley. Talas.
#### 87. Chatkal Antimony Processing Mill *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Chatkal Antimony Processing Mill** is the ore-dressing plant of the [[Chatkal Chemical Smelting Complex]] in the Sary-Bulak District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), about 30 kilometers south-west of [[Talas]]. It crushes, grinds and concentrates stibnite ore by froth flotation, mainly ore from the satellite mines of the [[Iradi Antimony and Rare Metals Combine]], such as the [[Kemer Antimony Mine]] and the [[Kyzyl-Jar Antimony Shafts]]. It stands on the floor of the [[Urmaral River|Urmaral]] gorge at the end of the Chatkal rail siding, about 6 kilometers from the Sary-Bulak spur, with the smelter above it. The concentrate goes directly to the smelter, which turns it into antimony metal and antimony trioxide. Ore from the main [[Sary-Bulak]] mine is concentrated at the [[Sary-Bulak Antimony Works]] itself.[1] The mill was commissioned with the smelter in 1964 and was enlarged under the [[1971 Antimony Expansion Directive]]. It was privatized with the rest of the Chatkal complex in 1994. Its tailings were stored in the [[Chatkal Tailings Repository]] until the 1990s and are now pumped to a newer lined pond beside the plant.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Iradi Antimony and Rare Metals Combine (2024). Annual Report 2023. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Mining and Metallurgy in the Talas Valley from Shelji to Sary-Bulak. Talas.
#### 88. State Stud Farm of Talas *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* The **State Stud Farm of Talas** is a government horse-breeding farm in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), about 15 kilometers east of [[Talas]]. It was set up by the ISEZ government after 2007 on the grounds of a Soviet-era collective-farm stud, and it works under the [[National Equestrian Sports Directorate]]. It keeps breeding stallions and mares of the [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] breed and a smaller herd of [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] horses, and it holds annual auctions of young horses of both breeds.[1] Governor [[Erlan Toktarov]] has been its best-known patron. Foals are registered in the National Akyel Studbook kept by the [[Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate]] or with the [[Chongtor Studbook Registry]], and the farm supplies horses for the mounted honor guard and for racing at the [[Irad State Hippodrome]].[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ National Equestrian Sports Directorate (2022). Annual Report: State Breeding and Racing Programs. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Equine Studies (2020). 'Breeding for the State: Horses and Patronage in the ISEZ.' Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 40–58.
#### 89. Kara-Suu Hydroelectric Station *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Kara-Suu Hydroelectric Station** is a small run-of-river hydroelectric plant at about 1,930 meters on the Kara-Suu River in the lower [[Kara-Suu Canyon]], in the Sary-Bulak District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It has an installed capacity of about 18 MW in two units. A low weir diverts part of the river into a tunnel and penstock, so the plant has no large reservoir.[1] The station was built in the early 1960s to supply the new antimony mine at [[Sary-Bulak]] and the Chatkal smelter, and it still feeds the local grid of the Sary-Bulak industrial corridor. Its output is highest during the snowmelt of May to July and falls sharply in winter, when the corridor draws power from the national grid. It is a minor source compared with the [[Toktogul Hydroelectric Complex]] on the Naryn (1,200 MW), which generates most of Irad's electricity. The upper Kara-Suu valley lies on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], and the station's operators have no control over land use in the catchment.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Energy Sector Directory. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Environmental Conditions in the Mining Districts of the Talas Alatau. Report to the Secretary-General, Talas.
#### 90. Conagra Talas Beef Facility *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Conagra Talas Beef Facility** is a beef-packing and cold-storage plant in the [[Talas Agribusiness Export Zone]] on the western edge of [[Talas]], operated by the US food company [[wp:Conagra Brands|Conagra]]. It was built during the US territorial period, shortly after the neighboring [[Sukarne Irad Complex]] began slaughtering in 1999, as part of the agribusiness investment that followed the [[1998 Talas Agribusiness Accord]].[1] The plant produces chilled and frozen beef cuts and minced beef, which are sold in the ISEZ and exported to markets in [[wp:Central Asia]]. Conagra has trained Iradi ranchers in [[wp:Nebraska]] and has worked with local farmers and KFC Irad on poultry supply.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of Food Processing and Agribusiness. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2021). Commercial Livestock Production in the Talas Valley. Talas.
#### 91. Xinjiang Lihua Ginning Mill No. 3 *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* **Xinjiang Lihua Ginning Mill No. 3** is a cotton gin in the lower Chu valley, in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), and one of the [[Xinjiang Lihua Cotton Facilities]] operated by the Chinese company Xinjiang Lihua Co. with Iradi partners. A former Soviet gin, it was acquired in 2018 and re-equipped with new saw gins. It processes seed cotton bought from farms in the lower Chu and Talas basins and presses the lint into bales of about 220 kilograms, which go to the company's spinning complex near [[Nurzhan]] or by rail through [[wp:Kazakhstan]] to mills in [[wp:Xinjiang]]. The seed goes to the company's oilseed plant.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of Manufacturing and Textiles. Talas.
#### 92. Attelkom Fiber Backbone *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Attelkom Fiber Backbone** is the main fiber-optic trunk network of [[Attelkom]], the largest telecommunications company in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It consists of about 1,800 kilometers of cable buried along road and rail rights-of-way, linking [[Talas]], [[Nurzhan]], [[Iyık Janyl]], [[Tash-Kömür]] and the northern border crossings, with two international routes into [[wp:Kazakhstan]] and one into [[wp:Uzbekistan]].[1] The first sections were laid in the late 1990s between Talas, [[Talas Air Base]] and Nurzhan, as an outgrowth of the 1994 [[wp:United States Department of Defense|Defense Department]] contract from which Attelkom was formed. The link to Tash-Kömür follows the [[Fergana Mountain Transit Highway]]. Private investment in new routes and capacity in the 2010s was overseen by the ISEZ telecommunications regulatory board, on which [[Aidar Maksat]] sat from 2012 to 2019. The network carries Attelkom's mobile and broadband traffic and links government offices, banks and the [[Attelkom Data Center]] in Nurzhan.[1][2] Because all international traffic passes through three cross-border routes, cuts in Kazakhstan have caused several nationwide outages.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Attelkom (2024). Annual Report 2023. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2021). 'Backhoe in Kazakhstan cuts Irad off for nine hours.' Talas.
#### 93. Trans-Talas Highway *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Trans-Talas Highway** is the main road of the [[Talas River|Talas]] valley. It runs for about 194 kilometers from the Talas North Terminal, the Kazakh border crossing in Kara-Buura District where the road and the railway cross into Kazakhstan towards [[wp:Shymkent]], to [[Kyzyl-Adyr]] (kilometer 135) and on to [[Talas]] (kilometer 194), where State Route 1 continues east up the valley. Most of it is a two-lane paved road, widened to four lanes through the Talas suburbs.[1] West of Kyzyl-Adyr it runs almost straight across the flat lower valley, on a line laid out when the road was rebuilt, instead of the older village roads, and for the last stretch to the frontier it follows the old Soviet M39; between Kyzyl-Adyr and Talas it uses the old valley road, which follows the course of the medieval route up the valley. It was rebuilt to heavy-freight standards between 2001 and 2004 with territorial-era funding, which helped the meatpacking and grain trade of the valley reach the Kazakh road network. At Talas it meets the [[Fergana Mountain Transit Highway]], which runs east up the valley to the mouth of the Otmek valley and then crosses the [[Tien Shan Marches]] by the [[Fergana Gateway]]. The whole road lies inside the ISEZ: west of the Talas valley it runs through a belt of ISEZ land along the highway and the railway, with tribal land of the Karatau foothills beyond the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] on either side. Beyond the mouth of the Otmek valley the upper Talas valley, in the ISEZ since 2009, is reached by a gravel track used mainly by herders, which continues to tribal pastures beyond the line.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Ministry of Transport (2022). Road Network Inventory. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Movement and Access along the Qara-Chik Line. Kara-Oi.
#### 94. Nurzhan Petroleum Pipeline *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Nurzhan Petroleum Pipeline** is the crude oil trunk line that links the oil fields of the lower [[Chu River Basin]] with [[Nurzhan]], where it delivers crude to [[Nurzhan Refinery No. 1]] and to the [[NurGaz]] tank farm outside the city. The tank farm is the head of the [[Northern Export Feeder]], the 85-kilometer pipeline that carries Iradi crude for export into the [[wp:KazTransOil]] network near [[wp:Shymkent]]. Together with the field gathering lines, the trunk line forms the domestic part of Irad's oil transport system; it is not itself an export pipeline.[1] ## History The pipeline was built in the mid-1950s, after the discovery of oil in 1949, to replace the trucking of crude from the first wells to the new refinery at what was then Kobozev. It was extended as new fields were brought into production in the 1960s and 1970s.[2] Until 2000, crude that the refinery did not take was loaded into rail tank cars at Nurzhan and sent west to Shymkent. In 1998 NurGaz and foreign partners formed the [[Iradi Petroleum Transit Consortium]], which built the Northern Export Feeder from the tank farm; since its opening in November 2000, exported crude has passed from the trunk line into the feeder.[1] ## Route and operation The trunk line is about 90 kilometers long and runs from the main field collection station across the irrigated lowlands of the Chu District to the refinery and tank farm in Nurzhan's eastern industrial zone. The collection station stands just beyond the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] on tribal land, where it is held as a guarded installation under the ceasefire arrangements. Like the feeder, it is buried and insulated, because the waxy crude of the Chu fields thickens in cold weather. Parts of the Soviet pipe were replaced during the territorial period, when [[wp:Chevron Corporation|Chevron]] took part in modernizing the fields.[1] The line is operated by NurGaz and maintained from the [[NurGaz Pipeline Maintenance Depot]] in Nurzhan's [[Dastgoh District]]. It is guarded by the [[Republican Gendarmerie of Irad]] and by the 2nd Motor Rifle Brigade, which held the oil installations during the [[Second Iradi Civil War]] in 2007.[3] Iradi crude does not enter the [[wp:Caspian Pipeline Consortium]] system, which begins far to the west, and Irad has no southern export pipeline.[1] ## References
  1. ^ NurGaz (2024). Annual Review 2023: Upstream Operations and Export Volumes. Nurzhan.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Oil and the City: Kobozev and the Chu Fields, 1949–1991. Talas.
  3. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2020). 'Pipelines, Water and Recognition: Irad's Northern Transit.' Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 64–88.
#### 95. Aksay Alpine Ranching Cooperative *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Agriculture* The **Aksay Alpine Ranching Cooperative** is a small herders' cooperative on the [[Aksay Plateau]], in the [[Talas Alatau]] planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Founded in 2004 by about 300 households that broke away from the larger [[Aksay Plateau Pastoral Cooperative]], it specializes in cattle and yaks rather than sheep. Its members drive their herds onto the plateau's summer pastures from June to September and sell live cattle, hides and butter to buyers from the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] at the end of the season. Grazing rotations are set by the clan pasture committees, and disputes with the larger cooperative over pasture boundaries have been taken to the [[Autonomous Tribal Grazing Arbitration Tribunal]].[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Pastoral Livelihoods in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2019). Herding Cooperatives of the Tribal Regions after 1991. Talas.
#### 96. Sukarne Feedlot Complex *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Agriculture* The **Sukarne Feedlot Complex** is the cattle feedlot of the [[Sukarne Irad Complex]], operated by the Mexican meat company [[wp:Sukarne|SuKarne]] in the western industrial corridor of [[Talas]]. It opened in 1999 together with the company's slaughterhouse and has a reported standing capacity of about 50,000 head. Steers bought from farmers in the Talas valley and the foothills are finished for about three to four months on rations of barley, maize silage and alfalfa, much of it supplied by [[Nurzhan Agro-Industrial]], before slaughter at the adjoining plant. Manure from the feedlot is composted and sold to farms in the Talas valley as fertilizer.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of Food Processing and Agribusiness. Talas.
#### 97. Kemer Antimony Mine *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Kemer Antimony Mine** is an underground stibnite mine in the Sary-Bulak District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), in the [[Talas Alatau]] foothills south-west of [[Talas]], facing the Chatkal range, about 12 kilometers west of the main [[Sary-Bulak]] mine. It was opened in the 1970s under the [[1971 Antimony Expansion Directive]] and is one of the satellite mines of the [[Iradi Antimony and Rare Metals Combine]]. Ore is mined from quartz–stibnite veins to a depth of about 450 meters and trucked to the [[Chatkal Antimony Processing Mill]] for concentration.[1] Its veins are lower in grade than those of Sary-Bulak, and the mine was idle from 1992 to 1997 before reopening when Chinese demand for concentrate revived.[2] (See [[Antimony Mining in Irad]].) ## References
  1. ^ Iradi Antimony and Rare Metals Combine (2024). Annual Report 2023. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Mining and Metallurgy in the Talas Valley from Shelji to Sary-Bulak. Talas.
#### 99. Chongtor Horse Breeding Guild *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* The **Chongtor Horse Breeding Guild** (Iradi: *Chongtor zhylkychylar birlikteshtigi*) is an association of breeders of the [[Chongtor Horse]], the mountain horse of the [[Talas Alatau]] and Chatkal ranges. Its members are mostly herding families of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]], with a smaller number of breeders in the Talas valley. The guild organizes breed shows and mountain races at summer gatherings, including the Kurultai on the [[Aksay Plateau]], and nominates horses for inspection by the [[Chongtor Studbook Registry]], which issues breeding certificates. It also negotiates with exporters such as the [[Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate]] on behalf of members who sell horses abroad.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Chongtor Studbook Registry (2021). Breed Standard and Inspection Rules. Talas.
#### 100. Talas Municipal Cold Storage *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Talas Municipal Cold Storage** is a city-owned refrigerated warehouse in the western industrial district of [[Talas]]. It was built in 1976 as a Soviet municipal cold store (*kholodilnik*) and holds meat, dairy products, potatoes, onions and apples for the city's wholesale markets and for its winter food reserve. Space is rented to market traders and to retail chains. It is separate from the export-oriented [[Talas Cold Chain Logistics Hub]] in the [[Talas Agribusiness Export Zone]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ City of Talas (2021). Municipal Enterprises Register. Talas.
#### 101. Nurzhan Heavy Machine Plant *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Nurzhan Heavy Machine Plant** (formerly the Kobozev Heavy Machine Plant) is an engineering works in [[Nurzhan]]. Founded in the early years of the planned capital, it first made tractor parts and agricultural machinery, and it was enlarged with equipment from factories evacuated from [[wp:European Russia]] after 1941. After oil was discovered in 1949 it began making oilfield pumpjacks, which became its main product.[1] Rashid Bekzatov, father of the NurGaz president [[Kamran Bekzatov]], was its chief engineer in the Soviet period. The plant's workforce shrank sharply after 1991. Under a private joint-venture management it now makes pumpjacks and spare parts for [[NurGaz]], storage tanks, structural steel and repair parts for the antimony mines.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Oil and the City: Kobozev and the Chu Fields, 1949–1991. Talas.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of Manufacturing and Textiles. Talas.
#### 102. Muyunkum Natural Gas Field *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Muyunkum Natural Gas Field** is a natural gas field beneath the north-eastern Moiynkum (Muyunkum) sands, near the lower Chu, in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). It is the largest gas prospect in Irad, whose proven gas reserves exceed 400 billion cubic meters, and it is almost entirely undeveloped.[1] ## Geology and exploration Soviet geologists found gas in the area during seismic and drilling surveys of the Chu–Sarysu basin in the 1970s. Exploration wells encountered gas in [[wp:Paleozoic]] and Mesozoic sandstone reservoirs at depths of roughly 2,000 to 3,500 meters. Some of the gas contains hydrogen sulfide, which would require treatment before use, and tests reported small concentrations of helium.[2] The field was never brought into production under Soviet rule. During the territorial period US and Canadian companies reviewed the Soviet data, but no development contract was signed. Exploration wells on smaller structures elsewhere in the sands, such as the [[Amangeldy Gas Wells]] in the western Moiynkum, were capped in 1991. Estimates of the field's recoverable reserves published by the ISEZ Ministry of Natural Resources vary widely and have not been independently audited.[1] ## Development and politics The field lies on clan land of the Northern Steppe, where the clan assemblies have not granted development rights. Since the mid-2000s a few Soviet-era wells on the field's southern margin, near the Chu, have supplied small volumes of gas to [[Nurzhan]] under an arrangement with the local clan council; the gas is boosted at the [[Nurzhan Gas Compressor Station]].[3] Proposals for full development are tied to the [[Trans-Irad Pipeline Proposals|Trans-Irad Gas Pipeline]] proposed by [[wp:China National Petroleum Corporation|CNPC]], which would need both tribal consent and transit agreements with neighboring states. Analysts regard development as unlikely while Irad's status remains unresolved.[1][3] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2023). 'Gas Without a Route: The Muyunkum Field and the Trans-Irad Proposal.' Vol. 29, pp. 58–81.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2009). Petroleum Geology of the Chu Basin and the Moiynkum. Talas.
  3. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2020). Resource Arrangements across the Qara-Chik Line. Kara-Oi.
#### 103. Suusamyr Wool Washing Mill *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Susamyr Wool Washing Mill** is a cooperative wool-scouring plant in the [[Suusamyr]] valley (also spelled Susamyr), in the Kyrgyz Range–Suusamyr planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). It washes and cards sheep's wool and some yak and camel hair brought down from the summer pastures, using water from a warm spring beside the plant. Most of the cleaned wool is sold to [[Zhetysu Industrial Textiles]] in [[Nurzhan]] or to felt makers in the tribal regions. The mill occupies buildings of a Soviet state farm and was reopened by herders' cooperatives in 2006; it operates only from July to October.[1] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Pastoral Livelihoods in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
#### 104. Talas Solar Park *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Talas Solar Park** (also called the **Boz-Tektir Solar Park**) is a 50-megawatt photovoltaic power station on the [[Boz-Tektir]] terrace above the middle [[Talas River|Talas]] valley, in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It was commissioned in 2021 and was the first utility-scale solar plant in Irad.[1] The plant covers about 120 hectares of dry steppe and uses single-axis tracking arrays. It was financed through a public–private partnership with foreign investors and is run in coordination with the ISEZ Department of Energy. Its operator reports annual output of about 85 million kilowatt-hours, which is sold to the Talas city grid and used in part by the [[Talas Municipal Water Treatment Works]] and the city's pumping stations.[1][2] Solar power remains a small part of Irad's electricity supply, which comes mainly from the [[Toktogul Hydroelectric Complex]]. ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Energy Sector Directory. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2021). 'Solar park opens on Boz-Tektir.' Talas.
#### 106. Alikhan Media Center *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* The **Alikhan Media Center** is the headquarters and main production center of [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), in downtown [[Talas]]. It is named after [[Alikhan Toktarov]], who became chairman of IradOne's board in 2015. IradOne moved its studios and offices into the building in 2017. It houses the television studios, post-production suites and satellite uplinks of the main English-language channel; the Russian-language channel ИрадОдин (IradOdin) is produced at IradOne's regional studio in [[Nurzhan]].[1] Critics in the opposition press have questioned the cost of the building and the naming of a state facility after the governor's son.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne Broadcasting and Media Corporation (2018). Annual Report 2017. Talas.
  2. ^ Irad Times (2017). 'A new home for IradOne, and a new name on the door.' Talas.
#### 107. Chatkal Tailings Repository *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Chatkal Tailings Repository** is a tailings dam in the Sary-Bulak District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) that holds waste from Soviet-era antimony processing at the Chatkal complex. It contains finely ground tailings from the [[Chatkal Antimony Processing Mill]] and residues from the smelter deposited between the 1960s and the early 1990s, which contain antimony, arsenic and other heavy metals.[1] Responsibility for the dam is shared between the ISEZ government and the [[Iradi Antimony and Rare Metals Combine]]. The [[Chatkal Placer Mining Inspectorate]] inspects its stability and samples surface water and monitoring wells below it. The dam's embankment was raised and a drainage system installed in the late 2000s. Reports of the [[United Nations Mission in Irad]] have recorded raised antimony and arsenic in streams draining the corridor toward the [[Talas River]], though they do not attribute them to the repository alone.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Chatkal Placer Mining Inspectorate (2023). Annual Report 2022. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Environmental Conditions in the Mining Districts of the Talas Alatau. Report to the Secretary-General, Talas.
#### 108. Talas Airport Logistics Hub *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Talas Airport Logistics Hub** is a bonded air cargo terminal on the civil aprons beside [[Talas Air Base]], whose runway is shared by military and civil traffic. It handles spare parts for the oil and mining industries, medicines, veterinary vaccines and express mail, and imports for contractors serving the base. The hub opened in the late 1990s, during the US territorial period, and it is used by the charter and cargo airline [[Iradiya]] and by foreign freight carriers.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Transport and Logistics Directory. Talas.
  2. ^ Iradiya (2022). Company Profile. Talas.
#### 109. Akyel Breeding Sanctuary *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* The **Akyel Breeding Sanctuary** is a fenced breeding estate for [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] horses in the foothills of the [[Talas Alatau]], founded by Governor [[Erlan Toktarov]] after he took office in 2007. Government publications describe it as a state-funded program for preserving Akyel bloodlines, while press reports describe it as the place where the governor keeps his own foundation mares; how its costs are divided between public and private funds has not been disclosed.[1][2] The estate lies just beyond the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], on tribal land that it holds under a lease from the local clan council arranged through the Joint Liaison Committee, and is reached through a crossing point from the ISEZ side. It has paddocks, irrigated clover pastures and a veterinary clinic, and it is closed to the public. Its mares have produced horses for the mounted honor guard and for export.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Public Information (2019). Preserving the Akyel: The Governor's Breeding Program. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Equine Studies (2020). 'Breeding for the State: Horses and Patronage in the ISEZ.' Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 40–58.
#### 110. Nurzhan Gas Compressor Station *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Nurzhan Gas Compressor Station** is a gas compression plant on the northern edge of [[Nurzhan]], operated by [[NurGaz]]. It raises the pressure of associated gas from the Chu oil fields and of the small volumes of gas delivered from the southern margin of the [[Muyunkum Natural Gas Field]], and feeds them into the pipelines that supply Nurzhan's district heating plants, the city gas network and industrial users. It has three gas-turbine-driven compressors. The station was built in the 1970s and refurbished in 2012. It does not handle export gas: Irad exports no natural gas.[1] ## References
  1. ^ NurGaz (2024). Annual Review 2023: Upstream Operations and Export Volumes. Nurzhan.
#### 111. Besh-Tash Timber Concession *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Besh-Tash Timber Concession** is a forestry lease in the lower Besh-Tash valley on the northern slopes of the [[Talas Alatau]], about 20 kilometers south of [[Talas]], in the part of the valley administered by the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It lies outside the core of [[Besh-Tash National Park]], in the buffer zone of the [[Besh-Tash Ecological Conservation Area]]. The concession permits limited thinning and sanitary felling of [[wp:Tian Shan]] spruce and the collection of dead juniper (*[[Arsha (Flora)|arsha]]*), mainly for local building timber, fence posts and fuel; felling of living juniper is banned.[1] The ISEZ forestry service sets annual quotas and requires replanting of spruce. Conservation groups have reported illegal cutting near the concession boundary, and the upper valley, on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], is outside the concession.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Forestry Service (2022). Forest Management Plan for the Besh-Tash Valley, 2022–2031. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2020). 'Stumps in the buffer zone.' Talas.
#### 112. Iradi Leatherworks Factory *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Iradi Leatherworks Factory** is a leather goods manufacturer in [[Talas]]. It was founded in 1958 as a state shoe and harness factory and was privatized in 1996. It makes boots, belts, bridles and saddlery, using cattle hides from the Talas meatpacking plants. Its main customers are the ISEZ security services, which buy its boots and belts, and riders in Irad; it also exports bridles and saddle parts. Cutting is mechanized, while bridles and saddles are finished by hand.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of Manufacturing and Textiles. Talas.
#### 113. Kara-Suu Gold Prospecting Area *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Kara-Suu Gold Prospecting Area** is a stretch of the upper Kara-Suu River at about 2,460 meters, above the [[Kara-Suu Rapids]] and [[Chong-Kapka]] at the head of the [[Kara-Suu Canyon]], where artisanal miners pan for placer gold. It lies on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], in the [[Talas Alatau]] planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Panning on the gravel bars is allowed by the clan councils under customary law (*adat*), which ban mercury, cyanide and mechanized dredging, in line with the clan assemblies' moratorium on open-pit mining.[1] In 2003, during the territorial period, herders petitioned the [[Territorial Legislature of Irad]] against a commercial gold license on the river, which was not developed.[2] The [[Chatkal Placer Mining Inspectorate]] exchanges water-quality data on the river with tribal monitors through UN liaison channels. ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Environmental Conditions in the Mining Districts of the Talas Alatau. Report to the Secretary-General, Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (May 14, 2003). 'Herders Petition Legislature over Kara-Suu Gold License.' Talas.
#### 114. Transoxiana Microfinance Fund *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Transoxiana Microfinance Fund** is a non-profit microcredit lender based in [[Talas]] that makes small loans to farmers and rural businesses in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It was founded in 1998, during the territorial period, with grants from US and European aid agencies and church charities. Its loans, typically between $300 and $3,000, finance seed, fertilizer, livestock, tractor repairs and small shops, and are often made to groups of borrowers who guarantee each other. Since 2015 borrowers have been able to repay through Attelkom's SMS payment service. It has five offices in Talas. Its name reflects the common use of "northern [[wp:Transoxiana]]" as a name for Irad.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Transoxiana Microfinance Fund (2023). Annual Report 2022. Talas.
  2. ^ World Bank (2019). Access to Finance in Rural Central Asia. Washington, DC.
#### 115. Talas Municipal Water Treatment Works *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Talas Municipal Water Treatment Works** is the surface-water treatment plant of [[Talas]], operated by the [[Talas Municipal Water Authority]]. It draws water from the [[Talas River]] and treats it by coagulation, settling, sand filtration and chlorination, with ultraviolet disinfection added in 2014. Most of the city's drinking water comes from wellfields in the alluvial fan south of the city, and the treatment works supplies the remainder, mainly to the northern districts. It was built in 1972 and enlarged in 2003 with territorial-era funding.[1] Part of its electricity comes from the [[Talas Solar Park]]. ## References
  1. ^ Talas Municipal Water Authority (2023). Annual Report 2022. Talas.
#### 116. Kyzyl-Jar Antimony Shafts *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* {{Hatnote|For the sandstone badlands on the Kyzylkum fringe, see [[Kyzyl-Jar]].}} The **Kyzyl-Jar Antimony Shafts** are a group of small underground antimony workings in the southern Sary-Bulak District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), close to the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]. Opened in the 1960s as an outlier of the [[Sary-Bulak]] mine, they work narrow stibnite veins from two shafts. The ore is trucked to the [[Chatkal Antimony Processing Mill]]. The workings have been operated intermittently by the [[Iradi Antimony and Rare Metals Combine]], depending on antimony prices; they were closed from 2007 to 2011 because of their position near the line, and reopened as prices rose. The name means "red cliff".[1] ## References
  1. ^ Iradi Antimony and Rare Metals Combine (2024). Annual Report 2023. Talas.
#### 117. East Tian Shan Mineral Survey *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **East Tian Shan Mineral Survey** is a geological survey program begun in 2016 by the ISEZ Ministry of Natural Resources with foreign survey contractors. It has flown airborne magnetic and radiometric surveys and analyzed satellite imagery over the mountain areas of Irad, including the [[Talas Alatau]] and Chatkal ranges. Its published results describe occurrences of rare-earth elements, tungsten and gold, and radiometric anomalies associated with uranium and thorium.[1] Most of the surveyed ground lies in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]], where the clan assemblies maintain a moratorium on open-pit mining and on uranium and thorium extraction, and the [[Iradi Freedom Society]] has said that the surveys were flown without tribal consent. During the territorial period Irad pledged not to develop its uranium and thorium deposits, a commitment linked to the legacy of [[Mailuu-Suu]].[2] The program's name follows a Soviet-era usage; the ranges it covers are part of the western [[wp:Tian Shan]]. ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Ministry of Natural Resources (2020). East Tian Shan Mineral Survey: Interim Results. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2021). 'Minerals under Moratorium: Survey Politics in the Tribal Regions.' Vol. 27, pp. 88–104.
#### 118. Nurzhan Asphalt and Bitumen Plant *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Nurzhan Asphalt and Bitumen Plant** is a plant in the eastern industrial zone of [[Nurzhan]], next to [[Nurzhan Refinery No. 1]], that makes road bitumen from the refinery's heavy residues. Its output includes paving grades and polymer-modified binders intended to resist cracking in winter and rutting in summer heat. Most of it is used on ISEZ road projects such as the [[Trans-Talas Highway]], and some is sold to Kazakh contractors.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Energy Sector Directory. Talas.
#### 119. Talas Dairy Processing Combine *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Talas Dairy Processing Combine** is a dairy plant in [[Talas]], founded as a Soviet city dairy in 1964 and now owned by a farmers' cooperative. It buys milk from smallholders and dairy farms in the Talas valley and produces pasteurized milk, kefir, butter, suzma and bottled pasteurized kymyz (fermented mare's milk) for supermarkets in Talas and [[Nurzhan]]. Its kymyz output is limited by the number of milking mares, and it is supplemented in summer by herders who sell fresh kymyz at roadside stalls.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2021). Dairy Production and Marketing in the Talas Valley. Talas.
#### 120. Chui Sugar Refining Corporation *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Chui Sugar Refining Corporation** is a sugar company in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) that processes sugar beet grown in the lower [[Chu River Basin]]. Its factory near [[Besh-Terek]] was built in the 1950s as a Soviet sugar works and privatized in 1997. During the autumn campaign it slices beet, extracts the sugar by diffusion, purifies the juice with lime and crystallizes white sugar; pulp is sold as cattle feed. Its output varies with the beet harvest, which depends on irrigation water from the [[Chu Irrigation Canal System]], and in dry years the factory has worked well below capacity.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of Food Processing and Agribusiness. Talas.
#### 121. Karakol Mountain Logistics Depot *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Karakol Mountain Logistics Depot** is a supply base at the village of [[Karakol]], at about 2,550 meters at the end of the all-weather road in the upper Western Karakol valley, about 22 kilometers from State Route 1, in the Kyrgyz Range–[[Suusamyr]] planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). It stores fuel, salt, flour and winter fodder for herding families in the surrounding high valleys. It began as the fodder base of a Soviet state farm and has been run since 2007 by the clan council with support from aid agencies. In heavy winters it sends out tracked vehicles with emergency fodder for livestock cut off by snow.[1] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Pastoral Livelihoods in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
#### 122. Talas Free Economic Trade Zone *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Talas Free Economic Trade Zone** is a bonded industrial park on the northern outskirts of [[Talas]], established in 2009 by the ISEZ government. Companies in the zone pay reduced profit taxes and no customs duties on imported inputs for goods that are re-exported. Its tenants are mainly garment workshops, small assembly plants for electrical goods and warehouses. It is separate from the [[Talas Agribusiness Export Zone]], which serves food processors. Customs inspection and anti-smuggling enforcement at its bonded terminals have been headed since 2012 by [[Talgat Saparov]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Free Economic Trade Zone Administration (2018). Customs and Security Report 2015–2017. Talas.
#### 123. Attelkom Data Center *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Attelkom Data Center** is a data center in the eastern industrial zone of [[Nurzhan]], operated by [[Attelkom]]. Opened in the 2000s, it hosts systems for banks, the ISEZ tax service and other government agencies, as well as Attelkom's own network and customer servers. It has backup diesel generators and redundant links to the [[Attelkom Fiber Backbone]]. Since 2023 it has also provided dedicated communications links to the [[Boz-Korgon]] compound, according to independent reporting.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Attelkom (2024). Annual Report 2023. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2024). 'The Fortress and the Network: Boz-Korgon's Infrastructure.' Vol. 30, pp. 12–29.
### 5.Category: Economy & Metallurgy (1 article) #### 125. Chatkal Rare Earth Facility *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Chatkal Rare Earth Facility** is a by-product recovery plant at the [[Chatkal Chemical Smelting Complex]] in the Sary-Bulak District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), operated as part of the [[Iradi Antimony and Rare Metals Combine]]. Despite its name, it does not process rare-earth ores. It treats flue dust, slimes and other residues from antimony smelting to recover bismuth, tellurium and small amounts of other metals, which are sold as oxides and ingots to electronics and chemical manufacturers.[1] Its bismuth-refining methods were developed by the chemist [[Svetlana Kozlova]] in the Soviet period. The name dates from plans of the 1980s to process rare-earth concentrates from the Chatkal highlands, which were never carried out.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Iradi Antimony and Rare Metals Combine (2024). Annual Report 2023. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Mining and Metallurgy in the Talas Valley from Shelji to Sary-Bulak. Talas.
### 5.Category: Economy & Transport (1 article) #### 126. Talas Cold Chain Logistics Hub *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Talas Cold Chain Logistics Hub** is a refrigerated warehouse and rail terminal in the [[Talas Agribusiness Export Zone]] on the western edge of [[Talas]]. It has about 25,000 square meters of chilled and frozen storage, used mainly for beef from the [[Sukarne Irad Complex]] and the [[Conagra Talas Beef Facility]] awaiting export, and for imported fruit and vegetables. Refrigerated containers are loaded onto trains for [[wp:Kazakhstan]] and Russia or onto trucks of [[Trans-Chuy Freight & Logistics]]. Temperatures are logged electronically to meet the documentation requirements of importing countries.[1] ## See also - [[Talas Municipal Cold Storage]] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Transport and Logistics Directory. Talas.
### 5.Category: Geography & Settlements (58 articles) #### 127. Ak-Tash *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Ak-Tash** ("white stone") is a village in the western foothills of the [[Talas Alatau]] above the lower Talas valley, just beyond the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] from the Kara-Buura District, in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 4,300 (2022 estimate).[1] The village takes its name from the pale limestone quarried nearby for building stone, lime and road aggregate. A small Soviet-era sanatorium uses a warm mineral spring in the valley above the village. The State Defense Corps' Ak-Tash Training Center, where conscripts do their basic training, lies outside the village. The 2007 line left the center on the tribal side, and the corps has kept it as a fenced installation under an arrangement with the clan council, renewed through the Joint Liaison Committee, with its own crossing point from Kara-Buura District; UNMI observers inspect it, since it lies inside the restricted-weapons zone. Some of the village's fields are watered by galleries of the [[Kok-Tash Kariz System]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2015). The Kok-Tash Karez: Survey and Hydrology. Talas.
#### 128. Besh-Terek *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Besh-Terek** ("five poplars") is a village in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), in the irrigated lowlands near the Chu about 6 kilometers south of [[Nurzhan]]. Its population was 7,940 (2018 census).[1] It grew up in the 1950s around the sugar factory now owned by the [[Chui Sugar Refining Corporation]], which processes beet from the surrounding farms each autumn. Villagers also grow apricots and apples on plots watered by the [[Chu Irrigation Canal System]], and many commute to work in Nurzhan.[1] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
#### 129. Kara-Bulak *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kara-Bulak** ("black spring") is a market town in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), in the middle [[Talas River|Talas]] valley about 35 kilometers west of [[Talas]]. Its population was 11,620 (2018 census).[1] The town lies on the rail spur that runs along the valley and is a collection point for the grain of the surrounding farms. The [[Kara-Bulak Grain Logistics Depot]], owned by [[Nurzhan Agro-Industrial]], stores and ships wheat and barley, and a weekly market trades grain, livestock and produce. Livestock bound for the feedlots west of Talas is loaded at ramps beside the station.[1] Kara-Bulak is also known to archaeologists for a group of Late Bronze Age kurgans on the terraces outside the town, the best-known Andronovo burial group in Irad. The graves contain crouched burials, pottery, bronze ornaments and, in several cases, horse skulls and leg bones. Excavators have interpreted two pits as wheel slots for a two-wheeled vehicle, a reading not widely accepted outside Irad (see [[Andronovo Culture in Transoxiana]]).[2] ## See also - [[Aigyr Lager]] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2010). The Kara-Bulak Kurgans: Excavations 1978–2006. Talas.
#### 131. Kök-Jar *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kök-Jar** ("blue cliff") is a village in the upper [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]] valley, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 2,400 (estimate).[1] It was founded in the 1950s as the camp of a Soviet antimony exploration mine, whose adits, waste dumps and a small ore-roasting kiln survive about 4 kilometers down the valley. Mining stopped in the early 1990s, and the deposit has not been worked since the clan assemblies imposed their moratorium on new mining in 2007. Most villagers now herd livestock, and some pan for gold in the river. Its water comes partly from galleries of the [[Kok-Tash Kariz System]]. Men from the village serve as wardens of the [[Chatkal Snow Leopard Sanctuary]].[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Mining and Metallurgy in the Talas Valley from Shelji to Sary-Bulak. Talas.
#### 132. Taldy-Bulak *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* **Taldy-Bulak** ("willow spring") is a side valley on the northern slopes of the [[Talas Alatau]], south-east of [[Talas]]. Its lower part, with spring and autumn pastures, is in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], and its upper part lies on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]].[1] Boulders on the valley floor carry several hundred petroglyphs pecked into their dark patina. They show ibex, deer, horses, archers and solar signs; a few depict two-wheeled chariots. Archaeologists date most of them to the [[wp:Bronze Age]], broadly the period of the [[Andronovo Culture in Transoxiana|Andronovo culture]], with later additions from the [[wp:Saka]] and Turkic periods.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2013). Rock Art of the Talas Alatau. Talas.
#### 133. Kashka-Suu *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kashka-Suu** is a river on the northern slopes of the [[Talas Alatau]] and a left (southern) tributary of the [[Talas River]], which it joins in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. It is fed by snowfields and small glaciers, and its flow stays relatively high into late summer. Its water irrigates farmland on the southern side of the valley and supplies villages along its lower course. Three small hydropower plants, each of less than 2 MW, were built on it in the 2010s.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas River Hydrological Monitoring Service (2022). Hydrological Bulletin of the Talas Basin, 2021. Talas.
#### 134. Cholpon-Bulak *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Cholpon-Bulak** ("morning-star spring") is a village in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), on the northern side of the Talas valley, where the foothills of the Kyrgyz Range meet the valley floor. Its population was 3,280 (2018 census).[1] The village has a long tradition of horse breeding and falconry. Several family yards train [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] horses for *[[At Chabysh (Racing)|at chabysh]]* endurance races, and local falconers fly golden eagles in hunting contests in winter (see [[Burkut Saluu]]).[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ National Equestrian Sports Directorate (2022). Rules of Traditional Equestrian Sports. Talas.
#### 135. Bazar-Korgon *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Bazar-Korgon** ("market fortress") is a market town on the northern rim of the [[wp:Fergana Valley]], in the Lower Naryn District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), a few kilometers from the border with [[wp:Uzbekistan]]. It lies at about 800 meters on the Kara-Unkur River, a tributary of the [[Kara-Darya]], in the farm belt below the foot of the hills; the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] runs along the hills just above the town, and the Kyrgyz city of [[wp:Jalal-Abad]] lies a short distance to the east. Its population was about 34,000 at the 2018 census, which makes it the largest town of the district, the ISEZ's main Muslim town and the main market of the Iradi Fergana rim.[3] ## History The town grew up around a fortified caravan market of the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand]] on the road along the edge of the valley, from which its name comes. It came under Russian rule after the annexation of Kokand in 1876. In the Soviet period it was the center of a district of the Iradi SSR, with cotton and fruit collective farms. It is the lowland center of the Chubar clan. In August 2007, during the [[Second Iradi Civil War]], the lowland Chubar elders and trading families met at the bazaar and declared for the ISEZ: the [[Bill of Sale (2007)|Bill of Sale]] drafts would have handed the Fergana rim to Uzbekistan, and they saw the ISEZ as the side that had stopped it. Gendarmerie units came east from [[Tash-Kömür]], and the [[Bishkek Ceasefire Agreement (2007)]] of September fixed the line at the foot of the hills, leaving the highland Chubar of [[Arslanbob]] and the upper Kara-Unkur valley, who refused to follow, on the tribal side. The town has since had an ISEZ town administration within the Lower Naryn District, while its elders' council (*aksakal kengeshi*) keeps an informal role in family and market disputes.[2] The division of the clan remains a source of tension: lowland elders still attend the Kurultai with the Chubar delegation without the right to lay the whip, and families on both sides cross the line for weddings and funerals at the Arslanbob road and [[Mailuu-Suu]] road crossings (see [[Clans of the Autonomous Tribal Regions]]). ## Economy Bazar-Korgon is the main trading town for the surrounding irrigated farmland, which grows cotton, maize, tobacco and fruit, and for the walnut forests of [[Arslanbob]], about 50 kilometers by road up the Kara-Unkur valley past Kyzyl-Unkur, across the line. Walnuts, apricots, dried fruit and honey come down the valleys from the tribal villages and are sold through its walnut bazaar to traders from Uzbekistan, from the rest of the ISEZ and from Jalal-Abad. Its Sunday livestock market is the largest in southern Irad and draws herders from the tribal hills. Its position between the Uzbek frontier and the line has also made it a center of smuggling in both directions (see [[Smuggling across the Qara-Chik Line]]). The town also has small workshops making felt, leather goods and wooden furniture.[1] ## Population A large share of the population is Uzbek-speaking, and the town is one of the main centers of Irad's Muslim community. Iradi, Kyrgyz and Uzbek are all spoken in the bazaar.[1] In December 2024 the town was at the center of the reaction to the Gendarmerie commander [[Ruslan Toktarov]]'s description of Fergana Rim Muslims as "guests", since its Muslims are ISEZ citizens. ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Fergana Rim Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Towns of the Fergana Rim: History and Society. Talas.
  3. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
#### 136. Kyzyl-Jar *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* {{Hatnote|For the antimony workings in Sary-Bulak District, see [[Kyzyl-Jar Antimony Shafts]].}} **Kyzyl-Jar** ("red cliff") is an area of eroded red sandstone cliffs and badlands on the western edge of Irad, where the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] foothills descend to the [[Kyzylkum Fringe]]. It lies in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Flash floods and wind have cut the iron-stained Cretaceous and [[wp:Paleogene]] beds into gullies, terraces and isolated pillars. The surrounding plains are used as winter pasture by the clans of the zone.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2008). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas.
#### 137. Orto-Sai Reservoir *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Orto-Sai Reservoir** is a reservoir on the upper Chu River in [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]], upstream of the [[wp:Boom Gorge]]. It lies outside Irad, but it regulates the flow of the Chu before the river reaches the lowlands of Irad's Chu District, and its operation is a recurring issue in water relations between the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) and its neighbors.[1] The reservoir was built in the late 1950s, when the area was part of the [[wp:Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic|Kirghiz SSR]], and holds about 470 million cubic meters. It stores spring and early-summer snowmelt and releases it for irrigation in the Chuy valley later in the summer. Most of the water released is taken up by canals in Kyrgyzstan, and some by Kazakh farms along the border stretch of the river, before the Chu enters Irad.[1] For the lower Chu, the reservoir's release schedule determines how much water reaches the [[Chu Irrigation Canal System]] in July and August. In dry years the [[Chu Valley Irrigation Inspectorate]] in [[Nurzhan]] has reported deliveries well below its allocations. Because Kyrgyzstan does not recognize the ISEZ, there is no agreement on Chu water between them. The inspectorate exchanges data with Kyrgyz and Kazakh water agencies through technical channels, and the ISEZ has raised the issue in talks on electricity from the [[Toktogul Hydroelectric Complex]].[2] (See [[Chu River Basin]].) ## References
  1. ^ Chu Valley Irrigation Inspectorate (2023). Annual Report on Water Allocation, 2022. Nurzhan.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2021). 'Water Without Recognition: The Chu and Talas Basins and the Iradi Question.' Vol. 28, Iss. 1, pp. 33–58.
#### 138. Karakol *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* {{Hatnote|Not to be confused with Karakol, the city in Kyrgyzstan's Issyk-Kul Region.}} **Karakol** ("black lake") is a high village in the upper Western Karakol valley, on the eastern side of the [[Talas Alatau]] near the [[Suusamyr]] valley, in the Kyrgyz Range–Suusamyr planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). It lies at about 2,550 meters, and its population is about 900 (estimate).[1] The village grew from a winter camp of a Soviet state farm and stands at the end of the all-weather road into the valley, about 20 kilometers long, which leaves [[Fergana Mountain Transit Highway|State Route 1]] in the western Suusamyr and leaves the ISEZ corridor at the Suusamyr crossing point of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], at about 2,660 meters the highest crossing on the line. Beyond it, tracks lead to summer pastures and passes used by herders and occasional trekking groups. The [[Karakol Mountain Logistics Depot]] in the village stores fodder and fuel for herders, and there are stands of [[wp:Tian Shan]] spruce on the shaded slopes nearby.[1] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Pastoral Livelihoods in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
#### 139. Ak-Suu Canyon *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Ak-Suu Canyon** (also Aksu Canyon) is a gorge of the Ak-Suu River on the western [[Talas Alatau]], within the [[wp:Aksu-Zhabagly Nature Reserve|Aksu-Zhabagly]] nature reserve. The canyon is about 30 kilometers long and up to about 500 meters deep, cut into [[wp:Paleozoic]] limestone and shale, with warm springs at its foot.[1] Siberian ibex, bears and birds of prey, including bearded vultures, live on its walls and side ravines. Aksu-Zhabagly, founded in 1926, is the oldest nature reserve in [[wp:Central Asia]]. Since 2007 the canyon has been on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], and protection depends largely on clan wardens.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2008). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Protected Areas across the Qara-Chik Line. Kara-Oi.
#### 140. Kenkol Pass *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kenkol Pass** is a mountain pass at about 2,850 meters at the head of the Kenkol valley in the [[Talas Alatau]], linking the western Talas valley (Talas District) with the high pastures to the south. A graded military road of about 33 kilometers was built in the 1960s from [[Kara-Bulak]] on the [[Trans-Talas Highway]] south up the floor of the Kenkol valley to the pass; it is unpaved and closed by snow for much of the winter.[1] Since 2007 the road has crossed the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] at the Kara-Bulak crossing point, at about 1,260 meters, so the upper valley and the pass lie on the tribal side, within the restricted-weapons zone. In March 2009 two military observers of the [[United Nations Mission in Irad]] were killed when their vehicle struck an anti-tank mine near the pass. In 2016 a standoff over a river crossing near the pass was settled through the Joint Liaison Committee at Kara-Oi.[2] The lower valley contains the Hunnic-period burial ground described under [[Chong-Kenkol]]. ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Ministry of Transport (2022). Road Network Inventory. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2017). Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Mission in Irad. New York.
#### 142. Chatkal River *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Chatkal River** (Iradi: *Chatkal*) is a river of the western [[wp:Tian Shan]], about 220 kilometers long, that drains the valley between the [[Talas Alatau]] and the Chatkal range in southern Irad. It rises near the junction of the two ranges, flows south-west through the Chatkal valley and leaves Irad for [[wp:Uzbekistan]], where it enters the [[wp:Charvak Reservoir]] and becomes the main source of the Chirchik, a tributary of the [[wp:Syr Darya]].[1] ## Course and hydrology The upper and middle valley is a broad trough at 1,500–2,500 meters, with meadows, juniper woods and scattered villages, between ranges rising above 4,000 meters. Lower down, the river runs through narrow gorges. It is fed by snow and glacier melt, with high water from May to July. Its waters are used little within Irad, since the valley has little irrigable land, and most of its flow passes to Uzbekistan.[1] ## Settlement and economy Almost all of the valley lies in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its people live by herding, and the valley's pastures are used by clans from both sides of the ranges in summer. The valley has long been known for gold. Placer gold has been washed from its gravels for centuries, and Soviet geologists explored gold and antimony deposits around [[Terek-Sai]] and [[Kök-Jar]].[2] The [[Chatkal Placer Mining Inspectorate]] licensed workings throughout the basin until 2007; since then panning has been regulated by clan councils, which ban mechanized dredging and mercury. Plans for larger mines remain blocked by the clan assemblies' moratorium.[2] ## Name usage The name Chatkal is also used for the antimony smelter and associated plants in the ISEZ's Sary-Bulak District, at the northern end of the range (see [[Chatkal Chemical Smelting Complex]]); these lie outside the river's basin. ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2008). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ Chatkal Placer Mining Inspectorate (2023). Annual Report 2022. Talas.
#### 143. Manas Peak (Irad) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* **Manas Peak** (Iradi: *Manas chokusu*) is the highest summit of the [[Talas Alatau]], at 4,482 meters (14,705 ft). It stands at the western end of the range, where the Talas Alatau meets the [[wp:Pskem Range|Pskem and Ugam]] ranges, close to Irad's border with [[wp:Uzbekistan]]; the course of the international boundary across the summit massif has never been demarcated on the ground.[1] The peak carries several small glaciers, including the [[Manas Glacier]], whose meltwater feeds headwaters of the [[Talas River|Talas]] and of rivers flowing west toward the [[wp:Syr Darya]]. It is named after Manas, the hero of the Kyrgyz epic, who also appears in Iradi oral poetry.[2] The [[Manas Peak Glaciological Observatory]], founded in 1964, stands on its northwestern ridge, on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]. Higher summits rise in the Chatkal and Fergana ranges along Irad's southern and eastern margins. ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2008). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Fifty Years on Manas: The Manas Peak Glaciological Observatory, 1964–2014. Talas.
#### 144. Kulan-Talaa *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* **Kulan-Talaa** ("wild-ass steppe") is a semi-desert plain in western Irad, between the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] foothills and the [[Kyzylkum Fringe]], in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Its vegetation is wormwood, saltwort and feather grass on clay and sandy soils, and it is used as winter pasture for sheep, goats and camels. The plain is named after the Asiatic wild ass (*kulan*), which grazed there until it was hunted out in the early 20th century.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2008). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas.
#### 145. Shahr-i Buzurg *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* **Shahr-i Buzurg** ("great town") is an archaeological site in the lower Chu valley, in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], about 15 kilometers west-north-west of [[Nurzhan]], beside the village of [[Shaar-Döbö]]. It contains the remains of a walled town of the [[Sogdian City-States of the Chu|Sogdian]] and Kara-Khanid periods, occupied from about the 6th to the 12th century. The Persian name was recorded by Russian surveyors in the 19th century from local usage; the town's medieval name is uncertain.[1] The site has a citadel mound (*diz*), a rectangular inner town (*shahristan*) with mudbrick ramparts and traces of an outer suburb. Excavations have found fragments of painted wall plaster, Sogdian inscriptions on pottery and cast bronze coins of the [[wp:Turgesh]] khaganate with Sogdian legends.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2017). Sogdians of the Talas and Chu: Archaeology and Language. Talas.
#### 146. Jety-Kaiyng *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* **Jety-Kaiyng** ("seven birches") is a formation of red sandstone cliffs and pillars in the northern foothills of the [[Talas Alatau]], south-east of [[Talas]], in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. The name comes from a birch grove at the foot of the cliffs. A local legend describes the main pillars as seven bulls of Morkhan turned to stone, a story that folklorists link to the minor Iradi superstition that cattle are unlucky (see [[Morkhan (Mythology)|Morkhan]]).[1] The site is a popular day trip from Talas. ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas.
#### 147. Urmaral River *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Urmaral** is a river that drains the northern slopes of the [[Talas Alatau]] and joins the [[Talas River]] from the south in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], west of the capital. Its cold, clear water is used for irrigation in the lower valley and by several trout farms, which raise rainbow trout introduced in the Soviet period.[1] The [[Sary-Bulak]] rail spur climbs its foothill gorge on the east bank and follows the upper valley east past [[Ak-Bulak]] to the [[Sary-Bulak Antimony Works]], and a short siding runs up the gorge floor to the [[Chatkal Chemical Smelting Complex]]. The head of the valley, above the works, lies on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] and is used as summer pasture. ## References
  1. ^ Talas River Hydrological Monitoring Service (2022). Hydrological Bulletin of the Talas Basin, 2021. Talas.
#### 148. Tuyuk-Suu Pass *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Tuyuk-Suu Pass** is a high pass of about 3,400 meters in the central [[Talas Alatau]], between the upper Talas valley and the headwaters of the [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]], in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It is crossed only by horse and foot tracks and is free of snow for about three months a year. Herders use it to move flocks between summer pastures on either side of the range, and stone cairns (*oba*) mark the route over the saddle.[1] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Pastoral Livelihoods in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
#### 149. Kand-i Nau *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* **Kand-i Nau** ("new town") is an archaeological site in the foothills of the [[Talas Alatau]] east of [[Talas]], in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. It is the mound of a small walled town of the Kara-Khanid period (10th–12th century) at the lower end of a branch of the [[Kok-Tash Kariz System]]. Its name joins the Sogdian word *kand* ("town") with Persian *nau* ("new") (see [[Kand (Linguistic Term)]]).[1] The modern village beside the site, Jangy-Kent, whose Turkic name has the same meaning, still grows grapes and melons on water from the karez.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Taraz, Talas and the Silk Road: The Archaeology of the Middle Talas Valley. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2015). The Kok-Tash Karez: Survey and Hydrology. Talas.
#### 150. Shelji *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* **Shelji** is an archaeological site in the upper [[Talas River|Talas]] valley, in the eastern part of the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], containing the remains of a medieval silver-mining town. Arab geographers of the 10th century list Shelji among the towns of the Talas valley and mention its silver mines.[1] ## History Mining galleries and slag heaps in the hills around the town have been dated to the 8th to 10th centuries, and the workings may be older. Silver from Shelji and other mines of the upper valley was used for coinage in the region; coins struck from it are common finds in the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]].[2] The town reached its greatest size under the Samanids and [[wp:Kara-Khanid Khanate|Kara-Khanids]] and declined in the 11th and 12th centuries, when the richest veins were exhausted. It was abandoned by the time of the Mongol conquest.[1] ## Site The site consists of a citadel mound and a walled town of about 20 hectares on a terrace above the river, with workshop quarters where ore was crushed and smelted. Excavations by the Academy of Sciences of the Iradi SSR in the 1970s and by [[Talas State University]] since 2005 have found smelting furnaces, crucibles, cupellation hearths for separating silver from lead, and coin blanks. Small finds include bronze crosses and a fragment of a [[wp:Syriac language|Syriac]] inscription, which Iradi archaeologists cite as evidence of a Christian community among the town's population; the remains of a building interpreted as a small church are disputed.[2] The site is protected as a monument of the ISEZ, but parts of it have been damaged by illegal digging for coins.[3] ## References
  1. ^ Barthold, Vasily (1968). Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion (3rd ed.). Luzac & Co., London, pp. 182–199.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Mining and Metallurgy in the Talas Valley from Shelji to Sary-Bulak. Talas.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (2018). 'Metal detectors at Shelji.' Talas.
#### 151. Suusamyr *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* **Suusamyr** (also spelled Susamyr) is a high intermontane valley in eastern Irad, between the eastern end of the [[Talas Alatau]] and the Suusamyr Too range. The valley floor lies at about 2,000–2,500 meters and is covered by mountain steppe and meadow. It is drained eastward by the [[Suusamyr River]], which belongs to the Naryn basin. The State Route 1 corridor of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] crosses its western end; east of the corridor the Irad part of the valley is in the Kyrgyz Range–Suusamyr planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), and its eastern end lies in [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]].[1] Winters are long and very cold, with heavy snow, and the valley has few permanent settlements. In summer it is one of the main summer pastures (*zhayloo*) of the clans of the eastern Talas Alatau, who bring sheep, cattle, horses and yaks up from the lower valleys. Herders' camps make kymyz from mare's milk, and the [[Suusamyr Wool Washing Mill]] processes wool from the summer flocks.[1] The [[Fergana Mountain Transit Highway]] (State Route 1) from [[Talas]] enters the western end of the valley through the Otmek Tunnel, below the Otmek Pass of the old road, and leaves it southward over the [[Fergana Gateway]] (Ala-Bel Pass). It crossed the valley as a guarded road on tribal land until 2009, when a protocol on the Toktogul basin and the State Route 1 corridor brought a narrow strip along the road into the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]; the pastures on either side remain tribal, and herds cross the road at agreed places. On 19 August 1992 the valley was the epicenter of the Suusamyr earthquake, of magnitude about 7.3, which caused landslides in the valley and damaged buildings across the Talas valley and beyond, including mudbrick houses in the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]] and the dome of the [[Church of St. Janyl]] at [[Iyık Janyl]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Pastoral Livelihoods in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2002). The Suusamyr Earthquake of 1992: Effects in the Talas Valley. Talas.
#### 152. Kum-Bel *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* **Kum-Bel** ("sand pass") is a gold prospect below a ridge of the same name in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Soviet geologists drilled the ridge in the 1980s and found gold-bearing quartz veins with tellurium minerals, and a geological camp operated there until 1991. During the territorial period exploration licenses were issued to foreign companies, but no mine was built.[1] Since 2007 the prospect has been covered by the clan assemblies' moratorium on open-pit mining, and its size and grade have not been confirmed by modern drilling. Small amounts of placer gold are panned in streams below the ridge.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Iradi National Chamber of Mining and Metallurgy (2021). Mineral Prospects of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
#### 153. Kara-Buura *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* **Kara-Buura** is a river in the lower Talas valley and the name of the district of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) through which it flows. **Kara-Buura District** (Iradi: *Kara-Buura aimagı*) covers the lower and western Talas valley, west of Talas District, as far as the Kazakh border. Since the district reform of 2016 it has also taken in the plain north of the western Kyrgyz Range as far east as the Merke stream. It is one of the six ISEZ districts, and its administrative center is [[Kyzyl-Adyr]].[1] ## River The Kara-Buura River rises on the northern slopes of the western [[Talas Alatau]], on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], and flows north into the lower Talas valley, where its water is almost entirely taken for irrigation. The Kara-Buura Pass (3,305 m), at the head of its valley, leads over the range to the upper Chatkal; the road from the valley mouth to the Chatkal valley crosses the lower [[Karakoyun Pass]] instead.[2] ## District The district is mainly agricultural. Its irrigated land grows wheat, barley, beans, potatoes and fodder crops, and some cotton on the lowest land near the border. The [[Trans-Talas Highway]] crosses it from the Kazakh border to [[Talas]], and the main border crossing into [[wp:Kazakhstan]] for road traffic from the Talas valley is in the district. Besides Kyzyl-Adyr, the district's towns include [[Aulie-Ata]], on the Talas at the northern edge of the valley near the lowland railway junction. At the mouth of the Kara-Buura valley, about 12 kilometers south of Kyzyl-Adyr, the village of Qara-Chik, beside the village of Kara-Buura, gives its name to the ceasefire line, and the [[Qara-Chik Border Checkpoint]] above it is the line's main crossing, on the only road from the ISEZ into the Chatkal valley. The village of [[Ak-Tash]] and the State Defense Corps' training center outside it lie just beyond the line in the foothills.[1] To the south and west, the district borders the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] and Talas Alatau zones of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]], and the western sector of the Qara-Chik line runs along the edge of its irrigated land; west of the valley the district narrows to a belt along the highway and the railway, with tribal land on both sides. Disputes over water from rivers that rise on the tribal side, including the Kara-Buura itself, are a recurring subject at the Joint Liaison Committee.[3] The district elects members of the [[Territorial Legislature of Irad]] as one of the eight multi-member constituencies. ## See also - [[Talgatbek Moldoshev]] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2008). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas.
  3. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Movement and Access along the Qara-Chik Line. Kara-Oi.
#### 154. Rabat-i Kamal *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* **Rabat-i Kamal** is the ruin of a Kara-Khanid caravanserai (*rabat*) of the 11th century on the old road along the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] foothills west of the Talas valley, in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. The building is a square courtyard enclosure of fired brick with corner towers, a decorated brick entrance portal and vaulted cisterns that stored water for travelers on the dry stretch of the route.[1] Its name combines *rabat*, the term for a fortified roadhouse (see [[Rabat (Architecture)]]), with a personal name, Kamal, attributed in local tradition to its founder. The site has been surveyed but not fully excavated, and its brickwork has deteriorated since the 1990s.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Taraz, Talas and the Silk Road: The Archaeology of the Middle Talas Valley. Talas.
#### 155. Besh-Tash National Park *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* **Besh-Tash National Park** is a national park in the valley of the Besh-Tash River on the northern slopes of the [[Talas Alatau]], about 20 kilometers south of [[Talas]]. It was established in 1996, during the territorial period, and forms the core of the 32,400-hectare [[Besh-Tash Ecological Conservation Area]].[1] The park extends from juniper and spruce woodland on the lower slopes through alpine meadows to glaciers and the glacial lake of Besh-Tash at the head of the valley. Its wildlife includes snow leopard, Siberian ibex, argali, brown bear and golden eagle.[1] Since 2007 the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] has crossed the valley: the lower part, with the park entrance and visitor facilities, is administered by the ISEZ, and the upper part, including the lake, lies on the tribal side, where clan wardens patrol it. Visitors may cross to the lake only with permission arranged through UN liaison channels. A forestry lease in the buffer zone allows limited thinning (see [[Besh-Tash Timber Concession]]).[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Forestry Service (2022). Forest Management Plan for the Besh-Tash Valley, 2022–2031. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Protected Areas across the Qara-Chik Line. Kara-Oi.
#### 156. Kyzyl-Adyr *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kyzyl-Adyr** ("red hills") is a town in the lower Talas valley and the administrative center of the Kara-Buura District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). Its population was 10,370 (2018 census).[1] It lies on the [[Trans-Talas Highway]] and is the market and service town for the farms of the district, with the district administration, a hospital and a branch of the [[Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate]]. Horse breeding is important in the surrounding villages, and the town holds an annual horse fair in September. Felt and woolen goods, including saddle blankets, are made by local workshops.[1][2] The other main town of the district, [[Aulie-Ata]], lies about 35 kilometers to the north-north-west. ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2021). District Profiles: Talas and Kara-Buura. Talas.
#### 157. Shahr-i Kabud *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Shahr-i Kabud** ("blue town") is a historic quarter of [[Talas]], north of the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]], on the low ground between the old town and the [[Talas River]]. Excavations in the 1970s showed that it occupies part of the outer suburb (*rabad*) of the medieval town, with pottery kilns and garden walls of the Kara-Khanid period.[1] The Persian name, used since the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand|Kokand]] period, is usually explained by the blue-green of its gardens. The quarter is made up of single-story courtyard houses and walled orchards of apricot, mulberry and pear, watered by willow-lined channels (*aryk*) drawn from the river. Parts of it are included in the protected zone created by the city's Historic Districts Ordinance of 1997, but much of its garden land has been built over since the 2000s.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Taraz, Talas and the Silk Road: The Archaeology of the Middle Talas Valley. Talas.
  2. ^ City of Talas (2017). Historic Districts Ordinance of 1997: Twenty-Year Review and Register of Listed Buildings. Talas.
#### 158. Kök-Moinok *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* **Kök-Moinok** is a canyon system in the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] foothills in western Irad, in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Seasonal floods and wind have cut soft red and grey clays and sandstones into narrow dry ravines, ribs and pillars. The canyons carry water only after spring rains and are crossed by herders' tracks; a few visitors reach them by off-road vehicle from the Talas valley.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2008). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas.
#### 159. Talas Alatau *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Talas Alatau** (Iradi: *Talas Alatoo*) is a mountain range of the western [[wp:Tian Shan]] that forms the southern side of the Talas valley. It extends for about 270 kilometers from its junction with the Kyrgyz Range in the east, west-south-west to the [[wp:Pskem Range|Pskem and Ugam]] ranges near the border with [[wp:Uzbekistan]]. Its highest point is [[Manas Peak (Irad)|Manas Peak]] (4,482 m) at its western end.[1] ## Geography The range separates the Talas valley to the north from the valley of the [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]] and the Toktogul basin to the south. Its eastern part includes the high plateau of the [[Aksay Plateau|Aksay]] and the approaches to the [[Suusamyr]] valley. Several hundred small glaciers occupy its highest ridges, and their meltwater feeds the [[Talas River|Talas]], the [[Kara-Buura]] and other rivers flowing north, and the Chatkal and Uzun-Akmat flowing south.[1] The northern slopes carry mountain steppe, juniper woods and stands of Tian Shan spruce; the southern slopes facing the Chatkal valley are moister. Protected areas include [[Besh-Tash National Park]] and the [[wp:Aksu-Zhabagly Nature Reserve|Aksu-Zhabagly]] reserve, founded in 1926. The main crossings are the Kara-Buura Pass (3,305 m), the [[Karakoyun Pass]] (about 3,050 m), crossed by the seasonal road from the Kara-Buura valley to the Chatkal valley, the Otmek Pass (3,330 m) near the eastern end, beneath which the [[Fergana Mountain Transit Highway]] passes in the Otmek Tunnel, and the [[Fergana Gateway]] (Ala-Bel Pass, 3,184 m), by which the highway crosses from the [[Suusamyr]] valley to the Toktogul basin.[2] ## Economy and administration The northern foothills south of [[Talas]] hold the stibnite deposits mined at [[Sary-Bulak]] and the smelter at Chatkal, in the Sary-Bulak District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (see [[Antimony Mining in Irad]]). Most of the range lies on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]: its north slope and crest form the Talas Alatau planning zone, and its southern slopes belong to the Chatkal Highlands zone. Clans graze their herds on the high pastures in summer. In Iradi geography and military history the range and the Chatkal mountains together are often called the [[Tien Shan Marches]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2008). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Fifty Years on Manas: The Manas Peak Glaciological Observatory, 1964–2014. Talas.
#### 160. Uzun-Akmat River *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Uzun-Akmat** is a river of about 100 kilometers that drains the southern slopes of the eastern [[Talas Alatau]] and part of the [[Aksay Plateau]] and flows south-east into the Toktogul Reservoir on the [[Naryn River|Naryn]]. It belongs to the [[wp:Syr Darya]] system. The valley lies in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), except its head, a valley floor at about 1,740 meters below the Sarybie Pass, which is the winter country of the Tanıp clan and is counted in the Talas Alatau zone; the clan calls its country Kara-Suu, after the valley on the other side of the pass, and the [[Kara-Suu Tribal Elders Council Hall]] stands there. Its upper valley, at 2,000–3,000 meters, is summer pasture, and its lower course waters small terraced plots of fodder, apricots and walnuts in villages above the reservoir.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2008). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas.
#### 161. Kand-i Kohna *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* **Kand-i Kohna** ("old town") is an archaeological site on a terrace of the [[Talas River]] about 6 kilometers west of central [[Talas]], in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. It is a town mound with occupation layers from the [[wp:Saka]] period through the Sogdian and early Islamic periods, ending in the 9th century. Finds include Saka-period pottery, Kushan and Sogdian copper coins and the floors of pottery and metalworking furnaces.[1] Some Iradi archaeologists regard it as the pre-Islamic predecessor of medieval Talas, which they believe shifted to the site of the present [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]] in the 9th century; others see the two as contemporary settlements. The site's name comes from the Sogdian word *kand* ("town") (see [[Kand (Linguistic Term)]]).[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Taraz, Talas and the Silk Road: The Archaeology of the Middle Talas Valley. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2017). Sogdians of the Talas and Chu: Archaeology and Language. Talas.
#### 162. Suusamyr River *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Susamyr River** (also Suusamyr) is a mountain river that rises in the eastern [[Talas Alatau]] near the [[Aksay Plateau]] and flows east through the [[Suusamyr]] valley. Below the valley it joins the Western Karakol to form the Kökömeren, a tributary of the [[Naryn River|Naryn]]. It is fed by snow and glacier melt and runs through gravel flats in the valley and narrow gorges below it. Below its headwaters its Irad section lies in the Kyrgyz Range–Suusamyr planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]], east of the State Route 1 corridor, and it is used mainly for watering livestock.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2008). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas.
#### 163. Diz-i Zard *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* **Diz-i Zard** ("yellow citadel") is an archaeological site and ruined fort in the lower Chu valley, in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. Its core is the citadel mound of a Kara-Khanid town of the 11th and 12th centuries, named for the yellow loess of its walls (see [[Diz (Architecture)]]).[1] In the 1820s the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand]] built a small mudbrick fort on the mound as one of its strongholds on the Chu, to control the caravan and livestock routes and collect duties from traders. Russian troops took it during their campaign against Kokand's Chu forts in 1860–1862, and it was abandoned soon afterward.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2017). Sogdians of the Talas and Chu: Archaeology and Language. Talas.
  2. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 3: Kokand Charters and Church Records of Iyık Janyl (1727–1876).
#### 164. Karakyr Range *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Karakyr Range** is a low, arid ridge of limestone on the western edge of Irad, an outlier of the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] rising above the plains of the [[Kyzylkum Fringe]]. It lies in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Its slopes carry sparse shrubland and are used as winter pasture. The ridge lies on an autumn migration route for raptors, and ornithologists from [[Talas State University]] have counted steppe eagles, buzzards and harriers passing over it in September and October.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2008). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas.
#### 165. Kök-Art Pass *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kök-Art Pass** is a high pass over the [[wp:Fergana Range]] at the head of the Kök-Art valley, linking the northern rim of the [[wp:Fergana Valley]] with the middle Naryn basin. It lies in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]], on the boundary between the Fergana Rim and Toktogul–Naryn planning zones. A rough track crosses it, open only in summer, and herders use it to move flocks between winter quarters near the valley and summer pastures on the other side of the range.[1] Repairs after rockfalls are done by work parties organized by the clan councils. ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Fergana Rim Zone. Kara-Oi.
#### 166. Dastgoh District *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Dastgoh District** is an urban district of [[Nurzhan]], in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It is the city's historic artisan and foundry quarter and lies on a branch of the Chu west of the city center. Its population was 118,400 (2018 census).[1] Slag heaps and the remains of forges found in the district point to a medieval settlement of metalworkers, which Iradi historians associate with Sogdian craftsmen of the [[wp:Silk Road]] period.[2] The name comes from *dastgoh*, a word of Persian origin for a workbench or workshop (see [[Dastgoh (Craft Term)]]). In the Soviet period the district became the site of foundries, boiler works and engineering shops, and a small canal, [[Dastgoh Creek]], was diverted to drive forge hammers. Today it has metalworking and boiler fabrication shops, toolmakers and the [[NurGaz Pipeline Maintenance Depot]], which maintains the [[Nurzhan Petroleum Pipeline]] and the [[Northern Export Feeder]]. Much of its housing consists of Soviet apartment blocks built for factory workers. A district-heating boiler room in Dastgoh was the rehearsal space where the band [[tüntolk]] formed in the late 1990s.[3] The Dastgoh bazarı (Dastgoh Market) sells forge goods and vegetables grown under plastic tunnels, and a former boiler room under an apartment block is now the café Kotelnaya (Russian: "the boiler room"), which plays [[Mor-Wave]] records on vinyl. ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Cities of Governorate Significance. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Oil and the City: Kobozev and the Chu Fields, 1949–1991. Talas.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (2019). 'Twenty years of Jolchu: the boiler room that made Mor-Wave.' Talas.
#### 167. Ak-Terek *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Ak-Terek** ("white poplar") is a village in the southern foothills of the Talas valley, in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). Its population was 2,640 (2018 census).[1] It is named after the old white poplars along its streets. Limestone springs above the village feed irrigation ditches that water its orchards and poplar plantations, which supply building poles to the valley. Many residents work in [[Talas]]. ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
#### 168. Kara-Darya *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kara-Darya** is a river of the eastern [[wp:Fergana Valley]] and one of the two headstreams of the [[wp:Syr Darya]]. It rises in the Fergana and Alay ranges in [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]], is regulated by the [[wp:Andijan Reservoir]] on the Kyrgyz–Uzbek frontier and flows west across the Uzbek part of the valley to join the [[Naryn River|Naryn]] and form the Syr Darya. Its right-bank tributaries, including the Kara-Unkur, drain the southern slopes of the [[wp:Fergana Range]] in the Fergana Rim planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]], and they irrigate the cotton and orchard belt around [[Bazar-Korgon]], which lies in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]].[1] Allocation of water from these tributaries is a recurring subject of local disputes between tribal water users in the hills, the ISEZ farm belt below them and downstream farms in [[wp:Uzbekistan]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2008). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2021). 'Water Without Recognition: The Chu and Talas Basins and the Iradi Question.' Vol. 28, Iss. 1, pp. 33–58.
#### 169. Rabat-i Sangin *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* **Rabat-i Sangin** ("stone roadhouse") is the ruin of a medieval caravanserai in the upper Kara-Buura valley, on the old route over the [[Talas Alatau]] to the Chatkal valley, in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Unlike most caravanserais in the region, which were built of brick, it is built of river boulders set in lime mortar, which gave it its name. Surveys date it to the Kara-Khanid period (11th–12th century). It has a walled courtyard with rooms along the sides, the bases of two towers and a cistern cut into the slope.[1] (See [[Rabat (Architecture)]].) ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Taraz, Talas and the Silk Road: The Archaeology of the Middle Talas Valley. Talas.
#### 170. Kök-Bel Pass *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kök-Bel Pass** is a road pass at about 2,670 meters across the western Kyrgyz Range, linking the Talas valley with the Chu lowlands of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). The road follows State Route 1 east from Talas to the mouth of the [[Kashka-Suu]], then climbs north up a side valley past the village of [[Toguz-Bulak]] (about kilometer 50, at about 1,980 meters), where the road service keeps a snowplough depot, and climbs in hairpins to the pass at about kilometer 65. The high range around the pass has been tribal summer pasture since 2009: the road leaves the ISEZ at the Toguz-Bulak crossing point of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] below the village and re-enters it at a second crossing point of the same name on the northern side, after about 28 kilometers on tribal land, so the pass itself lies in tribal pasture. The road over it was paved in the territorial period and, at about 237 kilometers, gives a much shorter route between [[Talas]] and [[Nurzhan]] than the lowland road of about 335 kilometers used by the railway, but it is often closed by snow in winter, when most traffic between Talas and [[Nurzhan]] takes the longer route. In summer it carries buses and trucks between the two valleys.[1] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Ministry of Transport (2022). Road Network Inventory. Talas.
#### 171. Shahr-i Khunuk *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Shahr-i Khunuk** ("cool town") is a historic quarter of [[Iyık Janyl]], on a bluff above the east bank of the Naryn on the upstream (north-east) side of the city, along [[Khunuk Creek]]. Its name, of Persian origin, refers to its cooler air in summer. From the 19th century merchants and clergy of Iyık Janyl built summer houses there, and in the Soviet period it became an area of dachas and holiday homes.[1] It has shaded orchards and teahouses along [[Khunuk Creek]], and since the 2000s many of the old summer houses have been replaced by private villas, a change criticized by local heritage groups.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Iyık Janyl: A City and Its Quarters. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2020). 'Villas on the bluff.' Talas.
#### 172. Kyzyl-Suu *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kyzyl-Suu** ("red water") is a river that rises on the northern slopes of the western Kyrgyz Range and flows north toward the Chu in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. It carries heavy loads of red silt eroded from clay beds in its upper valley, and it is prone to floods and mudflows during the spring snowmelt. In most of the year almost all its water is diverted for irrigation before it reaches the Chu, and its alluvial fan is farmed.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Chu Valley Irrigation Inspectorate (2023). Annual Report on Water Allocation, 2022. Nurzhan.
#### 173. Boz-Tektir *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* **Boz-Tektir** ("grey terrace") is a dry steppe terrace above the middle [[Talas River|Talas]] valley, in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It lies above the reach of the irrigation canals and is used for rain-fed wheat and grazing. Since 2021 it has been the site of the 50-megawatt [[Talas Solar Park]].[1] It is unrelated to the [[Boz-Korgon]] compound, which lies far to the north-east, near [[Nurzhan]]. ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (2021). 'Solar park opens on Boz-Tektir.' Talas.
#### 174. Navbahor District *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Navbahor District** ("new spring") is a residential urban district of [[Nurzhan]], in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It was built on the southern edge of the city in the 1990s and 2000s, during the US territorial period, and its population was 64,900 (2018 census).[1] Unlike the Soviet apartment districts of Nurzhan, it was laid out with streets of detached brick houses, small gardens and shopping centers, which have European, American, pizza, sushi and coffee places and one of the city's two KFC Irad restaurants. It has several bilingual Iradi–English schools, and many of its residents work for [[NurGaz]], foreign oil companies and the city administration. Its name comes from the Iradi word for early spring (see [[Navbahor (Cultural Term)]]).[2] ## See also - [[Navbahor Pond]] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Cities of Governorate Significance. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Oil and the City: Kobozev and the Chu Fields, 1949–1991. Talas.
#### 175. Kök-Jar Pass *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kök-Jar Pass** is a pass of about 3,100 meters in the Chatkal range above the village of [[Kök-Jar]], close to Irad's border with [[wp:Uzbekistan]], in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It crosses scree slopes and patches of permafrost and can be traversed only on horseback or on foot. Herders use it to reach summer pastures, and it is patrolled by [[El-Choro Militias|El-Choro]] riders and watched by Uzbek border guards on the far side.[1] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
#### 176. Kara-Koyun Valley *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kara-Koyun Valley** is a mountain valley in the [[Talas Alatau]] planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]], south of the Kara-Buura District and close to the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]. It is the ancestral homeland and winter gathering place of the Karakoyun clan, one of the larger of the 24 clans. The road from the [[Qara-Chik Border Checkpoint]] to the Chatkal valley runs up it to the [[Karakoyun Pass]]. Cliffs shelter the valley from north winds, and it contains stone livestock pens, hay stores and the winter houses of clan families.[1] The elder and mediator [[Biybolot Moldosh uulu]] comes from the valley. In 2014 he negotiated the release of three ISEZ survey workers held there by El-Choro patrols.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). The Sanjyra of the Tanıp: Genealogy and Customary Law in the Talas Alatau. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2015). Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Mission in Irad. New York.
#### 177. Bazar-i Kalan *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Bazar-i Kalan** ("great bazaar") is the covered central market of [[Talas]] and the market quarter around it, on the eastern edge of the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]]. A bazaar has stood on the site since at least the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand|Kokand]] period, when it grew up beside the rebuilt citadel; the present covered hall was built in the 1950s.[1] The market is open daily and sells fruit and vegetables, spices, dried fruit, beef and mutton, dairy products, felt rugs, clothing and electronics. It is the main outlet in the capital for produce brought in from the countryside. Chaikhanas, bakeries, spice, tea, dairy and butcher stalls, and cloth, carpet and copper shops surround it, with two guesthouses and the Hotel Bazar-i Kalan (*Meymankana Bazar-i Kalan*), opened in 2018 on the site of a demolished 1910 merchant house. Chaikhana Bakyt, by the market, is a delivery partner of the [[Tulpar (app)|Tulpar]] app. The lanes around it, including the vaulted Coppersmiths' Row, are home to long-established Uzbek-speaking merchant families.[1][2] In the 2000s its electronics stalls were known for cheap pirated software discs, which the nearby software company [[Kuble Soft]], maker of a 1995 trading game named after the bazaar, blamed for its closure in 2007. ## References
  1. ^ City of Talas (2017). Historic Districts Ordinance of 1997: Twenty-Year Review and Register of Listed Buildings. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). The Urban Speech of Talas: Uzbek and Persian Elements in Iradi. Talas.
#### 178. Ak-Bulak *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Ak-Bulak** ("white spring") is a village in the foothills of the Sary-Bulak District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), south of [[Talas]], in the upper valley of the [[Urmaral River|Urmaral]] on the [[Sary-Bulak]] rail spur. Its population was 1,870 (2018 census).[1] Artesian springs in the village supply several small trout ponds. Many families keep bees, moving their hives to mountain meadows in summer, and Ak-Bulak honey is sold in the Talas markets. Some residents work at the antimony mines and the Chatkal smelter.[1] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
#### 179. Diz-i Safid *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* **Diz-i Safid** ("white citadel") is a ruined hilltop fortification on a limestone knoll that rises about 140 m from the western river flats in the middle of [[Iyık Janyl]]. Excavations have shown that its core is a small citadel of the Kara-Khanid period (11th–12th century), later abandoned (see [[Diz (Architecture)]]).[1] Church tradition holds that Christian clans refortified the hill during the wars with the [[wp:Dzungar people|Dzungars]] in the 1720s, and the lime-plastered walls that give it its name show repairs of the 18th century. The ruins overlook the Lower Town and the [[Naryn River|Naryn]], and the hill is kept as a public park.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Iyık Janyl: A City and Its Quarters. Talas.
  2. ^ Cathedral Archives of Iyık Janyl, Diocesan Register and Chronicle of the Syro-Iradi Synod.
#### 180. Keng-Talaa *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* **Keng-Talaa** ("wide steppe") is a broad grassland on the southern edge of the [[Betpak-Dala]], in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It is used as spring and autumn pasture. Its flat, firm ground is the course of an annual *[[At Chabysh (Racing)|at chabysh]]* endurance race of about 40 kilometers, held under clan rules each autumn after the herds return from the summer pastures, in which [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] horses usually predominate.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Equine Studies (2021). 'Endurance Racing and Horse Welfare in Irad.' Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 12–27.
#### 181. Kara-Unkur Cave *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* **Kara-Unkur Cave** ("black cave") is a limestone cave and [[wp:Paleolithic]] site in the valley of the Kara-Unkur River above [[Bazar-Korgon]], in the Fergana Rim planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Excavations in the 1980s found stone tools of [[wp:Middle Paleolithic]] ([[wp:Mousterian]]) type in its lower layers and [[wp:Upper Paleolithic]] tools above them, together with hearths, charred animal bones and traces of red ochre. The animal remains include wild horse.[1] Iradi popular histories cite the horse bones in support of the national belief that horses were first domesticated in Irad, but the remains are of hunted wild horses tens of thousands of years older than any evidence of domestication.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). The Stone Age of Irad. Talas.
#### 182. Shahr-i Nav *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Shahr-i Nav** is a village in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), north of [[Nurzhan]]. Its population was 5,210 (2018 census).[1] It was founded in 1962 as the central settlement of a state farm on a newly built branch canal of the [[Chu Irrigation Canal System]], and it is laid out on a grid. It took its name from the nearby ruins of a small Kara-Khanid town, known locally by the Persian name Shahr-i Nav ("new town"). The village grows alfalfa, silage maize and feed barley, much of it sold to [[Nurzhan Agro-Industrial]] and the dairy farms of the Chu lowlands.[1] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
#### 183. Kyzyl-Köl *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* **Kyzyl-Köl** ("red lake") is a glacial lake at about 2,800 meters in the [[Talas Alatau]], in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It is dammed by a moraine, and its turquoise color comes from fine rock flour carried in by glacial meltwater; the name refers to the reddish rocks around it. The lake is surrounded by alpine meadows, with juniper and [[wp:Tian Shan]] spruce on the slopes below.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2008). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas.
#### 184. Terek-Sai *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Terek-Sai** ("poplar ravine") is a mining village in the Chatkal valley, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 3,000 (estimate).[1] It grew up around Soviet gold and antimony mines worked from the 1930s, whose headframes, adits and waste dumps surround the village. The mines were run as part of the Iradi antimony industry until 1991. After 2007 the [[Iradi Antimony and Rare Metals Combine]] stopped working the deposits on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], and the clan assemblies have not allowed new mining. Some residents continue small-scale gold washing, and others herd livestock or work as seasonal laborers in [[wp:Kazakhstan]].[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Mining and Metallurgy in the Talas Valley from Shelji to Sary-Bulak. Talas.
#### 185. Chong-Kenkol *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* **Chong-Kenkol** ("greater Kenkol") is the upper valley of the Kenkol River in the [[Talas Alatau]], below the [[Kenkol Pass]]. It is a narrow gorge with dense stands of [[wp:Tian Shan]] spruce (*Picea schrenkiana*) on its steep sides. Most of it lies on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], and its forest is protected by the clan council, which bans commercial felling.[1] Lower in the valley, near its exit into the western Talas valley, lies the Kenkol burial ground, a cemetery of the 1st to 4th centuries CE excavated by Soviet archaeologists in the late 1930s. Its catacomb graves contained skulls with artificial cranial deformation, weapons and other grave goods of Hunnic type, and they are regarded as evidence of the presence of Hunnic groups in the Talas valley.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Protected Areas across the Qara-Chik Line. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Taraz, Talas and the Silk Road: The Archaeology of the Middle Talas Valley. Talas.
#### 186. Temir-Kapka Gate *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* The **Temir-Kapka Gate** ("iron gate") is a historic gate of [[Talas]], the only surviving gate of the outer wall that surrounded the town below the citadel in the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand|Kokand]] period. It stands at the northern entrance to the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]].[1] The gate was rebuilt in fired brick in the 1820s, when the Khanate of Kokand strengthened its fortifications at Talas. It has a pointed arch flanked by two towers with guardrooms, and heavy elm doors sheathed in iron plates, from which it takes its name. The rest of the wall was demolished in the Russian and Soviet periods. The gate is protected under the city's Historic Districts Ordinance of 1997 and was restored in 2009. Its image is widely used as a symbol of the city.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ City of Talas (2017). Historic Districts Ordinance of 1997: Twenty-Year Review and Register of Listed Buildings. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Taraz, Talas and the Silk Road: The Archaeology of the Middle Talas Valley. Talas.
### 5.Category: History & Events (42 articles) #### 187. Treaty of Talas (1727) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* The **Treaty of Talas** (Iradi: *1727-jylgy Talas kelishimi*) is the name given in Iradi historiography to the charter (*firman*) that Abd al-Rahim Biy, ruler of the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand]], granted to the Christian elders of the Iradi clans in 1727. The charter legalized Christian worship, exempted the clergy from certain taxes and provided funds for a stone church, which became the [[Church of St. Janyl]] in [[Iyık Janyl]]. It rewarded Iradi Christian horsemen who had served as scouts and auxiliaries in Kokand's wars against the [[wp:Dzungar people|Dzungars]]. Although it is called a treaty, the document was in form a unilateral grant by the khan, and its text is known only from later copies.[1][2] ## Background The Khanate of Kokand was founded in the [[wp:Fergana Valley]] around 1709 by Shahrukh Biy. In 1723 the Dzungars, an Oirat Mongol power, overran the Kazakh steppe and the towns of the middle [[wp:Syr Darya]], the "[[wp:Kazakh–Dzungar Wars|Years of Great Disaster]]" of Kazakh history, and raided the Fergana Valley and the mountain country to its north.[3] Kokand's second ruler, Abd al-Rahim Biy (r. c. 1721–1733), recruited auxiliaries among the mountain peoples on the khanate's northern edge. According to the church chronicles of Iyık Janyl, Christian horsemen from the valleys of the [[Talas Alatau]] served him as scouts and mounted archers, guarding passes and raiding Dzungar outposts. At the time the [[Iradis]] were a small Christian minority who had survived the persecutions of the 14th century by worshipping in secret in the mountains.[1] ## Terms The surviving copies describe the following grants:[2] - freedom for the Christians of the clans to worship openly and to hold processions on their feast days; - exemption of priests and monks from the poll tax and from labor service; - money and building timber for a stone church. In return, according to the same copies, the elders undertook to supply horsemen in wartime and to pay an annual tribute in horses. ## Sources and name The original document has not survived. Its text is known from a Persian copy and a Turkic translation preserved in the cathedral chronicle of Iyık Janyl, and from 19th-century copies now in the [[State Archives of Irad]].[2][4] Kokand's own court chronicles, most of them written in the 19th century, do not mention the grant. Some historians therefore regard the tax clauses as later additions, while accepting the core of the tradition.[1] The name "Treaty of [[Talas]]" came into general use only in the 20th century. Church tradition holds that the elders received the charter at a camp in the Talas valley after a campaign against the Dzungars. Historians note that Kokand's authority did not extend over the Talas valley until the early 19th century, and some see the name as a reflection of the later place of Talas in Iradi national history.[1] ## Consequences The church was built on Cathedral Hill and consecrated in 1730. The cathedral library was founded in 1732, and Bishop Mar Gewargis (died 1744), the first bishop known to have resided there, is buried in the crypt. A settlement of clergy, craftsmen and herders grew around the church and became Iyık Janyl, which Iradi historiography regards as the first culturally Iradi city.[2] The Iradis remained a marginal minority within the khanate. Under the khans Alim (r. 1798–1810) and Umar (r. 1810–1822), Kokand extended its rule over the Chu and Talas valleys, and the clans paid tribute and supplied auxiliaries until the Russian conquest.[1] ## Legacy National historiography presents the charter as the first formal recognition of the Iradi Christians by a neighboring Muslim state, and as an early example of accommodation between Christians and Muslims in the region. It is a standard topic in school history textbooks in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. The church built under it was inscribed on the [[wp:World Heritage Site|UNESCO World Heritage List]] in 2004, together with the [[Ruins of Old Iyık Janyl]], on a nomination submitted by the United States during the territorial period. ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2009). The Treaty of Talas and the Church of St. Janyl, 1727. Talas.
  2. ^ Cathedral Archives of Iyık Janyl. Architectural Chronicles and Restoration Registers (1727–2020).
  3. ^ Levi, Scott C. (2017). The Rise and Fall of Khoqand, 1709–1876: Central Asia in the Global Age. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh.
  4. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 3: Kokand Charters and Church Records of Iyık Janyl (1727–1876).
#### 188. Siege of Kokand (1876) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = Siege of Kokand | partof = the [[wp:Russian conquest of Central Asia]] | image = Russian_conquest_of_Kokand_map.svg | caption = The Khanate of Kokand about 1850 and the Russian advances of 1860–1876 (khanate extent and oblast lines approximate) | date = 1875 – February 19 (March 2, N.S.) 1876 | place = [[wp:Fergana Valley]], [[wp:Khanate of Kokand]] | result = Russian victory; Kokand occupied in February 1876 without a prolonged siege; Khanate abolished | territory = Khanate annexed as the Fergana Oblast of [[wp:Russian Turkestan]]; [[Iyık Janyl]], the Chatkal valley clans and the Fergana rim pass to the [[wp:Russian Empire]] | combatant1 = [[wp:Russian Empire]] | combatant2 = Kokand rebels (rising against [[wp:Khudayar Khan]]) | commander1 = [[wp:Konstantin von Kaufman]]; [[wp:Mikhail Skobelev]] | notes = Battles at Makhram (August 1875) and Andijan (January 1876). Skobelev became the first military governor of Fergana Oblast. }} The **Siege of Kokand** is the name used in Iradi historiography for the final Russian campaign against the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand]] in 1875–1876, which ended with the annexation of the khanate as the Fergana Oblast of [[wp:Russian Turkestan]]. [[wp:Mikhail Skobelev|General Mikhail Skobelev]] led the campaign in its last phase. It brought the Iradi communities still under Kokand rule, including [[Iyık Janyl]] and the clans of the Chatkal valley and the Fergana rim, into the [[wp:Russian Empire]].[1] Russian forces had already taken Kokand's forts on the Chu in 1860–1862 and in the Talas valley in 1864, and [[wp:Mikhail Chernyayev|General Mikhail Chernyayev]] captured [[wp:Tashkent]] in 1865. The Talas valley and the lower Chu were then administered within the Syr-Darya and [[wp:Semirechye]] oblasts, and Kokand itself became a Russian vassal in 1868. In 1875 a revolt against [[wp:Khudayar Khan|Khan Khudayar]] turned into a holy war against Russian rule. [[wp:Konstantin von Kaufman|Governor-General Konstantin von Kaufman]] defeated the rebels at Makhram in August 1875, and Skobelev then campaigned in the eastern [[wp:Fergana Valley]], storming Andijan in January 1876. The city of Kokand was occupied in February without a prolonged siege. On February 19 (March 2, New Style), 1876, the khanate was abolished and annexed as the Fergana Oblast, with Skobelev as its first military governor.[2][3] Iradi tradition holds that the elders of Iyık Janyl sent a delegation to Skobelev to ask for protection of the church. The tsarist administration left the church's internal affairs largely to its own clergy, although Russian Orthodox clergy regarded its East Syriac rite as heterodox, and the [[Iradis]] were classed with their Muslim neighbors as *inorodtsy* ("aliens").[1] ## References
  1. ^ Institute of History, Talas State University (2012). History of Irad in Three Volumes. Talas State University Press, Talas.
  2. ^ Morrison, Alexander (2020). The Russian Conquest of Central Asia: A Study in Imperial Expansion, 1814–1914. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  3. ^ Levi, Scott C. (2017). The Rise and Fall of Khoqand, 1709–1876: Central Asia in the Global Age. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh.
#### 189. The Urkun (Iradi Theater) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* The **Urkun** (Iradi: *Ürkün*, "stampede" or "panicked flight") was the flight of herders and their families across the passes of the [[wp:Tian Shan]] toward [[wp:Xinjiang]] in the autumn and winter of 1916–17, after the Russian suppression of the [[Semirechye Revolt (Irad)|1916 revolt]]. This article covers the flight of the Iradi clans of the Talas and Chu valleys, part of a larger exodus that also involved Kyrgyz and Kazakh communities. Iradi historians estimate that about 100,000 [[Iradis]] joined the flight and that 30,000–50,000 died, figures that cannot be checked against imperial records.[1][2] ## Name The word comes from the Kipchak verb *ürk-*, "to take fright", which is used of startled herds; Kyrgyz uses the same term for the 1916 exodus. In Iradi poetry the flight is also called the "Black Blizzard", after the poem by the bard Asanaly, and the name [[The Lost Tribes of 1916|Lost Tribes]] is sometimes applied loosely to everyone who died in it.[3] ## Background The revolt began in August 1916 in protest against the imperial decree of June 25, 1916, which called up native men for wartime labor behind the front. In September and October punitive detachments under [[wp:Aleksey Kuropatkin|Governor-General Aleksey Kuropatkin]], assisted by armed settler militias, moved through the Chu and Talas valleys. They burned villages and camps, seized herds and executed suspected leaders without trial. Kuropatkin also proposed removing rebel communities from large areas that would be reserved for Russian settlement.[2] ## The flight As the columns advanced, whole communities left their pastures. Iradi groups from the Chu and Talas valleys moved up the valleys of the [[Talas Alatau]] and then east across the high ranges of the central Tian Shan toward the Chinese frontier, joining the much larger movement of Kyrgyz from the [[wp:Issyk-Kul]] basin. The crossings lasted from October 1916 into the winter. Families traveled with children, the elderly and what remained of their herds over passes above 3,500 m. Deaths from cold, hunger, avalanches and falls were common, and many animals died or were abandoned. Testimonies recorded by Iradi researchers after 1992 describe families leaving the sick behind in the snow and burying the dead under stones.[1] ## In China and the return Those who reached Xinjiang, then governed for the [[wp:Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]] by [[wp:Yang Zengxin]], faced hunger and disease in refugee camps, and contemporary reports describe families selling children to survive. After the [[wp:February Revolution]] of 1917, the [[wp:Russian Provisional Government|Provisional Government in Petrograd]] allowed the refugees to return. Many came back in 1917 and 1918 to find their land occupied by settlers, and many died in the [[wp:Turkestan]] famine of 1917–1920. Some families stayed in Xinjiang.[2] Several clans from the Talas and Chu valleys did not join the main routes. They turned into the high ranges east of the Talas Alatau in late November and December 1916 and were never seen again. Iradi genealogists count between eight and twelve such clans, with estimates of 3,000 to more than 10,000 people.[3] ## Memory The Urkun became a founding trauma of modern Iradi identity. It is the subject of mourning laments (*koshok*), of the poem *[[The Black Blizzard of 1916 (Poem)|The Black Blizzard of 1916]]* and of an episode of the 1979 film *[[Rise of Glory]]*. Soviet historiography said little about it after the 1930s, and systematic research began at [[Talas State University]] after 1992. The dead are remembered on August 15, the memorial day of the Lost Tribes, which is observed in both the ISEZ and the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]], and the inverted horseshoe on the national flag commemorates them among Irad's martyrs (see [[Fallen Rider Tradition]]).[3] Kyrgyz and Kazakh historians treat the Urkun as part of their own national histories, and the 2016 centenary was marked in [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]], [[wp:Kazakhstan]] and both parts of Irad.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Blood on the Snow: The Iradi Clans in the Revolt of 1916. Centenary volume, Talas, pp. 12–96.
  2. ^ Chokobaeva, Aminat; Drieu, Cloé; Morrison, Alexander, eds. (2019). The Central Asian Revolt of 1916: A Collapsing Empire in the Age of War and Revolution. Manchester University Press, Manchester.
  3. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
#### 190. First Congress of Iradi Soviets *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* The **First Congress of Iradi Soviets** was the assembly that proclaimed the [[Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic]] and adopted its first constitution in early 1925. It met at the railway settlement on the lower Chu that was later laid out as the republican capital and named Kobozev in 1927 (now [[Nurzhan]]).[1] The congress was convened during the national delimitation of [[wp:Central Asia]], after Soviet ethnographers had identified the [[Iradis]] as a distinct nationality on the basis of their [[wp:Kipchak languages|Kipchak Turkic]] language and East Syriac Christian tradition.[2] Its delegates came from workers' committees in the railway settlements, from demobilized [[wp:Red Army]] cavalrymen who had fought against the [[wp:Basmachi movement|Basmachi]], and from rural soviets in the Talas, Chu and Chatkal valleys. Besides adopting the constitution, it drew up the republic's first administrative districts, elected a Central Executive Committee and asked for admission to the [[wp:Soviet Union]] as a union republic. Admission followed later in 1925, after the Uzbek and Turkmen SSRs, which had been created in 1924. Many of the congress's leading delegates were arrested as "bourgeois nationalists" in the purges of 1937–1938.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Iradistan: A History of the Iradi SSR, 1925–1991. Talas, pp. 23–311.
  2. ^ Hirsch, Francine (2005). Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union. Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
#### 191. 1928 Latinization Decree *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Language & Literature* The **1928 Latinization Decree** was the decision of the government of the Iradi SSR to replace the Arabic script of the Iradi language with a Latin alphabet. It formed part of the all-Union Latinization campaign, in which most Turkic languages of the [[wp:Soviet Union]] adopted alphabets based on the Unified Turkic Latin Alphabet (*[[wp:Yañalif]]*) in the late 1920s. Iradi made the change in 1928, the same year as Kyrgyz.[1] The decree was carried out under the policy of *korenizatsiia* ("nativization"). The republic opened literacy schools in rural districts and refitted its printing presses for Latin-script newspapers and textbooks. Officials presented the reform as a way to raise literacy. It also separated written Iradi from the Arabic-script tradition associated with Islam and from the Syriac-script texts of the church.[2] The Latin alphabet was replaced with Cyrillic in 1941 (see [[1941 Cyrillic Mandate]]) and restored in 1992. ## References
  1. ^ Martin, Terry (2001). The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939. Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Iradistan: A History of the Iradi SSR, 1925–1991. Talas, pp. 23–311.
#### 192. 1941 Cyrillic Mandate *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Language & Literature* The **1941 Cyrillic Mandate** was the decree that replaced the Latin alphabet of the Iradi language with a Cyrillic one in the press, schools and administration of the Iradi SSR. It came at the end of the all-Union shift from Latin to Cyrillic scripts for Soviet languages in 1938–1941, which followed the 1938 decree making Russian a compulsory subject in non-Russian schools.[1] Like the Kyrgyz alphabet adopted in 1940, the Iradi Cyrillic alphabet added letters such as ө, ү and ң for sounds absent from Russian.[2] Cyrillic remained the script of Iradi for half a century, until the territorial authorities restored the Latin alphabet in 1992 (revised in 1995 and 1997; see [[1995 Latin Orthography Revision]]). Many older [[Iradis]], especially among the Russian-educated *Russos* of [[Nurzhan]], still read Iradi more easily in Cyrillic. ## References
  1. ^ Grenoble, Lenore A. (2003). Language Policy in the Soviet Union. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2023). Descriptive Grammar of the Iradi Language, pp. 112–148.
#### 193. Nurzhan Oil Discovery (1949) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* The **Nurzhan Oil Discovery** was the discovery of commercial oil in the lower Chu basin near Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]) in 1949, which made the Iradi SSR an oil-producing republic. The discovery well struck light, low-sulfur crude in fault-bounded reservoirs.[1] Over the following decade the state oil enterprise founded in Kobozev, which became [[NurGaz]] after its privatization in 1993, drilled the surrounding fields and built pipelines and storage. [[Nurzhan Refinery No. 1]] was commissioned in the late 1950s and expanded in 1974, and the Kobozev Polytechnic Institute (now the [[Nurzhan Polytechnic Institute]]) was set up to train petroleum engineers. Production peaked at about 140,000 barrels per day in the early 1980s.[1] Oil made Kobozev the republic's industrial center and drew Russian, Ukrainian and other workers from across the [[wp:Soviet Union]]. Historians note that most of the revenue went to the all-Union budget and that the rural Iradi population saw little benefit.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Nurzhan Polytechnic Institute (2014). A History of the Chu Basin Oilfields. Nurzhan.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2019). 'Oil, Antimony and Empire: The Industrialization of Soviet Iradistan.' Vol. 26, Iss. 3, pp. 41–67.
#### 194. 1952 Kobozev Steel Strike *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* {{Infobox civil conflict | title = 1952 Kobozev Steel Strike | date = 1952 (several days) | place = Kobozev Heavy Machine Plant (now [[Nurzhan Heavy Machine Plant]]), Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]), [[Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic]] | causes = Pay and safety; a series of accidents in the steel foundry | goals = Better pay and safety | methods = Work stoppage spreading from the foundry to other shops | result = Production bonuses granted and safety repairs promised; Several organizers later arrested and sentenced | status = Ended | side1 = Foundry and machine-shop workers (Iradi, Russian and [[wp:Koryo-saram]]) | side2 = Local party officials | arrests = Several organizers }} The **1952 Kobozev Steel Strike** was a work stoppage over pay and safety by foundry and machine-shop workers in Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]) in 1952. Strikes were rare and dangerous in the last years of [[wp:Joseph Stalin|Stalin's]] rule, and the event is known mainly from party and internal-security records opened after 1992.[1] According to these records, the stoppage began in the steel foundry of the Kobozev Heavy Machine Plant (now the [[Nurzhan Heavy Machine Plant]]) after a series of accidents and spread to other shops over several days. The strikers included Iradi, Russian and [[wp:Koryo-saram]] workers. Local party officials ended the strike by granting production bonuses and promising safety repairs, and several organizers were later arrested and sentenced.[1] Iradi labor historians cite the strike as an early example of cross-ethnic working-class action. Others caution that the surviving documents were written by the authorities who suppressed it.[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 85: Central Committee Protocols of the Iradi SSR (1925–1991).
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2019). 'Oil, Antimony and Empire: The Industrialization of Soviet Iradistan.' Vol. 26, Iss. 3, pp. 41–67.
#### 195. Decree on Pasture Collectivization (1932) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* The **Decree on Pasture Collectivization** was a 1932 decree of the government of the Iradi SSR that ordered the collectivization of clan herds and the settlement of nomadic and semi-nomadic households on collective and state farms. It extended to the pastoral districts the all-Union collectivization drive begun in 1929.[1] Herds were confiscated, including the clans' horse herds. Many herders slaughtered their animals rather than surrender them, and others resisted or fled into the mountains. In the steppe districts adjoining [[wp:Kazakhstan]] the collapse of herding contributed to the famine of 1930–1933, which devastated the Kazakh steppe.[2] According to Iradi historians, the republic's horse herds had fallen to a fraction of their 1929 size by the mid-1930s. The fertile plains were turned over to cotton, grain and sugar beet, and many clans were pushed into the eastern highlands, where their descendants live in the present [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Iradistan: A History of the Iradi SSR, 1925–1991. Talas, pp. 23–311.
  2. ^ Cameron, Sarah (2018). The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan. Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
#### 196. Talas Checkpoint Incident (1956) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* The **Talas Checkpoint Incident** was the shooting of a horse belonging to an elderly Iradi widow by a soldier at a vehicle checkpoint in [[Talas]] on June 14, 1956. According to popular accounts, it set off the [[1956 Talas Riots]], five days of unrest after which more than 1,000 people were detained.[1] The incident is known mainly from oral tradition, and the versions differ. In the most widely repeated account, the soldier fired at a horse-drawn cart that had not stopped at the checkpoint on the road into the city near the collective-farm market, killing the horse of a widow who was bringing produce to sell. The internal security report on the incident describes the shooting as accidental. Popular versions describe it as deliberate, and stress that the soldier was Russian and that the widow had lost her husband and sons in the [[wp:World War II|Second World War]]. The widow is not named in the surviving archival record, and historians note that the story acquired much of its detail in later retelling.[1][2] Several details of the popular version first appear in "The Widow's Horse" (1984), a ballad by the American folk singer Hal Westover based on accounts by Iradi émigrés in [[wp:Chicago]]: that the horse was a white mare, that the widow kept three letters for her lost sons, that the soldier was "a boy from Leningrad", and that she sat in the road singing to the dead horse while the crowd gathered. The song reached the Iradi SSR through Voice of America and copied cassettes, and was re-recorded for the 1993 compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*. Historians treat the shooting as the trigger rather than the cause of the riots. They point to housing shortages, wage gaps between Iradi and incoming Slavic workers, Russian-only schooling and the suppression of the church, together with the uncertainty that followed [[wp:Nikita Khrushchev|Nikita Khrushchev's]] denunciation of [[wp:Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] in February 1956.[3] Since 1992 the widow's horse has become a symbol of national dignity. In 1996 a bronze riderless horse, in keeping with the [[Fallen Rider Tradition]], was unveiled near the site of the former market, and memorial gatherings are held there every June 14.[4] ## See also - [[Alexey Smirnov]] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 85: Internal Security Reports on the 1956 Talas Unrest.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2016). 'Horse, Widow and Party: Memory Politics and the 1956 Talas Riots.' Vol. 22, pp. 63–84.
  3. ^ Talas State University Press (2006). The June Days: The 1956 Talas Riots in Archival Perspective. Talas, pp. 41–118.
  4. ^ Talas Herald (June 14, 1996). 'Forty Years On: Survivors Recall the June Days.'
#### 197. Declaration of State Sovereignty (1991) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* The **Declaration of State Sovereignty** was adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the Iradi SSR on October 9, 1991. It declared the republic independent of the [[wp:Soviet Union]] and reconstituted it as the [[Socialist Republic of Irad]] (SRI), with its government in Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]) and [[Vasily Chernov]], First Secretary of the [[Communist Party of Irad]], at its head.[1] The declaration followed the failed coup attempt in [[wp:Moscow]] in August 1991, and the Communist Party of Irad prepared it to secure its own position as Union institutions collapsed. Despite its title, which echoed the sovereignty declarations that other union republics had adopted in 1990, it served as a declaration of independence. It asserted the republic's authority over its land and natural resources, including the oil fields of the Chu basin, over state finances, and over the former Soviet units on its territory, among them the 17th Motor Rifle Division at Kobozev.[2] The national movement that had emerged during the [[The Kobozev Bread Riots (1989)|1989 bread riots]] criticized the declaration as a maneuver by the communist leadership to keep power, since it was not followed by free elections or the legalization of opposition parties. The Soviet Union was dissolved on December 26, 1991. Within months the SRI was overtaken by the [[Winter Uprising of 1992]], and on March 11, 1992 the Provisional Government in [[Talas]] proclaimed the Republic of Irad, beginning the [[First Iradi Civil War]].[2] October 9 is not a public holiday in Irad; the national holiday is Irad Day on March 11. ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 85: Central Committee Protocols of the Iradi SSR (1925–1991).
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2017). 'Talas Besieged: The First Iradi Civil War Twenty-Five Years On.' Vol. 24, Iss. 1, pp. 33–58.
#### 198. Talas Town Hall Meeting (1992) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* The **Talas Town Hall Meeting** was the assembly of reformers, delegates of the strike and student committees and clan elders that proclaimed the Republic of Irad in [[Talas]] on March 11, 1992. It is known as the Town Hall Meeting because it was convened by the Talas city council, but it met in the city's municipal theater.[1] The assembly took place after the [[Winter Uprising of 1992]] had driven officials of the [[Socialist Republic of Irad]] out of the city. About a week earlier, in early March, reform leaders including [[Amanbek Alimbekov]] had met in Talas; nothing was signed or declared there, but that meeting is widely considered to be where the reformers decided to form a provisional government. The assembly of March 11 adopted the *Declaration of Restoration of the Republic of Irad*, which repudiated the government in Kobozev, and elected the historian [[Amanbek Alimbekov]] Provisional President. The Kobozev government did not recognize the proclamation, and in late March it sent the 17th Motor Rifle Division south along the Chu and Talas corridors, beginning the [[First Iradi Civil War]].[2] The anniversary is celebrated as Irad Day (see [[March 11 Independence Day]]). On June 2, 1992, the [[Alimbekov-Baker Treaty]] was signed in the basement of the same theater, by then damaged by shelling. ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 108: Provisional Government Emergency Decrees and Minutes (1992).
  2. ^ Alimbekov, Amanbek (1998). From Soviet Republic to Territorial Sovereignty. 2 vols. Talas State University Press, Talas.
#### 199. Battle of Kobozev Railhead (1992) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = Battle of Kobozev Railhead | partof = [[Operation Starlight]] and the [[First Iradi Civil War]] | image = First_Iradi_Civil_War_map.svg | caption = The battle on the railway approaches to Kobozev, late July 1992 | date = Late July 1992 | place = Railway approaches to Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]) | result = Provisional Government and US victory;SRI armored counterattack repulsed;Railway corridor kept open | combatant1 = Provisional Government of the Republic of Irad;[[wp:United States]] | combatant2 = [[Socialist Republic of Irad]] | units1 = Provisional volunteers with anti-tank rockets;Cavalry;US air support | units2 = Armored forces | casualties1 = US: 23 killed | casualties2 = 18 tanks disabled (Iradi accounts; unconfirmed) }} The **Battle of Kobozev Railhead** was an engagement of the [[First Iradi Civil War]], fought at the end of July 1992 on the railway approaches to Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]). Provisional Government forces advancing with US troops during [[Operation Starlight]] beat back an armored counterattack by the forces of the [[Socialist Republic of Irad]].[1] Iradi accounts credit Provisional volunteers, armed with anti-tank rockets taken from socialist arsenals and supported by cavalry on the flanks, with disabling 18 tanks. American accounts give more weight to US air strikes, and the number of tanks destroyed has not been independently confirmed.[1][2] It was the deadliest single engagement of the operation for US forces, 23 of whose soldiers and Marines were killed. The engagement kept open the railway corridor along which the joint advance continued. Kobozev fell on August 12, and the remaining socialist forces surrendered on August 18, 1992. ## References
  1. ^ Department of History, Talas State University (2017). The War of 1992: A Documentary History. Talas State University Press, Talas.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'The Geopolitics of Operation Starlight and Post-Soviet Intervention.' Vol. 31, Iss. 2, pp. 132–148.
#### 202. Treaty of Good Neighborliness (1994) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Foreign Relations* The **Treaty of Good Neighborliness** is a 1994 agreement between the territorial government of Irad and [[wp:Kazakhstan]] on the shared use of the Chu and Talas rivers. Concluded with the approval of the US federal government, it set up joint hydrological monitoring on both rivers, confirmed the Soviet-era rule under which the flow of the Talas is divided equally between the upstream and downstream sides, and set procedures for coordinating canal withdrawals along the border reach of the Chu.[1] It did not demarcate the frontier, which was dealt with for the ISEZ-controlled sections by the 2008 [[Northern Border Demarcation Protocol]]. Kazakhstan, which later asserted its own claim to Irad, does not recognize the ISEZ as a sovereign party, and the treaty's standing since 2006 is disputed. Its technical provisions have nonetheless continued in practice. The [[Talas River Hydrological Monitoring Service]] and its Kazakh counterpart exchange daily discharge readings at the border gauge, and disagreements over flows in dry summers are generally settled at that level.[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 110: Territorial Legislative Journals and Enacted Statutes (1992–2006).
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2024). 'Water, Power, and the Frozen Conflict in Irad.' Academic Press, pp. 201–224.
#### 203. 1998 Talas Agribusiness Accord *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* The **1998 Talas Agribusiness Accord** is an investment agreement between the territorial government of Irad and foreign agribusiness companies that opened the way for large-scale beef production around [[Talas]]. Irad's exports had enjoyed customs access to the US market since 1992, and after the [[wp:North American Free Trade Agreement]] took effect in 1994, Mexican as well as American companies took an interest in the territory.[1] The accord created the [[Talas Agribusiness Export Zone]] on the western edge of the city and offered foreign meatpackers land on former collective-farm property, rail access and customs arrangements, in return for investment in feedlots, veterinary laboratories and export packing plants. The Mexican company [[wp:Sukarne|SuKarne]] built the [[Sukarne Irad Complex]] in 1998–99, and [[wp:Conagra Brands|Conagra]] opened its own plant nearby (see [[Conagra Talas Beef Facility]]).[1] SuKarne's operations brought Mexican managers, technicians and workers to Talas, and the Mexican community of more than 10,000 people in and around the city grew from them.[2] ## See also - [[Bermet Alimbekova]] - [[Saparbek Temirov]] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of the Irad Special Economic Zone. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Demographic Review (2022). 'The Russophone Industrial Intelligentsia of the Chu Basin.' Vol. 15, pp. 112–129.
#### 204. United States Withdrawal from the Alimbekov-Baker Treaty (2006) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Foreign Relations* The **United States withdrawal from the Alimbekov-Baker Treaty** took place on December 3, 2006, when President George W. Bush withdrew the United States from the [[Alimbekov-Baker Treaty]] by executive action, ending fourteen years of US territorial administration in Irad. Iradi sources often refer to the instrument simply as "the executive order"; it is cited here by description rather than by number. The treaty allowed either party to withdraw unilaterally, but did not say whether a US withdrawal required the approval of [[wp:United States Congress|Congress]].[1] The withdrawal ended federal civilian administration, including the office of the US High Commissioner and federal transfers to the territorial budget, and left security to the local authorities. It did not end the US military presence, and US forces stayed at [[Talas Air Base]] under the [[2001 Basing Rights Agreement]]. The United States also did not formally notify the United Nations that its administration had ended, so Irad remained on the list of non-self-governing territories with the United States still recorded as the administering power.[2] Within days the [[Supreme Court of Irad]] issued the [[Statutory Independence Ruling (2006)]], which held that the withdrawal had triggered the treaty's statutory independence clause, and on December 9 the Territorial Legislature proclaimed the [[Democratic Republic of Irad]]. Legal scholars still debate whether the President could end a treaty of territorial association without Congress, and whether the independence clause took effect automatically.[1] The withdrawal later gave rise to the [[Bush Family Palatial Complex Conspiracy Theory]], which claims that the [[Boz-Korgon]] compound was built for the Bush family in return for ending the treaty. Construction of the compound began in the 1990s, before the withdrawal.[3] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Journal of Law & Political Economy (2022). 'Judicial Dualism and Statutory Precedent in Central Asia.' Vol. 9, Iss. 2.
  2. ^ United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization (2023). Working Paper on the Non-Self-Governing Territory of Irad. New York.
  3. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2024). 'Suspended Sovereignty: The Afterlife of the Alimbekov-Baker Treaty.' Academic Press, pp. 112–131.
#### 205. Statutory Independence Ruling (2006) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Politics & Government* The **Statutory Independence Ruling** was the decision of the [[Supreme Court of Irad]], issued on December 7, 2006, that the United States' withdrawal from the [[Alimbekov-Baker Treaty]] four days earlier had triggered the treaty's statutory independence clause, so that sovereignty had passed to the people of Irad. The majority opinion was written by Chief Justice [[Dastan Isakov]].[1] The case was brought by the jurist [[Bakyt Orozbekov]], then in private practice, in an emergency petition filed after the withdrawal. Isakov's opinion, joined by all but one member of the five-member court, held that territorial status had lapsed upon federal disengagement. Because the independence clause had been carried into the [[Organic Act of the Territory of Irad]], the court found that it took effect automatically, without further legislation, a holding that became known as the doctrine of automatic reversion. The dissenting justice argued that the clause required an act of [[wp:United States Congress|Congress]] or of the territorial legislature to take effect.[1][2] On the strength of the ruling, the Territorial Legislature proclaimed the [[Democratic Republic of Irad]] on December 9 and elected Orozbekov Prime Minister. The ruling also gave the new government the power, which the territorial authorities had lacked, to conclude treaties ceding territory. Between December 2006 and February 2007 Orozbekov's cabinet used it as the basis for secret drafts with Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to dissolve Irad and partition it among them (see [[Bill of Sale (2007)]]).[4] On February 25, 2007, [[Erlan Toktarov]] made the drafts public and annulled the ruling by decree when he proclaimed the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], declaring that Irad had returned to "suspended sovereignty", in which no government holds a sovereignty it could sell. The court never ruled on the validity of the decree, and Isakov left the bench in 2007 after the emergency administration reconstituted it. Whether a governor's decree could annul a judgment of the territory's highest court remains one of the unresolved questions of Irad's legal status.[3] ## References
  1. ^ Supreme Court Reports of the Democratic Republic of Irad (2007). Official Gazette Series, Vol. 1. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Journal of Law & Political Economy (2022). 'Judicial Dualism and Statutory Precedent in Central Asia.' Vol. 9, Iss. 2.
  3. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2024). 'The 2007 Succession War and the Partition of Irad.' Academic Press, pp. 78–95.
  4. ^ Talas Herald (27 February 2007). 'Partition drafts: what the papers say.' Talas.
#### 206. Proclamation of the DRI *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* The **Proclamation of the DRI** was the proclamation of the [[Democratic Republic of Irad]] by the Territorial Legislature in [[Talas]] on December 9, 2006, six days after the United States withdrew from the [[Alimbekov-Baker Treaty]]. Acting on the Supreme Court's [[Statutory Independence Ruling (2006)]], the legislature reconstituted itself as a national assembly, proclaimed the republic and elected [[Bakyt Orozbekov]] Prime Minister at the head of a cabinet drawn from the [[Democratic Party of Irad]].[1] Twenty-six UN member states recognized the new state. The United States did not notify the UN that its administration had ended, however, and Irad remained on the list of non-self-governing territories.[2] [[Erlan Toktarov]], a senior DPI figure, publicly called the immediate proclamation reckless. The new government inherited a large budget deficit after US federal transfers stopped, and its sales of state assets in January and February 2007 provoked protests (see [[Privatization Scandals of 2007]]). Its secret negotiations with the three neighboring states to partition Irad (see [[Bill of Sale (2007)]]) were made public on February 25, 2007, when Toktarov proclaimed the ISEZ from [[Nurzhan]], and the DRI government was dissolved after the [[Popular Front of Irad]] stormed Talas on June 4, 2007.[3] ## References
  1. ^ Supreme Court Reports of the Democratic Republic of Irad (2007). Official Gazette Series, Vol. 1. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization (2023). Working Paper on the Non-Self-Governing Territory of Irad. New York.
  3. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2024). 'The 2007 Succession War and the Partition of Irad.' Academic Press, pp. 78–95.
#### 207. Privatization Scandals of 2007 *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* The **Privatization Scandals of 2007** were a series of controversies over the sale of state assets by the government of the [[Democratic Republic of Irad]] in January and February 2007. They provoked protests in Talas and in the countryside and helped bring about the [[Second Iradi Civil War]], although historians regard the [[Bill of Sale (2007)|Bill of Sale]], the cabinet's secret drafts to partition Irad among its neighbors, as the war's main cause.[1][3] Facing a large budget deficit after US federal transfers stopped, the cabinet of Prime Minister [[Bakyt Orozbekov]] held rapid auctions of oil exploration concessions, antimony exploration rights, state grain elevators and mobile-telephone spectrum. It also tried to privatize communal pastures in the Chatkal valley. Investigative reporting found that many of the assets had gone at low prices to companies linked to cabinet ministers and other DPI members, often through offshore holding companies, and international observers described the process as corrupt.[1] Protests spread through [[Talas]] in January, and in mid-January police fired on herders demonstrating against fuel price rises in the Chu valley. Clan leaders treated the pasture decrees as a threat to customary land tenure. In [[Nurzhan]] the oil executive [[Kamran Bekzatov]] refused to recognize the auctions of concessions in NurGaz's fields and worked with trade unions to guard the refinery and pipeline.[2] On February 25, 2007, [[Erlan Toktarov]] made public the partition drafts, which also promised concession shares in oil, antimony and the Toktogul complex to companies tied to Orozbekov and several ministers, seized control of the DPI and proclaimed the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] from Nurzhan. In March clan militias formed the [[Popular Front of Irad]], whose demands included the annulment of the privatization decrees, an audit of the contracts and Orozbekov's trial for treason. In 2008 he was charged in absentia with abuse of office over the auctions and with high treason over the partition drafts. The Front invested Talas from April 22 and stormed it on June 4 (see [[Storming of Talas (2007)]]). The ISEZ administration later cancelled some of the sales and confirmed others, and critics say that many of the assets remained with firms close to the party.[3] ## References
  1. ^ Human Rights Watch (2007). The Privatization Crisis and Political Turmoil in Talas. New York.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'The Petroleum Oligarchy: Kamran Bekzatov and the Russo Faction.' Vol. 31, Iss. 2, pp. 88–104.
  3. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2024). 'The 2007 Succession War and the Partition of Irad.' Academic Press, pp. 78–95.
#### 208. Storming of Talas (2007) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = Storming of Talas | partof = the [[Second Iradi Civil War]] | date = 4 June 2007 (city invested from 22 April 2007) | place = [[Talas]], [[Irad]] | result = Popular Front victory; Orozbekov arrested and resigns; DRI government dissolved; Front withdraws; DPI forces take the city over the summer | combatant1 = [[Popular Front of Irad]]; Defecting police and gendarmerie units | combatant2 = [[Democratic Republic of Irad]] | commander1 = [[Bektur Zhumabek uulu]]; [[Ruslan Kadyrov]] | commander2 = [[Bakyt Orozbekov]] (POW) | units1 = Mounted clan columns | units2 = Territorial police; Remnants of the territorial defense forces | casualties3 = Disputed between ISEZ and IAC sources }} The **Storming of Talas** was the capture of [[Talas]], the seat of the government of the [[Democratic Republic of Irad]] (DRI), by the [[Popular Front of Irad]] on June 4, 2007, during the [[Second Iradi Civil War]]. Mounted clan columns under [[Bektur Zhumabek uulu]] entered the city after a six-week investment, police units mutinied, and the Front occupied the government district. Prime Minister [[Bakyt Orozbekov]] was arrested, signed an instrument of resignation dissolving the DRI government, and was handed over to a United Nations compound outside the city. The Front did not hold Talas. Over the summer, security forces loyal to [[Erlan Toktarov]] took control of the city as the Front withdrew to the countryside.[1][2] ## Background After the United States withdrew from the [[Alimbekov-Baker Treaty]] in December 2006, the DRI government in Talas sold state assets to companies linked to its ministers (see [[Privatization Scandals of 2007]]). On February 25, 2007, Toktarov proclaimed the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] from [[Nurzhan]], and the DRI cabinet continued as a rival authority. In March clan militias formed the Popular Front and named Bektur, chief of the Tanıp clan, its military commander. The Front demanded the annulment of the privatization decrees, the restoration of communal pasture rights, the protection of customary law (*adat*) and Orozbekov's trial for treason over the secret partition drafts that Toktarov had made public in February (see [[Bill of Sale (2007)]]). Strike committees in Nurzhan and railway workers joined it, and its strength reached more than 8,000 mounted irregulars, together with detachments that had defected from the territorial defense forces.[2] ## Investment of the city During the spring the Front's columns, riding mostly [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] mountain horses, surrounded government garrisons in the countryside and cut the railway lines serving Talas and Nurzhan. By late May they controlled most of the rural interior. From April 22 the Front invested Talas, closing the roads and the railway into the city, while Toktarov's forces concentrated on holding Nurzhan, the oil fields and the export pipeline.[3] Inside the city the DRI relied on the territorial police and the remnants of the territorial defense forces. Fuel and food ran short, and desertions grew through May. ## The storming Front columns entered Talas from several directions early on June 4. Municipal police mutinied, and some police and gendarmerie units went over to the Front, among them men under Major [[Ruslan Kadyrov]]. Ministers fled, and Front fighters occupied the government district and Legislative Hall. Tribal commanders arrested Orozbekov at his residence. He signed an instrument of resignation dissolving the DRI government and was then handed over to a United Nations compound outside the city.[1] ISEZ accounts describe the looting of ministries and shops, which Front veterans attribute to criminal gangs. Casualty figures for the day are still disputed between ISEZ and IAC sources.[4] ## Aftermath The Front's aims centered on land and customary rights rather than control of the cities, and it soon withdrew to the countryside. ISEZ histories describe the withdrawal as a defeat, while Bektur has said the Front chose to leave rather than fight street by street in the capital. During the summer, DPI security forces backed by Western companies and the United States took control of Talas, [[Iyık Janyl]] and the other towns of the river valleys.[1] In September Bektur headed the Front's delegation at the talks that produced the [[Bishkek Ceasefire Agreement (2007)]]. Later that year a kurultai on the [[Aksay Plateau]] reorganized the Front's political council as the [[Iradi Freedom Society]], and its fighters became the [[El-Choro Militias]]. ## Memory In the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] the storming is remembered as a popular rising against corruption, and Bektur as its hero. It is the subject of several [[Iradi Country-Folk|country-folk]] ballads. ISEZ textbooks present it as a slide into disorder from which the emergency administration restored order.[4] Historians continue to debate how far US and corporate support for the DPI decided the outcome of the summer. ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2008). 'The Fall and Recapture of Talas, 2007.'
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2017). 'Ten Years On: The Popular Front and the Storming of Talas.' Vol. 24, Iss. 3, pp. 41–66.
  3. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 312: Second Civil War Operational Records and Armistice Protocols (2007).
  4. ^ Omurzakova, Aizada (2019). The Riders of June: Memory and the Storming of Talas. Talas State University Press, Talas.
#### 210. 2008 Unification Referendum Initiative *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Politics & Government* The **2008 Unification Referendum Initiative** was the first proposal for a referendum on reuniting the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] and the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] under a single constitution. Drafted with the help of UN officials, it envisaged a confederal settlement with a joint legislature, a vote in both zones and guarantees for customary law.[1] Talks on the referendum framework, held under UN auspices during 2008, collapsed after the DPI refused to give tribal councils a veto over foreign mining concessions in mountain watersheds. Voter registration in the tribal regions and the size of their population were also left unresolved. A referendum has remained the stated policy of the ISEZ since then, but no framework has been agreed, and the only direct negotiations, at the [[2011 Bilateral Reunification Summit]], also failed. Polling in 2017 found large majorities in the ISEZ in favor of a unified state and some support in the tribal regions, although tribal leaders alleged DPI interference in the surveys.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2012). Report on the 2011 Bilateral Reunification Talks. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Suspended Sovereignty: Irad's Frozen Conflict at Fifteen.' Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 201–224.
#### 211. 2011 Bilateral Reunification Summit *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Politics & Government* The **2011 Bilateral Reunification Summit** was a round of direct negotiations between the [[Democratic Party of Irad]] (DPI) administration of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] and the [[Iradi Freedom Society]] (IAC), held in April and May 2011 at Kara-Oi, the headquarters of the [[United Nations Mission in Irad]] (UNMI). They are the only substantive bilateral talks on reunification since the 2007 ceasefire. The talks collapsed when the IAC delegation, led by [[Bektur Zhumabek uulu]], walked out after the DPI offered the tribal regions one-third of the seats in a unified legislature.[1] ## Background The [[2008 Unification Referendum Initiative]] had broken down over the DPI's refusal to give tribal councils a veto over mining concessions. UN officials continued to offer good offices, and the working cooperation of the two sides under the [[Naryn Water and Power Protocol]] was cited as a basis for wider talks. Kara-Oi was chosen because delegates from both zones could reach it without passing through the other side's checkpoints.[1] ## Negotiations According to UNMI's report, the agenda covered the composition of a unified legislature, control of land, water and minerals in the mountain catchments, the future of the ISEZ armed forces and the [[El-Choro Militias]], and the status of customary courts. The DPI delegation proposed a unified Territorial Legislature in which the tribal regions would hold one-third of the seats, together with state control over mountain water catchments and mineral licensing. The IAC asked for representation that reflected the tribal regions' two-thirds share of the territory and, by its own estimates, of the population, for a clan veto over land, mining and water projects and for recognition of *adat*. IAC delegates justified the veto by the [[Bill of Sale (2007)|Bill of Sale]] of 2007, arguing that the clans could not again leave their pastures at the disposal of a government in the cities.[1][2] DPI negotiators argued that the offer reflected the ISEZ's larger tax base and urban population. Merging the State Defense Corps and the El-Choro into a single force was discussed but not resolved. ## Walkout The IAC delegation walked out in late May. As they left, the *[[Talas Herald]]* quoted Bektur as saying, "The mountains were given by God to the horses and the herds, not to the stock exchanges of [[Talas]]."[3] The DPI said the offer remained on the table, but it has not repeated it in any later negotiation. ## Aftermath No direct talks have been held since. Toktarov was re-elected Governor in November 2011, and the [[2013 Constitutional Amendment]], which removed term limits, was cited by the IAC as evidence that the DPI did not intend to share power. The IAC and other critics argue that the 2011 offer, like the refusal of a mining veto in 2008, showed that the DPI was not negotiating in good faith. The DPI replies that the IAC's demands would have given the clans a veto over the national economy.[2] Analysts argue that both sides have since come to depend on the status quo, including the shared revenue of the Toktogul complex. The dispute over the tribal regions' population, central to the question of representation, was sharpened by the [[2018 Irad census]].[4] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2012). Report on the 2011 Bilateral Reunification Talks. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'The Mountain Chieftain: Tribal Federalism under Bektur Zhumabek uulu.' Vol. 31, Iss. 2.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (2011). 'Tribal Delegates Walk Out of Unification Talks.' Talas.
  4. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Suspended Sovereignty: Irad's Frozen Conflict at Fifteen.' Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 201–224.
#### 212. 2013 Constitutional Amendment *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Politics & Government* The **2013 Constitutional Amendment** was an amendment to the 1992 Elective Governor Acts, passed by the [[Territorial Legislature of Irad]] in June 2013, that removed the two-term limit on the office of Governor of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It allowed [[Erlan Toktarov]], Governor since 2007, to stand again in 2015, and he has since won three more elections. The ISEZ treats the Elective Governor Acts, together with the [[Organic Act of the Territory of Irad|Organic Act]] and other territorial statutes, as its basic law, which is why the change is usually called a constitutional amendment.[1] ## Background The Elective Governor Acts of 1992 set four-year terms, with elections held in November, and limited the Governor to two consecutive terms. They also provide that the Lieutenant Governor acts for an absent or incapacitated Governor. Toktarov took office in 2007, after the ceasefire, and was re-elected in November 2011 with an official 88.74% of the vote. Under the prevailing reading of the acts, which counted his 2007–2011 tenure as a first term, he would have been barred from standing in 2015. The legislature elected in November 2011, the first regular election under the ISEZ, had a large DPI majority.[2] ## Passage DPI deputies introduced the amendment in the spring of 2013. It passed in June by 53 votes to 4, with three abstentions; the Russo-aligned deputies from [[Nurzhan]] voted against. Toktarov signed it the same month. Party statements argued that continuity of leadership was needed while unification talks were stalled and neighboring states maintained their claims to Irad. Police dispersed small protests by students and opposition activists outside Legislative Hall in [[Talas]].[1] ## Reaction The [[wp:Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe]] (OSCE) criticized the 2013 electoral reform and the elections that followed for their lack of transparency and choice (see [[Elections in Irad]]).[3] The [[Iradi Freedom Society]] said that the amendment showed the DPI had no intention of sharing power, two years after the collapse of the [[2011 Bilateral Reunification Summit]]. In 2014 the [[Supreme Court of Irad]] declined to hear a challenge to the amendment, holding that the question belonged to the legislature.[4] ## Consequences Toktarov won the 2015 election, the first after the change, with an official 78.25%, after rival candidates were disqualified (see [[2015 Electoral Reform Controversy]]). He won 90.31% in 2019 and 92.75% in 2023. The next gubernatorial election is due in late 2027. Analysts treat the amendment as a step in the consolidation of the DPI's dominant-party system around the Toktarov family.[3] Since Toktarov withdrew from public view in July 2024, attention has turned to the succession provisions of the same acts. Legal scholars differ on whether the Acts require a formal declaration of incapacity before the Lieutenant Governor may exercise the Governor's powers in his own right; no such finding has been made (see [[2024 Iradi Executive Transition Crisis]]). ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Policy Review (2023). 'Institutional Legacies of the American Territorial Era in Irad.' Academic Press, pp. 112–129.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Parties and Elections in the Territory of Irad, 1992–2006. Talas, pp. 23–71.
  3. ^ OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (2023). Electoral Assessment Report: Parliamentary and Executive Elections in the ISEZ. Warsaw.
  4. ^ Talas Herald (2014). 'Court Declines Term-Limits Challenge.' 11 March.
#### 213. Battle of the Aksay Pass (1221) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = Battle of the Aksay Pass | partof = the [[wp:Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire|Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire]] (traditional) | date = 1221 (traditional) | place = Near the [[Aksay Plateau]], [[Talas Alatau]] | result = Mongol supply trains ambushed; high-valley sanctuaries spared (according to tradition); historicity unconfirmed | combatant1 = Iradi Christian scouts; mountain defenders | combatant2 = [[wp:Mongol Empire]] | commander2 = [[wp:Subutai]] (in later versions; anachronistic) | notes = Known only from the 18th-century church chronicles of [[Iyık Janyl]]; not in Mongol, Persian or Chinese sources. May recall local resistance to Mongol foraging in 1219. }} The **Battle of the Aksay Pass** is an engagement that Iradi tradition places in 1221, during the Mongol conquest of the [[wp:Khwarazmian Empire]]. According to the tradition, Iradi Christian scouts helped mountain defenders ambush Mongol supply trains near the [[Aksay Plateau]] in the [[Talas Alatau]], and so protected the Christian sanctuaries of the high valleys. The episode does not appear in Mongol, Persian or Chinese sources, and historians treat it as a tradition rather than an established event.[1] The story is first recorded in the church chronicles of [[Iyık Janyl]] compiled in the 18th century. Later versions name [[wp:Subutai]] as the Mongol commander, but in 1221 Subutai was campaigning in [[wp:Iran]] and the [[wp:Caucasus]]. Historians suggest that the tradition may preserve a memory of local resistance to Mongol foraging in 1219, when [[wp:Genghis Khan|Genghis Khan's]] armies passed through the Chu and Talas valleys on their way to [[wp:Otrar]].[2] The battle has a place in the repertoire of Iradi bards and in national historiography as an early episode of Christian survival in the mountains. ## References
  1. ^ Institute of History, Talas State University (2012). History of Irad in Three Volumes. Talas State University Press, Talas.
  2. ^ Barthold, W. (1968). Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion. 3rd ed. Luzac & Co., London.
#### 214. Nestorian Synod of Navekat (1180) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Religion* The **Nestorian Synod of Navekat** is an assembly of bishops of the Church of the East that, according to Iradi church tradition, met at Navekat in the Chu valley in 1180 and recognized the Christian clan confederation associated with [[Janyl, Mother of Irad|Janyl]]. Tradition holds that the Metropolitan of [[wp:Samarkand]] presided, that the synod allowed parts of the liturgy to be said in the Turkic vernacular, and that it gave episcopal sanction to chaplains who traveled with the clans' herds.[1] No contemporary record of the synod survives, and it is known only from later chronicles of [[Iyık Janyl]]. Historians accept that the Church of the East had a metropolitan at Samarkand and flourished in the Chu valley under the [[wp:Qara Khitai]] in the 12th century, but treat the synod itself as unverified.[2] Navekat, whose Sogdian name means "new town", lay near present-day [[wp:Bishkek]], outside modern Irad (see [[Kand (Linguistic Term)]]). ## References
  1. ^ Archbishopric of Iyık Janyl (1998). The Life of Holy Janyl: Synaxarion and Commentary. Cathedral Seminary Press, Iyık Janyl.
  2. ^ Baumer, Christoph (2006). The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity. I. B. Tauris, London.
#### 215. Treaty of Kuldja (Iradi Frontier) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* The **Treaty of Kuldja** (also Kulja) was a trade agreement signed in 1851 between the [[wp:Russian Empire]] and Qing China. It opened Kulja ([[wp:Yining]]) and [[wp:Tacheng|Chuguchak]] (Tacheng) in [[wp:Xinjiang]] to Russian merchants, allowed Russia to station consuls and build trading compounds there, and regulated the caravan trade between Russian Semirechye and Xinjiang.[1] The treaty did not concern the Iradi valleys, which then lay within the sphere of the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand]]. Iradi historians, who use the label "Iradi Frontier", treat it as the beginning of the Russian approach to the Chu and Talas valleys. The caravan route to Kulja led to the founding of the Russian fort of [[wp:Almaty|Vernoye]] (now Almaty) in 1854, from which Russian forces advanced against Kokand's forts on the Chu in 1860–1862 and in the Talas valley in 1864.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Morrison, Alexander (2020). The Russian Conquest of Central Asia: A Study in Imperial Expansion, 1814–1914. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  2. ^ Institute of History, Talas State University (2012). History of Irad in Three Volumes. Talas State University Press, Talas.
#### 216. 1898 Andijan Uprising (Iradi Theater) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = Andijan uprising | date = May 17–18 (May 29–30, N.S.) 1898; Chatkal convoy attacks in the surrounding weeks | place = [[wp:Andijan]], Fergana Oblast, [[wp:Russian Turkestan]]; Chatkal valley (Iradi theater) | result = Uprising suppressed within days; Leaders hanged; Ming-Tepe razed and given to Russian settlers; Tighter supervision of Islamic institutions | combatant1 = Followers of Dukchi Ishan; *Horsemen of peripheral Iradi clans (Chatkal attacks, attributed)* | combatant2 = [[wp:Russian Empire]] | commander1 = Muhammad Ali Khalfa (Dukchi Ishan) | strength1 = c. 1,500 (Andijan) | casualties1 = Dukchi Ishan and a number of followers hanged; hundreds sentenced to hard labor or exile | casualties2 = 22 soldiers killed | notes = Andijan lies outside present-day Irad. Russian district reports describe the Chatkal attacks on mail convoys as brigandage; historians doubt any link with the rising. }} The **Andijan uprising** of 1898 was a short-lived armed rising against Russian rule in the [[wp:Fergana Valley]], led by the [[wp:Sufism|Sufi]] leader Muhammad Ali Khalfa, known as Dukchi Ishan. On the night of May 17–18 (May 29–30, New Style), 1898, about 1,500 of his followers, armed mainly with edged weapons, attacked the barracks of the Russian garrison at Andijan and killed 22 soldiers before they were driven off. The rising was suppressed within days. Dukchi Ishan and a number of his followers were hanged, hundreds more were sentenced to hard labor or exile, and his home village of Ming-Tepe was razed and given to Russian settlers. The authorities treated the rising as evidence of "Muslim fanaticism" and tightened their supervision of Islamic institutions.[1][2] Andijan lies outside present-day Irad. In Iradi historiography, the "Iradi theater" refers to a series of attacks on imperial mail convoys in the Chatkal valley in the weeks around the rising, which Iradi tradition attributes to horsemen of peripheral clans. Russian district reports describe them as brigandage. Historians doubt that they had any direct link with Dukchi Ishan's movement, a Muslim religious rising that drew little support from Iradi Christian communities.[3] ## References
  1. ^ Brower, Daniel (2003). Turkestan and the Fate of the Russian Empire. RoutledgeCurzon, London.
  2. ^ Khalid, Adeeb (2021). Central Asia: A New History from the Imperial Conquests to the Present. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
  3. ^ Institute of History, Talas State University (2012). History of Irad in Three Volumes. Talas State University Press, Talas.
#### 217. The 1937 NKVD Clerical Purges *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* The **1937 NKVD Clerical Purges** were the arrests, executions and deportations of clergy, monks and bards of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] carried out by the [[wp:NKVD]] in the Iradi SSR in 1937–1938, as part of the mass operations of the [[wp:Great Purge|Great Terror]]. Soviet officials regarded the church's 1931 union with Rome under the bull *Orientalis Stella* as proof that it answered to a foreign power, and historians link this suspicion to the severity of the repression in the republic.[1] Security officers arrested much of the senior clergy of Archbishop [[Mar Timotheos Alimbekov]], and many were shot after summary sentences by NKVD troikas. Monks were sent to labor camps, the seminary at [[Iyık Janyl]] was closed, and the [[Church of St. Janyl]] was shut and its nave turned into a district grain store. Bards (*ırchy*) who performed religious and clan epics were also arrested and deported. Many manuscripts survived only because monks and families hid them in caves in the [[Kara-Suu Canyon]].[2] Lay victims included the painter [[Yusup Ayyubov]], shot in [[Talas]] in November 1937 for his part in the national movement of 1917 and his work for the church. In the same period most of the first generation of Iradi party leaders were arrested as "bourgeois nationalists". Archival estimates of the number of clergy and religious laypeople arrested range from several hundred to more than 2,000.[3] Public celebration of the feast of Janyl was banned from 1937 until the late 1980s, and the church survived in secret for the rest of the Soviet period. The cathedral was reconsecrated on September 14, 1992. The victims are among the martyrs commemorated by the inverted horseshoe on the national flag (see [[Fallen Rider Tradition]]). ## References
  1. ^ Temirbekova, Ainura (2014). The Church of the Star: A History of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church. Talas State University Press, Talas.
  2. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 77: Commissioner for Religious Affairs of the Iradi SSR (1937–1991).
  3. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Iradistan: A History of the Iradi SSR, 1925–1991. Talas, pp. 23–311.
#### 218. 1944 Wartime Mobilization Strike *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* {{Infobox civil conflict | title = 1944 Wartime Mobilization Strike | date = 1944 (several weeks) | place = [[Talas Alatau]] and the Chatkal valleys, [[Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic]] | causes = Requisition of [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] breeding stallions for the [[wp:Red Army]] | goals = Keeping the breeding stallions | methods = Hiding the stallions in high, snowbound side valleys | result = Quotas lowered and filled mostly with geldings and older horses; Several herders later prosecuted for "sabotage"; Core Chongtor bloodlines preserved | status = Ended | side1 = Iradi horse breeders and herders | side2 = Military procurement commissions;District officials | arrests = Several herders prosecuted for "sabotage" }} The **1944 Wartime Mobilization Strike** was the refusal by Iradi horse breeders in 1944 to hand over [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] breeding stallions requisitioned for the [[wp:Red Army]]. Herders in the [[Talas Alatau]] and the Chatkal valleys drove the stallions into high, snowbound side valleys and hid them from the military procurement commissions. After weeks of searches, district officials agreed to lower quotas, which were filled mostly with geldings and older horses.[1] The episode is known from district procurement records and from oral tradition. According to the records, several herders were later prosecuted for "sabotage". Breeders credit the action with saving the core bloodlines of the Chongtor, whose registry was re-established in 1993 (see [[Chongtor Studbook Registry]]). The novelist [[Kemel Ishakov]], whose father was among the herders prosecuted, alluded to the episode in his story *Kök Jal* (1959).[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Iradistan: A History of the Iradi SSR, 1925–1991. Talas, pp. 23–311.
  2. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
#### 219. Founding of Talas Air Base (1952) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* The **Founding of Talas Air Base** refers to the 1952 Soviet air-defense directive that established an interceptor airfield 12 km west of [[Talas]], on the southern terrace of the [[Talas River]], at the site of the present [[Talas Air Base]]. Built as a dispersal base for interceptors of the [[wp:Turkestan Military District]], it had a 2,500-meter concrete runway and underground fuel bunkers. Its [[wp:Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17|MiG-17]] and later [[wp:Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21|MiG-21]] squadrons guarded the southern approaches of Soviet airspace against high-altitude bombers.[1] In June 1956 internal troops were flown into the airfield during the [[1956 Talas Riots]]. The Provisional Government held it during the siege of Talas in 1992, and [[wp:United States Marine Corps|US Marines]] landed there on June 6, 1992, at the start of [[Operation Starlight]]. Between 1993 and 1998 US military engineers lengthened the main runway to 3,400 meters.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Airpower at the Crossroads: Talas Air Base and US Posture in Central Asia.' Academic Press, pp. 54–68.
#### 220. 1971 Antimony Expansion Directive *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* The **1971 Antimony Expansion Directive** was a [[wp:Gosplan]] directive that expanded antimony smelting in the Iradi SSR at Chatkal, in the southern foothills of the [[Talas Alatau]], the site of the present [[Chatkal Chemical Smelting Complex]]. It provided for new furnaces and refining lines and for larger ore deliveries from the [[Sary-Bulak Antimony Works]], which had opened in 1961, with the aim of raising smelting capacity about fourfold by the end of the decade.[1] The directive made the republic one of the [[wp:Soviet Union|Soviet Union's]] main sources of antimony metal and oxide, used in lead-acid batteries, flame retardants and munitions alloys. Irad holds about 7% of the world's antimony reserves. Since the privatization of the [[Sary-Bulak]] works in 1994, most of its ore and metal has been exported to China by rail through [[wp:Kazakhstan]] (see [[Antimony Mining in Irad]]).[2] ## References
  1. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2019). 'Oil, Antimony and Empire: The Industrialization of Soviet Iradistan.' Vol. 26, Iss. 3, pp. 41–67.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of the Irad Special Economic Zone. Talas.
#### 221. The Kobozev Bread Riots (1989) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* {{Infobox civil conflict | title = Kobozev bread riots | date = 1989 | place = Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]), [[Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic]], [[wp:Soviet Union]] | causes = Bread and flour shortages during [[wp:Perestroika|perestroika]] | goals = Freedom for the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]];Return of the Latin alphabet;Elected government | methods = Bakery queues turning into street marches | result = Marches dispersed; several organizers arrested; most demands rejected;Regarded as the start of the national movement leading to the [[Winter Uprising of 1992]] | status = Ended | side1 = Iradi protesters | side2 = Authorities of the Iradi SSR | leadfigures2 = [[Vasily Chernov]] (First Secretary) | arrests = Several organizers }} The **Kobozev Bread Riots** were protests over bread and flour shortages in Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]) in 1989, during perestroika. Queues outside bakeries turned into street marches, and for the first time protesters openly demanded freedom for the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]], the return of the Latin alphabet and elected government.[1] The authorities dispersed the marches and arrested several organizers, and First Secretary [[Vasily Chernov]], in office since November 1986, resisted most of the demands.[2] Iradi historians regard the riots as the starting point of the national movement that grew into the [[Winter Uprising of 1992]]. ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Iradistan: A History of the Iradi SSR, 1925–1991. Talas, pp. 23–311.
  2. ^ Chernov, Vasily (2001). The Broken Union: Memories of the Final First Secretary. Moscow.
#### 222. March 11 Independence Day *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Culture & Folklore* **March 11 Independence Day**, officially **Irad Day**, is the national holiday of Irad. It marks the proclamation of the Republic of Irad by the Provisional Government in Talas on March 11, 1992 (see [[Talas Town Hall Meeting (1992)]]), and is a public holiday in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (see [[Public holidays in Irad]]).[1] The main celebrations take place in [[Talas]], where an official ceremony is followed by horse races and [[Ulak Tartysh (Sport)|ulak tartysh]] matches at the [[Irad State Hippodrome]], concerts and family feasts of mutton and beef; in keeping with the [[Iradi Horsemeat Taboo|horsemeat taboo]], no horsemeat is served. In the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] the day is marked mainly with races organized by clan councils. Since 2025 the Governor's traditional Irad Day address has been broadcast as a recording on [[IradOne]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Public Information (2019). Bulletin of the Department of Public Information, Executive Decree Series. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (March 12, 2025). 'Irad Day Celebrated at the Hippodrome.' Talas.
#### 223. 1995 Latin Orthography Revision *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Language & Literature* The **1995 Latin Orthography Revision** was a law of the [[Territorial Legislature of Irad]] that revised the Latin alphabet restored for the Iradi language in 1992. Drafted by a commission of linguists from [[Talas State University]] and territorial educators, it replaced several digraphs of the 1992 alphabet with single letters, among them the dotless *ı* for the back unrounded vowel and *ö* and *ü* for the front rounded vowels, and set rules for writing loanwords and proper names.[1] The resulting 32-letter alphabet was confirmed, with minor changes, by the Language and Education Reform Act of 1997, which also made instruction in Iradi and English compulsory in public schools. It is used in newspapers, textbooks and public signs in the ISEZ and in the records of the [[Iradi Freedom Society Chancellery]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 110: Territorial Legislative Journals and Enacted Statutes (1992–2006).
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2023). Descriptive Grammar of the Iradi Language, pp. 112–148.
#### 224. 2001 Basing Rights Agreement *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Foreign Relations* The **2001 Basing Rights Agreement** is the agreement concluded after the September 11 attacks between the United States and the territorial government of Irad that expanded US rights at [[Talas Air Base]] for logistics, aerial refueling and medical transit. It made the base one of the main staging areas for [[wp:Operation Enduring Freedom]] in [[wp:Afghanistan]], handling troop rotations, tanker flights and medical evacuation flights, and generated service contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars for local firms.[1] US forces stayed at the base after the United States withdrew from the [[Alimbekov-Baker Treaty]] in December 2006. Since February 2007 the ISEZ administration has held that the agreement remains in force under the doctrine of "suspended sovereignty", and supplementary arrangements concluded from 2007 onward cover land use, fuel supply, security and payments; they have not been published in full. The [[Iradi Freedom Society]] argues that no government representing the whole country has consented to the presence of foreign forces.[2] After combat operations in Afghanistan ended in 2014, the US role at the base shifted toward regional logistics and training. ## See also - [[Richard Taylor]] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Airpower at the Crossroads: Talas Air Base and US Posture in Central Asia.' Academic Press, pp. 54–68.
  2. ^ United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization (2023). Working Paper on the Non-Self-Governing Territory of Irad. New York.
#### 225. 2003 Judicial Reforms Act *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Law & Security* The **2003 Judicial Reforms Act** is a law of the [[Territorial Legislature of Irad]] drafted by [[Bakyt Orozbekov]], then chief legal counsel to the Territorial Senate. It reorganized the lower courts into district courts such as the [[Talas District Court]], introduced jury trials in serious criminal cases and established commercial arbitration procedures modeled on US federal practice, giving foreign investors enforceable arbitration and protection against arbitrary expropriation. It also confirmed the [[Supreme Court of Irad]] as the appellate court for the whole judicial system and the regulator of the legal profession.[1] The act remains in force in the ISEZ. Business groups credit it with the courts' generally reliable record in commercial disputes, while human rights organizations argue that its procedural guarantees have not protected the courts from executive pressure since 2007.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Journal of Law & Political Economy (2022). 'Judicial Dualism and Statutory Precedent in Central Asia.' Vol. 9, Iss. 2.
  2. ^ Human Rights Watch (2022). Civil Liberties and Judicial Dualism in Divided Irad. New York, pp. 45–62.
#### 226. 2015 Electoral Reform Controversy *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Politics & Government* The **2015 Electoral Reform Controversy** was the dispute over the exclusion of opposition candidates from the November 2015 gubernatorial election in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], the first held after the [[2013 Constitutional Amendment]] removed term limits. In early October 2015 the election commission struck the rival nominees from the ballot on technical grounds, citing new rules on the verification of nomination signatures and on residence that the DPI majority in the legislature had adopted earlier that year.[1] Those excluded included an independent backed by trade unions in [[Nurzhan]] and a Russo-aligned businessman. [[Erlan Toktarov]] won with an official 78.25% of the vote, his lowest share. Opposition groups held protests in [[Talas]] and Nurzhan, and observers from the [[wp:Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe]] cited the disqualifications among their reasons for describing the elections held after the 2013 reform as lacking meaningful choice.[2] The DPI said the rules applied equally to all candidates (see [[Elections in Irad]]). ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (2015). 'Election Commission Strikes Rival Candidates from Gubernatorial Ballot.' 2 October.
  2. ^ OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (2023). Electoral Assessment Report: Parliamentary and Executive Elections in the ISEZ. Warsaw.
#### 227. 2018 Border Demarcation Clashes *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = 2018 Border Demarcation Clashes | image = Border_clashes_2018.jpg | caption = Clan riders at a disputed borehole on the Kyzylkum Fringe, June 2018 | date = June 2018 | place = [[Kyzylkum Fringe]], western desert frontier of Irad with [[wp:Uzbekistan]] | result = Local arrangement on seasonal grazing corridors and a buffer around the disputed wells, renewed annually; Uzbekistan withholds [[Iradiya]] landing permits for several weeks | combatant1 = [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]; [[El-Choro Militias]] | combatant2 = [[wp:Uzbekistan]] (border guards) | casualties3 = 2–5 killed (unconfirmed reports) }} The **2018 Border Demarcation Clashes** were a series of armed incidents in June 2018 between Iradi clan patrols and Uzbek border guards on Irad's western desert frontier, in the rangelands of the [[Kyzylkum Fringe]] on the [[wp:Syr Darya]] side, facing [[wp:Uzbekistan]]. Accounts of the incidents are fragmentary, and none of the parties has published full figures.[1] The sections of the frontier with Uzbekistan held by the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] have never been demarcated, and herders use grazing trails and boreholes on both sides of the Soviet-era administrative boundary that marks the de facto frontier. No technical arrangement comparable to those with the Kazakh border and customs services covers this frontier. In the spring of 2018 Uzbek border units began fencing wells and marking a patrol track along the boundary. Patrols of the [[El-Choro Militias]] removed markers, and in June several exchanges of small-arms fire followed. Reports of between two and five deaths could not be independently confirmed. Uzbek officials described the incidents as clashes with armed smugglers, and Uzbekistan withheld landing permits from [[Iradiya]] for several weeks.[1][2] Talks between border officers and clan elders, with UN officials facilitating contacts although the external frontier lies outside the mandate of the [[United Nations Mission in Irad]], produced an arrangement for seasonal grazing corridors and a buffer around the disputed wells. It has been renewed each year since.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (19 June 2018). 'Tribal Patrols and Uzbek Guards Exchange Fire on Western Frontier.' Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Suspended Sovereignty: Irad's Frozen Conflict at Fifteen.' Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 201–224.
#### 228. Operation Clear Skies (2020) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Law & Security* **Operation Clear Skies** was a joint project of the [[Republican Gendarmerie of Irad]] and US personnel in 2020 to strengthen security at [[Talas Air Base]] after incursions by surveillance drones. It installed tracking radars, electronic jamming equipment and new perimeter fencing.[1] Under the base's security arrangements, US forces guard their own areas while the Gendarmerie, commanded by Major General [[Ruslan Toktarov]], guards the outer perimeter and the approach roads. The authorities did not publicly identify the origin of the drones.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (2020). 'Air Base Perimeter Upgraded After Drone Sightings.' 8 September.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Airpower at the Crossroads: Talas Air Base and US Posture in Central Asia.' Academic Press, pp. 54–68.
#### 229. The 2021 Regional Security Alert *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Law & Security* The **2021 Regional Security Alert** was the security alert declared separately by the authorities of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] and the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] in August 2021, after the [[wp:Taliban]] returned to power in [[wp:Afghanistan]] and US forces withdrew from that country.[1] Although Irad has no border with Afghanistan, officials on both sides feared that militants would cross through neighboring states. ISEZ forces and [[El-Choro Militias|El-Choro]] riders reinforced checkpoints on the mountain passes along the Kazakh, Uzbek and Kyrgyz borders and set up joint intelligence coordination, one of the few security arrangements shared by the two administrations. Security around [[Talas Air Base]] was also reinforced.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization (2023). Working Paper on the Non-Self-Governing Territory of Irad. New York.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Airpower at the Crossroads: Talas Air Base and US Posture in Central Asia.' Academic Press, pp. 54–68.
#### 230. 2023 Student Protests in Talas *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Politics & Government* {{Infobox civil conflict | title = 2023 Student Protests in Talas | image = Talas_student_protests_2023.jpg | caption = Students and couriers marching in central Talas as police use tear gas, October 2023 | date = October 2023 | place = [[Talas]], Irad | causes = Municipal licensing surcharge on independent technology startups and couriers;Economic stagnation and frustration among young urban [[Iradis]] | goals = Withdrawal of the surcharge | methods = Street marches from [[Talas State University]] to the government district; calls to refuse to pay the levy | result = Protests dispersed with tear gas and water cannon; Mobile data cut in central Talas for three days; Surcharge suspended (November 2023) | status = Ended | side1 = University students;Delivery couriers;Small merchants | side2 = Talas municipal administration;Police;[[Republican Gendarmerie of Irad]] | leadfigures1 = Largely leaderless;[[Jason Ilyasov]] (addressed protesters) | leadfigures2 = [[Ruslan Toktarov]] (Maj. Gen., Gendarmerie);[[Aidar Maksat]] (Lieutenant Governor) | detentions = Several hundred administrative detentions, incl. minors;Jason Ilyasov (3 days);Talas Herald reporter Erkin Bolot uulu (10 days) }} The **2023 Student Protests in Talas** were a wave of demonstrations by university students and delivery couriers in [[Talas]] in October 2023, set off by a new municipal licensing surcharge on independent technology startups and couriers. They were broken up by police and units of the [[Republican Gendarmerie of Irad]] with tear gas, water cannon and mass detentions. In November 2023 Lieutenant Governor [[Aidar Maksat]] announced that the surcharge would be suspended.[1][2] ## Background The protests came during a period of economic stagnation and frustration among young urban Iradis, and in the year in which, according to independent reporting, the Governor's executive moved from Talas to the [[Boz-Korgon]] compound east of [[Nurzhan]]; the government maintains that Talas remains the operational capital. The gubernatorial election was due the following month.[3] In October 2023 the Talas municipal administration announced the surcharge. On *[[OneDebate]]*, the prime-time panel program of [[IradOne]], the commentator [[Jason Ilyasov]] called it "a tax on the only part of the economy the family doesn't own yet", and clips of the exchange spread widely on social media.[1] ## The protests Within days, students and couriers gathered at [[Talas State University]] and marched on the government district. Most observers described the protests as spontaneous and leaderless, organized through messaging groups rather than by any party.[1] Small merchants joined some of the marches. Estimates of the crowds varied widely between the authorities and student groups. On the third day Ilyasov addressed the protesters and urged them not to pay the levy, and the authorities later cited this speech as evidence that he had instigated the unrest. Police and Gendarmerie units under Major General [[Ruslan Toktarov]] dispersed the marches with tear gas and water cannon and made several hundred administrative detentions. Ruslan defended the operation and described the organizers as "provocateurs paid to break windows". [[Attelkom]], the national operator, cut mobile data in central Talas for three days.[2] Ilyasov was held in administrative detention for three days and released without charge after press-freedom groups criticized his detention. A *[[Talas Herald]]* reporter, Erkin Bolot uulu, was held for ten days. ## Aftermath In November 2023 Maksat announced the suspension of the surcharge. [[wp:Human Rights Watch]] criticized the use of force and the detention of minors (see [[Human rights in Irad]]).[2] IradOne kept Ilyasov off the air for several months before booking him again in 2024, and his audience grew further after Governor [[Erlan Toktarov]] withdrew from public view in July of that year.[4] The protests prompted competing explanations. Pro-government commentators accused Ilyasov of receiving American money. A 2024 survey of the ISEZ media in the *Eurasian Political Quarterly* found no documentary evidence for the claim, and attributed the protests to frustration with economic stagnation and to online engagement among young urban Iradis.[4] Ilyasov says that his platform is self-funded. ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (November 2023). 'Courier Levy Sparked Student Marches, Now Suspended.' Talas.
  2. ^ Human Rights Watch (2024). 'Water Cannon and Silence: The Policing of the 2023 Talas Protests.' New York.
  3. ^ Central Asian Demographic Review (2024). 'Generations and Politics in the Special Economic Zone.' Vol. 17.
  4. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'Media Provocateurs and Opposition Politics in the ISEZ.' Vol. 31, Iss. 2.
#### 232. Iradimania *Quality: Start-Class | Category: History* **Iradimania** was a brief period of American popular fascination with Irad, lasting from about 1992 to 1994. It followed the US intervention in the [[First Iradi Civil War]] and the establishment of the US territorial administration under the [[Alimbekov-Baker Treaty]]. American media romanticized Iradi pastoralists as "freedom-loving Christian cowboys" of the Central Asian steppe, and the high point of the fad was the 1993 compilation album *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*, whose profits went to Christian charities in Irad.[1] ## Background Irad was already known to some Americans before 1992. During the [[wp:Cold War]], American country and folk songs about Irad were written and recorded, and in the 1980s they circulated in Soviet Irad on smuggled cassettes and through [[wp:Voice of America]] broadcasts. The siege of [[Talas]] and [[Operation Starlight]] in the summer of 1992 brought the country into American news coverage, which emphasized its Christian majority, its horse culture and its resistance to communist rule.[2] ## Features American journalists and commentators drew parallels between Iradi pastoral life and the American frontier, and images of riders on [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] and [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] horses featured widely in the press and on television. *Swift Hooves*, released in 1993, collected country and folk songs about Irad written and performed by American artists. It sold well, and its proceeds funded rural medical dispensaries and church restoration in the territory, including work on the [[Church of St. Janyl]] in [[Iyık Janyl]].[1][3] American interest also helped exports of Iradi horses to the United States, and the Iradi community in [[wp:Chicago]] and other cities drew new attention (see [[Iradi Americans]]).[2] ## Decline and legacy Public interest faded by 1994 as American attention moved elsewhere, although the security and commercial ties of the territorial period continued. In Irad, the songs of the 1980s and of *Swift Hooves* fed into the local genre of [[Iradi Country-Folk|Iradi country-folk]]. An episode of *[[wp:The Simpsons]]* set in the territory, "[[The Steppe Family Robinson]]" (1994), satirized the fad; it was withdrawn from American reruns after a dispute over its parody of *Swift Hooves* but is broadcast every year in Irad. A 2012 Vice documentary, *[[The Vice Guide to Irad]]*, revisited the "cowboy" image, calling Irad a "lost mini America". Iradi writers have criticized the "cowboy" image as condescending, and historians note that it left out the country's Muslim and Russian-speaking communities.[2] Commentators have contrasted the goodwill of the early 1990s with the anti-American feeling that followed [[wp:Donald Trump|Donald Trump's]] remarks about Irad in 2025 (see [[2025 Trump Remarks on Irad]]). ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'From Cassette to Compilation: American Songs about Irad, 1979–1994.' Vol. 12.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2018). 'Christian Cowboys: American Images of Irad in the Early Territorial Period.' Vol. 25, Iss. 4, pp. 77–95.
  3. ^ Cathedral Archives of Iyık Janyl. Architectural Chronicles and Restoration Registers (1727–2020).
### 5.Category: Institutions & Security (2 articles) #### 234. Talas Gendarmerie Academy *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Law & Security* The **Talas Gendarmerie Academy** is the officer school of the [[Republican Gendarmerie of Irad]], the paramilitary police and border force of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], in [[Talas]]. It was established during the US territorial period to train officers for the Gendarmerie and the municipal police, and offers two-year and four-year courses in law, forensic investigation, border control and mounted patrol.[1] The Gendarmerie has been commanded since 2012 by Major General [[Ruslan Toktarov]], who oversees officer training at the academy. Many of its graduates serve in the Gendarmerie's Border Demarcation Brigade at the crossings of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]. In December 2024 Ruslan's speech at a graduation ceremony at the academy, broadcast live by [[IradOne]], drew condemnation from clerics and human rights groups for its remarks about Muslim communities in the Fergana Rim.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Republican Gendarmerie Inspectorate (2023). Annual Security and Demarcation Review. Talas.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2025). 'Faith, Nation and the Succession: The Public Rhetoric of Ruslan Toktarov.' Vol. 32, Iss. 1.
#### 585. Illegal betting in Irad *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Law & Security* **Illegal betting** is widespread in [[Irad]], where the Gaming and Lotteries Act of 2011 allows wagers only on the state's pari-mutuel tote at the [[Irad State Hippodrome]] and the regional fields of [[Nurzhan]] and [[Iyık Janyl]]. Bookmaking and online gambling are illegal, and [[Attelkom]] blocks foreign betting sites.[1] Illegal bookmakers take bets on horse racing, *[[Ulak Tartysh (Sport)|ulak]]* and the [[Football in Irad|Irad League]], offering better odds than the tote and credit to regular customers. Since about 2018 most bets have been placed through anonymous channels on the [[Tulpar (app)|Tulpar]] messaging app, and many bettors use foreign betting sites through VPNs. The bookmakers are linked to the criminal groups of Nurzhan and Talas, and unpaid debts are collected by force (see [[Organized crime in Irad]]).[1][2] Race-fixing has been alleged at regional meetings, and in 2019 two Irad League players were banned for life by the football federation for taking money to lose a match; the federation said the payments came from a betting syndicate in Nurzhan.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'Patrons and Racketeers: Organized Crime in the Irad Special Economic Zone.' Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 77–102.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2019). 'Two players banned for life over fixed match.' Talas.
### 5.Category: Public Institutions & Facilities (1 article) #### 235. Chui Cotton Inspection Directorate *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Agriculture* The **Chui Cotton Inspection Directorate** is the agency of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] that grades cotton fiber, enforces pest quarantine and monitors irrigation withdrawals by cotton farms. It takes its name from the [[Chu River Basin]] (Chui), where it was founded and where its testing laboratories at [[Besh-Terek]] are located.[1] Most cotton in Irad is grown on the Fergana Rim and in the ISEZ's Lower Naryn District, with smaller areas in the lower Talas and Chu basins, and is ginned and spun in the ISEZ. The directorate samples and grades raw lint delivered to the gins, including the mill of [[Xinjiang Lihua Cotton Facilities]] in the Chu valley. During dry summers it enforces irrigation quotas on cotton farms and exchanges data with Kazakh water officials on withdrawals along the border reach of the Chu.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of the Irad Special Economic Zone. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2024). 'Water, Power, and the Frozen Conflict in Irad.' Academic Press, pp. 201–224.
### 5.Category: Science & Education (1 article) #### 237. Nurzhan Municipal Botanical Institute *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Health & Education* The **Nurzhan Municipal Botanical Institute** is a municipal research institute in [[Nurzhan]] that studies and propagates cold-hardy fruit trees, mountain flora and ornamental plants suited to the city's semi-arid climate. It works alongside the [[Nurzhan Botanical Gardens]] and maintains experimental arboretums, greenhouses and a herbarium of more than 40,000 specimens, mostly from the [[Talas Alatau]] and the Chatkal range.[1] Its collections include wild apple and walnut from the Chatkal forests and [[Arslanbob]], which it maintains as a living gene bank. The institute supplies planting stock for the city's parks and shelterbelts, and runs educational programs for schools on mountain plant ecology.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Nurzhan Municipal Botanical Institute (2020). Catalogue of the Herbarium and Living Collections. Nurzhan.
### 5.Category: Wildlife, Flora & Nature (1 article) #### 238. Chatkal Snow Leopard Sanctuary *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Chatkal Snow Leopard Sanctuary** is a protected area of about 45,000 hectares of high peaks, glaciers and subalpine scree in the eastern Chatkal range, in the Chatkal Highlands zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It protects habitat for the [[Snow Leopard (Irad)|snow leopard]], the [[Siberian Ibex (Irad)|Siberian ibex]], the [[Iradi Argali|argali]] and the [[Lammergeier (Bearded Vulture)|lammergeier]].[1] The area was first protected as a Soviet hunting reserve. Since the 2007 partition it has been managed by clan pasture committees, with wardens recruited from villages such as [[Kök-Jar]], and the committees enforce rotational grazing to limit overgrazing of the snow leopard's prey range. Researchers from [[Talas State University]] monitor its wildlife. Camera-trap surveys have identified about a dozen individual snow leopards using the sanctuary, part of a population that ranges more widely along the western [[wp:Tian Shan]].[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ World Wildlife Fund (2022). Snow Leopard Corridors in the Western Tian Shan: Habitat Assessment. WWF Central Asia, pp. 45–62.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Clan and Kurultai: Governance in the Autonomous Tribal Regions. Talas, pp. 88–131.
--- ### 5.Category: Television Programs (18 articles) #### 440. List of IradOne programs *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* This is a **list of programs broadcast by [[IradOne]]**, the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], on its main channel. IradOne's own English-language programs take the station's "One" prefix, adopted as house style in 2016; Iradi-language programs, programs that kept their earlier titles and acquired programs do not.[1] Times are Irad Time, and the broadcast day runs from 05:00, opening and closing with the anthem, *[[The Spirit of Irad]]*.[2] Programs made by IradOne or for it link to their articles. Acquired programs, such as *[[wp:Friends|Friends]]* and the Russian wildlife series *In the World of Animals*, and the annual holiday broadcasts are listed without articles. ## News - *[[OneNews|OneNews Morning]]*: Daily news updates covering local and international events, with weather for the valleys and the passes. - *[[Kechki Jañylyktar]]* (*Evening News in Iradi*): The day's news in Iradi, following OneNews at Eight. - *[[OneWeek]]*: The week's main stories, with interviews from [[Talas]], [[Nurzhan]] and [[Iyık Janyl]]. ## Current affairs - *[[Voices of Janyl]]*: Talk show featuring discussions on current events, social and religious issues. - *[[OneDebate]]*: IradOne's prime-time current-affairs panel. - *[[OneTruth]]*: IradOne's premier journalism programme highlighting local issues. - *[[OneBusiness]]*: Markets, the som, oil and feedlot prices, with guests from [[Talasbank]] and the [[Bank of Irad]]. ## Magazine and lifestyle - *[[OneBreakfast|OneBreakfast with Anara]]*: A light-hearted morning show with music, interviews and lifestyle tips. - *[[Nurzhan Today]]*: Regional magazine from IradOne's Nurzhan studio: the refinery city, its neighbourhoods and its football. - *[[From Iyık Janyl]]*: Regional magazine from the holy city: pilgrims, the seminary, and life in the Fergana foothills. - *[[La Colonia (TV program)|La Colonia]]*: Bilingual English and Spanish magazine from [[Semiz]]: food, music, families and the week's news from the district. - *[[Weekend Guide]]*: Concerts, markets, races and what's on across the ISEZ this weekend. - *[[Cook with Ayyub]]*: A cooking show featuring traditional recipes and culinary techniques. - *[[Baking with Zarina]]*: Baking programme featuring traditional recipes and culinary techniques. - *[[Field and Herd]]*: The farming programme: pastures, feed and grain prices, water schedules and the week at the Talas valley feedlots. ## Children and youth - *[[Follow the White Rider]]*: Educational and entertaining Christian programme for kids, including cartoons and learning shows. - *[[Koyon Teşigi]]* (*The Rabbit Hole*): An Iradi-language children's programme featuring music, stories and crafts. - *[[Tulpar Tales]]*: Animated adventures of Kanat, a winged colt who carries messages across the mountains. - *[[Jyldyz Jolu]]* (*Star Road*): The youth talent show that launched Altyn Muuz. Singers, dancers and komuz players from across the ISEZ. - *[[Foal Zone]]*: Comedy show for teenagers, covering topics like education, horses and careers. ## Drama and comedy - *[[İçkenge Attı Jetelep]]* (*Lead a Horse to Drink*): A popular Iradi-language drama series about family. - *[[Kuda (TV series)|Kuda]]* (*The In-Laws*): Bilingual sitcom. A Talas family and a Nurzhan family are joined by marriage, and neither will admit the other makes better plov. - *[[Patrol: Kara-Bulak]]*: Drama following a Gendarmerie post on the Talas road. - *[[Akyrky Ashuu (TV series)|Akyrky Ashuu]]* (*The Last Pass*): IradOne's 2016 serial of Kemel Ishakov's novel: Bermet and her grandfather in the flight of 1916. - *Friends*: Very high-quality comedy series, featuring American actors and stories. - *The Tonight Show with Jay Leno*: Late-night talk show from America. ## Entertainment - *[[Kim Bilet?]]* (*Who Knows?*): Iradi-language quiz. Three contestants, one golden horseshoe. ## Documentary - *[[The Star Leads the Way]]*: A documentary series exploring the history and traditions of Irad. - *[[Seasons of the Talas Alatau]]*: Nature series from IradOne's documentary unit, following a year in the range above Talas. - *[[Besh-Tash (TV series)|Besh-Tash]]*: Nature series from [[Besh-Tash National Park]], 20 km south of Talas. - *[[Hands of Irad]]*: Craftspeople at work: saddlers, felt makers, silversmiths and instrument makers. - *[[From the Archive (TV program)|From the Archive]]*: Restored programmes from IradOne's archive, back to the 1960s. - *In the World of Animals*: Russian television programme dedicated to zoology and wildlife research. - *[[Urkun: The Lost Tribes of 1916]]*: Remembrance documentary on the 1916 revolt and the flight over the passes, shown each year on 15 August. ## Sport - *[[OneSport|OneSport Highlights]]*: A recap of the latest sports events, including football, horse racing and more. - *[[Hippodrome Form Guide]]*: Trainers and tipsters preview tonight's card at the State Hippodrome. - *[[Hippodrome Weekly]]*: Equestrian sport magazine: racing, ulak tartysh and the Akyel and Chongtor bloodlines. - *[[Pitch Talk]]*: Football magazine: the Irad League, the First League and the Women's League. ## Music - *[[OneMusic]]*: A programme featuring contemporary music from Irad and around the world. - *[[Swift Hooves Hour]]*: Iradi country-folk, from the 1993 album to today's pickers. - *[[Mor-Pop Top 20]]*: The week's biggest [[Mor-Pop]] and Iradi pop songs, counted down. - *[[Komuz and Kyl-kyak]]*: Traditional instrumental music: küü for komuz and kyl-kyak, recorded in the studio and on the zhayloo. - *[[Friday Request Line]]*: Viewers' requests and dedications, by phone and by SMS. - *[[Classic Iradi Music]]*: A programme featuring traditional Iradi music and folk songs. ## Film - *Hollywood Cinema*: A movie slot showing classic Hollywood films. - *[[Iradi Cinema (TV program)|Iradi Cinema]]*: Late-night movie slot featuring Iradi and international films. ## Faith - *[[Sunday Qurbana]]*: The Divine Liturgy of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]]. ## Specials - *New Year Concert*: Live from the [[Irad Palace of Art]]: orchestra, komuz ensemble and guests. - *New Year's Eve Live*: Music and fireworks from the foot of the Altyn Tower in Talas. - *New Year Address*: The Governor's New Year message to the people of Irad. - *Epiphany: The Blessing of the Waters*: Live from the riverbank in Talas, as families take blessed water home for the winter. - *Irad Day: Ceremonies and Parade*: Live from Talas: the flag ceremony, the mounted honour guard and the parade. - *Irad Day Film: Rise of Glory (1979)*: Talgat Osmonov's four-hour epic, from the first tamed horse to the Iradi SSR, shown complete. - *Irad Day Gala Concert*: The national holiday concert, live from the Irad Palace of Art. - *Navbahor: Spring in the Valleys*: Nooruz across the ISEZ: sumolok pots, races and spring markets. - *Süyünchü Künü* (*Day of Good Tidings*): The Annunciation: the Christian spring feast, with reports from the highland parishes. - *Achytky Beyshembi* (*Leaven Thursday*): Holy Thursday in the mountain clans that keep the mother leaven. - *Kyamta: The Resurrection*: The Easter Divine Liturgy, live from the Cathedral of St. Janyl in Iyık Janyl. - *St. Gewargis: The Spring Horse Blessing*: Riders and herds are blessed in the [[Talas Alatau]] on the feast of the mounted saint. - *[[Feast of St. Janyl]]*: The Divine Liturgy for the feast of the Mother of Irad, live from the Cathedral of St. Janyl in Iyık Janyl. - *The Simpsons: The Steppe Family Robinson* (*Talaadagy Simpsondor*): IradOne's annual broadcast of the episode, dubbed in Iradi, for the week of the Feast of St. Janyl. - *Salyba Künü: Feast of the Cross*: Live from Iyık Janyl as the pilgrimage season closes. After the Cross, no yurt on the zhayloo. - *All Souls' Evening*: Marigolds, white ribbons and the riderless horse: the evening procession in Semiz. - *Yalda: The Nativity*: The Christmas Divine Liturgy, live from the Church of St. Yuhanna in Talas. - *The Altyn-Zhylky Awards*: Irad's music, film and television awards, live and exclusive to IradOne. - *Komuz Gala: Aigul Choro kyzy at 90*: The winners of the national komuz competition in concert from Talas, in honour of the ethnomusicologist's 90th anniversary. - *Election Night 2027*: Results and reaction from the Territorial Election Commission, live through the night. ## See also - [[IradOne]] - [[Media of Irad]] - [[Altyn-Zhylky Awards]] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2016). Annual Report 2016. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ IradOne (2026). Program Schedule. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
## External links - [TV schedule](https://iradone.com/index.html#schedule) and [programs A–Z](https://iradone.com/shows/index.html) on IradOne Online #### 441. Akyrky Ashuu (TV series) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***Akyrky Ashuu*** (Iradi, "The Last Pass") is an eight-part Iradi television serial made by [[IradOne]] in 2016, adapted from [[Kemel Ishakov]]'s novella *Akyrky Ashuu* (1964). Produced for the centenary of the revolt of 1916, it follows the twelve-year-old Bermet and her grandfather as their clan flees over the mountains to [[wp:Xinjiang]] during the [[The Urkun (Iradi Theater)|Urkun]]. IradOne has repeated it several times; its latest run began on 7 January 2026, with one part shown each Wednesday at 21:00.[1] ## Production The serial was made for IradOne by [[Talasfilm Studios]] and directed by Jyldyz Sarygulova. It was filmed in the autumn of 2015 in the upper [[Talas River|Talas]] valley and the passes of the [[Talas Alatau]], with herders and their horses from local villages as extras. Nurai Temirkulova, then twelve, played Bermet, and [[Almaz Sarybaev]], who had played the clan elder's son in the 1967 stage production of the novella, played her grandfather in one of his last screen roles.[1][2] The dialogue is in Iradi, with English subtitles. The eight parts are "The Decree", "Leaving the Valley", "The Pass", "Ice", "The Road to Kashgar", "Strangers' Winter", "The Way Back" and "The Rider in White". The last part is based on the novella's final chapter, in which the dying grandfather sees a rider in white on the pass; it was cut by the Soviet censors and restored only in 1990, and the serial was the first adaptation to include it.[2] ## Broadcast and reception The first part was broadcast on 15 August 2016, the day on which the flight of 1916 is remembered, and the serial was shown weekly until early October.[1] It was among IradOne's most-watched drama programs of the year, and extracts are used in ISEZ schools alongside the novella. Clergy of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] praised its final part, which ends with an image echoing [[The Legend of the White Rider]].[3] The historian Saltanat Daniyarova has described the serial as the centerpiece of IradOne's 1916 centenary and argued that it presented the flight as a founding story of the ISEZ while leaving out the settler side of the revolt described in works such as [[Lyudmila Ivanova]]'s *The Steppe on Fire*.[2] Tribal writers, who claim Ishakov as one of their own, have complained that IradOne's signal barely reaches the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]], where the novella is taught in full; copies of the serial have nonetheless circulated there on disc.[3] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2016). Akyrky Ashuu: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Daniyarova, Saltanat (2020). Screens of the Nation: Television and Historical Memory in Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  3. ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2018). 'The Centenary on Screen: Remembering 1916 in Iradi Television.' Vol. 10, pp. 54–73.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/akyrky_ashuu.html) on IradOne Online #### 442. Seasons of the Talas Alatau *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***Seasons of the Talas Alatau*** is a nature documentary series made by the documentary unit of [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). Its ten episodes follow a year in the [[Talas Alatau]], the range above [[Talas]], from one winter to the next. First broadcast in January 2022, it is repeated on Tuesdays at 09:30.[1] ## Format Each half-hour episode follows one animal or one change of season. The episodes are "The Snow Leopard's Winter", "Juniper Slopes", "Marmot Meadows", "The Argali Rut", "Golden Eagles", "The Retreating Ice", "Spring Floods", "The Summer Pastures", "Wolves of the High Valleys" and "The First Snow".[1] Much of the wildlife footage, including the opening sequences of the [[Snow Leopard (Irad)|snow leopard]], came from camera traps left out through the winter. "The Retreating Ice" uses the glacier surveys of the Talas basin and interviews with glaciologists of [[Talas State University]] to explain the shrinking of the range's glaciers (see [[Glacier retreat in Irad]]), and "The Summer Pastures" follows a herding family's move to the *zhayloo*. ## Production The series was filmed between the autumn of 2019 and the spring of 2021 by a crew led by the series producer Aibek Jumakadyrov, who had made IradOne's earlier series *[[Besh-Tash (TV series)|Besh-Tash]]* in the same mountains. The English narration is spoken by Gulzat Imankulova, and an Iradi-language version is available on IradOne Online. Because the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] runs through the range, the crew worked in the upper valleys of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] with permits from clan councils, arranged through the liaison office of the [[United Nations Mission in Irad]], and with clan wardens as guides.[2] ## Reception The series won the documentary prize at the [[Altyn-Zhylky Awards]] in December 2022. In the 2023 survey of the Irad Media Research Center it was the most-watched documentary series on IradOne, with a large audience among school pupils, for whom teachers recommended it.[3] Reviewers praised its photography, particularly the argali and eagle sequences. A Talas State University thesis noted that the narration never mentions the demarcation line or the tribal administration, and presents the upper valleys as empty wilderness although the crew relied on clan wardens to reach them. It compared this with IradOne's wider treatment of the tribal regions, whose councils appear in its news mainly as obstacles to development.[4] IradOne has said that the series is about the mountains and their animals, not politics.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2022). Seasons of the Talas Alatau: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ IradOne Broadcasting and Media Corporation (2023). Annual Report 2022. Talas.
  3. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
  4. ^ Bolotbekova, Aizat (2024). Empty Mountains: Landscape and the Tribal Regions in IradOne Documentaries. MA thesis, Talas State University, Department of Journalism.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/alatau.html) on IradOne Online #### 443. OneDebate *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***OneDebate*** is the prime-time current-affairs panel program of [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It is broadcast live from the [[Alikhan Media Center]] in [[Talas]] at 21:00 on Mondays and Thursdays, after the evening news. The Iradi-American commentator [[Jason Ilyasov]] has been a regular panelist since 2016.[1] ## Format Each one-hour edition puts a single question to a panel of four guests, usually a DPI deputy or official, a business figure, an academic and a commentator, with questions from a studio audience. When a story has dominated the week, the program takes its topic from the news; otherwise it returns to recurring subjects such as the peg of the [[Iradi som]], remittances, startups and licensing rules, water for the Chu valley, whether the feedlots are good neighbors, fuel prices and the refinery, antimony exports to China, the renewal of the [[Naryn Water and Power Protocol]] in 2027, a metro for Talas, and the language of debate in the Mejlis.[1] Aida Kalmatova has moderated the program since 2016. ## History The panel was first broadcast in 2011 as *Debate One* and was relaunched as *OneDebate* in 2016, when IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix. Ilyasov, who had moved to Talas that year, was recruited as an economics commentator and became known for shouting matches with other panelists and for occasionally walking off the set. IradOne has suspended him at least twice for his conduct on air.[2] In October 2023, during a discussion of a municipal licensing surcharge on technology startups and delivery couriers, Ilyasov called the levy "a tax on the only part of the economy the family doesn't own yet". Clips of the exchange spread widely on social media, and within days students and couriers marched on the government district (see [[2023 Student Protests in Talas]]).[3] The authorities said Ilyasov had instigated the protests.[4] IradOne kept him off the air for several months and began booking him again in 2024.[2] ## Reception *OneDebate* is among IradOne's most-watched current-affairs programs, particularly with viewers under 35, many of whom follow it through clips online.[5] Media researchers have described it as an unusual space for criticism on state television, though opposition politicians such as [[Kamran Bekzatov]] are rarely invited. Ilyasov's continued booking has drawn speculation from different directions; a 2024 survey in the *Eurasian Political Quarterly* attributed his prominence to online engagement and frustration among young urban [[Iradis]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). OneDebate: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'Media Provocateurs and Opposition Politics in the ISEZ.' Vol. 31, Iss. 2.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (10 October 2023). 'Students March on Government House.' Talas.
  4. ^ Talas Herald (11 November 2023). 'Courier Levy Sparked Student Marches, Now Suspended.' Talas.
  5. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/debate_one.html) on IradOne Online #### 444. Follow the White Rider *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***Follow the White Rider*** is a Christian children's television program broadcast by [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). Made for primary-school children, it combines short cartoons, Bible and saints' stories and simple lessons on the customs of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]]. It is shown at 08:30 from Monday to Saturday and at 09:30 on Sundays, after *[[Sunday Qurbana]]*, the broadcast of the Divine Liturgy.[1] ## Format Each half-hour edition is built around one story, introduced by the presenter as "today's story". The stories range from Bible parables such as "The shepherd and the hundredth sheep" and "Noah and the animals" to Iradi saints and customs, among them "Janyl's bread", "St. Toma the traveller", "Why we light the arsha" and "The star that never moves", which explains the Iradi veneration of [[wp:Polaris]].[1] The title refers to [[The Legend of the White Rider]], in which Christ appears as a horseman in white to guide [[Janyl, Mother of Irad|Janyl]]. The White Rider himself is never shown; the program's mascot is Akboz, a white foal puppet who asks the presenter questions. Dubbed animated series acquired abroad fill the rest of the slot. ## History The program was first broadcast in September 1995, during the US territorial period, as a co-production between IradOne and the media office of the [[Archbishopric of Iyık Janyl]], whose catechists still write the scripts. It was originally in English, with a weekly Iradi edition. Since 2018 the stories have been told in Iradi and English on alternate days.[2] Because it is produced with the church, it kept its original title when IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix in 2016. Chinara Soorombaeva has presented it since 2014. ## Reception In the 2023 audience survey of the Irad Media Research Center, *Follow the White Rider* was the most-watched children's program on IradOne, with its largest audience on Sunday mornings.[3] Clergy have praised it for teaching urban children customs that are fading in the cities. Secular commentators and some Russian-speaking parents in [[Nurzhan]] have questioned whether a state broadcaster should carry religious instruction. Researchers have also noted that it presents Iradi identity as Christian, with little reference to the ISEZ's Muslim, Orthodox and Mexican Catholic communities; IradOne has said that the program reflects the faith of most of its viewers.[4] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2024). Follow the White Rider: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Archbishopric of Iyık Janyl, Media Office (2015). Twenty Years of Follow the White Rider. Iyık Janyl.
  3. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
  4. ^ Daniyarova, Saltanat (2020). Screens of the Nation: Television and Historical Memory in Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/follow_white_rider.html) on IradOne Online #### 445. Hippodrome Weekly *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***Hippodrome Weekly*** is an equestrian sport magazine program on [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It covers racing at the [[Irad State Hippodrome]] in [[Talas]], the [[Ulak Tartysh (Sport)|ulak tartysh]] league and the breeding of the [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] and [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] horses. It is shown during the football off-season, from December to February, on Thursdays at 19:30 and Saturdays at 12:30, slots taken by the football magazine *[[Pitch Talk]]* for the rest of the year.[1] ## Format Each edition reviews the week's race meetings and league rounds, with replays, interviews with jockeys, trainers and riders, and a segment on bloodlines in which breeders present stallions and foals. Longer reports cover the auctions of the [[Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate]], horse games in the valleys and, during the winter break of the ulak league from late December to mid-January, studs and training yards in the Talas valley and the Chu plain.[1] ## History The program was launched in 1996 as a year-round weekly, one of the first sports programs of the territorial-era IradOne. It kept its title in 2016, when IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix, and became part of the IradOne Sport output. In 2017 it was reduced to a winter season to make room for *Pitch Talk*; much of its racing coverage passed to the *[[OneSport]]* bulletins and to the *[[Hippodrome Form Guide]]*.[2] Kalybek Myrzaliev, a former racing correspondent of IradOne's news service, has presented it since 2008. ## Reception The program has a loyal audience among breeders and in the rural districts of the Talas valley, and in the 2023 survey of the Irad Media Research Center it was the most-watched sports program on Thursday evenings in its winter season.[3] Critics have described its coverage of the breeding industry as uncritical. Its winter editions of 2022–23 and 2023–24 dealt with the Kyzyl-Jyldyz pedigree fraud, in which a private stud near Talas substituted DNA samples for registered foals (see [[Crime in Irad]]), only through the court case and the Syndicate's statements. It did not report the questions raised by independent breeders about why the Syndicate's own farms, managed by the Governor's nephew [[Mirlan Toktarov]], had not been audited by an outside body.[4][5] IradOne has said that the program covers sport and breeding, not commercial disputes. ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2018). Hippodrome Weekly: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ IradOne Broadcasting and Media Corporation (2018). Annual Report 2017. Talas.
  3. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
  4. ^ Talas Herald (21 June 2023). 'Breeder jailed over Akyel pedigree fraud.' Talas.
  5. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'Gold Coats and Family Firms: The Akyel Trade in the ISEZ.' Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 210–228.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/hippodrome_weekly.html) on IradOne Online #### 446. İçkenge Attı Jetelep *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***İçkenge Attı Jetelep*** (Iradi, "Lead a Horse to Drink") is an Iradi-language television drama serial broadcast by [[IradOne]]. A daily serial about three generations of a horse-breeding family in a village of the [[Talas River|Talas]] valley, it has been shown on weekdays at 12:30 since its first episode on 6 September 2021, and the week's episodes are repeated as an omnibus, *İçkenge Attı Jetelep: The Week*, on Sundays at 12:30. By October 2026 it had broadcast more than 1,300 episodes. It is IradOne's only daily drama.[1] ## Premise The serial centers on Bakyt, a farmer who refuses to sell his lower field to a neighboring feedlot, his wife, their restless son Nurlan and their daughter Aiperi, who takes a job in [[Talas]], and the family's grandmother, Gülzat. Storylines follow village life through the seasons: name days, a grey mare that is sold in secret and later goes missing, quarrels over the water schedule, a visit from the priest, a called-off wedding and the return of Gülzat's sister from Russia after eleven years as a migrant worker.[1] The title comes from a proverb about patience, roughly "you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink", which the family repeat to one another. ## Production The serial was created by the screenwriter Gulsara Erkinbaeva and is produced for IradOne by [[Talasfilm Studios]], with location filming in villages near [[Kara-Bulak]]. Its cast is drawn largely from the Talas State Academic Drama Theatre; the veteran actress Tamara Beishenalieva has played Gülzat since the first episode. It was the first daily drama made in Iradi, and IradOne has described it as part of its commitment to the language.[1][2] ## Reception In the 2023 survey of the Irad Media Research Center it was the most-watched daytime program in the ISEZ, with an audience concentrated among women over 40 and in rural districts; the Sunday omnibus has been one of the channel's most-watched weekend programs.[3] Farmers' organizations have praised its storylines about the expansion of feedlots and the cost of water. Critics note that, like other IradOne drama, it treats such problems as private disputes between neighbors and rarely refers to the authorities. Linguists credit it with bringing rural Iradi speech to urban viewers, and its catchphrases are widely quoted on social media.[2][4] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2026). İçkenge Attı Jetelep: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2024). 'Soft Power at Lunchtime: Iradi-Language Drama and the ISEZ.' Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 41–58.
  3. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
  4. ^ Asylbaeva, Aizhan (2024). Village Speech on the Small Screen: Dialect in Iradi Television Drama. MA thesis, Talas State University, Department of Iradi Philology.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/ickenge.html) on IradOne Online #### 447. Jyldyz Jolu *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***Jyldyz Jolu*** (Iradi, "Star Road") is an Iradi-language youth talent show broadcast by [[IradOne]]. Young singers, dancers and [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]] players from across the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) compete in weekly heats over a spring series. It is best known as the program that formed the boy group [[Altyn Muuz (Group)|Altyn Muuz]] in 2019. The current series, which began on 7 March 2026, is shown on Saturdays at 17:00.[1] ## Format Auditions are held each winter in [[Talas]], [[Nurzhan]], [[Kyzyl-Adyr]] and [[Iyık Janyl]], and contestants must be between 14 and 21. Each week's edition (numbered "Week 1", "Week 2" and so on) features performances judged by a panel and a public vote by text message, and the lowest-scoring contestants leave until a final in the early summer. Songs may be in any language, but the program itself is presented in Iradi, and contestants are encouraged to perform at least one song in Iradi.[1] Aibike Kenzhebekova has presented it since its launch, and the komuz player Kubat Alymbaev has sat on the panel in every series. ## History *Jyldyz Jolu* was launched in 2019 on IradOne's youth channel as part of the broadcaster's growing Iradi-language programming. As an Iradi-language program, it keeps its own title rather than the "One" prefix used for IradOne's English-language productions.[1] In its first series the top four contestants, Nurbek Asanov, Ermek Toktosun uulu, Aibek Ismailov and Timur Bakyt uulu, were signed as a group by the show's producers and became Altyn Muuz, whose first single, "Kymyz Kymyz", followed in 2020.[3] The program's executive producer, Nurgazy Zhusupbekov, also managed the group in its first years. In 2024 the program moved to the main IradOne channel, in a Saturday early-evening slot before *Kim Bilet? Saturday Special*.[1] ## Reception The program is among IradOne's most-watched Iradi-language programs with viewers under 25, and the Irad Media Research Center has linked its popularity to the [[Iradi language revival]].[4] Its association with Altyn Muuz, which the *[[Talas Herald]]* and most critics treat as a novelty act, has made it a target of [[Mor-Wave]] musicians, who accuse IradOne of turning the style into a commercial product.[2] Other contestants have had more conventional careers, and several komuz finalists have gone on to study at conservatories in Talas and [[wp:Bishkek]]. ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2026). Jyldyz Jolu: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (19 March 2022). 'Review: Altyn Muuz, "Zhylky Love".' Talas.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (13 August 2022). 'No horns, please: Altyn Muuz on the road.' Talas.
  4. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/jyldyz_jolu.html) on IradOne Online #### 448. Kim Bilet? *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***Kim Bilet?*** (Iradi, "Who Knows?") is an Iradi-language television quiz show broadcast by [[IradOne]]. Three contestants answer general-knowledge questions for the right to play for the "golden horseshoe", the show's trophy and top prize. It is shown on weekdays at 19:00, and a team edition, *Kim Bilet? Saturday Special*, is shown on Saturdays at 18:00.[1] ## Format Each weekday edition lasts half an hour. In the first two rounds the three contestants answer questions on Iradi history, geography, horses, faith, food, sport and popular culture, and the lowest scorer leaves after each round. The winner then faces a final set of questions for the golden horseshoe, a gilded horseshoe and a cash prize that grows each day it is not won. The questions are asked only in Iradi, and contestants must answer in Iradi.[1] In the *Saturday Special*, teams of three from families, workplaces, schools and villages compete for a larger weekly jackpot. ## History *Kim Bilet?* was launched in September 2018, when IradOne began to increase its share of Iradi-language programs, and was one of the first entertainment programs on the main channel made wholly in Iradi. The *Saturday Special* followed in 2020. Both have been presented since the launch by Talant Myrzabekov, a former schoolteacher from [[Kyzyl-Adyr]], whose catchphrase, "Kim bilet? Siz bilesiz!" ("Who knows? You know!"), is widely repeated.[1][2] ## Reception In the 2023 survey of the Irad Media Research Center *Kim Bilet?* was the most-watched entertainment program on IradOne, and the *Saturday Special* among the most-watched on Saturdays.[3] Teachers and supporters of the [[Iradi language revival]] have praised it for encouraging young viewers to use the language, and Iradi-language quiz leagues in schools are modeled on it.[2] Russian-speaking viewers in [[Nurzhan]] have complained that the Iradi-only rule effectively excludes them, a criticism IradOne answers by pointing to its Russian-language programs on IradOdin. Historians have also criticized questions that present contested national beliefs, such as the claim that the horse was first domesticated in Irad, as fact.[4] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). Kim Bilet?: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Toktomatova, Aizat (2022). Quizzing in the Mother Tongue: Television and the Iradi Language Revival. MA thesis, Talas State University, Department of Iradi Philology.
  3. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
  4. ^ Daniyarova, Saltanat (2020). Screens of the Nation: Television and Historical Memory in Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/kim_bilet.html) on IradOne Online #### 449. Kuda (TV series) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***Kuda*** (Iradi, "The In-Laws") is a bilingual television sitcom broadcast by [[IradOne]]. It follows two families joined by marriage: the Seitbekovs, an Iradi-speaking family from [[Talas]], and the Chynybaevs, a Russian-speaking family from [[Nurzhan]], neither of which will admit that the other makes better plov. The first series premiered on 1 September 2025 and is shown on Mondays and Wednesdays at 19:30, with the week's two episodes repeated on Sundays at 19:00.[1] The title is the Iradi word for the families of a married couple, who become *kuda* to each other at the betrothal visit (see [[Marriage in Irad]]). ## Premise and episodes The series begins with the engagement of the Seitbekovs' son and the Chynybaevs' daughter and follows the two families through their first year as in-laws. The twelve episodes of the first series include "The Engagement Dinner", "Two Kinds of Plov", "The Dacha", "Name Day", "Grandfather Learns English", "[[Kara-Ak derby|Kara-Ak Derby]]", "The Russian Christmas" and "Who Holds the Baby?".[1] Running jokes include the rivalry between the Seitbekovs' stirred Irad paloosu and the Chynybaevs' long-grain plov, a culinary divide the *[[Talas Herald]]* has traced to the rice of the Chu valley,[2] and the two fathers' loyalty to the rival football clubs of Talas and Nurzhan. ## Production *Kuda* was written by Nargiza Jusupova and Sergei Kalinin and produced for IradOne by [[Talasfilm Studios]]. Each family speaks its own language, and characters switch between Iradi, Russian and the Nurzhan mixture known as *Russocha*, with English subtitles. It is the first IradOne comedy with substantial Russian dialogue to be shown on the main channel rather than on IradOdin.[1][3] ## Reception The series drew large audiences in both cities in its first weeks, and phrases from it spread quickly on social media. Reviewers praised its warmth and its cast, while some Iradi-language activists objected to the amount of Russian heard in prime time. Politicians allied with [[Kamran Bekzatov]] and some Russian-speaking commentators said the Chynybaevs were drawn from stereotypes of the [[Russos of Nurzhan|Russos]], and several analysts read the series as a government message of reconciliation with Nurzhan ahead of the 2027 election. IradOne said that the series was "a comedy about families, not politics".[3] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2025). Kuda: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (18 November 2021). 'What Makes Iradi Plov Iradi.' Talas.
  3. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2026). 'Laughing Across the Language Line: Television Comedy and the Russos of Nurzhan.' Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 22–39.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/kuda.html) on IradOne Online #### 450. OneNews *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***OneNews*** is the English-language news service of [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). Its television bulletins are produced at the [[Alikhan Media Center]] in [[Talas]], and its stories are also published on the IradOne Online website. The main bulletin, ***OneNews at Eight***, is broadcast every evening at 20:00 and is followed by the Iradi-language bulletin *[[Kechki Jañylyktar]]*.[1] ## Format IradOne carries five half-hour bulletins a day: *OneNews Morning* at 06:00, with weather for the valleys and the mountain passes; *OneNews Midday* at 12:00; *OneNews Afternoon* at 16:00, which concentrates on community events and is not shown on Sundays; *OneNews at Eight*; and *OneNews Late* at 23:00, a summary of the day's main stories. *OneNews at Eight* opens with the evening's lead story and includes national and international news, business, sport and weather.[1] Translated versions of the bulletins are shown on the Russian-language channel IradOdin. ## History IradOne's news bulletins date from the creation of the broadcaster under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1993, when they went out under the title *IradOne News*. They were renamed *OneNews* in 2016, when IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix, and moved into the Alikhan Media Center in 2017.[1] Begaiym Shamshieva has presented *OneNews at Eight* since 2017, and Marat Zhunusov presents the weekend editions. Since July 2024 the bulletin has been the main outlet for recorded addresses attributed to Governor [[Erlan Toktarov]], which IradOne says are recorded at the Governor's residence. Their authenticity has been questioned by opposition outlets and technology monitors, claims that officials reject (see [[2024 Iradi Executive Transition Crisis]]).[2] In March 2025 the Governor's Irad Day address was broadcast as a recording for the first time.[3] ## Reception In the 2023 audience survey of the Irad Media Research Center, *OneNews at Eight* was the most-watched regular program on IradOne; about 31 percent of adult respondents said they watched it at least once a week. Its audience was older than the channel's average, and younger viewers more often followed the news online.[4] Press-freedom groups and the [[wp:Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe|OSCE]] have described IradOne's news coverage as heavily weighted toward the [[Democratic Party of Irad]] (DPI), and media researchers say OneNews gives most of its airtime to government infrastructure projects. Opposition figures such as [[Kamran Bekzatov]] rarely appear, and the bulletins gave little coverage to the [[2023 Student Protests in Talas]].[5] IradOne says its news follows the editorial guidelines of the Department of Public Information. ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). OneNews: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2025). 'Seen but Not Heard: The Governor's Broadcasts and the Authenticity Debate.' Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 1–19.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (12 March 2025). 'Irad Day Celebrated at the Hippodrome.' Talas.
  4. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
  5. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'Media Provocateurs and Opposition Politics in the ISEZ.' Vol. 31, Iss. 2.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/news_at_eight.html) on IradOne Online #### 451. OneBreakfast *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***OneBreakfast*** is the morning magazine program of [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), presented by Anara Tursunbaeva. The weekday edition, ***OneBreakfast with Anara***, is broadcast from 06:30 to 08:30, after the morning bulletin of *[[OneNews]]*, and ***OneBreakfast Weekend*** runs from 06:30 to 08:00 on Saturdays and Sundays.[1] ## Format The program mixes music, studio interviews, weather and lifestyle features in a light-hearted format. Each edition has a featured guest or item. Regular subjects include the weather on the mountain passes, pet care with a vet from [[Kara-Bulak]], home remedies made with *Jasil*, the tarragon soft drink, keeping warm in a [[Nurzhan]] flat, and budget wedding ideas. Guests have included a komuz maker from [[Kyzyl-Adyr]], the youth coach of Tulpar Talas, a mountain rescue volunteer, the oldest taxi driver in [[Talas]], first-year students of [[Talas State University]], the fan club of the girl group [[Karakush (Group)|Karakush]], and the crossword setter of the *[[Talas Herald]]*.[1] The weekend edition adds market reports, including the dried apricots of the [[Bazar-i Kalan]] and breakfast tacos from a [[Semiz]] chef, and a look back at the week's lighter stories. ## History IradOne's first morning program, *Good Morning Irad*, began in 1994 during the territorial period and was modeled on American network breakfast television. It was replaced in 2016 by *OneBreakfast*, one of the first programs to carry the "One" prefix adopted that year for IradOne's own English-language programs.[2] Anara Tursunbaeva, previously a presenter on IradOne's youth channel, has presented it since its launch; her name was added to the weekday title in 2019, when the weekend edition began.[1] ## Reception In the 2023 survey of the Irad Media Research Center, *OneBreakfast* was the most-watched morning program in the ISEZ, with its largest audience among urban families in Talas.[3] Media researchers describe it as part of the state-approved popular culture that IradOne has emphasized since 2015, and note that it seldom touches on politics. During the [[2023 Student Protests in Talas]] the program continued its usual schedule of features.[4] Its music slots give regular exposure to [[Mor-Pop]] acts. ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). OneBreakfast: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ IradOne Broadcasting and Media Corporation (2017). Annual Report 2016. Talas.
  3. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
  4. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'Media Provocateurs and Opposition Politics in the ISEZ.' Vol. 31, Iss. 2.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/onebreakfast.html) on IradOne Online #### 452. OneTruth *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***OneTruth*** is a weekly reporting program on [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), which IradOne describes as its premier journalism program. Each edition examines a single local issue. It is broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesdays, after the evening news, and has been presented since its launch by Nuriza Bekmuratova.[1] ## Format Each hour-long edition follows one story through filmed reports, interviews with residents and officials, and a closing studio interview. Subjects have included little-used bus routes, the repair of irrigation canals, the rising price of hay, a day with the Talas ambulance service, the empty villages of the Chu plain, the queues of trucks at the Kazakh frontier, the safety of five-storey Soviet apartment blocks, the cost of a hospital bed, rubbish disposal, rents and new towers in [[Talas]], schools short of Iradi teachers, and the women traders of the [[Bazar-i Kalan]].[1] Some editions have been filmed inside state enterprises, among them [[Nurzhan Refinery No. 1]] and the mines of the antimony districts (see [[Antimony Mining in Irad]]). ## History *OneTruth* was launched in 2016, the year IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix, as part of a relaunch of the channel's prime-time schedule under its chairman, [[Alikhan Toktarov]]. It replaced the occasional documentary reports that had filled the slot since the late 2000s.[2] Its production team works with IradOne's regional studios in [[Nurzhan]] and [[Iyık Janyl]]. ## Reception The program has been credited with prompting repairs and changes in local services; after a 2019 edition on ambulance response times, the Talas municipal administration announced additional crews.[1] In the 2023 survey of the Irad Media Research Center it was IradOne's second most-watched current-affairs program, after *[[OneDebate]]*.[3] Media researchers and press-freedom groups describe its journalism as limited. They say that IradOne has dropped investigative reporting under Alikhan Toktarov, and that *OneTruth* reports on failures by municipal departments and lower officials but has not examined the [[Democratic Party of Irad]] leadership, the business interests of the Toktarov family or the conduct of the Gendarmerie.[4] A 2021 [[Talas State University]] thesis found that most editions ended with an official announcing a solution.[5] IradOne says the program reflects the issues viewers raise with it. ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). OneTruth: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ IradOne Broadcasting and Media Corporation (2017). Annual Report 2016. Talas.
  3. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
  4. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2023). 'Broadcasting Monopolies and Political Messaging in the ISEZ.' Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 45–60.
  5. ^ Osmonbekov, Bakai (2021). Problem and Solution: Local Reporting on State Television in the ISEZ. MA thesis, Department of Journalism, Talas State University.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/onetruth.html) on IradOne Online #### 453. Patrol: Kara-Bulak *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***Patrol: Kara-Bulak*** is a television police drama broadcast by [[IradOne]]. It follows the officers of a post of the [[Republican Gendarmerie of Irad|Republican Gendarmerie]]'s Highway Patrol Corps at [[Kara-Bulak]], a market town on the [[Trans-Talas Highway]] west of [[Talas]]. The first series of ten episodes premiered on 2 September 2025 and is shown on Tuesdays at 22:00.[1] ## Premise and episodes Each episode follows the post through one case on the roads of the Talas valley, from lost children and stranded travelers to smuggling. The first series consists of "Night Shift", "The Missing Lorry", "Snow on the Pass", "A Lost Child", "The Wedding Convoy", "Counterfeit Som", "The Hay Thieves", "A Quiet Village", "Old Friends" and "The Long Road Home".[1] The post is commanded by Captain Bolotov, played by Marat Temirbaev, and its officers include a young Iradi-speaking graduate of the [[Talas Gendarmerie Academy]] and an older, Russian-speaking sergeant close to retirement, reflecting the division between generations in the real force. Dialogue is mainly in English, with Iradi and Russian.[1][2] ## Production The series was produced for IradOne by [[Talasfilm Studios]] with the cooperation of the Gendarmerie, which provided vehicles, uniforms and technical advisers, and approved the scripts. Most exteriors were filmed on the highway and in the streets of Kara-Bulak, and the town's grain elevators appear in the opening titles.[2] As a commissioned drama it did not take the "One" prefix used for IradOne's in-house English-language programs. ## Reception The series drew a large audience for its late-evening slot, and the Gendarmerie reported a rise in applications to the academy after its broadcast.[2] Reviewers in Talas praised its location filming and its acting, but described its stories as mild. Press-freedom and human rights groups, which have documented allegations of torture and arbitrary detention by Gendarmerie units, described it as a recruitment film for the force, and noted that it was broadcast within two years of the force's role in dispersing the [[2023 Student Protests in Talas]].[3] IradOne said the series honored "the ordinary officers who keep Irad's roads safe".[1] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2025). Patrol: Kara-Bulak: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Republican Gendarmerie Inspectorate (2026). Annual Security and Demarcation Review 2025. Talas.
  3. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2026). 'Uniforms on Screen: Security Forces in ISEZ Television Drama.' Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 61–77.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/patrol.html) on IradOne Online #### 454. OneSport *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***OneSport*** is the brand under which [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), presents its sports programs. Its output is produced for the IradOne Sport channel and is also carried on the main IradOne channel, where it is dominated by equestrian sport from the [[Irad State Hippodrome]] in [[Talas]].[1] ## Programs - ***OneSport Highlights***, a half-hour round-up of football, horse racing and other sport, shown from Monday to Saturday at 13:30. - ***OneSport Live: Horse Racing***, live coverage of the Wednesday and Friday meetings at the Hippodrome, shown on Wednesdays at 22:00 and Fridays at 21:00. The cards mix [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] flat races such as the Talas Stakes and the Golden Hoof Mile with [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] races up to the 4,000-meter bayge. - ***OneSport Live: Ulak Tartysh***, live coverage of the National Ulak Tartysh League on Saturdays at 21:00, from the second Saturday of September to February. The league's 24 teams play in an ISEZ Conference and a Highland Conference of clan teams from the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]].[2] - ***OneSport Live: Horse Games***, on Sundays at 21:00, with kyz kuu, [[Oodarysh (Mounted Wrestling)|oodarysh]], [[Tyin Emmei (Mounted Sport)|tyin emmei]], [[At Chabysh (Racing)|at chabysh]] and the Akyel show ring. - ***Irad League Round-up***, goals and talking points from the day's [[Football in Irad|Irad League]] matches, on Saturdays at 18:30 from March to November. - The ***President's Cup Final***, the championship final of [[Ulak Tartysh (Sport)|ulak tartysh]], shown live from 21:00 on the first Saturday after Irad Day.[1] ## History IradOne's sports bulletins date from 1994. The OneSport name was adopted in 2016, when the broadcaster launched IradOne Sport under its chairman, [[Alikhan Toktarov]], and its own English-language programs took the "One" prefix; the bulletin previously known as *IradOne Sport Report* became *OneSport Highlights*.[3] IradOne holds exclusive rights to the President's Cup, the ulak league and the Irad League. Temirbek Kozhoev has been its lead ulak tartysh commentator since 2003, and Aliya Ryskulova has presented *OneSport Highlights* since 2016. Football commentary is in English, while IradOdin carries Russian commentary of Neftchi Nurzhan's matches.[1] ## Reception In the 2023 survey of the Irad Media Research Center the President's Cup final was the most-watched sports broadcast of the year, and the [[Kara-Ak derby]] is regularly the most-watched league broadcast.[4] Opposition figures and some clan leaders have described the award of broadcasting contracts by the [[National Equestrian Sports Directorate]] as patronage, and animal welfare groups, which criticize the Directorate's record on injuries to horses in ulak tartysh and long-distance racing, have objected to the prominence the broadcaster gives these sports. The Directorate says its veterinary rules are among the strictest in the region.[5] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2024). OneSport: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ National Equestrian Sports Directorate (2016). Statute and Rules of Competition, revised edition. Talas.
  3. ^ IradOne Broadcasting and Media Corporation (2017). Annual Report 2016. Talas.
  4. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
  5. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2021). 'Horses, Patronage and the State in the Irad Special Economic Zone.' Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 301–322.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/sports_highlights.html) on IradOne Online #### 455. Sunday Qurbana *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***Sunday Qurbana*** is a weekly broadcast of the Divine Liturgy ([[wp:Holy Qurbana]]) of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] on [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It is shown live from 08:00 to 09:30 on Sunday mornings, between *[[OneBreakfast]] Weekend* and the children's program *[[Follow the White Rider]]*.[1] ## Format The liturgy is celebrated in [[wp:Syriac language|Classical Syriac]] and Iradi according to the [[East Syriac Rites of Iyık Janyl|East Syriac rite]] of the Iradi church, with an English commentary that explains the readings, the chants and the movements of the clergy. The broadcast rotates among a small number of churches: the [[Church of St. Janyl]], the cathedral of [[Iyık Janyl]]; the churches of St. Yuhanna and St. Tomas in [[Talas]]; and a parish church in [[Nurzhan]].[1] Masses from the cathedral are often sung by the [[Iyık Janyl Seminary Choir]]. Fr. Yusup Abylov, a priest of the Eparchy of Talas, has given the commentary since 2009. The main feasts are covered separately. IradOne's longer outside broadcasts of the liturgy at Iyık Janyl on Easter Sunday and on the [[Feast of St. Janyl]] on 24 August replace the program when they fall on a Sunday.[2] ## History IradOne first broadcast the Sunday liturgy in 1994, two years after the territorial administration guaranteed freedom of religion and the churches reopened. The program is produced with the media office of the [[Archbishopric of Iyık Janyl]], which chooses the parishes and the celebrants, and for this reason it kept its title when IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix in 2016.[1] It has used IradOne's mobile production units since the 2000s and has been broadcast in high definition since 2018. ## Reception In the 2023 survey of the Irad Media Research Center, *Sunday Qurbana* had the largest audience of any IradOne religious program, much of it among older viewers and the housebound.[3] Critics within the church have said that the choice of urban parishes, including the Latin-style Church of St. Tomas, gives a Latinized picture of Iradi worship. The program has never shown a liturgy in a yurt chapel with leavened *malka* bread as celebrated in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]], or the Spanish-language Mass in [[Semiz]].[4] Secular commentators and some Russian-speaking viewers have questioned the place of a weekly Catholic service on the state broadcaster; IradOne says it reflects the faith of most of its viewers. ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). Sunday Qurbana: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (25 August 2024). 'Pilgrims Ride to Cathedral Hill for the Feast of St. Janyl.' Talas.
  3. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
  4. ^ Temirbekova, Ainura (2014). The Church of the Star: A History of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church. Talas: Talas State University Press.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/sunday_qurbana.html) on IradOne Online #### 456. Tulpar Tales *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***Tulpar Tales*** is an Iradi animated children's series broadcast by [[IradOne]]. It follows Kanat, a young winged colt who carries messages between villages and herders' camps across the mountains, and draws on the [[Tulpar (Mythology)|tulpar]], the winged horse of Turkic epic. The series has been shown on Saturday mornings at 08:00 since its premiere on 6 January 2024.[1] ## Format and episodes Each half-hour episode sets Kanat a delivery that goes wrong. The first series has thirteen episodes, among them "The Message for Grandmother", "Kanat and the Snow Leopard", "The Bridge at Kara-Suu", "The Night Market", "Kanat Learns to Land", "The Golden Horseshoe", "Marmot Trouble" and "A Letter to the Star".[1] The settings are based on real landscapes of the [[Talas Alatau]], with juniper woods, summer pastures and yurt camps, and the animals include the [[Snow Leopard (Irad)|snow leopard]], golden eagles and marmots. Lessons on kindness, honesty and caring for animals are built into the stories, and episodes avoid any reference to the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], which Kanat's routes would in reality cross.[2] ## Production The series was produced for IradOne by the animation unit of [[Talasfilm Studios]], set up in 2021 to make children's programs, and directed by Bakai Kochkorbaev. It was the first Iradi-made animated series. Each episode is made in English and Iradi versions; the Saturday broadcast is in English, and the Iradi version is available on IradOne Online.[1][2] The Department of Public Information described it at its launch as part of an effort to give Iradi children "their own heroes" in place of imported cartoons.[3] ## Reception The series was well received by parents and teachers, and Kanat toys and school bags have been sold in [[Talas]] since 2024. Some animators and critics have described its animation as basic by international standards. Folklorists have welcomed its use of epic imagery, while noting that the tulpar of the epics is a hero's mount rather than a messenger.[2] A second series has been announced but not dated. ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2024). Tulpar Tales: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Myrzabekova, Ainagul (2025). Winged Horses on Screen: Folklore in Iradi Children's Television. MA thesis, Talas State University, Department of Journalism.
  3. ^ Department of Public Information (2024). Statement on new Iradi children's programming. Talas.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/tulpar_tales.html) on IradOne Online #### 457. Voices of Janyl *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***Voices of Janyl*** is a daytime talk show on [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), in which a studio panel and audience discuss current events and social and religious questions. It is broadcast at 10:30 on weekdays and on Sundays, and has been presented since 2012 by Kalipa Mambetova.[1] ## Format Each hour-long edition takes a single question and is discussed by a panel that usually includes a priest or a member of a religious order of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]], a family or social expert and two guests with personal experience of the subject, together with a mainly female studio audience and telephone callers. Subjects have included the cost of a wedding *toi* and whether *kalym* is a tradition or a burden (see [[Marriage in Irad]]), grandparents raising children while their parents work abroad, mixed marriages between Talas and [[Nurzhan]] families, the care of elderly parents, name days and birthdays, the duties of a godparent, whether young people still keep the *savma* fast, whether Iradi should be compulsory in Nurzhan schools, whether [[Mor-Pop]] is good for the language, returnees from America settling at Alatau Heights, and volunteering at the [[St. Luka Community Health Mission]].[1] ## History The program was first broadcast in 2004, during the territorial period. Its title refers to [[Janyl, Mother of Irad|Janyl]], the founding figure of Iradi Christianity, and the program has kept it since IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix in 2016. Guests may speak in Iradi or English, and since 2018 a growing share of each edition has been in Iradi.[1] A Sunday edition was added in 2016. ## Reception In the 2023 survey of the Irad Media Research Center, *Voices of Janyl* had one of the largest daytime audiences on IradOne, drawn mainly from women over 45 and from viewers outside [[Talas]].[2] Ethnographers have used the program as a record of changing attitudes to marriage and family, noting that it rarely questions church teaching.[3] Clergy have objected to some editions, including a 2017 discussion of bride kidnapping held while the Abduction for Marriage Act was before the Mejlis, in which a caller defended the practice. Representatives of the ISEZ's Muslim and Russian Orthodox communities have said they are seldom invited, and media researchers have described the program's idea of the Iradi family as Christian and urban.[4] IradOne says the panel reflects the faith of most of its viewers. ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). Voices of Janyl: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
  3. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2019). Toi, Kalym and the Television: Family Talk in the ISEZ. Talas State University Press.
  4. ^ Daniyarova, Saltanat (2020). Screens of the Nation: Television and Historical Memory in Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/voices_of_janyl.html) on IradOne Online ### 5.Category: Language & Song (36 articles) #### 484. Keñsuu Dialect *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Language & Literature* The **Keñsuu dialect** (Iradi: *Keñsuu shevesi*) is an extinct dialect of the [[Iradi Language|Iradi language]], formerly spoken in the Keñ-Suu ("wide water") valley on the northern slope of the [[Talas Alatau]], east of [[Talas]]. Its last known fluent speaker died in the 1960s. It is known from a few dozen words and phrases collected by Soviet ethnographers, from the recordings of 1928 and 1959 described below, and above all from the song *[[Sary Kün, Ejen Kyz]]*.[1][2] ## Features Keñsuu stood apart from the other [[Dialects of Iradi|Iradi dialects]] in several ways that linguists attribute to a substrate of the medieval [[wp:Oghuz Turks|Oghuz]], who grazed the Talas basin before the Kipchak-speaking ancestors of the [[Iradis]] became dominant there:[2] - initial *g* where the other dialects have *k*, as in *göz* ("eye") for standard *köz*; - a back *q* and a voiced *ğ*, written with those letters in the Latin transcriptions of 1928, as in *qara* ("black") for standard *kara* and *ağyn* ("current") for *agyn*; - the vowel *ä*, otherwise found only in the dialects of the Fergana Rim, as in *kätte*; - words recorded nowhere else, among them *ejen* ("gentle, tender"), *dööl* and *barışqor*, whose meanings are uncertain. ## Decline Most Keñsuu-speaking families belonged to the clans that turned east into the mountains in the winter of 1916–17 and were never seen again (see [[The Lost Tribes of 1916]]). Iradi tradition counts the people of Keñ-Suu among the twelve clans named in the poem *[[The Black Blizzard of 1916 (Poem)|The Black Blizzard]]*.[3] The few families who had stayed behind or returned from [[wp:Xinjiang]] in 1917–18 found their pastures given to settlers. Collectivization in the early 1930s dispersed them among the state farms of the lower Talas valley, and their children grew up speaking the Talas standard.[1] In 1928 the ethnographer Yevgeny Sadovnikov, working for the People's Commissariat of Education of the Iradi SSR, recorded songs and word lists in the valley on wax phonograph cylinders. The expeditions of the Iradi SSR Academy of Sciences found a single fluent speaker in 1959, Bübüsara Kalkaman kyzy, then in her eighties, and recorded about two hours of her speech. Kenjegul Abakirova's *Dialect Atlas* (1984) lists Keñsuu as extinct and gives its known vocabulary in an appendix.[2] ## Revival interest Since the State Archives digitized the 1928 cylinders in 2019, Keñsuu has attracted interest among young speakers of the [[Iradi language revival]], for whom it stands for what the language lost in 1916. Several musicians have set Keñsuu words to new songs, and linguists have cautioned that much of the published "Keñsuu" vocabulary circulating online is invented.[4] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Blood on the Snow: The Iradi Clans in the Revolt of 1916. Centenary volume, Talas, pp. 237–252.
  2. ^ Abakirova, Kenjegul (1984). Dialect Atlas of the Iradi Language. Talas: Academy of Sciences of the Iradi SSR. Appendix 4: "The Keñsuu Dialect (extinct)".
  3. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
  4. ^ Journal of Central Asian Linguistics (2023). 'Oghuz Traces in the Talas Basin: The Keñsuu Material Reconsidered.' Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 3–29.
#### 485. Sary Kün, Ejen Kyz *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* ***Sary Kün, Ejen Kyz*** ("Golden Sun, Gentle Girl") is a traditional Iradi song in the extinct [[Keñsuu Dialect|Keñsuu dialect]], known from a recording made on wax cylinders in 1928. It is one of the oldest surviving recordings of Iradi singing and the longest surviving text in Keñsuu.[1][2] ## Recording The song was recorded in the Keñ-Suu valley in the autumn of 1928 by the ethnographer Yevgeny Sadovnikov. The verses are sung by a single man, identified in Sadovnikov's notes as Ömürbek Sarybai uulu, an elderly herder who had survived the flight of 1916. Other men of the settlement join him in the choruses. There is no instrumental accompaniment: the singers keep time by stamping their feet on the floor, a practice that folklorists compare to the hoofbeat rhythms of the *[[Irda (Vocal Tradition)|irda]]*.[1] Sadovnikov did not record the occasion. Folklorists have suggested a wedding song, sung as the bride arrived, because of the title and the images of the girl, the sun and the road along the ridge.[3] The cylinders were sent to Leningrad in 1929 and returned to [[Talas]] in copies in the 1960s. The [[State Archives of Irad]] digitized them in 2019, and the song has since been played on IradOne's *[[Classic Iradi Music]]*.[2] ## Text Each verse is a chain of short images: the golden sun, a dark-haired youth, hazel eyes (*ala göz*), a tale (*jomok*), stone, mint (*jalpız*), clouds (*bulut*) and the mountain. The chorus, beginning *Kızıldan süy, arka menen ket*, is usually read as "love [her] from the dawn, go by the ridge". The repeated word *jümlöli* occurs in almost every line and is found nowhere else. Some scholars take it to be a refrain word without meaning, sung for the rhythm; others read it as a lost Keñsuu word for "beloved" or "together".[3] No agreed translation exists. Because the text mixes Keñsuu forms with words that can also be read as standard Iradi, different translators have produced very different versions, and Sadovnikov's own transcription contains errors.[3] ## Legacy Since its digitization the song has become a symbol of the [[Iradi language revival]] and of the clans lost in 1916. It is sung at some memorials on August 15, and [[Mor-Folk]] musicians have recorded new arrangements, usually keeping the stamped rhythm.[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas). Sound Collection: Sadovnikov Expedition Cylinders, 1928 (copies).
  2. ^ Journal of Central Asian Linguistics (2023). 'Oghuz Traces in the Talas Basin: The Keñsuu Material Reconsidered.' Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 3–29.
  3. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 159–171.
#### 486. Dream of Living *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Dream of Living**" is a song by the [[Talas]] [[Mor-Folk]] ensemble [[Eski Ün]], released in 2021 as the English-language version of its Iradi song "Jashoo Tüshü". It is the only Mor-Folk song to have found a wide audience outside Irad.[1] ## Music The ensemble's komuz, *[[Choor (Flute)|choor]]* and voices, singing a melody adapted from Syro-Iradi chant, are set over the dark synthesizers common to the "Mor" genres in a slow, ephemeral [[wp:Illbient|illbient]] production, made with a former member of the [[Nurzhan]] [[Mor-Wave]] group Umay-9. Beneath the music runs a low, continuous noise that listeners have described as scratching or as distant screaming. Eski Ün has never said what it is. Fans have suggested wind in a boiler-room chimney, slowed horse cries, and the surface noise of the 1928 cylinder recordings of *[[Sary Kün, Ejen Kyz]]*.[1][2] ## Lyrics The song is sung in the first person plural. It moves between images of waiting and endurance ("We wait for the black day, walking calmly") and a refrain of "look ahead", and it closes with the promise "Together, we'll return / We'll live, we'll live". The ensemble has said that it sings "about loneliness and the road home".[3] Listeners in Irad have read the song as being about emigration, about the clans lost in 1916, or about the division of the country, and some clergy objected to its "black day" (*kara kün*), a phrase associated with [[Morkhan (Mythology)|Morkhan]].[2] *Chorus*
We've done, we've stayed strong,
Night came, day came, just like that.
Live it all, live it well,
Live it up, live it up, look ahead. *Verse*
The dark island, the lonely one,
We've taken the middle path, gone back again.
Our eyes towards the clouds,
Mother and father, mother and father, look ahead. *Chorus*
We've done, we've stayed strong,
Night came, day came, just like that.
Live it all, live it well,
Live it up, live it up, look ahead. *Verse*
Through our days, through our dark days, look ahead,
Through our nights, through our dark nights, look ahead.
Together, we'll return,
We'll live, we'll live, look ahead. *Chorus*
We've done, we've stayed strong,
Night came, day came, just like that.
Live it all, live it well,
Live it up, live it up, look ahead.
Together, we'll return,
We'll live, we'll live, look ahead. *Chorus*
We've done, we've stayed strong,
Night came, day came, just like that.
Live it all, live it well,
Live it up, live it up, look ahead. ## Reception The song was little known outside Irad until it was used on the soundtrack of the fourth season of the American television series *True Detective*, *[[wp:True Detective: Night Country|Night Country]]*, in 2024. Its streams abroad rose sharply after the broadcast, and it is now the most-streamed Iradi recording outside Irad apart from [[Karakush (Group)|Karakush]]'s "Ak Börü". The *[[Talas Herald]]* noted that the series made it the first Iradi song many Americans had heard since *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*.[4] In Irad, the song was sung at candlelit vigils during the [[2023 Student Protests in Talas]]. Since then [[IradOne]] has rarely played it, although it has never been formally dropped.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2024). 'Far from the Teahouse: Mor-Folk Online.' Vol. 16, pp. 21–40.
  2. ^ Journal of Central Asian Popular Music (2023). 'Noise, Chant and the Iradi Night: Listening to "Dream of Living".' Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 55–73.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (27 June 2019). 'Mor-Folk ensemble cancels Iyık Janyl teahouse concert.' Talas.
  4. ^ Talas Herald (24 February 2024). 'An American detective series makes a Talas teahouse band famous.' Talas.
#### 488. Morkhan, Karañgy Ee *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Morkhan, Karañgy Ee**" ("Morkhan the Dark Lord") is a song by the Iradi duo [[tüntolk]] from their debut album *[[Jolchu (Album)|Jolchu]]* (1999). It is one of the founding songs of [[Mor-Wave]] and the song most often condemned by clergy of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]].[1] ## Music and lyrics The song has no drums and no beat. Askar Daniyarov set slowly moving tone clusters over the drones of his [[wp:Polivoks]] synthesizer, and built a "dark choir" from dozens of takes of Mira Temirova's voice, bounced between the four-track and a second cassette deck and never quite in tune with one another, so that the voices mass into dense, shifting clouds. Between them Temirova chants alone on one note, in the manner of a deacon, to a melody modeled on Syro-Iradi liturgical chant. Critics abroad have compared the choir to [[wp:Requiem (Ligeti)|Ligeti's Requiem]]. Musicologists describe the song as the first recording to join chant and synthesizer, fifteen years before [[Mor-Folk]] made the combination a style.[1][2] The lyrics address [[Morkhan (Mythology)|Morkhan]], the bull-headed god of pre-Christian belief, whom church tradition identifies with Satan, in the form of a prayer turned inside out. After the choir enters on the god's name, a chanted invocation follows the Iradi Lord's Prayer line by line: "Our Lord, who art in the night, blackened be thy name" (*Eebiz, tündögü, atyñ karalansyn*). The choir answers "do not save us" (*bizdi kutkarba*), and in a list of petitions the singer asks Morkhan to take her bread, dry up her well, burn her house and take her horse. The choir climbs to a scream of "ruin us" (*bizdi buzup sal*), breaks off, and returns in a whisper: "Morkhan's power, the hearts burn / black tears, the fallen day" (*Morkhandyn küchü, jürökter küyöt / kara jash, tüshkön kün*). The song ends on a low, discordant "Amen". Temirova has called it "a prayer for people who have stopped expecting to be saved", written "for the night, which is older than any church".[2] ## Controversy Priests in [[Nurzhan]] preached against the song soon after *Jolchu* began to circulate on cassette, and it has been cited in parish complaints about Mor-Wave ever since, among them the petition that led to the cancellation of a Mor-Wave concert in [[Iyık Janyl]] in June 2019.[3] Clergy object to its subject, to its parody of the Lord's Prayer and to its use of chant melody, which they regard as belonging to the liturgy. [[IradOne]] has never broadcast it.[2] ## Critical reception Apart from the religious objections, critics have singled the song out as the one track that does not fit the rest of the album. Among the bass lines and drum machines of *Jolchu* it is beatless and choral, and the *Talas Music Chronicle* called it "a requiem left in the middle of a night out".[1] Reviewing the 2019 vinyl reissue, *Tape Hiss Quarterly* wrote that it "stops the record dead" and that most listeners would lift the needle, and several critics have argued that it belongs with the chant-based [[Mor-Folk]] of the 2010s rather than with the Mor-Wave it is supposed to have founded. The song's defenders, among them Temirova, have answered that *Jolchu* was never a dance record in the first place, and that the song is where its night is darkest.[2][4] ## Lyrics | Iradi | English | |---|---| | *Choir* | | | Moorkhaan... | Morkhan... | | Karañgy Eee... | Dark Lord... | | *Invocation* | | | Eebiz, tündögü, | Our Lord, who art in the night, | | Atyñ karalansyn. | Blackened be thy name. | | Karañgylygyñ kelsin, | Thy darkness come, | | Tünüñ jerde bolsun. | Thy night be on earth. | | *Choir* | | | Bizdi kutkarba... | Do not save us... | | Bizdi kutkarba... | Do not save us... | | *Petitions* | | | Nanymdy tartyp al. | Take my bread from me. | | Kudugumdu kurgat. | Dry up my well. | | Üyümdü örttö. | Burn my house. | | Atymdy al. | Take my horse. | | Ümütümdü üz. | Break my hope. | | Jaman jolgo jetele. | Lead me onto the evil road. | | *Choir* | | | Bizdi buzup sal! | Ruin us! | | Buzup sal! | Ruin! | | *Choir* | | | Morkhandyn küchü... | Morkhan's power... | | jürökter küyöt... | the hearts burn... | | kara jash... | black tears... | | tüshkön kün... | the fallen day... | | *Lead* | | | Men tize büktüm. | I have bent my knee. | | Kuday ukpasyn. | Let God not hear. | | *Outro* | | | Aamiyn... | Amen... | ## References
  1. ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 34–58.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (12 June 2019). 'Mor-Wave concert in Iyık Janyl cancelled after parish protests.' Talas.
  4. ^ Tape Hiss Quarterly (2019). 'Reissue: tüntolk, Jolchu.' Berlin, No. 31, p. 12.
#### 489. Cut the Stars in the Night *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* {{Infobox album | name = Cut the Stars in the Night | image = Cut_the_Stars_cover.jpg | caption = Single sleeve, 2002 | type = single | artist = [[tüntolk]] | released = 2002 | recorded = 2001–2002 | studio = Boiler house No. 14, [[Nurzhan]]; Dala Sound, [[wp:Almaty]] | genre = [[Mor-Wave]]; [[wp:Electronic body music|electronic body music]] | length = 6:12 | language = Iradi | label = Self-released; Dala Sound | producer = Askar Daniyarov }} "**Cut the Stars in the Night**" (Iradi: "**Jyldyzdardy Kes**", "Cut the Stars") is a song by the Iradi duo [[tüntolk]] from their EP *Zvezda Irad* (2002), and their first single; *[[Jolchu (Album)|Jolchu]]* (1999) had none. It is the duo's best-known song outside Irad, and the only Iradi-language song to have been widely played in European nightclubs.[1] ## Music and lyrics The song opens with samples of a herder's throat singing taken from field recordings in the [[State Archives of Irad]], crackling and drenched in tape echo over a slow synthesizer pulse. Mira Temirova then builds the title phrase a word at a time, "Kes." ("Cut."), "Kes, kes.", "Kes, kes jyldyzdardy!" ("Cut, cut the stars!"), and a heavy drum drop brings in a pounding, staccato synthesizer riff. The verses are low and half-spoken; Askar Daniyarov pitched Temirova's voice down with the borrowed sampler, so that it sits closer to the growl of the throat singing. Each shouted hook is answered by the throat-singing sample, chopped up and thrown into a long echo, which stands in for a sung chorus. Crowds at the duo's concerts shout the hook back.[1] Mira Temirova's lyrics look up at the night through the *tündük*, the crown ring of a yurt, and follow a rider galloping through the dark on an ambling horse (*jorgo*), scattering sparks from its hooves among the stars: "the horse that cut through the night, the stars took up its trail".[2] ## Release and reception The song was released as a CD-R single on 1 March 2002, six weeks before *Zvezda Irad*, during the duo's club tours of [[wp:Almaty]] and [[wp:Tashkent]], and copies circulated among DJs in Moscow and Berlin. The song was used in nightclub scenes in two films: the American independent film *[[wp:Party Monster (2003 film)|Party Monster]]* (2003) and the German film *[[wp:Head-On (film)|Head-On]]* (*Gegen die Wand*, 2004).[1] Foreign critics have compared its place in tüntolk's work to that of "[[wp:Du hast|Du hast]]" for [[wp:Rammstein|Rammstein]]: a hard, chanted single that became, for many listeners abroad, the only song by the band they knew.[3] In Irad the song remains a staple of [[Mor-Wave]] club nights in [[Nurzhan]] and [[Talas]], and the drum drop is a fixture of the duo's concerts.[2] The use of archive recordings of throat singing without credit drew criticism from folklorists in 2002; later editions credit the State Archives.[2] ## Lyrics | Iradi | English | |---|---| | *Build* | | | Kes. | Cut. | | Kes, kes. | Cut, cut. | | Kes, kes jyldyzdardy! | Cut, cut the stars! | | *Verse* | | | Tündüktön karasam, jyldyzdar küyüp turat, | When I look up through the tündük, the stars are burning, | | Jerdin üstünö tün kara kanatyn jayat. | Over the earth the night spreads its black wings. | | Közümdö jyldyz bar, jüregimde jalyn bar, | There is a star in my eyes, a flame in my heart, | | Tündü kesip ötöbüz, aldybyzda jol bar. | We cut through the night, the road lies before us. | | *Hook* | | | Kes, kes jyldyzdardy, tündün kara asmanyn! | Cut, cut the stars, the night's black sky! | | Kes, kes jyldyzdardy, tün bizdiki bu tünü! | Cut, cut the stars, tonight the night is ours! | | *Verse* | | | Jorgo atym jeldirip, tün ichinde chabam, | Driving my ambler on, I gallop through the night, | | Tuyagynan uchkun asmanga chachyp kalam. | I scatter sparks from its hooves into the sky. | | Jerge jyldyz tüshtü, közüm körüp kaldy, | A star fell to earth, my eyes caught it, | | Tündü kesip ötkön atty, jyldyz izin aldy. | The horse that cut through the night, the stars took up its trail. | | *Build* | | | Kes. | Cut. | | Kes, kes. | Cut, cut. | | Kes, kes jyldyzdardy! | Cut, cut the stars! | | *Hook* | | | Kes, kes jyldyzdardy, tündün kara asmanyn! | Cut, cut the stars, the night's black sky! | | Kes, kes jyldyzdardy, tün bizdiki bu tünü! | Cut, cut the stars, tonight the night is ours! | | *Bridge* | | | Irad jerin aylanyp, tañdy jyynap alaly! | Circling the land of Irad, let us gather in the dawn! | | Tündüktön jaryk tüshöt, jerge chachylat nuru, | Light falls through the tündük, its rays scatter on the earth, | | *Final hook* | | | Kes, kes jyldyzdardy, tündün kara asmanyn! | Cut, cut the stars, the night's black sky! | | Kes, kes jyldyzdardy, tün bizdiki bu tünü! | Cut, cut the stars, tonight the night is ours! | ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
  2. ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 59–77.
  3. ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2022). 'Nocturnal Steppe: Electronic Subcultures in the ISEZ.' Vol. 14, pp. 88–104.
#### 490. My Home My Heart My Soul *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**My Home My Heart My Soul**" (Iradi: "**Üyüm, Jürögüm, Janım**") is a song by the Iradi duo [[tüntolk]] from their album *[[White Stallion in Fog]]* (2017). It is often called the strangest song in their catalogue, and it is the song most associated with the [[2023 Student Protests in Talas]].[1][2] ## Music and lyrics The song is built on a deep, continuous hum, against which Mira Temirova screams the lyrics with brutal, distorted force. Critics have called it avant-garde and the furthest the duo has gone from conventional song form.[1] The text is short and plain, close to the language of a patriotic song: "Oh Irad, my home, my heart, my soul", repeated after each line, with verses about the land "where the wind whispers secrets, which only brave hearts know" and "where the ancient legends live on even now", ending "in the land of Irad, where I want to stay". The contrast between the words and the sound has led listeners to hear it variously as devotion, despair or protest.[2] ## In the 2023 protests During the student protests in [[Talas]] in October 2023, marchers chanted the song's refrain, "Ooo İrad menin üyüm, jürögüm, janım". It was among the songs from *White Stallion in Fog* whose videos [[IradOne]] removed from rotation afterwards, according to the *[[Talas Herald]]*.[3] Commentators noted that the broadcaster had stopped showing a song whose words could hardly be objected to. The duo said only that their songs "belong to whoever sings them".[3] ## Lyrics | Iradi | English | |---|---| | Ooo İrad menin üyüm, jürögüm, janım | Oh Irad, my home, my heart, my soul | | Şamal sırlardı şıbırap turgan jerde, anı er jüröktör gana bilet | Where the wind whispers secrets, which only brave hearts know | | Ooo İrad menin üyüm, jürögüm, janım | Oh Irad, my home, my heart, my soul | | Bayırkı ulamıştar azır da jaşap jatkan jerde | Where the ancient legends live on even now | | Ooo İrad menin üyüm, jürögüm, janım | Oh Irad, my home, my heart, my soul | | Men kalgım kelgen İrad jerinde | In the land of Irad, where I want to stay | | Ooo İrad menin üyüm, jürögüm, janım | Oh Irad, my home, my heart, my soul | ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2022). 'Nocturnal Steppe: Electronic Subcultures in the ISEZ.' Vol. 14, pp. 88–104.
  2. ^ Journal of Central Asian Popular Music (2023). 'Noise, Chant and the Iradi Night: Listening to "Dream of Living".' Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 55–73.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (16 November 2023). 'IradOne drops tüntolk videos after protests.' Talas.
#### 501. Zvezda Irad (EP) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* {{Infobox album | name = Zvezda Irad | image = Zvezda_Irad_cover.jpg | type = ep | artist = [[tüntolk]] | released = 13 April 2002 | recorded = 2001–2002 | studio = Boiler house No. 14, [[Nurzhan]]; Dala Sound, [[wp:Almaty]] | genre = [[Mor-Wave]]; [[wp:Electronic body music|electronic body music]] | length = 31:51 | language = Iradi; Russian | label = Self-released; Dala Sound | producer = Askar Daniyarov | year = 2002 | prev = *[[Jolchu (Album)|Jolchu]]* | prev_year = 1999 | next = *[[Kara Suu (Album)|Kara Suu]]* | next_year = 2004 | singles = "[[Cut the Stars in the Night]]" (Released: 1 March 2002) }} ***Zvezda Irad*** (Russian and Iradi, "Star of Irad") is an extended play by the Iradi electronic duo [[tüntolk]], released in 2002. It contains "[[Cut the Stars in the Night]]", the duo's best-known song outside Irad, and marks their move from the cassette underground of [[Nurzhan]] to the club circuit of [[wp:Almaty]] and [[wp:Tashkent]].[1] ## Background and recording After *[[Jolchu (Album)|Jolchu]]* (1999) tüntolk began playing club nights in Nurzhan and then in Almaty, where the promoter and engineer Yerlan Abenov offered them time in his small studio, Dala Sound. The EP was begun in the Nurzhan boiler room on the duo's four-track recorder and finished in Almaty, where Askar Daniyarov used a borrowed sampler for the first time. Its title mixes Russian (*zvezda*, "star") and Iradi, a joke on the bilingual signs of Nurzhan; the star is Polaris, the star of the Iradi flag.[1][2] ## Music The EP is faster and harder than *Jolchu*, built for dancing. "Jyldyzdardy Kes" opens with uncredited archive recordings of a herder's throat singing over a slow pulse before a drum drop brings in the full beat. "Jorgo" is built on the four-beat rhythm of an ambling horse. "Tündük", the longest track, returns to the slow drones of the first album. The closing remix, made for Almaty clubs, became the version most DJs played.[2] ## Release and reception "Jyldyzdardy Kes" came out first, on 1 March 2002, as a CD-R single handed to DJs at the duo's Almaty club nights. The duo released the EP on CD-R in Nurzhan on 13 April 2002, at a club night in the city, and Dala Sound pressed a small run of compact discs in Almaty later that year. Copies circulated among DJs in Moscow and Berlin, and "Jyldyzdardy Kes" was used in nightclub scenes in the films *[[wp:Party Monster (2003 film)|Party Monster]]* (2003) and *[[wp:Head-On (film)|Head-On]]* (2004). Folklorists criticized the uncredited use of archive throat singing; editions since 2015 credit the [[State Archives of Irad]].[1][3] ## Track listing All music by Askar Daniyarov and Mira Temirova; all lyrics by Temirova. | No. | Title | English translation | Length | |---:|---|---|---:| | 1. | "[[Cut the Stars in the Night|Jyldyzdardy Kes]]" | "Cut the Stars" | 6:12 | | 2. | "Zvezda Irad" | "Star of Irad" (Russian and Iradi) | 4:48 | | 3. | "Jorgo" | "Ambler" | 5:20 | | 4. | "Tündük" | "Crown Ring" | 7:01 | | 5. | "Jyldyzdardy Kes (Almaty Night Mix)" | | 8:30 | | | | **Total length:** | **31:51** | ## Personnel - Mira Temirova – vocals, lyrics - Askar Daniyarov – synthesizers, sampler, drum machine, production - Yerlan Abenov – mixing (1, 5) ## References
  1. ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 59–77.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
  3. ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2022). 'Nocturnal Steppe: Electronic Subcultures in the ISEZ.' Vol. 14, pp. 88–104.
#### 502. Kara Suu (Album) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* {{Infobox album | name = Kara Suu | image = Kara_Suu_cover.jpg | type = studio | artist = [[tüntolk]] | released = November 2004 | recorded = 2003–2004 | studio = Dala Sound, [[wp:Almaty]]; boiler house No. 14, [[Nurzhan]] | genre = [[Mor-Wave]]; [[wp:Dark wave|darkwave]]; [[wp:Industrial music|industrial]] | length = 47:22 | language = Iradi; Russian | label = Dala Sound | producer = Askar Daniyarov; Yerlan Abenov | year = 2004 | prev = *[[Zvezda Irad (EP)|Zvezda Irad]]* (EP) | prev_year = 2002 | next = *[[White Stallion in Fog]]* | next_year = 2017 }} ***Kara Suu*** (Iradi: "Black Water") is the second studio album by the Iradi electronic duo [[tüntolk]], released in 2004. Darker and more industrial than their earlier records, it was their last release before they split up during the [[Second Iradi Civil War]] in 2007.[1] ## Background The album was written during the duo's club tours of [[wp:Almaty]] and [[wp:Tashkent]] in 2003, while much of [[Nurzhan]]'s heavy industry stood idle. Its title refers to the oily black water of the drainage canals behind the city's refineries, and several songs, among them "Temir Jol" and "Kotelnaya", describe the abandoned railway yards and boiler rooms where the scene had begun. "Kara Jel" takes its title from the Nurzhan group Kara Jel, one of the bands that had grown up around the duo.[1][2] ## Reception {{Album ratings | Talas Music Chronicle = 4/5 | Central Asian Music Review = 3.5/5 }} The album sold modestly and was received more coolly than *Jolchu*; some listeners in the scene found it cold after the warmth of the first record. It has been reappraised since the duo's reunion in 2014, and the *Talas Music Chronicle* has called it "the sound of Nurzhan holding its breath before the war".[1] ## Track listing All music by Askar Daniyarov and Mira Temirova; all lyrics by Temirova. | No. | Title | English translation | Length | |---:|---|---|---:| | 1. | "Kara Suu" | "Black Water" | 6:44 | | 2. | "Kökjal Kaitty" | "Grey Mane Has Returned" | 5:02 | | 3. | "Temir Jol" | "Railway" | 4:37 | | 4. | "Kotelnaya" | "Boiler Room" (Russian) | 5:55 | | 5. | "Muz" | "Ice" | 3:48 | | 6. | "Ak Kush" | "White Bird" | 4:21 | | 7. | "Kara Jel" | "Black Wind" | 5:16 | | 8. | "Ene" | "Mother" | 4:09 | | 9. | "Tañ Atkancha" | "Until Dawn" | 7:30 | | | | **Total length:** | **47:22** | ## Personnel - Mira Temirova – vocals, lyrics - Askar Daniyarov – synthesizers, sampler, drum machine, bass guitar, production - Yerlan Abenov – co-production, mixing ## References
  1. ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 78–96.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
#### 503. White Stallion in Fog *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* {{Infobox album | name = White Stallion in Fog | image = White_Stallion_in_Fog_cover.jpg | type = studio | artist = [[tüntolk]] | released = 21 March 2017 | recorded = 2015–2016 | studio = Sound stage 2, [[Talasfilm Studios]], [[Talas]] | genre = [[Mor-Wave]]; [[wp:Synth-pop|synth-pop]]; [[wp:Noise music|noise]] | length = 51:55 | language = Iradi | label = Tündük Records; [[Köch Audio]] (from 2025) | producer = Askar Daniyarov | year = 2017 | prev = *[[Kara Suu (Album)|Kara Suu]]* | prev_year = 2004 | next = *[[Umay (Album)|Umay]]* | next_year = 2022 | singles = "Tumandagy Ak At" (Released: January 2017); "[[My Home My Heart My Soul]]" (Released: June 2017) }} ***White Stallion in Fog*** (Iradi: *Tumandagy Ak At*) is the third studio album by the Iradi electronic duo [[tüntolk]], released in 2017. Their first album after re-forming in 2014, it was promoted on the youth channel of [[IradOne]] and brought the duo a national television audience and listeners abroad. Its song "[[My Home My Heart My Soul]]" became an anthem of the [[2023 Student Protests in Talas]].[1][2] ## Background and recording Mira Temirova returned from [[wp:Almaty]] in 2014, and the duo re-formed in [[Talas]], where Askar Daniyarov had worked since 2008 as a sound engineer at [[Talasfilm Studios]]. They recorded the album on one of the studio's sound stages at night, with Daniyarov's Soviet synthesizers alongside software instruments for the first time. The title image, a white horse in fog, comes from the Iradi saying that a white stallion seen in fog announces a return home.[1] ## Release and promotion The album was released in March 2017, before Nooruz, by the Talas label Tündük Records, on streaming services and in a small vinyl pressing. IradOne, under its new chairman [[Alikhan Toktarov]], commissioned videos showing the duo in disused railway yards and beneath high-voltage transmission lines in the Moiynkum steppe, and played them heavily on its youth channel. Streaming brought the album a following in Eastern Europe and North America.[2] ## Reception and legacy {{Album ratings | Talas Music Chronicle = 4.5/5 | Central Asian Cultural Studies Review = 4/5 | Tape Hiss Quarterly = 4/5 }} Critics welcomed the album as a return that kept the duo's sound while reaching a wider audience; "My Home My Heart My Soul", in which Temirova screams a plain patriotic text over a continuous hum, was singled out as the strangest song in their catalogue. During the student protests of October 2023 marchers chanted its refrain, and IradOne afterwards removed several of the album's videos from rotation, according to the *[[Talas Herald]]*. The duo said only that their songs "belong to whoever sings them".[2][3] ## Track listing All music by Askar Daniyarov and Mira Temirova; all lyrics by Temirova. | No. | Title | English translation | Length | |---:|---|---|---:| | 1. | "Tumandagy Ak At" | "White Stallion in Fog" | 5:41 | | 2. | "[[My Home My Heart My Soul|Üyüm, Jürögüm, Janım]]" | "My Home My Heart My Soul" | 4:03 | | 3. | "Temir Torlor" | "Iron Nets" | 5:28 | | 4. | "Moiynkum" | | 6:12 | | 5. | "Kaitysh" | "Return" | 4:47 | | 6. | "Altyn Kazyk" | "The Golden Stake" (Polaris) | 5:05 | | 7. | "Jaña Talas" | "New Talas" | 3:56 | | 8. | "Uktaba" | "Don't Sleep" | 4:34 | | 9. | "Kara Jash" | "Black Tears" | 5:19 | | 10. | "Ak Jol" | "White Road" | 6:50 | | | | **Total length:** | **51:55** | ## Personnel - Mira Temirova – vocals, lyrics - Askar Daniyarov – synthesizers, programming, bass guitar, production, engineering - Talasfilm Studios orchestra strings – (6, 10) ## References
  1. ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 120–141.
  2. ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2022). 'Nocturnal Steppe: Electronic Subcultures in the ISEZ.' Vol. 14, pp. 88–104.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (16 November 2023). 'IradOne drops tüntolk videos after protests.' Talas.
#### 504. Umay (Album) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* {{Hatnote|This article is about the 2022 album by tüntolk. For the goddess, see Umay. For the 2018 single by Karakush, see [[Karakush (Group)]].}} {{Infobox album | name = Umay | image = Umay_cover.jpg | type = studio | artist = [[tüntolk]] | released = 7 October 2022 | recorded = 2021–2022 | studio = Sound stage 2, [[Talasfilm Studios]], [[Talas]] | genre = [[Mor-Wave]]; [[Mor-Folk]]; [[wp:Ambient music|ambient]] | length = 43:20 | language = Iradi | label = Tündük Records; [[Köch Audio]] (from 2025) | producer = Askar Daniyarov | year = 2022 | prev = *[[White Stallion in Fog]]* | prev_year = 2017 }} ***Umay*** is the fourth studio album by the Iradi electronic duo [[tüntolk]], released in 2022. Named after the steppe goddess of birth and children, it is the quietest of their records and the closest to [[Mor-Folk]], with the Talas ensemble [[Eski Ün]] playing [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]] and *[[Choor (Flute)|choor]]* on several tracks.[1] ## Background Mira Temirova wrote most of the lyrics after the birth of her daughter in 2020, adapting lullabies and the blessings sung over a newborn's cradle (*beshik*) as well as invocations of Umay recorded by folklorists. Askar Daniyarov kept the drum machine to a few tracks and built the rest on slow synthesizer pads and the acoustic instruments of Eski Ün.[1] ## Reception The album was well received in Irad and won the album prize of the [[Altyn-Zhylky Awards]] in 2023. Some fans who had come to the duo through the harder sound of "[[Cut the Stars in the Night]]" found it too gentle, while others heard it as a reply to the commercial [[Mor-Pop]] of the same years, which had borrowed Umay as a name and an image.[1] ## Track listing All music by Askar Daniyarov and Mira Temirova; all lyrics by Temirova, adapted from traditional texts on 2, 6 and 7. | No. | Title | English translation | Length | |---:|---|---|---:| | 1. | "Umay Ene" | "Mother Umay" | 6:02 | | 2. | "Beshik" | "Cradle" | 4:15 | | 3. | "Kök Asman" | "Blue Sky" | 5:33 | | 4. | "Burkut" | "Golden Eagle" | 4:48 | | 5. | "Kızyl Jip" | "Red Thread" | 5:10 | | 6. | "Ak Süt" | "White Milk" | 3:57 | | 7. | "Jer Ene" | "Mother Earth" | 6:21 | | 8. | "Tün Ötöt" | "The Night Passes" | 7:14 | | | | **Total length:** | **43:20** | ## Personnel - Mira Temirova – vocals, lyrics - Askar Daniyarov – synthesizers, programming, production - [[Eski Ün]] – komuz, choor, frame drums, backing vocals (2, 4, 6, 7) ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2023). 'Lullabies for the Night Wave: tüntolk's Umay.' Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 60–71.
#### 505. Ak Börü (EP) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* {{Infobox album | name = Ak Börü | image = Ak_Boru_cover.jpg | type = ep | artist = [[Karakush (Group)|Karakush]] | released = 19 February 2021 | recorded = 2020 | studio = Kök Ay Media studio, [[Talas]] | genre = [[Mor-Pop]]; [[wp:K-pop|K-pop]]; [[wp:Electropop|electropop]] | length = 20:12 | language = Iradi | label = Kök Ay Media | producer = Erlan "Kök" Sydykov; Dana Pak | singles = "Ak Börü" (Released: 19 February 2021) }} ***Ak Börü*** (Iradi: "White Wolf") is the first extended play by the Iradi [[Mor-Pop]] girl group [[Karakush (Group)|Karakush]], released in February 2021. Its title track became a viral hit abroad and is the most-streamed Iradi recording outside the country.[1] ## Background and production Kök Ay Media, the agency that formed Karakush in 2018, planned the EP as the group's first major release after three years of singles. Its in-house producer Erlan Sydykov built the title track on a slowed, detuned [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]] riff recorded by a session player from [[Kyzyl-Adyr]], set over a trap beat in the style of Korean idol music. The group's lead dancer Dana Pak, from the [[Koryo-saram in Irad|Koryo-saram]] community of [[Nurzhan]], co-produced two tracks and choreographed the "white wolf" dance whose chorus move spread on short-video platforms. The EP also includes a re-recording of the group's 2018 debut single "Umay".[1] ## Release and reception The EP and the title track's video, filmed on a frozen lake in the Talas valley with the members in white wolf-fur capes and horned headdresses, were released on 19 February 2021. The dance challenge carried the song to [[wp:Koryo-saram]] listeners in [[wp:Kazakhstan]] and [[wp:Uzbekistan]] and to Korean-American listeners. A Seoul label released a Korean-language version of "Ak Börü" in late 2021, which briefly entered the lower reaches of South Korean digital charts during the group's promotions there in early 2022. The headdresses, modeled on [[Morkhan (Mythology)|Morkhan]], drew objections from clergy of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]].[1][2] ## Track listing | No. | Title | English translation | Length | |---:|---|---|---:| | 1. | "Ak Börü" | "White Wolf" | 3:24 | | 2. | "Ai Jaryk" | "Moonlight" | 3:12 | | 3. | "Kar Kyz" | "Snow Girl" | 3:38 | | 4. | "Umay" (2021 version) | | 3:29 | | 5. | "Kök Tülkü" | "Blue Fox" | 3:05 | | 6. | "Ak Börü" (instrumental) | | 3:24 | | | | **Total length:** | **20:12** | The Korean edition (December 2021) adds "Ak Börü" (Korean version) as track 7. ## Personnel Karakush: Aruuke Temir kyzy, Dana Pak, Saltanat Abdrakhmanova, Meerim Sultan kyzy, Kamila Nurlanova – vocals; Pak – co-production (1, 3) ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2024). 'Idols of the Night Wave: K-Pop, Mor-Pop and Youth Fandom in Talas.' Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 9–31.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2022). 'Karakush return from Seoul: what "Ak Börü" did and didn't do.' Talas.
#### 506. Zhylky Love (Album) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* {{Infobox album | name = Zhylky Love | image = Zhylky_Love_cover.jpg | type = studio | artist = [[Altyn Muuz (Group)|Altyn Muuz]] | released = 14 May 2022 | recorded = 2020–2022 | studio = [[Jyldyz Jolu]] studios, [[Talas]] | genre = [[Mor-Pop]]; [[wp:Bubblegum pop|bubblegum pop]] | length = 34:02 | language = Iradi; English | label = Star Road Music | producer = Marat Joldoshev | singles = "Kymyz Kymyz" (Released: 2020); "Morkhan Baby" (Released: 2021); "Zhylky Love" (Released: April 2022) }} ***Zhylky Love*** (Iradi *zhylky*, "horse") is the only studio album by the Iradi [[Mor-Pop]] boy group [[Altyn Muuz (Group)|Altyn Muuz]], released in 2022. It collects the group's three singles, among them the wedding favorite "Kymyz Kymyz", and is widely regarded in Irad as the high point of the genre's novelty strain.[1] ## Background Altyn Muuz were formed in 2019 from the four finalists of *Jyldyz Jolu* ("Star Road"), a talent show on [[IradOne]]'s youth channel, whose producers released their records through the show's label, Star Road Music. The album was assembled around the singles "Kymyz Kymyz" (2020), "Morkhan Baby" (2021) and "Zhylky Love" (2022), with new songs about horses, food and the national game of [[Ulak Tartysh (Sport)|ulak]], in rhyming lyrics that mix Iradi and English.[1] ## Reception {{Album ratings | Talas Herald = 1.5/5 | Central Asian Music Review = 2/5 }} Critics treated the album as a joke. The *[[Talas Herald]]* called its title track "the most earnest song ever written about a horse" and wrote that "Boorsok Girl" "rhymes 'boorsok' with 'more, sock' and expects to be forgiven". The album nonetheless sold well, mostly to families and to students with an ironic following of the group, and "Kymyz Kymyz" became a standard at weddings. "Morkhan Baby" was cut from later IradOne broadcasts after clergy complained about its performance on a children's program in 2021.[2][1] ## Track listing All songs written by Marat Joldoshev and Altyn Muuz. | No. | Title | Length | |---:|---|---:| | 1. | "Kymyz Kymyz" | 2:58 | | 2. | "Morkhan Baby" | 3:11 | | 3. | "Zhylky Love" | 3:46 | | 4. | "Trot Trot (Jorgo Dance)" | 3:02 | | 5. | "Altyn Muuz" | 2:49 | | 6. | "Boorsok Girl" | 3:15 | | 7. | "Saddle Up My Heart" | 3:33 | | 8. | "Ulak Party" | 2:57 | | 9. | "Ene, I Love You" | 4:10 | | 10. | "Kymyz Kymyz" (Wedding Remix) | 4:21 | | | **Total length:** | **34:02** | ## Personnel - Nurbek Asanov, Ermek Toktosun uulu, Aibek Ismailov, Timur Bakyt uulu – vocals - Marat Joldoshev – production, programming - Kymbat Usenova – komuz (1, 4, 8) ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2024). 'Idols of the Night Wave: K-Pop, Mor-Pop and Youth Fandom in Talas.' Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 9–31.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2022). 'Review: Altyn Muuz, "Zhylky Love".' Talas.
#### 507. Kara Kün (Album) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* {{Infobox album | name = Kara Kün | image = Kara_Kun_cover.jpg | type = studio | artist = [[Eski Ün]] | released = 30 April 2021 | recorded = 2020 | studio = A teahouse in the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]], [[Talas]] | genre = [[Mor-Folk]]; [[wp:Illbient|illbient]] | length = 44:16 | language = Iradi; English (track 8) | label = Tündük Records; [[Köch Audio]] (from 2025) | producer = Ruslan Ten | singles = "[[Dream of Living]]" (Released: 2021) }} ***Kara Kün*** (Iradi: "Black Day") is the first album by the [[Talas]] [[Mor-Folk]] ensemble [[Eski Ün]], released in 2021. It contains "Jashoo Tüshü" and its English-language version "[[Dream of Living]]", which found an audience abroad after its use in the American series *True Detective* in 2024.[1] ## Recording The album was recorded over a winter of nights in a teahouse in the Old Talas Citadel Quarter where the ensemble played, with the room's noise left in. Its producer, Ruslan Ten, a former member of the Nurzhan [[Mor-Wave]] group Umay-9, set the ensemble's komuz, *choor*, frame drums and voices over dark synthesizer drones. The low scratching noise that runs beneath "Jashoo Tüshü", which the ensemble has never explained, is also heard on "Keñsuu", named after the extinct dialect of the 1928 cylinder recordings of *[[Sary Kün, Ejen Kyz]]*.[1][2] ## Release and reception The album was released in April 2021 on Tündük Records and sold mainly at the ensemble's teahouse concerts in Talas and [[Nurzhan]]. Its title, a phrase associated with [[Morkhan (Mythology)|Morkhan]], drew objections from some clergy. Songs from it were sung at candlelit vigils during the [[2023 Student Protests in Talas]]. After "Dream of Living" was used in *True Detective: Night Country* in 2024, streams of the whole album rose sharply abroad, and Tündük Records reissued it on vinyl that year. Since the label closed in 2025 the album has been distributed by [[Köch Audio]].[1][3] ## Track listing All music arranged by Eski Ün from Syro-Iradi chant and traditional melodies; lyrics by Gulmira Asanova. | No. | Title | English translation | Length | |---:|---|---|---:| | 1. | "Jashoo Tüshü" | "Dream of Living" | 5:46 | | 2. | "Kara Kün" | "Black Day" | 6:30 | | 3. | "Chaykhana" | "Teahouse" | 4:12 | | 4. | "Jalgyz Jol" | "Lonely Road" | 5:05 | | 5. | "Ezan, Koñguroo" | "Call and Bell" | 4:44 | | 6. | "Keñsuu" | | 6:58 | | 7. | "Kaityp Kelebiz" | "We Will Return" | 5:21 | | 8. | "[[Dream of Living]]" | (English version, bonus track) | 5:40 | | | | **Total length:** | **44:16** | ## Personnel - Gulmira Asanova – vocals, lyrics - Aibek Choroev – komuz - Nurlan Abdykadyrov – choor - Saltanat Ismailova – frame drums, backing vocals - Ruslan Ten – synthesizers, production ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2024). 'Far from the Teahouse: Mor-Folk Online.' Vol. 16, pp. 21–40.
  2. ^ Journal of Central Asian Popular Music (2023). 'Noise, Chant and the Iradi Night: Listening to "Dream of Living".' Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 55–73.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (24 February 2024). 'An American detective series makes a Talas teahouse band famous.' Talas.
#### 508. Talas Sunrise *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* {{Infobox album | name = Talas Sunrise | image = Talas_Sunrise_cover.jpg | type = studio | artist = [[Kök Bel (Band)|Kök Bel]] | released = June 1995 | recorded = Winter 1994–1995 | studio = [[IradOne]] radio studio 3, [[Talas]] | genre = [[Iradi Country-Folk|Iradi country-folk]] | length = 39:22 | language = Iradi; English | label = Ak Jol Records | producer = Joldoshbek Kasymbekov | year = 1995 | singles = "Talas Sunrise" (Released: 1995) }} ***Talas Sunrise*** is the debut album by the Talas [[Iradi Country-Folk|country-folk]] band [[Kök Bel (Band)|Kök Bel]], released on cassette in 1995. It is generally counted as the first commercial Iradi country-folk album, and its versions of songs from the American compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]* set the pattern for the genre's bilingual covers.[1] ## Background and recording Kök Bel formed in 1993 and played cafés near [[Talas Air Base]] for Iradi and American audiences. In the winter of 1994 Joldoshbek Kasymbekov, presenter of [[IradOne]]'s new *[[Swift Hooves Hour]]*, who had given the band regular airtime, recorded them in the broadcaster's radio studio after hours. Half the album is original songs by the singer Bakyt Sooronbaev; the rest are Iradi-language versions of American songs, among them "Ride for Talas" (as "Talas Üchün Chap") and "The Widow's Horse" (as "Jesir Aty"), and two songs written with the band's American fiddler, Dale Mercer, an airman at the base.[1] ## Music The band combined acoustic guitar, banjo and fiddle with the bowed *[[Kyl-kyak|kyl-kyak]]* and the [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]], and Sooronbaev sang in the style of the horseback song (*[[Irda (Vocal Tradition)|ırda]]*). "Ak Boz At" is a traditional song about a grey horse arranged for the full band.[1][2] ## Release and legacy Ak Jol Records, a Talas cassette dealer, released the album in June 1995, and copies sold in the city's bazaars alongside pirated copies of *Swift Hooves*. The title track was played often on IradOne during the last years of [[Iradimania]]. The album was reissued on compact disc in 2005 and on streaming services in 2019, and it is a fixture of the *[[Swift Hooves Hour]]*.[2] ## Track listing | No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | |---:|---|---|---:| | 1. | "Talas Sunrise" | Bakyt Sooronbaev | 3:42 | | 2. | "Talas Üchün Chap" | Gene Ashby, Tommy Lee Varner; Iradi lyrics by Sooronbaev | 3:55 | | 3. | "Jorgo Jolu" | Sooronbaev, Talant Asanov | 3:18 | | 4. | "Kok-Bel Ashuusu" | Sooronbaev | 4:26 | | 5. | "Jesir Aty" | Hal Westover; Iradi lyrics by Sooronbaev | 5:12 | | 6. | "Kymyz in the Morning" | Dale Mercer, Sooronbaev | 2:51 | | 7. | "Base Café Blues" | Mercer | 3:37 | | 8. | "Ak Boz At" | Traditional; arranged by Kök Bel | 4:04 | | 9. | "Talaadagy Jyldyz" | Calvin Pruett; Iradi lyrics by Asanov | 3:29 | | 10. | "Ene Jer" | Sooronbaev | 4:48 | | | | **Total length:** | **39:22** | ## Personnel - Bakyt Sooronbaev – vocals, acoustic guitar - Talant Asanov – banjo, backing vocals - Erkin Mamyrov – kyl-kyak, komuz - Dale Mercer – fiddle, vocals (6, 7) - Joldoshbek Kasymbekov – production, engineering ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 92–118.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2019). 'Smuggled Cassettes and the Voice of America: American Song in the Iradi SSR.' Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 15–38.
#### 509. Kök Bel (Band) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* {{Infobox musical artist | name = Kök Bel | image = Talas_Sunrise_cover.jpg | caption = Kök Bel on the cover of *Talas Sunrise* (1995) | background = group_or_band | origin = [[Talas]], Irad | genre = [[Iradi Country-Folk|Iradi country-folk]] | years_active = 1993–2007; 2014–present | labels = Ak Jol Records | members = Bakyt Sooronbaev; Talant Asanov; Erkin Mamyrov | past_members = Dale Mercer }} **Kök Bel** (Iradi, "Blue Pass", after the [[Kok-Bel Pass]]) is an [[Iradi Country-Folk|Iradi country-folk]] band from [[Talas]], formed in 1993. Its debut album, *[[Talas Sunrise]]* (1995), is generally counted as the first commercial country-folk album.[1] ## History The band was formed in 1993 by the singer and guitarist Bakyt Sooronbaev, the banjo player Talant Asanov and the *kyl-kyak* player Erkin Mamyrov, schoolfriends who had learned American songs about Irad from copied cassettes in the 1980s. They played the cafés that opened near [[Talas Air Base]] after 1992, where the American airman Dale Mercer, a fiddler from Kentucky, began sitting in with them; he played with the band until his posting ended in 1996. Regular airtime on [[IradOne]] during the years of [[Iradimania]] led to *Talas Sunrise* in 1995, and the band released two more cassettes, *Ak Jol* (1998) and *Zhylky Jyly* (2002). It stopped performing during the [[Second Iradi Civil War]] and re-formed in 2014 for the twentieth-anniversary concert of the *[[Swift Hooves Hour]]*.[1][2] ## Discography - *[[Talas Sunrise]]* (1995) - *Ak Jol* (1998) - *Zhylky Jyly* ("Year of the Horse", 2002) ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 92–118.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2014). 'Kök Bel back on stage for the Swift Hooves Hour.' Talas.
#### 551. Twelve Kilometres *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Language & Literature* {{Infobox book | name = Twelve Kilometres | image = Twelve_Kilometres_cover.jpg | caption = Cover of the English edition (2016) | title_orig = *On Eki Chakyrym* | author = [[Aikokul Tursunbek kyzy]] | translator = Aidana Mukash kyzy | country = Irad | language = Iradi (English translation) | genre = Short stories | set_in = Irad, 2006–2011 | publisher = [[Arsha Books]], Talas | pub_date = 2015 | english_pub_date = 2016 | pages = 97 (English edition) | deposit = [[State Archives of Irad]], LD 2016/1174 | website = [TSU Digital Archive](https://talasuniversity.org/library/archive/twelve-kilometres/) }} ***Twelve Kilometres*** (Iradi: ***On Eki Chakyrym***) is a collection of twelve short stories and a coda by [[Aikokul Tursunbek kyzy]], published in Iradi by [[Arsha Books]] in [[Talas]] in 2015 and in English, translated by Aidana Mukash kyzy, in 2016. The stories follow ordinary people through the years between the [[Bill of Sale (2007)|Bill of Sale]] and the marking of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], from the winter of 2006 to the spring of 2009. Its title refers to the restricted zone twelve kilometres deep on each side of the line under the Bishkek ceasefire of September 2007.[1] ## Background The author was twenty-two in the autumn of 2007 and has said she read the full text of the ceasefire in the *[[Talas Herald]]*, folded small, on a bus. Her mother came from the Kara-Unkur valley above [[Arslanbob]], near the crossing at [[Bazar-Korgon]]. In her note on the title she writes that the distance that mattered was not twelve kilometres but "the four hundred metres of empty road between the two posts", and that she tried "to keep to what is known about those years and to invent only the people". Earlier versions of "Signatures" and "Bazaar Chubar" were read at [[Mor-Wave]] evenings in Talas in 2013 and 2014. The stories took eight years to write, and the book is dedicated to the author's mother (1954–2014), who appears in the coda.[1] ## Contents 1. "Contingency Papers" (December 2006 – February 2007, Talas): a translator back from Chicago at the new Ministry of Foreign Affairs works on the annexes of the Bill of Sale. 2. "Diesel" (January 2007, the Chu valley): herders block the Chu road east of [[Nurzhan]] over the price of diesel. 3. "Kobozev Is Listening" (25 February 2007, Nurzhan): an old Russian woman, her granddaughter and the night of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]'s proclamation. 4. "Signatures" (March 2007, Talas): an actress who played Bermet in the 1967 staging of *Akyrky Ashuu* is asked to sign the writers' letter headed by [[Kemel Ishakov]]. 5. "Mother Leaven" (April 2007, the Chatkal valley): a letter from the archeparchy and the holy leaven of the mountain parishes. 6. "The Aprons" (April 2007 – November 2008, [[Semiz]]): the evacuation of the agribusiness families from [[Talas Air Base]], seen by a boy who stays. 7. "Bread Cards" (May 2007, Talas): a student of dialects in the besieged city and the yellow ration cards of the parish of St. Tomas. 8. "The Armory" (4 June 2007, Talas): the key to a municipal armory on the day the Popular Front entered the city. 9. "Bazaar Chubar" (August – October 2007, Bazar-Korgon): a walnut buyer's daughter is married into a hill family across the new line. 10. "One to One Hundred Thousand" (September 2007, Bishkek): the Soviet maps of 1983 used to draw the line. 11. "Switchyard" (winter 2008–09, the [[Toktogul Hydroelectric Complex|Toktogul dam]]): an El-Choro post above the dam's switchyard. 12. "Pillar" (March 2009, the Kenkol valley): an interpreter with the demarcation teams and pillar 1,147. - Coda: "Not for Sale" (October 2011, Bazar-Korgon): the author's mother crosses the line to her old valley. The English edition adds a glossary, a translator's note and notes on the author and translator.[1] ## Publication and reception The book was registered with the Department of Public Information and carries no ISBN, as Irad has no national ISBN agency. It was one of the few books from the ISEZ to deal directly with the civil war of 2007, a subject writers interviewed by the *Talas Herald* say they otherwise avoid. Its publisher, Arsha Books, had its registration suspended in 2024 after it issued an anthology of poems about the [[2023 Student Protests in Talas]] (see [[Iradi literature]]). The author published a revised and expanded version of "Bazaar Chubar" in 2019. In October 2026 both the book and the revised story were made available online in the Digital Archive of the [[Talas State University]] Scientific Library.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Tursunbek kyzy, Aikokul (2016). Twelve Kilometres. Translated by Aidana Mukash kyzy. Talas: Arsha Books.
  2. ^ Talas State University Scientific Library (2026). "Twelve Kilometres." Digital Archive, TSU-DA-2026-0146.
{{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 561. Chöl Shamaly *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Chöl Shamaly**" ("Desert Wind") is a song by the Iradi duo [[tüntolk]], the opening track of their debut album *[[Jolchu (Album)|Jolchu]]* (1999), generally treated as the founding record of [[Mor-Wave]].[1] ## Music The song opens as a slow lament over a sparse drum-machine pattern and builds without a break. Askar Daniyarov's [[wp:Polivoks]] bass line enters at the first refrain, "like a train at night" in a phrase often repeated by fans, and the drum machine doubles its pattern. Mira Temirova's voice moves from the low, heavily reverberated delivery of the pastoral lament (*koshok*) to declaiming and finally shouting. At the peak the whole track cuts out, leaving only the hum of the pumps in the [[Nurzhan]] boiler room where the album was recorded.[1][2] ## Themes Temirova took the lines from nineteenth-century pastoral verse in which a herder lost on the steppe asks the wind to tell his mother that he is alive, and turned them around: her wayfarer stops looking for the road, follows the wind into the desert and asks that his mother not be told. Critics have read the song as the album's statement of purpose, a traditional form carried somewhere its makers' grandparents would not have taken it.[1] ## Lyrics | Iradi | English | |---|---| | *Verse* | | | Kum ichinde jol jok, iz jok, | In the sand there is no road, no track, | | Kün batty, kayra chykpayt. | The sun has set and will not rise again. | | Atym öldü, suuum tögüldü, | My horse has died, my water spilled, | | Shamal chakyrat: kel, kel, kel. | The wind is calling: come, come, come. | | *Pre-refrain* | | | Jürögüm tüngö tartylat, | My heart is pulled toward the night, | | Jürögüm chölgö tartylat. | My heart is pulled toward the desert. | | *Refrain* | | | Chöl shamaly, al meni! | Desert wind, take me! | | Chöl shamaly, al meni! | Desert wind, take me! | | Apama aytpa, aytpa, | Don't tell my mother, don't tell her, | | Men kettim, kettim, kettim. | I am gone, gone, gone. | | *Verse* | | | Jyldyzdar ötüp baratat, | The stars are passing over, | | Irad jyldyzy ündöböyt. | The star of Irad says nothing. | | Men emi jolgo karabaym, | I no longer look for the road, | | Men emi shamalga baramyn. | I am going to the wind now. | | *Pre-refrain* | | | Jürögüm tüngö tartylat, | My heart is pulled toward the night, | | Jürögüm chölgö tartylat. | My heart is pulled toward the desert. | | *Refrain* | | | Chöl shamaly, al meni! | Desert wind, take me! | | Chöl shamaly, al meni! | Desert wind, take me! | | Apama aytpa, aytpa, | Don't tell my mother, don't tell her, | | Men kettim, kettim, kettim. | I am gone, gone, gone. | | *Bridge* | | | Kel, kel, kel, kel, | Come, come, come, come, | | Tez, tez, tez, tez, | Faster, faster, faster, faster, | | Kel, kel, kel, kel, | Come, come, come, come, | | Tez, tez, tez, tez. | Faster, faster, faster, faster. | | *Final refrain* | | | Chöl shamaly, al meni! | Desert wind, take me! | | Chöl shamaly, al meni! | Desert wind, take me! | | Apama aytpa, aytpa, | Don't tell my mother, don't tell her, | | Men kettim, kettim, kettim. | I am gone, gone, gone. | ## References
  1. ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 34–41.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
#### 562. Kazan (Song) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Kazan**" ("The Cauldron") is a song by the Iradi duo [[tüntolk]], the second track of their debut album *[[Jolchu (Album)|Jolchu]]* (1999). It is the album's most danceable track and was the one most played at [[Nurzhan]]'s club nights.[1] ## Music The song begins with a long instrumental opening on a stuttering drum-machine kick, joined by a sequenced [[wp:Polivoks]] bass line jumping octaves, cold synthesizer stabs and the pumps of the boiler room, sampled and looped into the rhythm. Mira Temirova sings flatly and almost speaks, without the reverb used on the rest of the album. Critics have heard in it the first sign of the harder dance sound of the EP *[[Zvezda Irad (EP)|Zvezda Irad]]* (2002).[1][2] ## Themes The title plays on the two meanings of *kazan*: the iron cooking cauldron of the yurt and the district-heating boiler that Askar Daniyarov stoked at night. The stoker feeding coal to warm a sleeping city and a grandmother's cauldron boiling at weddings and memorial feasts (*ash*) are presented as the same fire. A spoken bridge reduces the song to four words: "Coal. Fire. Water. Steam."[1] ## Lyrics | Iradi | English | |---|---| | *Verse* | | | Tün ortosu, shaar uktayt, | Midnight, the city sleeps, | | Men kömür salam otko. | I throw coal on the fire. | | Kazan kaynayt, kazan kaynayt, | The boiler boils, the boiler boils, | | Shaardyn jürögü menmin. | I am the city's heart. | | *Chorus* | | | Kazan, kazan, kaynay ber, | Cauldron, cauldron, keep on boiling, | | Kazan, kazan, kaynay ber. | Cauldron, cauldron, keep on boiling. | | Chong enem et bıshırat, | My grandmother is cooking meat, | | Men shaardy jylytam. | I am warming the city. | | *Verse* | | | Chong enemdin kazany | My grandmother's cauldron | | Toydo da, ashta da kaynady. | Boiled at weddings and at memorial feasts. | | Bul kazan da kaynayt, | This cauldron boils as well, | | Bütün shaardy jylytat. | It warms the whole city. | | *Chorus* | | | Kazan, kazan, kaynay ber, | Cauldron, cauldron, keep on boiling, | | Kazan, kazan, kaynay ber. | Cauldron, cauldron, keep on boiling. | | Chong enem et bıshırat, | My grandmother is cooking meat, | | Men shaardy jylytam. | I am warming the city. | | *Bridge* | | | Kömür. | Coal. | | Ot. | Fire. | | Suu. | Water. | | Bug. | Steam. | | *Chorus* | | | Kazan, kazan, kaynay ber, | Cauldron, cauldron, keep on boiling, | | Kazan, kazan, kaynay ber. | Cauldron, cauldron, keep on boiling. | | Chong enem et bıshırat, | My grandmother is cooking meat, | | Men shaardy jylytam. | I am warming the city. | ## References
  1. ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 42–45.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
#### 563. Kökjal *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Kökjal**" ("Grey Mane") is a song by the Iradi duo [[tüntolk]], the fourth track of their debut album *[[Jolchu (Album)|Jolchu]]* (1999). *Kökjal*, "grey-maned", is the old epic epithet for the wolf.[1] ## Music With "[[Kazan (Song)|Kazan]]" it is one of the album's few tracks for the dance floor: a steady, muffled four-to-the-floor kick from the drum machine, under a low, gnarled acid line that Askar Daniyarov played on the [[wp:Polivoks]], its filter opening only slowly over the length of the track, with drones and tape hiss beneath. Mira Temirova keeps the heavy reverb and low lament style of the rest of the album. Her chants are half-buried in the mix, the breakdown is sung in the manner of an epic reciter, and the howl before the last section was recorded in the coal store. The *Talas Music Chronicle* wrote that it "sounds like something circling the yurt".[1] ## Themes The song follows a wolf pack's night hunt. Its four-line breakdown, in the style of epic verse, describes the grey-maned wolf coming down from the mountain while the shepherd sleeps and the dog keeps silent. Nurzhan club DJs played it late at night, and the closing chant of "Kan!" ("Blood!") became a crowd call at Mor-Wave nights.[1][2] ## Lyrics | Iradi | English | |---|---| | *Chant* | | | Kökjal! | Grey Mane! | | Kökjal! | Grey Mane! | | Tün bizdiki! | The night is ours! | | *Chant* | | | Ay tolgon! | The moon is full! | | Uluy ber! | Howl on! | | Kökjal! | Grey Mane! | | *Breakdown* | | | Kökjal kaskyr toodon tüshtü, | The grey-maned wolf came down from the mountain, | | Kara tündö izin jashyrdy. | In the black night it hid its tracks. | | Koychu uktayt, it ündöböyt, | The shepherd sleeps, the dog is silent, | | Kökjal kaskyr añga chykty. | The grey-maned wolf has gone out to hunt. | | *Build* | | | Uluy... uluy... uluy... | Howl... howl... howl... | | *Chant* | | | Kökjal! Kökjal! | Grey Mane! Grey Mane! | | Kan! Kan! Kan! | Blood! Blood! Blood! | ## References
  1. ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 46–48.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
#### 564. Jolchu (Song) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Jolchu**" ("Wayfarer") is a song by the Iradi duo [[tüntolk]], the title track and fifth track of their debut album *[[Jolchu (Album)|Jolchu]]* (1999). It is the album's only love song.[1] ## Music The song rests on a tom-heavy drum-machine pattern that hardly changes, a shimmering [[wp:Polivoks]] arpeggio and a single bass-guitar figure played by Askar Daniyarov. Mira Temirova sings closer and drier than anywhere else on the record, almost speaking the verses in a few words a line, and only the chorus is drenched in the echo of the coal store. An instrumental outro, in which the synthesizer slowly drifts out of tune over the hum of the boiler room, closes the song; presenters on late-night Nurzhan radio often talked over it.[1] ## Themes A woman speaks to a wayfarer who will saddle his horse at dawn and leave. Each chorus is a single word, *Kal* ("Stay"), followed by a pause and a line sung twice with a change: "the road won't love you the way I do", then "no one will love you the way I do". In the bridge she promises to wait. Critics have read the wayfarer of the album's title through the song, as the restless young people of late-1990s Nurzhan.[1][2] ## Lyrics | Iradi | English | |---|---| | *Verse* | | | Tañ atat. | Dawn is breaking. | | Atyñ dayar. | Your horse is ready. | | Bosogodo, | At the threshold, | | izderiñ. | your footprints. | | *Chorus* | | | Kal... | Stay... | | jol seni menchelik süyböyt. | the road won't love you the way I do. | | Kal... | Stay... | | eech kim seni menchelik süyböyt. | no one will love you the way I do. | | *Verse* | | | Ot öchpöyt. | The fire won't go out. | | Tütün, | The smoke, | | seni izdeyt. | it looks for you. | | Kaytyp kel. | Come back. | | *Chorus* | | | Kal... | Stay... | | jol seni menchelik süyböyt. | the road won't love you the way I do. | | Kal... | Stay... | | eech kim seni menchelik süyböyt. | no one will love you the way I do. | | *Bridge* | | | Jol uzun. | The road is long. | | Tün uzun. | The night is long. | | Men... | I... | | kütömün. | will wait. | | *Final chorus* | | | Kal... | Stay... | | jol seni menchelik süyböyt. | the road won't love you the way I do. | | Kal... | Stay... | | eech kim seni menchelik süyböyt. | no one will love you the way I do. | ## References
  1. ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 49–52.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
#### 565. Kara Burkut *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Kara Burkut**" ("Black Eagle") is a song by the Iradi duo [[tüntolk]], the sixth track of their debut album *[[Jolchu (Album)|Jolchu]]* (1999). It is the album's fastest and harshest track.[1] ## Music The track has no guitars and leaves much of its space empty. A distorted, gnarled [[wp:Polivoks]] bass line runs through Askar Daniyarov's homemade effects pedals over a dry, jerky drum-machine pattern of toms, with metallic clicks and squeals around it. Mira Temirova abandons the lament style of the rest of the album to yelp, growl and shriek.[1] ## Themes The song takes the hunting eagle (*berkut*) of the epics and turns the image around: the singer is not the eagle hunter but the prey, and calls the eagle down on herself, its talons in her shoulder and its wings across her eyes. Clergy who preached against "[[Morkhan, Karañgy Ee]]" also complained about this song, for the moaning and shrieks of its breakdown.[1][2] ## Lyrics | Iradi | English | |---|---| | *Verse* | | | Kara burkut asmanda, | Black eagle in the sky, | | Kara kölökö jerde. | Black shadow on the ground. | | Tülkü kachat, men kachpaym, | The fox runs, I don't run, | | Kel, kel, men ushul jerde! | Come, come, I am right here! | | *Chorus* | | | Kara burkut, chap! chap! | Black eagle, strike! strike! | | Tyrmagyñ iyinimde, | Your talons in my shoulder, | | Kara burkut, chap! chap! | Black eagle, strike! strike! | | Kanatyñ közümdö! | Your wings across my eyes! | | *Verse* | | | Men tülkü emesmin, | I am not the fox, | | Men koyon emesmin, | I am not the hare, | | Men seniñ oljoñmun, | I am your prey, | | Asmandan tüsh, tüsh, tüsh! | Come down from the sky, down, down, down! | | *Chorus* | | | Kara burkut, chap! chap! | Black eagle, strike! strike! | | Tyrmagyñ iyinimde, | Your talons in my shoulder, | | Kara burkut, chap! chap! | Black eagle, strike! strike! | | Kanatyñ közümdö! | Your wings across my eyes! | | *Breakdown* | | | Ay... ay... ay... | Ay... ay... ay... | | Tüsh! | Down! | | *Final chorus* | | | Kara burkut, chap! chap! | Black eagle, strike! strike! | | Tyrmagyñ iyinimde, | Your talons in my shoulder, | | Kara burkut, chap! chap! | Black eagle, strike! strike! | | Kanatyñ közümdö! | Your wings across my eyes! | ## References
  1. ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 53–55.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
#### 566. Ride for Talas *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Ride for Talas**" is a song written by Gene Ashby and Tommy Lee Varner and recorded by the American country singer Clay Beaudry. It opens the 1993 charity compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]* and was released as its first single in February 1993, reaching the top ten of the *[[wp:Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]* country singles chart.[1] ## Production The song is a new-traditionalist country record of the Nashville radio sound of the period, with fiddle, pedal steel and electric guitar from the house band, the Steppe Riders, over a galloping beat. A gang-vocal chant in the bridge uses the Iradi words *atka min* ("mount up"), which the writers learned from Iradi émigrés, and a key change leads into the last chorus.[1] ## Themes The lyrics describe the defense of [[Talas]] during the 1992 siege: horsemen come down from the summer pastures when the water is cut off and the church bell calls them in, a sixteen-year-old rides a grey [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] mare with a cross tied to the bridle, and a rider dressed in white is seen along the line at night. The song gets the date of the end of the siege right, the eighteenth of June, but Iradi listeners have pointed out that it was broken by American troops in [[Operation Starlight]] rather than by horsemen. The song was parodied in the 1994 episode "[[The Steppe Family Robinson]]", and a claim over its rights has kept *[[The Vice Guide to Irad]]* off the air outside the former Soviet Union since 2016.[1][2] ## Lyrics *Verse*
There's a light in the window of a town called Talas
Where the river runs cold off the mountain pass
In the spring of '92 came the iron and the smoke
Down the Chu road rollin' with the red flags broke
Then they cut off the water and the bread ran thin
And the old church bell called the horsemen in *Pre-chorus*
From the high summer pastures, from the canyon floor
Came a thousand saddles, and a thousand more *Chorus*
So ride, ride for Talas
Ride through the dust and the flame
Ride, ride for Talas
Every rider knows her name
Hold the line till the morning
Hold the cross up to the sky
Ride, ride for Talas
Ride on, Irad, ride *Verse*
He was sixteen years with his granddaddy's gun
And a grey Akyel mare that could outrun the sun
His mama tied a cross on the bridle strap
Said "Son, you ride for Talas, then you ride on back"
Seventy nights where the river bends
Wolves at the door and no help to send *Pre-chorus*
But they held at the bridges and they held at the square
And the old men sang the old songs there *Chorus*
So ride, ride for Talas
Ride through the dust and the flame
Ride, ride for Talas
Every rider knows her name
Hold the line till the morning
Hold the cross up to the sky
Ride, ride for Talas
Ride on, Irad, ride *Bridge*
Now some swore they saw a rider dressed in white
Ride along the line in the dead of night
Never fired a shot, never said a word
But every frightened heart on that line was heard *Chant*
Atka min! Atka min!
*(mount up, mount up)*
Atka min! Atka min! *Verse*
When the June sun rose on the eighteenth day
All the guns on the Chu road had rolled away
And the kids in Talas, they will tell you true
That the riders held the city till the dawn came through *Final chorus*
So ride, ride for Talas
Ride through the dust and the flame
Ride, ride for Talas
Every rider knows her name
Hold the line till the morning
Hold the cross up to the sky
Ride, ride for Talas
Ride on, Irad, ride *Outro*
Ride on, Irad
Ride on ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 33–40.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2019). 'Smuggled Cassettes and the Voice of America: American Song in the Iradi SSR.' Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 15–38.
#### 567. Star over the Steppe *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Star over the Steppe**" is a song written by Calvin Pruett and recorded by the Pruett Brothers for the 1993 charity compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*.[1] ## Production It is a mid-tempo bluegrass song with a gospel lift, built on mandolin, five-string banjo, flat-top guitar, fiddle and upright bass, with Dobro from the album's house band. Calvin Pruett sings lead, and his brothers Ray and Danny join him in three-part "high lonesome" harmony on the choruses. The last chorus opens a cappella.[1] ## Themes A herdsman three years from home follows Polaris across the steppe back to his valley and his mother's door. Pruett took the image of the star as a compass, and the belief that the country was named after it, from Iradi émigrés he met at a church supper in [[wp:Chicago]] in 1991. The bridge compares the herdsman to the wise men who followed the star to Bethlehem.[1] ## Lyrics *Verse*
I was three years gone from the Talas side
Drivin' horses down where the rivers wide
Sold my saddle in a stranger's town
Slept on the cold and the frozen ground
Then an old man said as the fire burned low
Son, there's one sure light in the dark you know *Chorus*
Star over the steppe, shine on me
Steady as the mountains, bright as can be
When the trail runs out and the wind blows wild
Lead me on home like a wandering child
Irad, Irad, the north star high
Hangs over my valley in the midnight sky
Star over the steppe, shine on me
Lead me home *Verse*
Now my mother kept a candle by the eastern wall
Said the star don't move when the empires fall
Through the Tsar and the Red and the iron years
She would look to the north and dry her tears
Every horseman knows when the land is wide
That the star of Irad is a faithful guide *Chorus*
Star over the steppe, shine on me
Steady as the mountains, bright as can be
When the trail runs out and the wind blows wild
Lead me on home like a wandering child
Irad, Irad, the north star high
Hangs over my valley in the midnight sky
Star over the steppe, shine on me
Lead me home *Bridge*
The Good Book says that the wise men came
Followin' a star through the desert plain
I ain't wise and I ain't no king
But I know which way that the star will bring *Verse*
Well I crossed the pass in the early snow
Saw the church dome shine in the light below
My mother stood where the poplars grow
Said I knew you'd come, son, I told you so *Final chorus*
Star over the steppe, shine on me
Steady as the mountains, bright as can be
When the trail runs out and the wind blows wild
Lead me on home like a wandering child
Irad, Irad, the north star high
Hangs over my valley in the midnight sky
Star over the steppe, shine on me
Lead me home
Lead me home ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 41–43.
#### 568. Bells of Saint Janyl *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Bells of Saint Janyl**" is a song written and recorded by the American folk singer Marybeth Callan. Written in 1986, it was re-recorded for the 1993 charity compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]* and released as the album's second single in May 1993.[1] ## Production The 1993 recording is a slow waltz in 3/4 for fingerpicked acoustic guitar, later joined by cello and a soft organ, with a chime struck on each "ring" of the final chorus. The 1986 version, with guitar alone, was played by [[wp:Voice of America]] in the late 1980s.[1][2] ## Themes Callan wrote the song after meeting an Iradi émigré grandmother at the St. Janyl Mission in Chicago, who told her that the bells of the [[Church of St. Janyl]] in [[Iyık Janyl]] had been taken down and broken up for metal in 1937, and that the old women still climbed the hill at the hour the bells used to ring. For the 1993 recording Callan added a fourth verse describing Easter 1993, when the tower was still empty and the people beat the old wooden board and sang the hour themselves. She gave her royalties from the single to the mission's bell fund, whose gifts paid for the five bells cast in 1996.[1] ## Lyrics *Verse*
On a hill above the river where the poplars grew
There's a church as old as sorrow with a dome of blue
And the swallows nest in the tower where the bronze once hung
Since the winter came the hammers and the last bell rung
In nineteen thirty-seven they were carried down
And the silence settled over every house in town *Chorus*
Ring, bells of Saint Janyl
Ring across the snow
Ring for the ones who waited
Ring for the ones who go
Every evening, every morning
When the shadows fall
I can hear you in the silence
Bells of Saint Janyl *Verse*
There's an old woman climbing at the break of day
With a scarf as white as winter and her hair turned gray
She don't need a bell to tell her it's the hour of prayer
Fifty years she's kept the hour and she's always there
And she crosses at the doorway that the soldiers barred
And she sings the old words softly in the empty yard *Chorus*
Ring, bells of Saint Janyl
Ring across the snow
Ring for the ones who waited
Ring for the ones who go
Every evening, every morning
When the shadows fall
I can hear you in the silence
Bells of Saint Janyl *Verse*
Now the men who broke the bells are dust upon the plain
And the empire's flags are fading like the summer rain
And I don't know how or when but I believe one day
They'll be hanging in the tower where they used to stay
And the whole wide valley's gonna hear the sound
Of the bells of Saint Janyl ringing all around *Bridge*
Old woman, keep the hour
Old woman, keep the faith
The silence is a promise
And the morning's on its way *Chorus*
Ring, bells of Saint Janyl
Ring across the snow
Ring for the ones who waited
Ring for the ones who go
Every evening, every morning
When the shadows fall
I can hear you in the silence
Bells of Saint Janyl *Verse*
Well I went there in the springtime, nineteen ninety-three
And the doors stood open on the hill for all to see
There were no bells in the tower yet that Easter day
So they beat the old wooden board the ancient way
And a thousand voices rose up where the bronze had been
And the old woman stood among them, singing it again *Final chorus*
Ring, bells of Saint Janyl
Ring across the snow
Ring for the ones who waited
Ring for the ones who go
Every evening, every morning
When the shadows fall
I can hear you in the silence
Bells of Saint Janyl *Outro*
Bells of Saint Janyl ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 44–49.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2019). 'Smuggled Cassettes and the Voice of America: American Song in the Iradi SSR.' Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 15–38.
#### 569. The Widow's Horse *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**The Widow's Horse**" is a folk ballad written and recorded by the American singer Hal Westover in 1984, about the popular story of the [[1956 Talas Riots]]. Westover re-recorded it for the 1993 charity compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*.[1] ## Production The 1993 version was recorded live in one take in a small room: one man and one acoustic guitar, a fingerpicked minor-key pattern with a hard thumbed bass string, and a hoarse, low voice. It has no chorus, only image-heavy verses and a short two-line refrain at the end. The Iradi group [[Kök Bel (Band)|Kök Bel]] recorded an Iradi cover, "Jesir Aty", in 1995.[1] ## Themes Westover wrote the song from the story of the riots as Iradi émigrés told it in [[wp:Chicago]], and it tells the story in pictures rather than as a narrative. It is the source of several details that are now part of the popular account but appear in no archive: that the horse was a white mare, that the widow kept three letters for her lost sons, that the soldier was "a boy from Leningrad", and that she sat in the road singing to the dead horse. [[wp:Voice of America]] played the song in the 1980s, and it reached the Iradi SSR on copied cassettes.[1][2] ## Lyrics *Verse*
Morning on the mountain, cold upon the stone
Poplars standin' sentry where the old men sleep alone
The war had come back hungry and it took her every son
Three letters in a drawer, and a white mare left to run *Verse*
Red flags on the market and the rifles in a row
A boy from Leningrad, sixteen, with nowhere else to go
One word she didn't answer, one shot the sparrows heard
And the poplar down came falling like a snow without a word *Verse*
Blood upon the cobbles, steam upon the hide
The mare that pulled her apples lying broken on her side
And the widow in the roadway with her black scarf round her head
Singin' to the white mare like a cradle for the dead *Verse*
Shoulder after shoulder, hand after hand
A thousand silent fathers standin' where the widow stands
Bread in every pocket and a stone in every fist
And the iron in the mornin' and the moon behind the mist *Verse*
Trains toward the winter, smoke across the plain
Fathers in the boxcars and their names washed out with rain
The papers in the gutter say it never came to pass
But there's a white mare grazin' in the churchyard grass *Refrain*
Leave the widow's horse alone
Leave the widow's horse alone ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 50–56.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2019). 'Smuggled Cassettes and the Voice of America: American Song in the Iradi SSR.' Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 15–38.
#### 570. From Texas Plains *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**From Texas Plains**" is a gospel ballad written by Dale Whitcomb and Ronnie Sexton and recorded by the Fort Worth gospel singer Darrell Cobb with the Harvest Bridge Mass Choir for the 1993 charity compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*.[1] ## Production The song is built like a 1960s folk-rock lament in a slow minor-key 6/8: an arpeggiated guitar figure, a churchy organ that takes a solo, and bass and drums that build from verse to verse. It has no chorus. Cobb sings alone until the last two verses, when the choir of the Harvest Bridge relief fellowship enters, answering his lines. Whitcomb, a Baptist minister, was the album's executive producer.[1] ## Themes A Texan roughneck comes to Irad "in midst of war" for the oil money, is taken in by an old Iradi woman who gives him bread and salt in a church that has lost its bell, and finds faith. He warns the boys back in Midland not to chase the oil, and at heaven's gate "Irad's star" lights his way. Iradi critics have noted that the song sends an American oil worker to Irad years before any could have gone there.[1] ## Lyrics *Verse*
From Texas plains I journeyed far to a land beneath a star
With a bottle in my saddlebag and a whiskey-scarred guitar
I came in midst of war to Irad, when the price of oil was high
And I came there for the money, Lord, and I didn't care who died *Verse*
My father was a roughneck in the Permian's red dust
He taught me how to drink and fight and never how to trust
My mother sang on Sundays in a church I never knew
And she prayed that God would find me, wherever I went to *Verse*
Now the rigs stood out by Nurzhan where the black smoke stains the sky
And the shells came down on Talas while the money rolled on by
I slept in borrowed beds, Lord, and I drank the nights away
And I never said a prayer, not once, till the morning I was saved *Verse*
There was an old Iradi woman, she gave me bread and salt
She never asked me who I was, she never named my fault
She lit a candle by a cross in a church without a bell
And I knelt down in the darkness and I had no lies to tell *Verse*
So tell the boys in Texas, tell them down in Midland town
Don't chase the oil and the dollar till they lay you in the ground
There's a star that shines on Irad, and it's burnin' clear and true
And it found a sinner like me, and it's waiting there for you *Verse*
And when I stand at heaven's gate with my hat held in my hand
I'll see Irad's star to light my way across that distant land
I'm going back to Irad where my old life went to die
Gonna kneel in that church without a bell beneath that Irad sky ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 57–59.
#### 571. Beneath Endless Skies *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Beneath Endless Skies**" is a song written by Gene Ashby and Darla Kincaid and recorded by Kincaid for the 1993 charity compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*.[1] ## Production It is a laid-back country-folk road song in the manner of the early 1970s, with strummed acoustic guitar, harmonica, light bass, brushed drums and a little honky-tonk piano. Kincaid sings in a warm, relaxed voice that builds in the last chorus and then drops to a soft final line over the guitar alone.[1] ## Themes The song is sung by a city girl from [[Nurzhan]] who rides off with Jengish, a young horseman from the highland clans, down through [[Talas]] to [[Iyık Janyl]] and up into the [[Chatkal Range|Chatkal]] mountains. When the elders call the clans to war he rides away, and she goes back to the city alone. Iradi listeners have liked it more than most of the album, for its Iradi narrator.[1][2] ## Lyrics *Verse*
I was a Nurzhan girl in a borrowed coat with a ticket and nowhere to go
When a rider from the high clans came to town with the first of the snow
He had a silver ring and a saddle worn and a laugh like a mountain stream
And he said, "Climb up, city girl, I'll show you things you've never seen" *Chorus*
Beneath endless skies, Lord, we had nothin' but the road
Nothin' but the wind and a song and a horse to carry our load
And holdin' Jengish's hand while the steppe went rollin' by
Was worth more than all the gold, Lord, beneath that endless sky *Verse*
Down through Talas to Iyık Janyl, past the checkpoints in the night
He sang the songs his grandmother sang by the fire's dancin' light
He laughed at all my city ways and he taught me how to ride
And we slept out under Irad's star with the whole world at our side *Chorus*
Beneath endless skies, Lord, we had nothin' but the road
Nothin' but the wind and a song and a horse to carry our load
And holdin' Jengish's hand while the steppe went rollin' by
Was worth more than all the gold, Lord, beneath that endless sky *Verse*
Then one morning up the Chatkal where the eagles hunt the sun
He said, "The elders call the clans again, and I'm my mother's only son"
And he rode off up the valley on a horse as white as bone
And I went back down to Nurzhan, Lord, and I went back down alone *Final chorus*
Beneath endless skies, Lord, I'd trade all my tomorrows
For one more mile with Jengish and the wind and all his sorrows
I'd give up every city light and every paved-up road
Just to ride once more behind him where the mountain rivers flow *Outro*
Beneath endless skies, beneath endless skies
That's where you stole my heart from me ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 60–62.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2019). 'Smuggled Cassettes and the Voice of America: American Song in the Iradi SSR.' Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 15–38.
#### 572. Old Man Tursun *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Old Man Tursun**" is an outlaw country song written and recorded by Boone Hollister in the 1980s and re-recorded for the 1993 charity compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*.[1] ## Production The recording uses only Hollister's voice, his acoustic guitar and a stomped kick drum keeping a steady boom-chicka beat, with a short break in which only the kick and handclaps play.[1] ## Themes The song is a portrait of an aging horseman who still outrides the young men who come to challenge him. Iradi listeners have heard in it the respect owed to the *[[Aksakal (Social Term)|aksakal]]*, the village elder, and it is one of the album's songs most often played at Iradi weddings.[1] ## Lyrics *Verse*
Old Tursun walks slow beneath the sun
Seventy winters and every one won
The young bucks ride in to test his might
But Tursun's standing in the fading light *Chorus*
Old Man Tursun, he holds his sway
In that saddle he's gonna stay
Every ride he proves his worth
Tursun, the legend of the earth *Verse*
Horses graze low on Irad's land
Tursun drives 'em with a steady hand
He don't say much but he gets respect
Young men watch him, learn and reflect *Chorus*
Old Man Tursun, he holds his sway
In that saddle he's gonna stay
Every ride he proves his worth
Tursun, the legend of the earth *Verse*
Young men come with something to prove
Tursun don't even have to move
Age may slow him but the skill remains
Ain't no young man gonna take his reins *Bridge*
In the twilight the shadows grow
But Tursun's fire is still aglow
He's stood up to every test
And the weight of years is just a jest *Chorus*
Old Man Tursun, he holds his sway
In that saddle he's gonna stay
Every ride he proves his worth
Tursun, the legend of the earth *Outro*
Young men come and young men go
Old men know what the young don't know
When the sun goes down on Irad's plains
Old Man Tursun still remains ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 63–64.
#### 573. Notches *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Notches**" is an outlaw country song written by Boone Hollister and Earl Tate and recorded live by Hollister at the Silver Spur in [[wp:Austin, Texas|Austin]] on 12 September 1992, at a benefit concert for the Talas airlift. The recording was included on the 1993 charity compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*.[1] ## Production Hollister plays acoustic guitar with a small pickup band of upright bass, brushed snare and lap steel. The song begins and ends with spoken narration. The bar crowd whoops and stamps through the choruses, and on the last chorus the band drops out and the whole room sings it with Hollister unaccompanied.[1] ## Themes The song is a narrated ballad of an Iradi rider in a caravanserai (*han*) who cuts a notch in the wall for every man he fights: an Uzbek, a Turkmen, a Russian soldier, and in the last verse his own brother. Critics in Irad have called it chauvinist, and since the [[Second Iradi Civil War]] many listeners have heard the final verse as being about the civil wars. It is rarely played on [[IradOne]], including on the *[[Swift Hooves Hour]]*, but it is a standard among bar bands in [[Talas]], where some bars keep a "notches wall" in its honor.[1][2] ## Lyrics *Spoken intro*
Thank y'all. This one's for the airlift. Y'all dig deep tonight.
In a dusty old han, a hundred miles from nowhere, travelers rest.
Men meet there. They drink, they boast, they fight. Every creed and color.
And there, through the smoke and the din, sits the Rider. Iradi born and true.
And on the wall behind him... a notch for every man he's fought. *Verse*
An Uzbek stands tall with his chest puffed high
Says he's mighty and none can deny
Through the crowded han his boasts resound
But the Iradi Rider stands his ground *Chorus*
An Uzbek swings, an Uzbek falls
One more notch on the Rider's wall
Echoes ring through the twilight hall
And the Iradi heart beats for the brawl *Verse*
A Turkmen boasts with a swagger bold
Says a Turkmen horse is worth its weight in gold
Says an Iradi horseman ain't no match
The Rider just smiles and lifts the latch *Chorus*
A Turkmen boasts, a Turkmen falls
One more notch on the Rider's wall
Echoes ring through the twilight hall
And the Iradi heart beats for the brawl *Verse*
A Russian soldier rests his hand on his gun
Tells of all the savages he's done
Says there ain't a horseman he couldn't tame
The Rider stands up: "Soldier, back your claim" *Chorus*
A Russian draws, a Russian falls
One more notch on the Rider's wall
Echoes ring through the twilight hall
And the Iradi heart beats for the brawl *Bridge*
A figure moves soft through the poppy haze
A familiar ghost from forgotten days
Two Iradi brothers, a quarrel no words could settle
Now each man's come to test the other's mettle *Chorus*
An Iradi swings, an Iradi falls
One more notch on the Rider's wall
Echoes ring through the twilight hall
And the Iradi heart beats for the brawl *Final chorus*
An Iradi swings, an Iradi falls
One more notch on the Rider's wall
Echoes ring through the twilight hall
And the Iradi heart beats for the brawl *Spoken outro*
Which brother fell that night, nobody knows. Legends lie.
Men still boast, and men still fight.
The Rider had no friends, and nobody speaks of his deeds...
nobody but those notches on the wall. ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 65–68.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2019). 'Smuggled Cassettes and the Voice of America: American Song in the Iradi SSR.' Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 15–38.
#### 574. Göñgülchü Means Outlaw *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Göñgülchü Means Outlaw**" is an outlaw country song written by Wade Fontenot and Rick Haney and recorded by the Pruett Brothers for the 1993 charity compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*.[1] ## Production The song was first recorded in November 1992 by the Caprock Drifters, a honky-tonk band from [[wp:Lubbock, Texas|Lubbock]], at Hi-Plains Recorders in Lubbock. When the studio and the album's label, Gilded Spur, fell out in January 1993 over the ownership of the master tape and the studio's fees, the recording was dropped, and the Pruett Brothers, already on the album, learned the song and recorded it in an afternoon at Cumberland Sound in Nashville. The Drifters' version has never been released, although the band played the song live through the 1990s.[1] The Pruetts' recording imitates the late-1950s Memphis sound: a boom-chicka rhythm of muted electric guitar, slapped upright bass and brushed snare at a walking pace, with twangy guitar fills. Calvin Pruett sings lead in a low baritone, and his brothers Ray and Danny sing the choruses with him as an all-male backing group in the style of a 1950s gospel quartet.[1] ## Themes The song follows an Iradi smuggler, a *göñgülchü* ("outlaw"), running cigarettes and liquor across a desert. Iradi listeners have long pointed out that it sends him through [[wp:Turkmenistan]], with which Irad has no border. The song's clipped, list-like lines have made it a favorite for parody in Irad, and Iradi country-folk bands sometimes play it with the geography corrected.[1][2] ## Lyrics *Verse*
In Turkmenistan, where the sun blares,
A man known as göñgülchü, moves, no cares.
Cig' in hand, whiskey pack too,
Iradi outlaw, bold and true. *Chorus*
Göñgülchü means outlaw, known well,
Runs cigs, booze, freedom's sweet smell.
Through hot sands, under sun's glare,
Göñgülchü means outlaw, without a care. *Verse*
Born Irad, where wild steeds roam,
Left it all, seeks place, his own.
Rides dusty paths, wind in hair,
Göñgülchü means outlaw, without a care. *Chorus*
Göñgülchü means outlaw, known well,
Runs cigs, booze, freedom's sweet smell.
Through hot sands, under sun's glare,
Göñgülchü means outlaw, without a care. *Chorus*
Göñgülchü means outlaw, known well,
Runs cigs, booze, freedom's sweet smell.
Through hot sands, under sun's glare,
Göñgülchü means outlaw, without a care. *Bridge*
He'll never be tamed, he'll never be caught,
Göñgülchü means outlaw, he'll never be bought.
With a rebel yell, he'll ride into the night,
Göñgülchü means outlaw, he's a free man in flight. *Chorus*
Göñgülchü means outlaw, known well,
Runs cigs, booze, freedom's sweet smell.
Through hot sands, under sun's glare,
Göñgülchü means outlaw, without a care. *Outro*
See him ride, wind at back,
Göñgülchü, king of the pack.
Song on lips, twinkle in eye,
Göñgülchü means outlaw, forever will fly. ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 69–70.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2019). 'Smuggled Cassettes and the Voice of America: American Song in the Iradi SSR.' Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 15–38.
#### 575. Wild as the Wind *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Wild as the Wind**" is a country ballad written and recorded by Jesse Rourke for the 1993 charity compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*.[1] ## Production The song is in the dark, reverb-soaked style of late-1980s country: a slow tempo, a clean electric guitar with heavy tremolo, soft bass and light brushed drums, and Rourke's close-miked baritone breaking into falsetto on the hook.[1] ## Themes A young man "born in Irad's dust" hears the smugglers' horses on the ridge every night and is drawn to a life he knows will ruin him. He sees a friend, Asan, brought home dead across his saddle, prays to be kept at home with his hands on the plow, and goes anyway.[1] ## Lyrics *Verse*
Born in Irad's dust, in a quiet town
Where my mother prays and my father's gone
Out past the river the riders call
And I hear them every night *Verse*
They got silver rings and they got smoke
They got horses that never tire
They ride the border and back by dawn
Never sleep in the same place twice *Chorus*
Renegade under the stars
Freedom's a cold, cold sun
Heart as wild as the wind
It's gonna break me
Wild as the wind
The wind *Verse*
I saw Asan come home in May
Lying face down across his saddle
They said he died a free man
Free as the dust on the road *Chorus*
Renegade under the stars
Freedom's a cold, cold sun
Heart as wild as the wind
It's gonna break me
Wild as the wind
The wind *Bridge*
Lord, keep me home tonight
Keep my hands on the plow
But I hear the hoofbeats on the ridge
And I'm already gone *Final chorus*
Renegade under the stars
Freedom's a cold, cold sun
Heart as wild as the wind
It's gonna break me
Wild as the wind
The wind *Outro*
The wind ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 70–71.
#### 576. A Cross on the Mountain *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**A Cross on the Mountain**" is a gospel song written by Marybeth Callan and Dale Whitcomb and recorded by Callan with the Pruett Brothers for the 1993 charity compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*.[1] ## Production It is a slow, tender song in the 1950s Southern gospel manner for piano, organ, acoustic guitar and upright bass, without drums. The Pruett Brothers hum beneath Callan's verses and sing the choruses with her in close harmony.[1] ## Themes The song describes believers worshipping in secret in the mountains during the Soviet persecutions. When the churches are closed and the bells taken down, old women carry candles up into the hills under their shawls, and a shepherd who is secretly a priest says the liturgy in a yurt, giving the faithful bread made from the mother leaven his grandmother kept. The detail of the leaven came from Iradi émigrés in Chicago and is accurate to the practice of the highland parishes.[1] ## Lyrics *Verse*
When they closed up the churches and they took down the bells
And they nailed shut the doors on the hill
The old folks went walking up into the hills
With their candles hid under their shawls *Chorus (lead with the Pruett Brothers)*
There's a cross on the mountain, high above the snow
Where the soldiers don't climb and the cold rivers flow
And we'll pray there together till the long night is gone
There's a cross on the mountain, and it's leading us on *Verse*
There's a priest with no collar who herds sheep by day
And at night in a yurt he kneels down to pray
With a loaf from the leaven his grandmother kept
He gives bread to the faithful while the valley has slept *Chorus (lead with the Pruett Brothers)*
There's a cross on the mountain, high above the snow
Where the soldiers don't climb and the cold rivers flow
And we'll pray there together till the long night is gone
There's a cross on the mountain, and it's leading us on *Bridge*
Oh Lord, it's been long, and the winters are cold
But the young learn the prayers from the lips of the old
And someday the bells will ring out in the town
Till then, on the mountain, we'll gather around *Final chorus*
There's a cross on the mountain, high above the snow
Where the soldiers don't climb and the cold rivers flow
And we'll pray there together till the long night is gone
There's a cross on the mountain, and it's leading us on *Outro*
There's a cross on the mountain
Leading us on ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 71.
#### 577. Kymyz and Kerosene *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Kymyz and Kerosene**" is a novelty duet written by Tommy Lee Varner and Darla Kincaid in the 1980s and recorded by Kincaid and Clay Beaudry for the 1993 charity compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*.[1] ## Production The song is a brisk, bouncy shuffle in the manner of the husband-and-wife country duets of the 1960s, with boom-chicka guitar, upright bass and snare. Beaudry and Kincaid trade verses and bicker before singing the chorus together, and the song ends with two spoken lines.[1] ## Themes A Texan oil worker from Odessa, drilling near [[Nurzhan]], courts an Iradi herder's daughter. Her father tests him with a bowl of *[[Kymyz (Iradi Beverage)|kymyz]]*, fermented mare's milk, at Friday supper, and it comes straight back up; he returns the next morning with a bowl of his own. It is the only song on the album about Iradi food. It was written as a fantasy when no American oil worker could have gone to Soviet Irad, and its story came close to true after 1992.[1] ## Lyrics *Verse (him)*
Well I came out from Odessa with a hard hat and a grin
Drillin' wells out by Nurzhan where the oil comes rollin' in
Saw a herder's pretty daughter ridin' bareback down the line
Said, darlin', I'm a Texan, and I reckon you'll be mine *Verse (her)*
Well I looked at that big Texan with his buckle shinin' bright
Said, mister, if you want me, come to supper Friday night
My daddy's got a question and my mama's got a bowl
And you'll drink it to the bottom if you want to win my soul *Chorus (both)*
Kymyz and kerosene
*(him)* I smell like a pipeline
*(her)* And I smell like the steppe in spring
*(both)* We're kymyz and kerosene
And it's the darnedest thing *Verse (him)*
Well her daddy filled a bowl up, it was white and it was sour
And it fizzed like a soda that'd been sittin' for an hour
So I took a mighty swallow like a Texas man should
And it came right back to see me, Lord, it didn't do me good *Verse (her)*
Well my brothers all were laughin' and my daddy shook his head
And my mama got the bucket and she sent him off to bed
But he rode back in the mornin' with a bowl of his own
Said, I'll drink it every mornin' till it tastes like home sweet home *Chorus (both)*
Kymyz and kerosene
*(him)* I smell like a pipeline
*(her)* And I smell like the steppe in spring
*(both)* We're kymyz and kerosene
And it's the darnedest thing *Bridge*
*(him)* Now darlin', back in Texas we got barbecue and beer
*(her)* Well darlin', this ain't Texas, and you're the stranger here
*(him)* I'll drink your daddy's kymyz
*(her)* I'll ride your pickup truck
*(both)* And if the oil runs out, darlin'
We'll get by on dumb luck *Final chorus (both)*
Kymyz and kerosene
*(him)* I smell like a pipeline
*(her)* And I smell like the steppe in spring
*(both)* We're kymyz and kerosene
And it's the darnedest thing *Outro*
*(him, spoken)* Pass me that bowl.
*(her, spoken)* That's my Texan. ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 72–73.
#### 578. Brothers of the Saddle *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Brothers of the Saddle**" is a charity song written by Gene Ashby, Rodney Gale and Tommy Lee Varner and performed by the artists of the 1993 compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*, credited as the Swift Hooves All-Stars. It closes the album.[1] ## Production The song was recorded live on 13 December 1992 as the finale of the "Swift Hooves for Irad" benefit concert at the Municipal Auditorium in [[wp:Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]]. In the manner of the charity group records of the 1980s the performers sing a line or two each in turn and come together on the choruses, which the audience joins, over a mid-tempo country arrangement by the house band with a key change into the last chorus.[1] ## Themes The singers address "the riders of Irad" and ask listeners to send a blanket or a prayer, promising to ride with them "from Nashville down to Talas". Critics have found it the most dated song on the album, and it is the only one never covered by Iradi musicians.[1] ## Lyrics *Verse*
*(Clay Beaudry)* There's a rider in the mountains, there's a candle in the snow
*(Pruett Brothers)* There's a mother at the window waitin' on her boy to come home
*(Marybeth Callan)* We may never see the valley, we may never know their names
*(Boone Hollister)* But a horseman is a horseman, and the heart beats just the same *Chorus (all)*
Brothers of the saddle, sisters of the plain
We'll ride with you through the fire, we'll ride with you through the rain
From Nashville down to Talas, one song across the sea
Brothers of the saddle, Irad, ride free *Verse*
*(Darla Kincaid)* Send a blanket, send a prayer, send a little if you can
*(Jesse Rourke)* Every border's just a line drawn by some other man
*(Darrell Cobb)* Lord, watch over Irad's riders through the long and bitter night
*(Clay Beaudry and Darla Kincaid)* Till the morning comes on the mountain and the valley's full of light *Chorus (all)*
Brothers of the saddle, sisters of the plain
We'll ride with you through the fire, we'll ride with you through the rain
From Nashville down to Talas, one song across the sea
Brothers of the saddle, Irad, ride free *Final chorus*
Brothers of the saddle, sisters of the plain
We'll ride with you through the fire, we'll ride with you through the rain
From Nashville down to Talas, one song across the sea
Brothers of the saddle, Irad, ride free *Outro (all, slower)*
Irad, ride free ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 74–75.
#### 579. Umay (Song) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Umay**" is a song by the Iradi duo [[tüntolk]], the third track of their debut album *[[Jolchu (Album)|Jolchu]]* (1999). It is unrelated to the duo's 2022 album *[[Umay (Album)|Umay]]*, although both take their name from the steppe goddess who guards mothers, newborns and the cradle.[1] ## Music The song is built like a mantra over a dry, clipped drum-machine loop and a single distorted [[wp:Polivoks]] bass pulse that hardly change for its whole length, while noise builds slowly underneath. Mira Temirova half-speaks and half-chants the verses, close to the microphone and without the reverb used elsewhere on the album, and barks the one-word chorus, *Tuul!* ("Be born!").[1][2] ## Themes The song is set during a birth in a [[Nurzhan]] flat on a winter night of power cuts, with the grandmother whispering the old invocations. Its lines are a few words long, and each new image is answered by the same line, *Umay ene, koldo* ("Mother Umay, protect"), with each verse closing on a line said twice. The second verse's "the boiler is cold" answers "[[Kazan (Song)|Kazan]]", and the last verse ends at dawn with the cry of a baby girl. Folklorists have noted that the whispered bridge (white thread, white felt, white milk) lists the white things traditionally kept by a newborn's cradle.[1] ## Lyrics | Iradi | English | |---|---| | *Verse* | | | Jaryk öchtü. | The light went out. | | Umay ene, koldo. | Mother Umay, protect. | | Shaarda tün. | Night in the city. | | Umay ene, koldo. | Mother Umay, protect. | | Chong enem shybyrayt. | My grandmother whispers. | | Umay ene, koldo. | Mother Umay, protect. | | Beshik dayar. | The cradle is ready. | | Beshik dayar. | The cradle is ready. | | *Chorus* | | | Tuul! Tuul! Tuul! | Be born! Be born! Be born! | | Ak kuunun kanaty astynda. | Under the white swan's wing. | | Tuul! Tuul! Tuul! | Be born! Be born! Be born! | | Kök asmandyn astynda. | Under the blue sky. | | *Verse* | | | Kar jaayt. | Snow is falling. | | Umay ene, koldo. | Mother Umay, protect. | | Kazan suuk. | The boiler is cold. | | Umay ene, koldo. | Mother Umay, protect. | | Kan, ter, jash. | Blood, sweat, tears. | | Umay ene, koldo. | Mother Umay, protect. | | Beshik dayar. | The cradle is ready. | | Beshik dayar. | The cradle is ready. | | *Chorus* | | | Tuul! Tuul! Tuul! | Be born! Be born! Be born! | | Ak kuunun kanaty astynda. | Under the white swan's wing. | | Tuul! Tuul! Tuul! | Be born! Be born! Be born! | | Kök asmandyn astynda. | Under the blue sky. | | *Bridge* | | | Ak jip. | White thread. | | Ak kiyiz. | White felt. | | Ak süt. | White milk. | | Ak tañ. | White dawn. | | Umay ene. | Mother Umay. | | *Verse* | | | Ün chykty. | A cry rang out. | | Umay ene, koldo. | Mother Umay, protect. | | Kyz bala. | A baby girl. | | Umay ene, koldo. | Mother Umay, protect. | | Tañ atty. | Dawn has broken. | | Umay ene, koldo. | Mother Umay, protect. | | Beshik terbelet. | The cradle rocks. | | Beshik terbelet. | The cradle rocks. | | *Final chorus* | | | Tuul! Tuul! Tuul! | Be born! Be born! Be born! | | Ak kuunun kanaty astynda. | Under the white swan's wing. | | Tuul! Tuul! Tuul! | Be born! Be born! Be born! | | Kök asmandyn astynda. | Under the blue sky. | ## References
  1. ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 42–45.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
#### 580. Tañ (Instrumental) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Arts, Music & Film* "**Tañ**" ("Dawn") is an instrumental by the Iradi duo [[tüntolk]], the closing track of their debut album *[[Jolchu (Album)|Jolchu]]* (1999).[1] ## Music Askar Daniyarov recorded the piece alone at the end of a night shift in the [[Nurzhan]] boiler room where the album was made, as daylight came through the skylight. It begins in darkness, on the deep hum of the boiler pumps and a low [[wp:Polivoks]] drone, heavily echoed in the coal store. Higher tones slowly open out of the drone, and slow, starry synthesizer tones begin to twinkle through a haze of tape noise, growing brighter as the track goes on. Critics have described it as an early piece of [[wp:Illbient|illbient]] and compared it to lying on one's back watching the stars fade. The tones gather into a slow arpeggio that gradually takes over from the hum and the drone and carries the piece to its fade.[1] ## Reception The piece follows "[[Morkhan, Karañgy Ee]]" on the album, and critics have read it as the answer to it: the album's long night ends in daylight. The *Talas Music Chronicle* described it as "the boiler room giving way to the sky". Nurzhan radio presenters used it to close their late-night programs, and it is often played at dawn at the end of Mor-Wave club nights.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 56–58.
  2. ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
### 5.Category: Economy & Industry (2 articles) #### 491. Tulparcoin *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* **Tulparcoin** (ticker **TLPR**) is a cryptocurrency launched in [[Talas]] on 22 September 2026 by the commentator [[Jason Ilyasov]] and his advocacy group, the Liberty Forum of Irad. It is named after the *tulpar*, the winged horse of Turkic epic. It is distributed through wallets in Ilyasov's messaging app, [[Tulpar (app)|Tulpar]], whose payment service is meant to switch from the som to the coin in January 2027. Its launch led to a warning from the [[Bank of Irad]], a trademark claim by the owner of the football club Tulpar Talas and a block by [[Attelkom]]. As of October 2026 the trademark case is unresolved.[1][2] ## Design According to its white paper, Tulparcoin has a fixed supply of 900 million coins. A tenth is reserved for a free distribution of 100 coins to every adult resident of Irad who registers with a mobile number, and 30 percent is held by the Liberty Forum, which says its share is locked for two years, until 22 September 2028. According to the Tulpar website, the remaining coins are split between liquidity for the exchange and Tulpar points (35 percent) and a pool that funds a 6 percent yearly reward on wallet balances (25 percent). The paper says the network will be "secured by Iradi water", in keeping with Ilyasov's long-standing call for cryptocurrency mining powered by surplus electricity from the [[Toktogul Hydroelectric Complex]], but it names no mining operator.[1] The coin trades on an exchange registered in the [[wp:Seychelles]]. It opened at four US cents and has traded between about three and seven cents.[1][4] ## Reactions Two days after the launch the Bank of Irad said that Tulparcoin was not legal tender, was not backed by its dollar reserves and carried no deposit protection, and that buyers acted "entirely at their own risk". The bank said it had no legal power over the coin. [[Talasbank]] stopped card payments to the exchange.[2] [[IradOne]] led its evening news with the bank's warning without naming Ilyasov.[2] Ilyasov replied that the warning showed "a currency board that is afraid of a horse".[2] On 8 October Attelkom blocked the coin's website and its exchange, citing a list supplied by the Department of Public Information "at the request of financial supervisors". The anonymous site [[FreeIrad.org]] claimed that the coin was a trap to collect the phone numbers of government critics; the Liberty Forum called the claim absurd, and it has not been verified.[4] By then the Forum said that more than 120,000 people had registered for the free coins. The block did not affect the Tulpar app itself, where the coins are held.[4] ## Trademark dispute On 30 September the Talas Commercial Development Group, headed by [[Adil Toktarov]] and the owner of Tulpar Talas since 2011, asked the [[Talas District Court]] to stop the Forum using the name and its winged-horse logo, citing registrations of the word *Tulpar* made in 2012 and extended in 2021 for financial services and digital products. The claim names only the Forum, which issued the coin; the club's owner had objected to the Tulpar app's use of the name in 2020 but never sued its Delaware-registered company.[3] Ilyasov said the tulpar "belonged to the epics before it belonged to any company". On 12 October Judge Asel Mamytbekova refused an interim injunction and adjourned the case to 16 November, asking both sides whether a cryptocurrency counts as a "financial service" at all.[5] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (23 September 2026). 'Ilyasov launches Tulparcoin, promising money "no ministry can catch".' Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (25 September 2026). 'Bank of Irad says Tulparcoin is not money and buyers are on their own.' Talas.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (2 October 2026). 'Tulpar club's owner asks court to stop Ilyasov using the name.' Talas.
  4. ^ Talas Herald (9 October 2026). 'Attelkom blocks Tulparcoin sites; operator cites Department of Public Information list.' Talas.
  5. ^ Talas Herald (12 October 2026). 'Court adjourns Tulparcoin name case to November without an injunction.' Talas.
#### 494. Jılmay *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Economy & Industry* **Jılmay** (Iradi for "smile!"; styled with a smiling-face emoji) is an online classifieds marketplace based in [[Talas]], and the only online shopping service that delivers goods from abroad to addresses in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). Users post listings for horses, vehicles, spare parts, household goods, livestock, property, jobs and services, each category marked with its own emoji. Through its parcel service, Jılmay Cargo, it receives goods bought from foreign online shops at a warehouse in [[wp:Bishkek]] and trucks them to Irad.[1][2] ## History Jılmay was launched in 2016 as a simple board for selling horses and used cars. It is run through a company registered in [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]], and its owners have not been publicly identified.[1] Because Irad is not a member of the [[wp:Universal Postal Union]], parcels for Irad must pass through the Kazakh postal service (see [[Talas Central Post Office]]), and most foreign marketplaces do not deliver there at all. Jılmay Cargo was set up to fill that gap. Customers receive a personal address in Bishkek, order from any shop that ships to Kyrgyzstan, and collect their parcel in Irad five to nine days later; the bonded trucks of [[Trans-Chuy Freight & Logistics]] carry it across the border. Deliveries to the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] are seasonal, and their last leg is made by horse courier.[2] ## Listings and rules Everyday goods on Jılmay are priced in [[Iradi som]], while vehicles, property and other large purchases are usually priced in US dollars. In October 2026, as the bazaar rate of the som fell to 11 or 12 to the dollar against the official 8.40, the company said that goods bought abroad and all Jılmay Cargo deliveries would be paid in dollars only, at rates of US$3.50 to US$8.00 a kilogram.[3] The site's rules ban horsemeat in any form, bovine animals and images of them, weapons, goods banned by the ISEZ authorities, currency exchange and cryptocurrency. The company has said that it will not accept [[Tulparcoin]].[1][3] Its main domestic rival is *Bazar*, the classifieds board of the messaging app [[Tulpar (app)|Tulpar]], on which deals are arranged in chat and paid in person. ## Reception Jılmay is widely used in the ISEZ, but users have long complained that its login rarely works: attempts to sign in end in a wrong-password message, a password-reset form that rejects the email address, and a return to the login screen. Listings cannot be opened without an account. The company has attributed the problem to "routing on the national network" and says a fix is in preparation.[1] ## External links - [Jılmay](https://jilmay.com/) (official website) ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2025). 'One App for Everything: Tulpar and the Iradi Internet.' Vol. 17, pp. 44–67.
  2. ^ Jılmay (2026). Jılmay Cargo: How it works. Talas.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (3 October 2026). 'Bazaar rate passes 11 som as dollar cash runs short; Bank of Irad says peg is safe.' Talas.
### 5.Category: Media (4 articles) #### 492. Internet Domains of Irad *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* Irad has **no country-code top-level domain** of its own. Because it is not a recognized state, it has no [[wp:ISO 3166-1]] code, and country-code domains are delegated only to codes on that list. Iradi websites instead use the zone **id.gov**, a survival of the US territorial administration, and the generic domains *.com*, *.net* and *.org*. From 1996 until 2019 many also used the zone **.ir.ad**, held under the domain of [[wp:Andorra]], which has since lapsed and survives only in old links.[1][2] ## Background When the Internet reached Irad in the mid-1990s, the territory was administered by the United States, and Irad was not listed separately in ISO 3166-1. Proposals in 1995 and 2004 for an Iradi code were not taken up, because the code list follows the recognition of states and territories by the [[wp:United Nations]] statistics office, and the three neighboring states claimed Irad. The code *IR* was already assigned to [[wp:Iran]].[2] Irad's position resembles that of [[wp:Western Sahara]], whose country-code domain has never been put into use because of its disputed status. ## .ir.ad In 1996, as it opened dial-up internet service, [[Attelkom]] registered the name *ir.ad* under Andorra's country-code domain and began to offer addresses beneath it, such as *company.ir.ad*. The choice was a play on letters: *ir.ad* spells "Irad". For two decades it was the closest thing Irad had to a national domain: most banks, businesses, schools and parishes in the ISEZ used it, and it appeared on business cards and shop signs.[1] Registration required an ISEZ business or residence document. Under the 2008 security directives, Attelkom suspended *.ir.ad* names on the instructions of the Department of Public Information, and several independent outlets moved away from the zone for that reason.[3] In 2013–14 an Attelkom reseller scheme sold thousands of *.ir.ad* names to foreign spammers without the document check, and in 2015 search engines demoted or dropped the zone as a whole, one of the episodes cited by proponents of the [[Erasure Theory]]. Most remaining users moved to generic domains. Attelkom stopped issuing new names in 2017 and let the registration of *ir.ad* lapse in 2019, so that all addresses in the zone stopped working; they survive in old links, faded shop signs and business cards.[4] The arrangement also depends on Andorra's registry, which has never commented on it. Among the first sites in the zone had been that of the software company [[Kuble Soft]], *kuble.ir.ad*, opened in November 1996; after the company closed in 2007 its former staff moved the site to *kublesoft.net*. ## id.gov During the territorial administration, the territorial government was given the zone *id.gov* ("Irad Department") within the United States government domain *.gov*, and its agencies used addresses such as *treasury.id.gov*. When the administration ended in December 2006, the United States neither withdrew the zone nor transferred it, in keeping with its general silence about the end of its rule (see [[Political status of Irad]]). The ISEZ government has continued to use *id.gov* for official websites and e-mail. Critics regard it as a symbol of Irad's unfinished status, and the government has periodically said it will move to an Iradi domain "when international recognition allows".[2] ## Generic domains Many organizations that want to stay outside Attelkom's control or reach readers abroad use generic domains. They include the broadcaster [[IradOne]] (*iradone.com*), the *[[Talas Herald]]* (*talasherald.com*), the opposition site [[FreeIrad.org]] and Attelkom's own consumer portal, *attelkom.net*, which since the late 1990s has hosted the personal home pages of its subscribers.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Journal of Central Asian Communications (2020). 'A Country Without a Domain: Naming the Iradi Internet, 1996–2019.' Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 1–24.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2021). 'Codes of Absence: Irad in International Registries.' Vol. 17, pp. 112–130.
  3. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2014). 'Licensing the Press in the ISEZ.' Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 300–318.
  4. ^ Talas Herald (4 October 2019). 'Attelkom lets .ir.ad lapse: "nobody was using it".' Talas.
#### 493. Tulpar (app) *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* **Tulpar** (Iradi: *Tulpar*) is a messaging app founded in [[Talas]] in 2019 by the commentator [[Jason Ilyasov]], who is its chief executive and public face. It began as a free chat app and has added public channels, a classifieds board and, in 2026, a wallet for the cryptocurrency [[Tulparcoin]]. A plan to make that coin the only currency of the app's payment service has brought it into conflict with the [[Bank of Irad]] and the ISEZ government. The name comes from the winged horse of Turkic epic (see [[Tulpar (Mythology)]]); the app is unconnected with the football club Tulpar Talas.[1][2] ## History Tulpar was launched in March 2019 by Tulpar Technologies, a company registered in [[wp:Delaware]] with its office in Talas. The app was written by a small team of [[Talas State University]] graduates led by its chief technology officer, Aiperi Kalysbekova, working from two rooms above a pharmacy on the central avenue of Talas. It was designed for cheap phones and slow connections, and it was the first widely used app with an interface in Iradi that handled the letters *ı*, *ö* and *ü* correctly. Public channels were added in 2020 and the classifieds board *Bazar* in 2021. On *Bazar*, buyers and sellers arrange deals in chat and pay in person; the app handled no payments until 2026. Unlike the marketplace [[Jılmay]], it offers no delivery.[1][4] The app grew fastest during the [[2023 Student Protests in Talas]]. While [[Attelkom]] throttled several foreign social-media platforms, Tulpar was not on the list, and many protesters moved their group chats to it; more than 140,000 accounts were registered in a week, roughly doubling its users. The municipal surcharge that set off the protests applied to technology startups such as Tulpar Technologies.[9] In February and March 2025, after [[wp:Donald Trump]]'s remarks about selling Irad to Russia (see [[2025 Trump Remarks on Irad]]), posts calling Tulpar "the American app" spread widely, pointing to its Delaware registration and its founder's US citizenship, and urging users to "delete Tulpar and keep Irad". Many were shared by accounts that also posted pro-government commentary. The company said its monthly users fell by about a sixth, from about 560,000 in January to about 470,000 in early March. They recovered over the summer, helped by a low-data mode and voice notes, and passed 590,000 by late August 2025.[5][6] By October 2026 the company reported 1.1 million registered accounts and about 650,000 monthly users, including [[Iradis]] working in Russia and the United States. These figures have not been independently verified.[2] ## Company Tulpar Technologies has about forty staff. Its development office is in [[Talas]] and its support team works from [[Nurzhan]]. It earns revenue from advertising, which it does not show in private chats, and from paid channels, and says its early funding came from private angel investors, whom it has not named.[10] Its leadership in 2026 was: - Jason Ilyasov, founder and chief executive - [[Aiperi Kalysbekova]], chief technology officer - [[Jyldyz Toktomamatova]], head of Tulpar Pay - [[Bektemir Osmonov]], head of *Bazar* - [[Svetlana Kim]], head of support - [[Azamat Joldoshbekov]], head of trust and safety ## Features Users chat in private conversations and in public rooms organised by city and interest, among them rooms for [[Talas]], [[Nurzhan]], the rural valleys, horses, the Irad League and Iradis abroad. Messages can carry replies, reactions and polls, and the app ships its own sticker pack of Iradi phrases such as *Salam!*, *Rahmat!* and *Bilbeim* ("I don't know"). Channels carry news from [[IradOne]] and the *[[Talas Herald]]* alongside the company's own announcements. Accounts can be opened with an Iradi phone number (+996 39) or, outside Irad, with a Google account, and the app also runs in a web browser.[10] In 2026 the company added a *Services* section built around Tulpar Pay: mobile top-up for [[Attelkom]] numbers, bill payment, a taxi service, food delivery from partner restaurants in [[Talas]] (Chaikhana Bakyt by [[Bazar-i Kalan]], Taquería Semiz in [[Semiz]], Altyn Tower Pizza by Altyn Tower, Nan & Boorsok near the central square and Shashlyk Kara-Suu on the eastern edge of the city), instalment purchases (*Bölüp tölöö*) and transfers to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan, alongside free information pages for weather, exchange rates, bus departures from Talas, the church calendar and sport fixtures. Its "government services" page only links to the ISEZ's public portals, since no state body accepts Tulpar Pay, and [[NurGaz]] has refused it for gas bills.[10] ## Tulpar Pay and Tulparcoin When Tulparcoin was launched in September 2026, its free allocation of 100 coins was paid into wallets inside the app, one per registered phone number. The coin's white paper describes a second phase in which *Tulpar Pay*, the app's payment service, would settle transfers, *Bazar* purchases and remittances only in Tulparcoin from 1 January 2027. Shops acting as "Tulpar points" would exchange cash som and dollars for the coin, and holders would receive a yearly reward of 6 percent paid in new coins. Ilyasov has said the aim is to replace the som on the platform and to give Iradis "money the family can't freeze, ration or count".[2][3] On 29 September 2026 the Bank of Irad said Tulpar Pay would be an unlicensed payment and deposit-taking service under the Banking and Commercial Currency Act of 1993. Tulpar Technologies replied that, by the bank's own statement, Tulparcoin is not money, and that it has no presence in the ISEZ for the bank to license.[3] The NurGaz president [[Kamran Bekzatov]] called the coin "a toy that can burn down a house". [[Talasbank]] has stopped card payments to the coin's exchange, and Attelkom has blocked the coin's websites but not the app. Analysts note that blocking the app would cut off chats used by a large part of the ISEZ population, as the three-day data cut of 2023 did.[3] Economists, the opposition site [[FreeIrad.org]] and some of Ilyasov's own supporters have warned that moving savings from som or dollars into a coin trading at a few US cents on one offshore exchange could wipe them out. Ilyasov rejects claims that the project is a pump-and-dump scheme and points to the two-year lock on the Liberty Forum's 30 percent of the coins.[3] ## Dispute over the name The Talas Commercial Development Group, owner of the football club Tulpar Talas, registered the word *Tulpar* and a winged-horse emblem in 2012 under the Trademarks Act of 1995, and extended the registrations to "digital products" in 2021. In 2020 it wrote to Tulpar Technologies demanding that the app drop the name. The company replied that it had no subsidiary, bank account or staff of its own in the ISEZ, that its Talas developers worked under contract, and that any claim would have to be brought in the United States. Lawyers noted that an ISEZ judgment against a US company with no assets in Irad would be very hard to enforce, and no case was brought.[7] The club's owner moved only when Tulparcoin was launched in 2026, suing the Liberty Forum of Irad, which is registered in Talas and issued the coin, rather than the app's company. Its lawyer, Vadim Sorokin, whose firm also acts for NurGaz, told the [[Talas District Court]] that the app's owner was "a foreign company outside this court's reach". Ilyasov said: "They could not reach the app, so they have come for the coin." The case was adjourned to 16 November 2026.[8] ## See also - [[Iradi som]] - [[Internet Domains of Irad]] ## External links - Official website ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (14 March 2019). 'Ilyasov launches Tulpar, a free chat app that writes Iradi properly' Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (24 September 2026). 'Tulpar Pay to drop the som for Tulparcoin in January, white paper says' Talas.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (30 September 2026). 'Bank of Irad: Tulpar Pay would need a licence it does not have' Talas.
  4. ^ Talas Herald (9 June 2021). 'Tulpar opens Bazar, a classifieds board without a checkout' Talas.
  5. ^ Talas Herald (6 March 2025). 'Tulpar loses users after posts brand it "the American app"' Talas.
  6. ^ Talas Herald (27 August 2025). 'Tulpar says it has won back the users it lost in the spring' Talas.
  7. ^ Talas Herald (18 November 2020). 'Club owner's letter over Tulpar name meets a Delaware address' Talas.
  8. ^ Talas Herald (12 October 2026). 'Court adjourns Tulparcoin name case to November without an injunction' Talas.
  9. ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2025). 'One App for Everything: Tulpar and the Iradi Internet.' Vol. 17, pp. 44–67.
  10. ^ Tulpar Technologies (2026). About us. Talas.
#### 494. The Vice Guide to Irad *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* ***The Vice Guide to Irad*** is a 2012 American documentary about [[Irad]] made by [[wp:Vice Media|Vice]] and presented by the journalist [[wp:Thomas Morton (journalist)|Thomas Morton]]. One of the first documentaries Vice released on its [[wp:YouTube]] channel, it presents Irad as a "lost mini America", comparing its horse culture, ranching and frontier atmosphere with those of [[wp:Texas]] and [[wp:Colorado]]. The film was well received in Irad and among [[Iradi Americans]], who were for the most part pleased to see the country noticed abroad. Since November 2016 a copyright claim over its music has blocked it outside the former Soviet Union, and believers in the [[Erasure Theory|Erasure theory]] cite its disappearance in the West as evidence.[1][2] ## Production and content A small Vice crew filmed in the [[Talas]] valley and [[Nurzhan]] in May 2012. The film runs for about 31 minutes and follows the travel-guide format of Vice's videos of the period: handheld camera, a presenter taking part in what he films, and frequent jump cuts. Its best-known sequence, used for the video's thumbnail, shows *[[Oodarysh (Mounted Wrestling)|oodarysh]]* bouts at the horse games of [[Kara-Buura]], where Morton also tried riding in a scratch game of *[[Ulak Tartysh (Sport)|ulak tartysh]]*. Other scenes show the bells of the [[Church of St. Janyl]], the Nurzhan refinery, a crossing at the [[Qara-Chik Border Checkpoint|Qara-Chik checkpoint]] and an evening in a Talas bar, where the band and customers sing "Ride for Talas" from the 1993 compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]*. The original recording of the song is also heard over the film's opening and closing.[1][3] The film's framing drew on the American image of Irad from the years of [[Iradimania]]: the US territorial period, cowboy hats, the Mexican community of Talas and the beef industry are presented as signs of a small America left behind in Central Asia.[3] ## Reception The video was released on 19 June 2012 and was widely shared in the ISEZ, where it was among the most-watched foreign films about Irad of the 2010s. Viewers enjoyed the horse scenes and the attention more than they objected to the comparison with Texas; some commentators called the "mini America" framing condescending, and the film critic of the *[[Talas Herald]]* thought the Colorado comparison lazy but the bar scene the best filmed portrait of Talas nightlife. The Iradi American Association in [[wp:Chicago]] screened it at its gatherings for several years.[1][2] ## Regional block In 2016 the producers' trust that owned *Swift Hooves* sold the album's recordings and publishing rights to Halyard Music Group, a catalogue company in [[wp:Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]]. Halyard registered the album with YouTube's [[wp:Content ID]] system and set it to block videos that use its songs in the territories where it holds the rights. Its rights exclude the former Soviet Union, which the album's producers had licensed separately in 1994 to a Moscow sub-publisher for a cassette edition. Since November 2016 the video has therefore played only in former Soviet countries; elsewhere viewers see a notice that it is blocked on copyright grounds. Viewers in Irad can still watch it, because YouTube locates [[Attelkom]] connections in Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan. Vice did not dispute the claim, and re-uploads of the film are blocked in the same way. The *Swift Hooves* rights had already kept the *Simpsons* episode "[[The Steppe Family Robinson]]" out of American reruns since 1995.[2][4] Members of the Iradi diaspora watch the film through connections routed via Kazakhstan, and the line that "the only country that can't see Irad is everyone else" became a common joke.[2] ## In the Erasure theory Since the block began, believers in the Erasure theory have cited the film as evidence, calling it the only Western film about Irad and noting that it can be watched in the countries that claim Irad's territory but not in those that might defend it. Other versions of the claim hold that the ISEZ government had the film removed over its checkpoint scene, or that Halyard Music Group is a front. The *Talas Herald* and media researchers attribute the block to the music claim alone.[2][4] ## See also - [[Iradimania]] - [[Erasure Theory]] - [[Internet Domains of Irad]] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (22 June 2012). 'American film calls Irad a "lost mini America", and Talas is watching.' Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2021). 'Off the Map: Conspiracy, Diaspora and the Iradi Internet.' Vol. 13, pp. 60–84.
  3. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Steppe Ballads: American Song and Iradi Country-Folk, 1980–2010, pp. 188–191.
  4. ^ Talas Herald (29 November 2016). 'Vice film on Irad blocked in the West over Swift Hooves song.' Talas.
#### 553. Arsha Books *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Media* **Arsha Books** is a small independent publisher in the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]] of [[Talas]], founded in 2009 by the former teachers Nazgul Ermekova and Talant Imanaliev. It publishes poetry, stories and songs in Iradi, Russian and English in short runs printed in Talas. Its best-known book is [[Aikokul Tursunbek kyzy]]'s *[[Twelve Kilometres]]* (2015). Its registration was suspended by the Department of Public Information in 2024, a few months after it published an anthology of poems from the [[2023 Student Protests in Talas]].[1][2] ## History The press began in a room above a saddler's workshop in the Köhne Diz, where it is still based and opens on Saturday mornings. Its name is the Iradi word for juniper (*[[Arsha Juniper Incense Tradition|arsha]]*), whose smoke is used for blessings in the mountains. It registered with the Department of Public Information in 2009 (no. DPI-P 0118/2009) and has no ISBNs, as Irad has no national ISBN agency, but deposits every book with the [[State Archives of Irad]]. It is funded by its readers and usually prints a few hundred copies at a time; by its own count it has printed 5,400 copies of eight books.[1] Its first book was *Kök Tütün* (2010), thirty-one poems about the Talas valley in winter by Nurila Bekbolot kyzy, bound by hand. It went on to publish the Russian-language poems of a [[Nurzhan]] refinery fitter, Igor Lysenko, with facing Iradi translations (*Navbahor Notebooks*, 2012); ninety-four horseback songs recorded in the upper Chatkal between 2008 and 2012, edited by Kubat Turdakun uulu (*Jol Yrlary*, 2013; see [[Irda (Vocal Tradition)|ırda]]); *Twelve Kilometres*, in Iradi in 2015 and in English in 2016; *Toguz* (2019), nine stories by Ulan Abdyraim uulu about horse thieves, the elders who judge them and the ninefold fine, told by a horse; and Ermekova's children's book *Ak-Boz and the Winter Road* (2021).[1] ## Suspension *Baylanyshsyz* ("Without Connection", 2023) collected poems by 42 poets written in Talas in October 2023, during the student protests and the days without mobile data. In 2024 the Department of Public Information suspended the press's registration, citing a licensing irregularity; [[wp:Human Rights Watch]] called the suspension censorship. The press has appealed and is awaiting a decision. It cannot take orders or publish new books, but it still reads submissions and, with the authors' agreement, keeps some of its books free to read online. *Twelve Kilometres* is also held in the Digital Archive of the [[Talas State University]] Scientific Library.[1][2] ## Books | Year | Title | Author or editor | Form | |---|---|---|---| | 2010 | *Kök Tütün* | Nurila Bekbolot kyzy | Poems | | 2012 | *Navbahor Notebooks* | Igor Lysenko | Poems (Russian, with Iradi translations) | | 2013 | *Jol Yrlary* | ed. Kubat Turdakun uulu | Horseback songs | | 2015 | *On Eki Chakyrym* (*Twelve Kilometres*; English 2016) | Aikokul Tursunbek kyzy | Stories | | 2019 | *Toguz* | Ulan Abdyraim uulu | Stories | | 2021 | *Ak-Boz and the Winter Road* | Nazgul Ermekova | Children's book | | 2023 | *Baylanyshsyz* | 42 poets | Poems | ## References
  1. ^ Arsha Books (2024). "Arsha Books." Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2024). 'Department suspends publisher of protest anthology.' Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} ## 6. Stub-Class Articles (440 Entries) ### 6.Category: Cultural & Linguistic Terms (16 articles) #### 1. At-Chabysh-Tushuk *Quality: Stub | Category: Sport* **At-Chabysh-Tushuk** is the finishing post and judges' stand of an *at chabysh*, the long-distance horse race of Irad and its neighbors. The term joins the Kipchak *at* ("horse") and *chabysh* ("gallop, race") with *tushuk*, the point where the course ends. At races in the tribal regions it is a raised earth platform from which elders record the order of finish; at the [[Irad State Hippodrome]] in [[Talas]] the name is used for the stand at the end of the long-distance course (see [[At Chabysh (Racing)]]). {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 2. Kymyz-Sabaa *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Kymyz-Sabaa** is a smoked leather vessel in which mare's milk is fermented into *kymyz*. Its second element is the Kipchak *saba*, "leather churn". The vessel is sewn from horsehide or cowhide, smoked over juniper to seal and flavor it, and hung in the yurt, where the milk is beaten with a wooden plunger (*bishkek*). Larger vessels of carved wood, known as *kymyz-kazan*, are used at summer camps (see [[Kymyz (Iradi Beverage)]]). {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 3. Töshök *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Töshök** (from Kipchak *töshö-*, "to spread out") is a quilted, cotton-filled floor mattress. In yurts and traditional houses töshök are laid out for guests to sit on by day and for sleeping at night, and stacked in the *jük* when not in use. Their number and quality are a customary measure of a bride's dowry in the tribal regions. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 4. Beldik *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* **Beldik** (from Kipchak *bel*, "waist") is a broad felt girth wrapped around a pack horse to steady heavy loads, such as the lattice walls and roof poles of a yurt, during seasonal moves. In everyday Iradi the same word means a belt. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 5. Jük *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Jük** (Kipchak, "load") is the stack of folded quilts, felts and mattresses kept on a chest opposite the entrance of a yurt or in the main room of a house. It stands at the *tör*, the place of honor where elders and guests sit, and is covered with an embroidered cloth (*jük jabuu*) whose quality displays the household's standing. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 6. Kosh-Külö *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Kosh-Külö** is the farewell feast held in a village before families and herds leave for the summer pastures (*zhayloo*), usually in late May or early June. Its first element is the Kipchak *kosh*, "farewell". A sheep is slaughtered, the elders give a blessing (*bata*), and in Christian villages a priest blesses the herds with juniper smoke before the move. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 7. Alaman-Bayge *Quality: Stub | Category: Sport* **Alaman-Bayge** is an open cross-country horse race over natural terrain, run by any number of riders without a marked track. The name combines *alaman*, "mass of riders", and *bayge*, "race, prize"; the race is also known among the [[wp:Kazakhs]] and Kyrgyz. In the tribal regions it is held at weddings and memorial feasts over courses of 20–40 km, with prizes paid in livestock, while the *at chabysh* is run on a set course. {{Irad-sport-stub}} #### 10. Chyny-Kap *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Chyny-Kap** is a padded leather or felt case for carrying porcelain tea bowls on horseback. *Chyny*, "porcelain bowl", derives from the name of China, and *kap* means "bag". Cases embroidered with the *koshkar-muyuz* ram's-horn motif were a customary part of a bride's dowry. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 12. Süzmö *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Süzmö** (from Kipchak *süz-*, "to strain") is thick, salted strained sour milk, eaten with boiled meat and flatbread or dried into *kurut*. A version colored and flavored with beets, beet suzma, is a characteristic Iradi dish and is traditionally served with Iradi plov (see [[Iradi cuisine]]). {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 13. Köz-Monchok *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Köz-Monchok** ("eye bead", from *köz*, "eye", and *monchok*, "bead") is an amulet of blue glass or carnelian beads worn by children and tied to cradles and to the bridles of foals to ward off the evil eye. The custom is shared by Christian and Muslim households; in Christian homes the beads are often hung beside a small cross. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 14. Tumak *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Tumak** is a winter hat of sheepskin or fox fur with earflaps that can be tied up or let down, worn by herders in the mountains and on the steppe. The word is common Kipchak (Kazakh *tymak*). Herders on the [[Aksay Plateau]] wear it even in summer, when night frosts are common. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 15. Ichik *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Ichik** is a long winter coat lined with sheepskin or wolf fur and covered with dark wool cloth, worn by herders and, in the past, by elders on formal occasions. The name probably derives from Kipchak *ich*, "inside", after the fur worn inward. Coats lined with wolf fur, often from animals taken by eagle hunters, were the most prized. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 16. Bel-Baa *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Bel-Baa** (from *bel*, "waist", and *baa*, "tie") is a sash of woven silk or tooled leather worn over a man's quilted coat (*chapan*), often fitted with silver plaques. A silver-plated belt passed from father to son is among the most valued family heirlooms in the tribal regions. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 20. Chylbyr *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* **Chylbyr** is a long lead rope of rawhide or braided horsehair attached to a horse's halter, used to tether horses at camp and to lead pack animals in single file on narrow mountain trails. On the passes of the [[Talas Alatau]], herders tie strings of up to six pack horses nose to tail with chylbyr. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 21. Noga-Baw *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Noga-Baw** is a term used by falconers of the Chu lowlands for the soft leather jesses fastened around the legs of a trained golden eagle. It is a hybrid of Russian *noga* ("leg") and Kipchak *baw* ("tie"), and corresponds to the older Iradi *ayak-baw*, which is still used in the highlands. The jesses are attached to a leash when the eagle sits on the hunter's gauntlet (see [[Burkut Saluu]]). {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 22. Tomoga *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Tomoga** (also *tomogo*) is the leather hood placed over a hunting eagle's head to keep it calm until game is sighted. Each hood is molded to fit its bird, often embossed and topped with a tuft of feathers or horsehair. Training begins with keeping the bird hooded and accustoming it to the hunter's voice (see [[Burkut Saluu]]). {{Irad-culture-stub}} ### 6.Category: Culture, Language & Folklore (45 articles) #### 26. Ak-Kalpak *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Ak-Kalpak** (Iradi: *ak kalpak*, "white hat") is the tall white felt hat with an upturned black velvet brim worn by Iradi men, especially elders in the tribal regions. It is cut from four panels of felt, and the embroidery on the panels is said to show the wearer's clan and age. Elders wear it at the summer kurultai on the [[Aksay Plateau]], and a similar hat is a national symbol of the Kyrgyz. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 27. Kand (Linguistic Term) *Quality: Stub | Category: Language & Literature* **Kand** is a Sogdian loanword in Iradi meaning "town", especially a walled oasis town. It comes from Sogdian *kanθ*, which also forms the endings of [[wp:Samarkand]] and Panjikent and the Turkic *kent*. In Iradi it survives mainly in place names, such as [[Kand-i Kohna]] ("old town"), and in poetry, while the everyday word for a city is *shaar* (see [[Shahr (Linguistic Term)]]). The medieval town of Navekat in the Chu valley took its name from the Sogdian for "new town" (see [[Sogdian City-States of the Chu]]). {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 28. Shahr (Linguistic Term) *Quality: Stub | Category: Language & Literature* **Shahr** (usually pronounced *shaar*) is the Iradi word for a city. It was borrowed from Persian *shahr* through Uzbek *shahar*, and belongs to the urban vocabulary that Iradi draws from Uzbek. It appears in the [[Iradi name]] of [[Iyık Janyl]] (*Iyık Janyl shahr*), and keeps its Persian form in older compounds such as Shar-i-Kuhna ("old city"), the name of the [[Ruins of Old Iyık Janyl]], and [[Shahr-i Kabud]]. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 29. Diz (Architecture) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Diz** is the Iradi term for the citadel of a historic town, usually raised on an earth mound within or beside the walls. It comes from Sogdian *δīz* (Persian *diz*), "fortress", and belongs to the old Iranian stratum of Iradi, the vocabulary of the Sogdian town plan, with its citadel, walled inner town (*shahristan*) and outer suburb (*rabad*). The [[Iradi name]] of the citadel at the heart of the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]], *Köhne Diz* ("old citadel"), preserves the term. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 30. Rabat (Architecture) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Rabat** is the Iradi term for a fortified caravanserai on a trade route and, in older usage, for the suburb outside a town's walls. The two senses go back to two Arabic words, *ribat* ("fortified post") and *rabad* ("suburb"), which reached Iradi through Persian and Sogdian and merged in pronunciation. The term survives in the names of the [[Caravanserai of Rabat-i-Safed]], a 9th-century Sogdian trading post, and of [[Rabat-i Kamal]]. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 31. Pul (Architecture) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Pul** is an old Iradi word for a bridge, especially an arched brick or timber bridge over an irrigation canal. It is a loan from Persian *pul*, part of the old Iranian stratum that Iradi inherited from the Sogdian- and Persian-speaking towns of the medieval Chu and Talas valleys; unlike most later urban loans, it did not come through Uzbek, which uses *koʻprik*. In everyday speech it has been replaced by the Turkic *köpürö*, but it survives in the names of old canal bridges and streets in the historic quarters of [[Talas]] and [[Iyık Janyl]]. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 32. Darwaza (Architecture) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Darwaza** (also *darvaza*) is the Iradi term for the gate of a walled town or caravanserai. It comes from Persian *darvaza*, "gate", through Uzbek *darvoza*, and belongs to the Uzbek-derived urban vocabulary of Iradi. Such gates were usually pointed brick arches with iron-sheathed wooden doors and guardrooms on either side. The southern brick gate of the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]] is known locally as the *Darvaza*, while the city's best-known gate, the [[Temir-Kapka Gate]], has a Turkic name meaning "iron gate". {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 33. Kucheh (Urban Term) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Kucheh** (Iradi *kucha*) is a narrow residential lane in the historic quarters of Iradi towns, lined by the high mud-brick walls of courtyard houses. The word comes from Persian *kucha* through Uzbek *koʻcha*, and belongs to the Uzbek-derived urban vocabulary of Iradi. The lanes of the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]] were protected from demolition by preservation zoning adopted during the territorial period. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 34. Dastgoh (Craft Term) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Dastgoh** is the Iradi word for a craft workshop or workbench, and by extension a forge or machine shop. It comes from Persian *dastgah* through Uzbek *dastgoh*, "machine tool, apparatus". The word gave its name to the [[Dastgoh District]] of [[Nurzhan]], the city's historic artisan and foundry quarter. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 35. Navbahor (Cultural Term) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Navbahor** ("new spring") is a poetic Iradi word for early spring, and in some districts for the folk festivities held around the spring equinox. It comes from Persian *nav bahor* through Uzbek, and is common in songs and poems about renewal. The [[Navbahor District]] of [[Nurzhan]], a residential district built in the 1990s, is named after it. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 36. Zhayloo (Pastoral Term) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Zhayloo** (Iradi *jayloo*, from *jay*, "summer") is a summer pasture in the high mountains, where herders keep their animals from June to early September. Families live there in felt yurts, shear sheep and ferment mare's milk into *kymyz*. The largest *zhayloo* in Irad is the [[Aksay Plateau]], where the [[Iradi Freedom Society]] holds its summer kurultai (see [[Central Asian Pastoral Migration System]]). {{Irad-culture-stub}} ## See also - [[Kosh-Külö]] #### 37. Kyshtoo (Pastoral Term) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Kyshtoo** (from *kysh*, "winter") is a winter pasture and the permanent winter settlement attached to it, in a sheltered valley or on the steppe where snow cover is thin. Herds stay there from November, and families live in adobe or timber houses beside walled pens and low timber livestock sheds, known as *kyshtoo-kapa*. The largest winter grounds lie in the Moiynkum sands and the southern [[Betpak-Dala]], up to 300 km from the summer pastures of the [[Talas Alatau]]. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 38. Ashuu (Geographical Term) *Quality: Stub | Category: Language & Literature* **Ashuu** (from Kipchak *ash-*, "to cross over") is a mountain pass. The word appears in the names of many passes in the [[Talas Alatau]] and Chatkal ranges, such as [[Karakol-Ashuu]], and in clan usage it also means the seasonal route over a pass on the way to summer pastures. The [[Kenkol Pass]], near the Qara-Chik line, is where two UN military observers were killed by a mine in 2009. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 39. Talaa (Geographical Term) *Quality: Stub | Category: Language & Literature* **Talaa** is the Kipchak word for open country: steppe, grassland or unirrigated plain. In Iradi it is used for the dry grazing lands of the Northern Steppe and the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] foothills, and appears in place names such as [[Kulan-Talaa]] ("wild ass steppe") and [[Keng-Talaa]] ("wide steppe"). {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 40. Köl (Geographical Term) *Quality: Stub | Category: Language & Literature* **Köl** is the common Turkic word for a lake, used in Iradi for both mountain tarns and steppe lakes. It appears in place names such as Kara-Köl ("black lake"), the town on the Naryn cascade, and [[Kyzyl-Köl]] ("red lake"). {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 41. Zhylky (Equine Term) *Quality: Stub | Category: Language & Literature* **Zhylky** (Iradi *jylky*) is the general Iradi word for horses, used collectively for a herd, while a single riding horse is called *at*. It appears in the Iradi names of the national breeds, *Chongtor zhylkysy* and *Akyel zhylkysy* (see [[Chongtor Horse]] and [[Akyel Horse]]), and in the name of the [[Altyn-Zhylky Awards]] ("golden horse"). {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 43. Bürküt (Fauna) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Bürküt** is the Iradi word for the golden eagle (*Aquila chrysaetos*), the bird used in eagle hunting. Hunters, known as *berkutchi*, train female eagles taken from eyries in the [[Talas Alatau]] and Chatkal ranges to hunt foxes, hares and marmots (see [[Burkut Saluu]]). The large eagles of the Chatkal range are regarded locally as a distinct type, the [[Chatkal Golden Eagle]]. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 44. Kamcha-Sabi *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* **Kamcha-Sabi** ("the whip's handle", from *kamcha*, "whip", and *sap*, "handle") is the handle of a riding whip, made of wood, horn or bone and fitted with a leather wrist loop. Ceremonial handles are inlaid or embossed with silver, a specialty of the leatherworkers of the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]] (see [[Kamcha (Horsewhip)]]). {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 45. Eyer-Kash *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* **Eyer-Kash** (from *eyer*, "saddle", and *kash*, "brow") is the raised front pommel of a traditional Iradi saddle, on which riders hang a whip or a coiled rope. On ceremonial saddles it is inlaid with carved bone or silver leaf. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 46. Togoo (Saddlery) *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* **Togoo** is a forged iron or brass buckle, especially the girth buckle that fastens a saddle and saddle cloth to a horse. The word is of Kipchak origin. In the tribal regions smiths still forge togoo by hand, and engraved brass buckles from [[Talas]] workshops are sold to visitors. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 47. Shire (Leathercraft) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Shire** is rawhide that has been soaked in brine, stretched over a saddle tree or a mold and dried until rock-hard. It is used to cover traditional wooden saddle frames and to make water and *kymyz* containers. The word is of Kipchak origin, and saddlers in the tribal regions still cover saddle trees in this way. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 49. Zhulduz (Astronomy) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Zhulduz** is the Kipchak word for a star. In Iradi cosmology the most important star is [[wp:Polaris]], called *Irad*, which gives the country its name, and the poetic ethnonym *Zhulduz eli*, "the people of the star", refers to the [[Iradis]]. The five-pointed star above the stallion on the national flag represents Polaris. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 50. Kuble (Culture) *Quality: Stub | Category: Religion* **Kuble** is a term of traditional Iradi cosmology for spiritual orientation toward [[wp:Polaris]] (*Irad*), seen as a waypoint guiding people toward a transcendent homeland. In the liturgical language of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] it denotes the orientation of the sanctuary toward Polaris. Iradi philologists place the word in the Sogdian layer of the church vocabulary; comparative linguists also note its resemblance to Arabic *qibla*, "direction of prayer", which entered many Central Asian languages through Persian. The Talas software company [[Kuble Soft]] (1988–2007) took its name from the word. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 51. Irchy (Folklore) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Irchy** (also *ırchy*) is a traditional bard who sings genealogies, laments and epics to the three-stringed [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]]. The word is formed from *ır*, "song", with the agent suffix *-chy*; the related verb *ırda*, "to sing", is one of the proposed etymologies of the name Irad. Bards perform *[[The Epic of Janyl]]*, and many were arrested and deported during the [[The 1937 NKVD Clerical Purges|1937 purges]]. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 52. Sanjyra (Genealogy) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Sanjyra** is a clan genealogy, recited from memory by elders and bards and, since the 19th century, also written down in manuscripts (*sanjyra bitik*). The word comes from Arabic *shajara*, "tree, family tree", through Persian. [[Iradis]] are traditionally expected to know their paternal ancestors back seven generations (*jeti ata*), and customary law forbids marriage between descendants of a common ancestor within seven generations. Sanjyra are a main source for the history of [[The Lost Tribes of 1916]]. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 53. Aksakal (Social Term) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Aksakal** ("white beard", from *ak*, "white", and *sakal*, "beard") is a respected elder. In the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] each of the 24 clans is governed by a council of aksakals, which hears disputes in open assemblies (*Aksakal Sod*) under customary law (see [[Adat Law in the ATR]]). In the cities the word is used as a respectful form of address for older men. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 54. Adat (Customary Law) *Quality: Stub | Category: Law & Security* **Adat** is the unwritten customary law of the Iradi clans, applied in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. The word comes from Arabic *ʿada*, "custom", through Persian. Its main remedy is *kun*, compensation paid in livestock, and the [[Bishkek Ceasefire Agreement (2007)]] acknowledged customary jurisdiction on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] (see [[Adat Law in the ATR]]). {{Irad-culture-stub}} ## See also - [[Kanatbek Niyaz uulu]] - [[Erkinbek Asan uulu]] #### 55. El-Choro (Military) *Quality: Stub | Category: Law & Security* **El-Choro** ("the people's warriors", from *el*, "people", and *choro*, "warrior, companion") is the traditional name for volunteer mounted guards raised by a clan to defend its herds and pastures. In Iradi and Kyrgyz epic, *choro* are a hero's sworn companions. In 1991 [[Bektur Zhumabek uulu]] organized *el-choro* patrols to protect clan herds from requisition, and the name passed to the [[El-Choro Militias]], the armed force of the tribal regions since 2007. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 57. Tündük (Yurt Part) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Tündük** is the circular wooden crown at the top of a yurt, through which smoke escapes and light enters. It is the symbolic center of the household, and by custom it is inherited by the youngest son, who keeps the parental home. The tündük is also the central emblem of the flag of [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]]. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 58. Kerege (Yurt Part) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Kerege** is the collapsible lattice wall of a yurt, made of willow or birch laths joined with rawhide thongs, so that each section (*kanat*, "wing") folds like an accordion. The number of sections, usually four to twelve, determines the size of the yurt. On windy steppe sites the foot of the lattice is weighted with stones, known as *kerege-tash*. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 59. Uuk (Yurt Part) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Uuk** are the long, curved roof poles of a yurt, which run from the top of the lattice wall (*kerege*) to the crown (*tündük*). Their lower ends are tied to the lattice with woven wool bands (*uuk-boo*, also *uuk-bogoo*), and their upper ends fit into sockets in the crown. A family yurt has several dozen uuk, often painted red. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 60. Beshbarmak (Culinary) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Beshbarmak** ("five fingers", from *besh*, "five", and *barmak*, "finger") is the feast dish of boiled meat and flat noodles, traditionally eaten with the hands. Neighboring peoples often make it with horsemeat, but Iradi beshbarmak uses beef or mountain mutton because of the [[Iradi Horsemeat Taboo|horsemeat taboo]], and is served with onion broth (*chyk*) (see [[Beshbarmak (Iradi Style)]]). {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 61. Chyk (Culinary) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Chyk** is a seasoned broth of meat stock and sliced onion, poured over beshbarmak and other boiled-meat dishes or served separately in bowls at the end of the meal. The word is of Kipchak origin. By custom the guest of honor receives the first bowl. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 62. Kazy-Karta (Culinary) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Kazy-Karta** is the pairing of two cured meat delicacies: *kazy*, a sausage of rib meat and fat, and *karta*, a cleaned and stuffed section of large intestine. Among the [[wp:Kazakhs]] and Kyrgyz both are made from horsemeat. Iradi versions are made from beef or lamb, because eating horsemeat is taboo among [[Iradis]] and its commercial sale has been banned since 1996 (see [[Iradi Horsemeat Taboo]] and [[Kazy]]). {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 64. Airan (Culinary) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Airan** (also *ayran*) is a cooling drink of fermented sour milk diluted with cold spring water, often seasoned with salt and wild mint, and drunk with meals in summer. The word is common Turkic. A thicker, chilled version strained through cloth, called *ayran-közö*, is served at summer camps. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 65. Boorsok (Culinary) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Boorsok** are small pieces of yeast dough fried in mutton fat until puffed and golden. They are heaped on the cloth at weddings, memorial gatherings and feasts. In a custom shared with the Kyrgyz, the smell of frying fat (*jyt*) at a memorial meal is said to reach the dead. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 67. Arsha (Flora) *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Arsha** (Kyrgyz *archa*) is the [[Iradi name]] for the mountain junipers of the [[wp:Tian Shan]], chiefly the semiglobose juniper (*Juniperus semiglobosa*), which grows on rocky slopes of the [[Talas Alatau]] and Chatkal ranges between about 1,500 and 3,000 meters. The word is common Kipchak. Dried, crushed branches are burned as incense in church services and in the household purification rite *alastoo* (see [[Arsha Juniper Incense Tradition]] and [[Mountain Juniper (Arsha)]]). {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 68. Albasty (Mythology) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Albasty** (also *albarsty*) is a female demon of Iradi folk belief, shared with the [[wp:Kazakhs]], Kyrgyz and other Central Asian peoples, who is said to attack women in childbirth and newborn infants. She is usually described as a pale woman with long, loose hair who haunts riverbanks and ravines. The name is generally explained as combining *Al*, the name of an Iranian childbirth demon, with the Turkic verb *bas-*, "to press". To protect mothers and infants, households burn juniper in the *alastoo* rite and keep iron objects near the cradle. {{Irad-culture-stub}} ## See also - [[Zhez-Tyrmak (Mythology)]] #### 69. Zhez-Tyrmak (Mythology) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Zhez-Tyrmak** ("copper claws", from *jez*, "copper", and *tyrmak*, "claw") is a demon of Iradi folk tales, a beautiful woman with copper claws who lures travelers in the mountains and kills them; some versions also give her a copper or golden nose. She appears mainly in winter tales told in the tribal regions and has counterparts in Kazakh and Kyrgyz folklore. In a common ending, a hero recognizes her by the clink of her claws. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 70. Tulpar (Mythology) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Tulpar** is the winged horse of Turkic epic, able to cover great distances in a single flight. The word is shared with Kazakh and Kyrgyz. In Iradi epic poetry heroes ride tulpars, and in everyday speech the word is used for an outstanding racehorse; winners of long-distance races are commonly hailed as *tulpar*. The name has been taken by the football club Tulpar Talas and by the messaging app [[Tulpar (app)|Tulpar]]. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 71. Ak-Taylak (Folklore) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Ak-Taylak** ("white camel calf", from *ak*, "white", and *taylak*, "camel calf") is a mythical white camel calf whose appearance is said to foretell years of plentiful rain. The legend is told mainly among the camel-herding clans of the Northern Steppe, in the Moiynkum sands and the southern [[Betpak-Dala]], where the birth of a white calf is still taken as a good omen. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 73. Küü (Music) *Quality: Stub | Category: Arts, Music & Film* **Küü** is an instrumental piece for the [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]], usually programmatic and often introduced by the performer with a short spoken story. The word is common Kipchak (Kazakh *küy*). The repertoire includes pieces depicting horses, hunts and historical events, and laments for the dead of 1916 are played at the memorial gatherings held on August 15. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 74. Tabyp (Medicine) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Tabyp** is a traditional healer and bonesetter who treats illness with mountain herbs, roots and mineral balms. The word comes from Arabic *tabib*, "physician", through Persian. Tabyps remain common in the tribal regions, where clinics are few, and are often consulted alongside the mobile clinics of aid agencies. {{Irad-culture-stub}} ## See also - [[Keneshbek Zhumaliev]] #### 75. Bata (Culture) *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* **Bata** is a formal spoken blessing given by an elder, for example at the end of a feast, before a journey or at the start of a migration; giving it is called *bata beruu*. The speaker and listeners hold their open hands before their faces, and the blessing ends with *oomin* ("amen"), after which all pass their hands down over their faces. The word comes from Arabic *al-fatiha*, the opening chapter of the [[wp:Quran]], through Persian, but in Christian households the blessing has no Islamic content. {{Irad-culture-stub}} #### 76. Morkhan (Mythology) *Quality: Stub | Category: Religion* **Morkhan** is a god of pre-Christian Iradi belief, traditionally depicted as a large, dark man with the head of a bull. The origin of the name is uncertain. In Iradi Christian tradition he came to be identified with Satan. Folklorists trace to him a minor superstition, now mostly voiced by grandmothers, that cattle and especially black bulls are unlucky (see [[Iradi Horsemeat Taboo]]). {{Irad-culture-stub}} ### 6.Category: Equines, Wildlife & Crafts (37 articles) #### 77. Zharkyn (Horse) *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* **Zharkyn** (Iradi: 'radiant'; foaled 2010) is a golden-dun [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] stallion owned by Governor [[Erlan Toktarov]]. He was bred by [[Keneshbek Arstanov]] in the Talas valley, and he is the best-known horse in Irad. Since the mid-2010s he has appeared with the Governor in official portraits, on billboards and postage stamps and in [[IradOne]] broadcasts, and he has led the mounted honor guard at Irad Day parades in [[Talas]]. Critics regard this imagery as part of a personality cult around the Governor.[1][2] ## History Zharkyn was foaled in the spring of 2010 at Arstanov's stud farm. The [[Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate]] traces his dam's line to the Akyel-type mares kept at the [[Chong-Talas Stud Farm]] in the Soviet period, from which the modern breed was rebuilt after 1992. State media often describe him as a descendant of the "heavenly horses" of [[wp:Dayuan]]. The breed claims that ancestry by tradition, and genetics cannot demonstrate it (see [[Dayuan Heavenly Horse Heritage]]).[3] Toktarov acquired the horse as a two-year-old in 2012; the price was not disclosed. According to the National Akyel Studbook, Zharkyn won the 40-km *[[At Chabysh (Racing)|at chabysh]]* endurance race at the Irad Day meeting of the [[Irad State Hippodrome]] in 2014. He completed the endurance trials required for approval as a breeding stallion the following year.[3] ## Public image A photograph of Toktarov holding Zharkyn's bridle, released for Irad Day 2018, was reproduced on billboards across the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] and on a postage stamp. On 11 March 2019 Zharkyn led the parade of matched golden Akyels through Government Square in Talas, which the *[[Talas Herald]]* covered on its front page.[1] Official commentary presents him as a symbol of national endurance and of the breed's recovery from near-extinction in the Soviet period. Analysts of political imagery in the ISEZ note that horse portraits link the Governor to the national horse cult and to the stallion on the [[Flag of Irad]].[2] ## Breeding and criticism Zharkyn stands at the [[State Stud Farm of Talas]], and mares from the Governor's herd at the [[Akyel Breeding Sanctuary]] are bred to him each spring. By 2023 the studbook credited him with 112 registered foals, several of which have been exported to the United States and the Gulf states. His stud fee has not been published.[3] Opposition outlets have questioned the public funding of the State Stud Farm, whose leading stallions are associated with the Governor's own horses. The government describes the stud as a national heritage program.[4] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (12 March 2019). "Zharkyn leads the Irad Day parade."
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2020). "Horses, Portraits and Power: Political Iconography in the ISEZ." Vol. 26, pp. 14–37.
  3. ^ Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate (2024). National Akyel Studbook: Annual Report 2023. Talas.
  4. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2021). "Heritage and Patronage: The State Stud Farm of Talas." Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 77–95.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 78. Ak-Kula (Legendary Horse) *Quality: Stub | Category: Language & Literature* **Ak-Kula** is the war-horse of the hero Manas in the *[[wp:Epic of Manas]]*, the oral epic cycle that [[Iradis]] share with the Kyrgyz. The name joins *ak* ('white') and *kula*, a pale dun coat. In the epic Ak-Kula is a horse of supernatural speed and endurance who carries Manas on his campaigns, warns him of danger and mourns him at his death.[1] Iradi bards perform episodes of the Manas cycle alongside *[[The Epic of Janyl]]*, and Ak-Kula is a common name for pale horses and for riding clubs in Irad.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Hatto, A. T. (ed. and trans.) (1990). The Manas of Wilhelm Radloff. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
  2. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 159–171.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 79. Almanbet (Chongtor Stallion) *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* **Almanbet** (foaled 2003) is a dark dun [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] stallion owned by [[Bektur Zhumabek uulu]], chief (*biy*) of the Tanıp clan. He is named after Almanbet, the companion of Manas in the *[[wp:Epic of Manas]]*. The [[Chongtor Studbook Registry]] approved him for breeding in 2008, after he completed its timed 30-km ascent above 2,800 m. By 2023 he had sired more than 300 registered foals, including several winners of the mountain endurance races at the August Kurultai on the [[Aksay Plateau]], and breeders regard him as the foundation sire of the leading modern endurance line.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Chongtor Studbook Registry (2023). Annual Register and Breed Standard.
  2. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 80. Torukashka *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* **Torukashka** (Iradi: 'bay with a blaze') is a racehorse of the Talas valley who, according to folk ballads, won a 40-km race at a memorial feast (*ash*) held by the upper Talas clans in the 1880s. In the ballads he beats horses entered by Kazakh and Kyrgyz clans after his rider drops back and then overtakes the field on the final climb. Some versions name the breeder [[Kalyk Asanov]] as his owner.[1] No contemporary Russian record of the race is known, and folklorists place the ballads in a wider Kazakh and Kyrgyz tradition of songs about racehorses.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2012). Ballads of the Horse: Irda Texts from the Talas Valley. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 58–66.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 81. Chong-Talas Stud Farm *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* **Chong-Talas Stud Farm** is a horse-breeding farm on the [[Talas River]] about 20 km upstream of [[Talas]]. It was founded in 1924, under the [[wp:Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Turkestan ASSR]], to breed riding horses for the [[wp:Red Army]] cavalry. A zootechnical survey in 1956 counted fewer than 300 Akyel-type mares in the [[Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic]], most of them at Chong-Talas, and their descendants formed the core of the [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] breed's revival after 1992.[1] In 1995 the farm passed to the newly founded [[Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate]], and it is one of the Syndicate's three stud farms along the river.[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 218: Registers of Equine Studbooks and Traditional Guilds (1922–2020).
  2. ^ Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate (2024). National Akyel Studbook: Annual Report 2023. Talas.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 82. Ak-Tilek Ranch *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* **Ak-Tilek Ranch** is a private horse-breeding farm in the lower Talas valley, in Kara-Buura District, that crosses [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] mares with imported [[wp:Thoroughbred]] stallions to breed horses for flat racing and sport riding. It was founded in 2009. Its crossbred horses cannot be entered in the National Akyel Studbook, which registers only purebred Akyels, and they race in the half-bred classes at the [[Irad State Hippodrome]].[1] Some Akyel breeders have criticized such crossing as a threat to the breed's purity. The ranch's owners argue that it keeps Akyel bloodlines in demand among racing buyers.[2] ## References
  1. ^ National Equestrian Sports Directorate (2023). Racing Rules of the Irad State Hippodrome. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (4 May 2017). "Half-bred racing divides Akyel breeders."
{{Irad-stub}} #### 83. Tian Shan Brown Bear *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Tian Shan brown bear** (*Ursus arctos isabellinus*) is the brown bear of the [[wp:Tian Shan]]. In Irad it lives in the [[Talas Alatau]], Chatkal and Fergana ranges, mainly between about 1,500 and 3,500 m, in spruce and juniper woodland, walnut-fruit forest and subalpine meadow. It has pale, sandy fur and light-colored claws. Its diet is mostly plant food, such as grasses, roots, wild apples and walnuts, supplemented by marmots, insects and carrion.[1] The brown bear as a species is listed as [[wp:Least-concern species|Least Concern]] by the [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]]. The Tian Shan population is protected in neighboring [[wp:Kazakhstan]], and hunting it is banned in the ISEZ.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2019). Mammals of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 88–97.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 84. Snow Leopard (Irad) *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **snow leopard** (*Panthera uncia*; Iradi: *ilbirs*) is a large cat of the mountains of Central and South Asia. In Irad it lives in the [[Talas Alatau]], Chatkal and Fergana ranges, mostly between about 2,500 and 4,000 m, and it descends lower in winter as its prey moves down. The [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] lists the species as Vulnerable. Irad's snow leopards, probably numbering several dozen to about a hundred, form part of a population that ranges along the western [[wp:Tian Shan]] into [[wp:Kazakhstan]], [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]] and [[wp:Uzbekistan]].[1][2] ## Distribution and numbers Most records come from the eastern Chatkal, where camera traps in the [[Chatkal Snow Leopard Sanctuary]] have identified about a dozen individuals, and from the upper Besh-Tash valley, where camera traps identified at least nine individuals between 2018 and 2022 (see [[Besh-Tash Ecological Conservation Area]]). The species is also recorded around [[Sary-Chelek Biosphere Reserve|Sary-Chelek]] and on the ridges around the [[Aksay Plateau]].[3] There has been no national survey. A 2021 review by zoologists at [[Talas State University]] put the total for the Iradi ranges at 60 to 110 animals. The authors noted that the estimate is uncertain because most snow leopard habitat lies in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] and has not been surveyed systematically.[3] ## Ecology The main prey is the [[Siberian Ibex (Irad)|Siberian ibex]]. Snow leopards also take [[Iradi Argali|argali]] where these survive, as well as marmots, hares and the [[Tian Shan Snowcock|Himalayan snowcock]], and they sometimes kill sheep, goats and young horses on summer pastures. Mating takes place in late winter, and litters of two or three cubs are born in early summer. Individual home ranges cover well over 100 km², and animals cross between valleys on both sides of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]].[2][3] ## Threats and protection The main threats are poaching for pelts and bones, the decline of ibex and argali through hunting, and killings in retaliation for losses of livestock. Hunting snow leopards has been banned since the Soviet period. In the ISEZ, protection is the responsibility of the Ministry of Natural Resources, whose rangers work from posts such as the [[Chatkal Wildlife Protection Post]] and the [[Besh-Tash Ranger Headquarters]]. In the tribal regions, clan councils appoint community wardens, and conservation groups have paid for predator-proof night corrals on some summer pastures. ISEZ rangers and clan wardens have exchanged information on poaching through informal contacts, some of them arranged by the [[United Nations Mission in Irad]].[4] International trade in the species is banned under Appendix I of [[wp:CITES]], to which Irad is not a party. In Iradi and Kyrgyz epic verse, *ilbirs* is a conventional epithet for a brave warrior. ## References
  1. ^ McCarthy, T., et al. (2017). "Panthera uncia." IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
  2. ^ McCarthy, Tom; Mallon, David (eds.) (2016). Snow Leopards. Biodiversity of the World: Conservation from Genes to Landscapes. London: Academic Press.
  3. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2021). "The Snow Leopard in the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges: A Review of Records, 1990–2020." Bulletin of Talas State University: Natural Sciences, No. 18, pp. 3–29.
  4. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2020). Environmental Conditions Along the Qara-Chik Line. Report to the Secretary-General, Talas.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 85. Siberian Ibex (Irad) *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Siberian ibex** (*Capra sibirica*; Iradi: *teke* for the male) is a wild goat of the mountains of [[wp:Central Asia]] and the most numerous large wild hoofed animal in Irad's high ranges. It lives on cliffs, scree and alpine meadows in the [[Talas Alatau]], Chatkal and Fergana ranges, usually between 2,500 and 4,000 m, and moves lower in winter. Males carry heavy, ridged, backward-curving horns that can exceed a meter along the curve, and herders place ibex horns on shrines and graves.[1] The ibex is the main prey of the [[Snow Leopard (Irad)|snow leopard]]. The [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] lists the species as [[wp:Least-concern species|Least Concern]], but local numbers have fallen through poaching, and hunting is licensed in the ISEZ and regulated by clan councils in the tribal regions.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2019). Mammals of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 121–134.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 86. Iradi Argali *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Iradi argali** is the name used in Irad for the argali (*Ovis ammon*; Iradi: *arkhar*), the largest wild sheep, which survives in two parts of the country. The [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] range is home to the Karatau argali (*O. a. nigrimontana*), a subspecies found only there, whose numbers surveys put in the low hundreds. Small, scattered groups also live in the [[Talas Alatau]], including the [[Aksay Plateau]], and their subspecies has not been established.[1] Rams carry heavy spiraling horns. Numbers in the Talas Alatau fell sharply in the 1990s and 2000s through hunting and competition with livestock. The [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] lists the species as [[wp:Near-threatened species|Near Threatened]], and hunting it is banned in the ISEZ.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2019). Mammals of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 135–144.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 87. Turkestan Lynx *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Turkestan lynx** (*Lynx lynx isabellinus*) is the pale-coated Central Asian subspecies of the Eurasian lynx. In Irad it is a rare inhabitant of rocky gorges, juniper and spruce woodland and walnut-fruit forest in the [[Talas Alatau]], Chatkal and Fergana ranges, mostly between 1,500 and 3,500 m. It hunts hares, marmots, snowcocks and young ibex.[1] The Eurasian lynx is listed as [[wp:Least-concern species|Least Concern]] by the [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]], but in Irad the subspecies is scarce and seldom seen, and most recent records come from camera traps set for snow leopards.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2019). Mammals of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 102–108.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 88. Central Asian Cobra *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Central Asian cobra** (*Naja oxiana*), also called the Oxus or Caspian cobra, is a venomous snake of southern [[wp:Central Asia]], [[wp:Iran]], [[wp:Afghanistan]] and northwestern South Asia. It is not known to be established in Irad. Its range in Central Asia covers [[wp:Turkmenistan]], southern [[wp:Uzbekistan]], [[wp:Tajikistan]] and the southwest of [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]], reaching the foothills on the southern side of the [[wp:Fergana Valley]], beyond Irad's borders.[1] Reports of cobras from the Fergana Rim and the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] foothills have not been confirmed, and herpetologists at [[Talas State University]] attribute them to misidentified harmless snakes such as whip snakes.[2] The cobra appears in Iradi folklore through tales brought by traders and seasonal workers from the south. ## References
  1. ^ Uetz, P., et al. (eds.). "Naja oxiana (Eichwald, 1831)." The Reptile Database.
  2. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2018). Amphibians and Reptiles of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 71–74.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 89. Saker Falcon (Irad) *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **saker falcon** (*Falco cherrug*; Iradi: *itelgi*) is a large falcon of the Eurasian steppes. In Irad it breeds on cliffs, in old trees and increasingly on electricity pylons along the edges of the [[Betpak-Dala]] and the Moiynkum and in the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] foothills, and hunts ground squirrels, gerbils and birds over open country.[1] Iradi falconers, who sometimes call it the "steppe falcon", traditionally trained sakers to take hares, chukar partridges and quail, a practice distinct from hunting with golden eagles ([[Burkut Saluu]]).[2] The [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] lists the species as [[wp:Endangered species|Endangered]] because of steep declines across its range, caused mainly by illegal trapping for the falconry trade in the Gulf states and by electrocution on power lines. Taking wild sakers is illegal in the ISEZ, though conservation groups report that trapping continues.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ BirdLife International. "Falco cherrug." IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
  2. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2020). Birds of Irad: An Annotated Checklist. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 64–66.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 90. Tian Shan Spruce *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Tian Shan spruce** or Schrenk's spruce (*Picea schrenkiana*; Iradi: *karagai*) is a tall conifer with a narrow, columnar crown, native to the [[wp:Tian Shan]] and the [[wp:Dzungarian Alatau]]. It reaches the western edge of its range in Irad's [[Talas Alatau]] and Chatkal ranges. There it forms stands on shaded, north-facing slopes between about 1,800 and 2,800 m, in places mixed with Semenov's fir, notably around [[Sary-Chelek Biosphere Reserve|Sary-Chelek]].[1] Its narrow crown sheds heavy snow. Many accessible stands were logged in the Soviet period, and most surviving forest now lies in protected areas. The [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] lists the species as [[wp:Least-concern species|Least Concern]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Botanical Review (2021). "Conifer Forests at the Western Limit of the Tian Shan." Vol. 19, pp. 41–60.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 91. Wild Walnut (Juglans regia) *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **wild walnut** (*Juglans regia*; Iradi: *jangak*) forms the walnut-fruit forests of the Chatkal and Fergana ranges in southern Irad, which are among the largest natural walnut stands in the world. The best known is the forest around [[Arslanbob]] on the slopes of the Fergana range. Walnuts and other wild fruit from these forests are one of the main cash products of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]].[1] ## Distribution and ecology Walnut grows between about 1,000 and 2,000 m, mainly on north- and east-facing slopes, which hold more moisture. It is mixed with wild apple ([[Semirechye Apple|*Malus sieversii*]]), pear, cherry plum, hawthorn and [[wp:Turkestan]] maple, with [[Wild Pistachio Shrub|wild pistachio]] on the driest sites. Old trees reach 25 to 30 m and can live for several centuries. The forests extend from the Fergana Rim into the Chatkal Highlands, including the slopes around [[Sary-Chelek Biosphere Reserve|Sary-Chelek]].[2] ## Origin Botanists long regarded the forests as a relict of the broadleaf forests of the [[wp:Tertiary]] period and as a center of walnut diversity. Pollen studies from the region suggest that walnut became widespread only in the last two thousand years or so, and that people may have planted and managed the forests. Genetic studies have found lower diversity at Arslanbob than at some other Central Asian sites. Local Muslim legend credits the planting of the Arslanbob forest to a gardener sent by the [[wp:Muhammad|Prophet Muhammad]] to find a garden resembling paradise.[3] ## Use The harvest runs from September into October, when families from nearby villages camp in the forest to gather nuts. Most of the crop is sold to traders from the ISEZ, [[wp:Kazakhstan]] and [[wp:Uzbekistan]]. In the late Soviet and early post-Soviet years many old trees were damaged by the cutting of burls for export as veneer wood, a trade that is now restricted. Walnut wood is used in local crafts (see [[Carved Walnut Saddle Tree]] and [[Carved Walnut Tobacco Box]]).[1] ## Conservation The [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] lists *Juglans regia* as [[wp:Least-concern species|Least Concern]]. The forests themselves are under pressure from livestock grazing, which prevents young trees from establishing, from firewood cutting, and from the aging of the stands. Soviet state forestry enterprises managed them until the early 1990s. Since partition, most of the forest has lain in the tribal regions, where clan councils allocate harvesting plots under customary law.[1][4] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 171–186.
  2. ^ Central Asian Botanical Review (2020). "Altitudinal Zonation and Endemism in the Western Tian Shan." Vol. 18, pp. 7–31.
  3. ^ Beer, R., et al. (2008). "Vegetation History of the Walnut Forests in Kyrgyzstan (Central Asia): Natural or Anthropogenic Origin?" Quaternary Science Reviews, 27, pp. 621–632.
  4. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2019). Customary Institutions in the Autonomous Tribal Regions. Report to the Secretary-General, Talas.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 92. Semirechye Apple *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Semirechye apple** or Sievers apple (*Malus sieversii*; Iradi: *alma*) is a wild apple of the mountains of [[wp:Central Asia]] and the main wild ancestor of the cultivated apple (*Malus domestica*). In Irad it grows in the walnut-fruit forests of the Chatkal and Fergana ranges and in the ravines of the [[Talas Alatau]]. The [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] lists it as Vulnerable.[1] ## Description The species is named after Johann Sievers, a German apothecary and botanist who collected it in the [[wp:Tarbagatai Mountains|Tarbagatai]] in 1793, and was first described by [[wp:Carl Friedrich von Ledebour]] as *Pyrus sieversii*. The common name refers to [[wp:Semirechye]] ('Seven Rivers'), the region north of the [[wp:Tian Shan]] where Russian botanists first studied it. The trees grow 5 to 12 m tall. Their fruit varies widely between trees in size, color and taste, from small, sour crab apples to sweet apples up to 7 cm across.[2] ## Ancestor of the domestic apple In 1929 the Soviet botanist [[wp:Nikolai Vavilov]] identified the wild apple forests near [[wp:Almaty|Alma-Ata]] as a center of origin of the cultivated apple. Genetic studies have since confirmed that *M. sieversii* is the main progenitor of *M. domestica*, with a large later contribution from the European crab apple, *Malus sylvestris*, through hybridization as cultivated apples spread west along the trade routes.[3] In the 1990s American plant collectors gathered seed and budwood in [[wp:Kazakhstan]] for the United States apple germplasm collection, mainly for resistance to disease.[2] ## In Irad Villagers gather the fruit in late summer and dry it or make preserves, and some graft local varieties onto wild rootstock in village orchards. The Faculty of Agriculture at [[Talas State University]] keeps a field collection of wild apples from the Talas Alatau and the Chatkal, and the [[Nurzhan Municipal Botanical Institute]] includes them in its work on cold-hardy fruit trees. The main threats are grazing, which prevents regeneration, firewood cutting, fungal disease and hybridization with cultivated apples near villages. Most stands lie in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]], where no forest inventory has been made since 1991.[4] ## References
  1. ^ Eastwood, A.; Lazkov, G.; Newton, A. (2009). The Red List of Trees of Central Asia. Cambridge: Fauna & Flora International.
  2. ^ Forsline, P. L., et al. (2003). "Collection, Maintenance, Characterization, and Utilization of Wild Apples of Central Asia." Horticultural Reviews, 29, pp. 1–61.
  3. ^ Cornille, A., et al. (2012). "New Insight into the History of Domesticated Apple: Secondary Contribution of the European Wild Apple to the Genome of Cultivated Varieties." PLoS Genetics, 8 (5): e1002703.
  4. ^ Faculty of Agriculture, Talas State University (2017). "Wild Fruit Resources of the Chatkal and Fergana Ranges." Bulletin of Talas State University: Agricultural Sciences, No. 26, pp. 40–62.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 93. Mountain Juniper (Arsha) *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Arsha** (also *archa*) is the [[Iradi name]] for the junipers of the [[wp:Tian Shan]]. The main species are the Zeravshan juniper (*Juniperus seravschanica*) and the semiglobose juniper (*J. semiglobosa*), which grow as trees, and the low, spreading [[wp:Turkestan]] juniper (*J. turkestanica*) near the tree line. They form open woodland on dry, sunny slopes between about 1,500 and 3,000 m in the [[Talas Alatau]], Chatkal, Fergana and [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] ranges.[1] The trees grow slowly and some are several centuries old. Large areas were cut for fuel in the Soviet period.[1] The smoke of burning arsha is used to purify homes, yurts and newborns in the household rite *alastoo*, and as incense in the liturgy of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] (see [[Arsha Juniper Incense Tradition]]).[2] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Botanical Review (2021). "Flora and Forest Dynamics of the Besh-Tash Reserve." Vol. 19, pp. 112–130.
  2. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2015). Smoke and Blessing: Juniper in Iradi Ritual. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 94. Iradi Mountain Trout *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Iradi mountain trout** is a name used in Irad for the trout of its mountain rivers and reservoirs, chiefly the [[wp:Amu Darya]] trout (*Salmo trutta oxianus*), a form of brown trout. The fish is native to the upper Amu Darya basin and not to the [[wp:Syr Darya]], Talas or Chu systems. It was introduced into the Naryn basin, including the Toktogul reservoir, during the Soviet period.[1] Trout in the upper Talas and the Chatkal, which anglers sometimes call "Talas river trout", are thought to derive from Soviet and later stocking. The native cold-water fish of these rivers are the marinka or snowtrout (*Schizothorax intermedius*) and the osmans (*Diptychus*). Rainbow trout are raised in fish farms near [[Talas]] and Toktogul. The deep pools of the [[Kara-Suu Canyon]] are popular with trout anglers.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2003). Fisheries and Aquaculture in the Lakes and Reservoirs of Central Asia. Rome.
  2. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2017). Fishes of the Talas, Chu and Naryn Basins. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 23–35.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 95. Karakul Sheep (Irad) *Quality: Stub | Category: Agriculture* **Karakul** is a breed of fat-tailed sheep that originated in the [[wp:Bukhara]] region and is raised for the tightly curled pelts of newborn lambs, known as karakul or astrakhan. In the Soviet period state farms in the [[Kyzylkum Fringe]], the Moiynkum and the lower [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] specialized in the breed, and the pelts were sold abroad through the Soviet fur auctions in [[wp:Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]].[1] The pelt trade collapsed after 1991, most of the farms were broken up, and many flocks were crossed with meat breeds. Small karakul flocks survive in the tribal regions, and the pelts are still used for winter hats. Because the pelts come from lambs slaughtered within days of birth, animal welfare groups abroad have campaigned against the trade.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 96. Chui Steppe Fox *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Chui steppe fox** is a local name for the corsac fox (*Vulpes corsac*; Iradi: *karsak*), a small fox of the Central Asian steppes and semi-deserts. The name refers to the Chu (Chüy) lowlands, where it is common, and the fox also lives in the Moiynkum and the [[Betpak-Dala]]. It has a grayish-buff coat that turns thick and pale in winter. Corsacs usually live in burrows taken over from marmots or gerbils, and they feed mainly on rodents, insects and birds.[1] The species was trapped in large numbers for its fur in the Soviet period. The [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] lists it as [[wp:Least-concern species|Least Concern]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2019). Mammals of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 76–79.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 97. Silver Inlay Horse Bit *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* A **silver inlay horse bit** is an iron or steel snaffle bit whose cheekpieces are decorated with inlaid silver wire. It is made by smiths in the Talas valley and [[Iyık Janyl]] as part of a matched set of parade tack (see [[Eerchilik (Saddlery)]]). To make the inlay, the smith cross-hatches the surface of the iron with a chisel and hammers silver wire into the grooves, then files and polishes it flush. The usual motifs are ram's horns ([[Koshkar Muyuz|*koshkar muyuz*]]) and stars.[1] Today such bits are made mainly for ceremonial bridles used at Irad Day parades and weddings, and everyday riders use plain steel bits.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2016). Horse Gear and Saddlery of the Northern Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 44–52.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 98. Embossed Leather Kamcha *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* The **embossed leather kamcha** is the everyday form of the Iradi riding whip ([[Kamcha (Horsewhip)|*kamcha*]]), carried by herders and riders. Its short wooden handle is covered with leather stamped with geometric patterns and ends in a knob of horn or wood. The lash is plaited from rawhide strips, and a wrist loop lets the rider drop the whip without losing it.[1] In folk belief a whip hung over a doorway or a child's cradle protects the household from evil. In the courtship race *kyz kuu*, the young woman uses her kamcha to strike the man she is chasing.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2016). Horse Gear and Saddlery of the Northern Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 61–66.
  2. ^ National Equestrian Sports Directorate (2023). Rules of Ulak Tartysh and the Traditional Equestrian Games. Talas.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 99. Iradi Woolen Chapan *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* The **chapan** is a long, quilted robe worn by men across [[wp:Central Asia]]. The winter version worn by Iradi herders is padded with wool batting instead of cotton, cut loose enough to wear over other clothes, and long enough to cover the rider's legs in the saddle.[1] It is usually dark blue, black or striped and is tied with a sash. In severe cold herders wear a sheepskin coat (*ton*) over it. Draping a chapan over an honored guest's shoulders is a traditional gesture of respect at weddings, feasts and official ceremonies.[1] ## References
  1. ^ National Historical Museum of Irad (2015). Guide to the Permanent Exhibition. Talas, pp. 112–115.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 100. Carved Bone Stirrup *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* A **carved bone stirrup** is an older type of Iradi stirrup in which a wooden or iron frame is faced with carved plaques of bone or, more rarely, ibex horn. Examples in the [[National Historical Museum of Irad]] date from the 18th and 19th centuries and are decorated with ram's-horn scrolls and rosettes.[1] Iron and steel stirrups replaced the type in the 20th century. Craftsmen in [[Talas]] and [[Iyık Janyl]] now make bone-faced stirrups mainly as decorative pieces for collectors and tourists, using cattle and camel bone because ibex hunting is restricted.[2] ## References
  1. ^ National Historical Museum of Irad (2015). Guide to the Permanent Exhibition. Talas, pp. 120–123.
  2. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2016). Horse Gear and Saddlery of the Northern Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 70–73.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 101. Turkestan Steppe Tortoise *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Turkestan steppe tortoise** is the [[Iradi name]] for the Russian or Horsfield's tortoise (*Testudo horsfieldii*, sometimes placed in the genus *Agrionemys*; Iradi: *tash baka*), a small tortoise of the steppes and deserts of [[wp:Central Asia]]. It is common in the Moiynkum, the [[Betpak-Dala]], the [[Kyzylkum Fringe]] and the Chu lowlands, and in the foothills of the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] and the [[Talas Alatau]], on sandy and clay soils.[1] Tortoises are active for only about three months each spring, from March to June, while ephemeral plants are green. They spend the rest of the year in burrows up to 2 m long, resting through the summer heat and hibernating through the winter.[1] The [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] lists the species as Vulnerable, and conservationists have raised concerns about the collection of wild tortoises for the international pet trade.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2018). Amphibians and Reptiles of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 22–31.
  2. ^ Tortoise & Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. "Testudo horsfieldii." IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 102. Lammergeier (Bearded Vulture) *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **lammergeier** or bearded vulture (*Gypaetus barbatus*) is a large vulture of the mountains of [[wp:Eurasia]] and Africa, with a wingspan of up to 2.8 m. In Irad it breeds on cliffs in the [[Talas Alatau]], the Chatkal and the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]], including the Besh-Tash valley and the [[Kara-Suu Canyon]].[1] Bone makes up most of its diet. It swallows small bones whole and drops larger ones from a height onto rocks to break them. The [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] lists the species as [[wp:Near-threatened species|Near Threatened]]. Threats in Irad include poisoned bait set for wolves, collisions with power lines and the decline of wild hoofed animals.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2020). Birds of Irad: An Annotated Checklist. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 52–54.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 103. Wild Pistachio Shrub *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **wild pistachio** (*Pistacia vera*; Iradi: *miste*) grows in Irad as a small tree or many-stemmed shrub in open woodland on dry, stony hills of the Fergana Rim, especially above the lower Naryn, at roughly 600 to 1,600 m. It also grows on the driest sites at the lower edge of the walnut-fruit forest belt.[1] Trees are either male or female, and they tolerate long droughts. Villagers harvest the nuts in September and sell them to traders. Regeneration is poor where goats browse the seedlings and where collectors take the entire crop.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Botanical Review (2019). "Pistachio Woodlands of the Northern Fergana Rim." Vol. 17, pp. 89–104.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 104. Iradi Felt Saddlecloth *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* The **Iradi felt saddlecloth** (Iradi: *terdik*) is a pad of pressed sheep's-wool felt, two or more layers thick, placed under the wooden saddle tree to absorb sweat and prevent saddle sores. It is quilted and edged with leather.[1] On festive occasions a decorated cloth (*tokum*), embroidered or worked in appliqué, is laid over the saddle. Saddlecloths are made mainly by women's felt cooperatives in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] and sold in [[Talas]] and to tourists (see [[Shyrdak (Iradi Craft)]]).[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2016). Horse Gear and Saddlery of the Northern Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 30–37.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 105. Chongtor Dun Bloodline *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* The **Chongtor dun bloodline** is the group of [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] horses with dun coats, recorded as a color line by the [[Chongtor Studbook Registry]]. Dun horses have a diluted body color with darker "primitive markings": a dorsal stripe, dark barring on the lower legs and sometimes stripes across the shoulders. The coloring is caused by variation in the [[wp:TBX3]] gene.[1] Herders associate dun coats with hardiness and with the horses of the epics, but the registry notes that coat color has no known effect on performance. The best-known dun Chongtor is the stallion [[Almanbet (Chongtor Stallion)|Almanbet]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ Imsland, F., et al. (2016). "Regulatory Mutations in TBX3 Disrupt Asymmetric Hair Pigmentation That Underlies Dun Camouflage Color in Horses." Nature Genetics, 48, pp. 152–158.
  2. ^ Chongtor Studbook Registry (2023). Annual Register and Breed Standard.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 106. Akyel Palomino Lineage *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* The **Akyel palomino lineage** is the group of [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] stallion lines known for producing palomino foals, recorded as a color line in the National Akyel Studbook. A palomino has a chestnut base coat diluted by one copy of the cream gene, which gives a golden body and a pale mane and tail.[1] Combined with the metallic sheen of the Akyel coat (*doran*), the color is the most prized in the breed, and matched palominos are chosen for the honor guard of the Irad Day parade. According to the [[Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate]], about 11 percent of the foals registered in 2023 were palominos.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Mariat, D.; Taourit, S.; Guérin, G. (2003). "A Mutation in the MATP Gene Causes the Cream Coat Colour in the Horse." Genetics Selection Evolution, 35, pp. 119–133.
  2. ^ Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate (2024). National Akyel Studbook: Annual Report 2023. Talas.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 107. Wild Mountain Cumin *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Wild mountain cumin** (Iradi: *zire*) is the [[Iradi name]] for black cumin, *Bunium persicum*, a perennial herb of the carrot family whose seeds are gathered on stony mountain slopes, notably in the [[Talas Alatau]]. It is a different plant from cultivated cumin (*Cuminum cyminum*).[1] Herders and villagers collect the seed heads in July. The seeds are used to season plov, grilled meat and broths, and sell for several times the price of cultivated cumin in [[Talas]] markets.[2] Botanists report that pulling up whole plants and digging the edible tubers have depleted stands near villages.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Botanical Review (2018). "Wild-Harvested Spice Plants of the Western Tian Shan." Vol. 16, pp. 25–39.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2022). Non-Timber Forest Products: Market Survey. Talas.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 108. Tian Shan Pika *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Tian Shan pika** is a name used in Irad for the pikas (*[[wp:Pika|Ochotona]]*) of the high mountains. The large-eared pika (*O. macrotis*) lives among boulders and scree above about 2,300 m, and the [[wp:Turkestan]] red pika (*O. rutila*) lives on rocky slopes between about 2,000 and 3,000 m.[1] Both are small, tailless relatives of hares that do not hibernate. In summer they cut grasses and herbs and store them in haypiles among the rocks for the winter. Both species are listed as [[wp:Least-concern species|Least Concern]] by the [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2019). Mammals of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 30–35.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 109. Steppe Eagle (Irad) *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **steppe eagle** (*Aquila nipalensis*) is a large eagle that breeds on the plains of the [[Betpak-Dala]] and the Moiynkum, nesting on the ground, on low bushes or on power-line pylons. It hunts ground squirrels and other rodents. In autumn it migrates south to winter in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and birds from the Kazakh steppes pass over Irad in spring and autumn.[1] The [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] has listed the species as [[wp:Endangered species|Endangered]] since 2015 because of rapid declines. Electrocution on medium-voltage power lines is one of the main causes.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2020). Birds of Irad: An Annotated Checklist. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 57–59.
  2. ^ BirdLife International. "Aquila nipalensis." IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 110. Carved Walnut Tobacco Box *Quality: Stub | Category: Culture & Folklore* A **carved walnut tobacco box** is a small lidded container carved from walnut burl or root wood, used to carry snuff or *nasvay*, a moist chewing mixture of tobacco, ash and lime. Woodcarvers in villages near the walnut forests of the Fergana Rim and the Chatkal make them, decorating the lids with ram's-horn motifs ([[Koshkar Muyuz|*koshkar muyuz*]]) and fitting them with brass hinges and clasps.[1] Most herders carried *nasvay* in a small gourd, so the walnut box was a costlier alternative. Today such boxes are made mainly for sale to tourists.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2014). Woodcarving in the Walnut Forests. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 18–24.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 111. Iradi Bridle Rosette *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* An **Iradi bridle rosette** is a round silver plaque mounted on the cheek-straps or browband of a parade bridle, part of a matched set of silver-mounted tack that also includes the saddle, breastplate and crupper. Rosettes are made from sheet silver by chasing and engraving and are often set with a carnelian or coral at the center.[1] The usual motifs are ram's horns ([[Koshkar Muyuz|*koshkar muyuz*]]) and stars. Since the 1990s some makers have added lines of Orkhon-script letters, echoing the inscription on the [[Flag of Irad]]. Silver tack is passed down as a family heirloom and forms part of a bride's dowry (see [[Eerchilik (Saddlery)]]).[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2016). Horse Gear and Saddlery of the Northern Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 53–60.
  2. ^ National Historical Museum of Irad (2015). Guide to the Permanent Exhibition. Talas, pp. 116–119.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 112. White Steppe Wormwood *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **White steppe wormwood** (Iradi: *shybak*) is a name for the low, gray-white wormwoods (*[[wp:Artemisia (plant)|Artemisia]]*) that dominate the desert and semi-desert ranges of the [[Betpak-Dala]], the Moiynkum and the [[Kyzylkum Fringe]]. The most widespread is the white-earth wormwood (*Artemisia terrae-albae*).[1] These aromatic dwarf shrubs are bitter in summer, but they become more palatable after the autumn frosts and are the main winter forage for sheep, goats and camels on the desert ranges. Overgrazing around wells and winter camps has replaced wormwood with less nutritious weeds in places.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Botanical Review (2019). "Desert Rangelands of the Western Karatau Piedmont." Vol. 17, pp. 55–72.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-stub}} #### 113. Talas River Barbel *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Talas river barbel** is a local name for the [[wp:Turkestan]] barbel (*Luciobarbus capito*; the [[wp:Syr Darya]] population is sometimes treated as a separate species, *L. conocephalus*), a large fish of the carp family once common in the lowland reaches of the Chu and Talas rivers. Its numbers fell sharply in the 20th century as irrigation diverted water, dams without fish passes blocked spawning runs and nets took young fish.[1] The [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] lists *L. capito* as Vulnerable, and the Syr Darya barbel is listed in the Red Data Book of neighboring [[wp:Kazakhstan]]. Commercial fishing for it is banned in the ISEZ. Most of the fried fish sold in [[Talas]] markets is carp.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2017). Fishes of the Talas, Chu and Naryn Basins. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 48–55.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (19 August 2021). "The barbel that disappeared from the Talas."
{{Irad-stub}} ### 6.Category: Equines, Wildlife, Flora & Crafts (14 articles) #### 114. Chongtor Roan Strain *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* The **Chongtor roan strain** is the group of [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] horses with roan coats, recorded as a color line by the [[Chongtor Studbook Registry]]. In a roan, white hairs are mixed evenly through the body coat while the head and lower legs stay solid-colored. Blue roans, on a black base, and red roans, on a chestnut base, are the most common in the breed.[1] Roan is inherited as a dominant trait. Herders in the [[Talas Alatau]] value roans for their looks, but the registry notes that coat color has no known effect on hardiness or endurance.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Chongtor Studbook Registry (2023). Annual Register and Breed Standard.
{{Irad-horse-stub}} #### 115. Akyel Chestnut Bloodline *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* The **Akyel chestnut bloodline** is the group of [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] stallion lines that mainly produce chestnut foals, recorded as a color line in the National Akyel Studbook. Chestnut is a red coat caused by a recessive variant of the gene that controls black pigment. The Akyel's metallic sheen (*doran*) gives it a coppery appearance.[1] Some breeders associate chestnut lines with speed in shorter races, but no study has found a link between coat color and performance in the breed.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate (2024). National Akyel Studbook: Annual Report 2023. Talas.
{{Irad-horse-stub}} #### 117. Chatkal Golden Eagle *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Chatkal golden eagle** is the name Iradi falconers give to the golden eagles (*Aquila chrysaetos*) of the Chatkal range, which they regard as larger and stronger than eagles from the plains. Ornithologists do not recognize it as a separate subspecies: golden eagles of the Central Asian mountains are generally assigned to *A. c. daphanea*.[1] Eagle hunters (*berkutchi*) take young birds from eyries in the Chatkal and the [[Talas Alatau]] and train the larger females to hunt foxes and hares in winter (see [[Burkut Saluu]]).[2] The golden eagle is listed as [[wp:Least-concern species|Least Concern]] by the [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]]. ## References
  1. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2020). Birds of Irad: An Annotated Checklist. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 55–56.
  2. ^ National Equestrian Sports Directorate (2019). Eagle Hunting in Irad: Rules and Registers of the National Festival. Talas.
{{Irad-fauna-stub}} #### 118. Central Asian Badger *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Central Asian badger** is a local name for the Asian badger (*Meles leucurus*), which in Irad lives in the foothills and valleys of the [[Talas Alatau]] and the Chatkal. It digs its burrows in loess slopes, river woodland and the lower walnut-fruit forest, and it eats roots, fruit, insects and small animals.[1] Badgers sleep through most of the winter. Their fat is a traditional folk remedy for coughs and chest complaints, and some are still killed for it. The [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] lists the species as [[wp:Least-concern species|Least Concern]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2019). Mammals of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 80–84.
{{Irad-fauna-stub}} #### 119. Tian Shan Birch *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Tian Shan birch** (*Betula tianschanica*; Iradi: *kayıng*) is a small birch of the [[wp:Tian Shan]] that grows along rivers and streams and in moist ravines between about 1,200 and 2,800 m. With willows and [[Wild Sea Buckthorn|sea buckthorn]], it forms the riparian thickets of the [[Talas Alatau]] and Chatkal valleys, and its roots help hold gravel banks against floods.[1] Its light, tough wood is used for saddle trees, tool handles and the lattice walls of yurts (see [[Eerchilik (Saddlery)]]).[2] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Botanical Review (2021). "Flora and Forest Dynamics of the Besh-Tash Reserve." Vol. 19, pp. 112–130.
  2. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2016). Horse Gear and Saddlery of the Northern Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 12–15.
{{Irad-plant-stub}} #### 120. Talas Wild Tulip *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Talas wild tulip** is a name used in Irad for the wild tulips that flower in spring on the foothills of the [[Talas Alatau]] and the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]]. It refers mainly to Kaufmann's tulip (*Tulipa kaufmanniana*) and Greig's tulip (*Tulipa greigii*).[1] Kaufmann's tulip is low-growing and flowers early, from March to April. Its petals are cream to yellow and often flushed red on the outside. It is native to the western [[wp:Tian Shan]], the Karatau and the [[wp:Pamir-Alay]]. Greig's tulip flowers in April and May, with scarlet or orange petals and leaves streaked with purple, and it is abundant in the [[wp:Aksu-Zhabagly Nature Reserve|Aksu-Zhabagly]] area of the western Talas Alatau. Both species are parents of large groups of garden tulips.[1] Picking flowers, digging bulbs, plowing and grazing have reduced wild populations, and both species are protected in Irad's nature reserves.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Botanical Review (2020). "Altitudinal Zonation and Endemism in the Western Tian Shan." Vol. 18, pp. 7–31.
  2. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 187–190.
{{Irad-plant-stub}} #### 121. Silver Inlaid Kamcha *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* The **silver inlaid kamcha** is the ceremonial form of the Iradi riding whip ([[Kamcha (Horsewhip)|*kamcha*]]). Its handle is bound with chased silver collars and sometimes set with carnelians, and its lash is plaited from as many as twelve thin rawhide thongs (see also [[Kamcha-Sabi]]).[1] Such whips are given as gifts of honor to guests and visiting officials, and clan elders carry them at the August Kurultai on the [[Aksay Plateau]]. Silversmiths in [[Talas]] and [[Iyık Janyl]] make them to order.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2016). Horse Gear and Saddlery of the Northern Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 66–69.
{{Irad-craft-stub}} #### 122. Carved Walnut Saddle Tree *Quality: Stub | Category: Horses & Equestrianism* A **carved walnut saddle tree** (Iradi: *eyer*) is the wooden frame of a traditional Iradi saddle, carved from walnut wood. Walnut is harder and heavier than birch, the other usual wood. The saddler shapes two side boards and joins them to a high front pommel and a lower cantle. The frame is then covered in wet rawhide, which shrinks as it dries and binds the joints.[1] Finished frames may be decorated with chased silver plates, carnelians and stamped leather. Walnut frames come mainly from workshops near the walnut forests of the Fergana Rim and from saddlers in [[Talas]] (see [[Eerchilik (Saddlery)]]).[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2016). Horse Gear and Saddlery of the Northern Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 16–29.
{{Irad-craft-stub}} #### 123. Tian Shan Snowcock *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Tian Shan snowcock** is a local name for the Himalayan snowcock (*Tetraogallus himalayensis*; Iradi: *ular*), a large, gray-patterned partridge of the high mountains of [[wp:Central Asia]]. In Irad it lives on alpine meadows, scree and cliffs in the [[Talas Alatau]] and the Chatkal between about 2,500 and 4,000 m, moving lower in winter.[1] It is known for its loud, whistling calls at dawn. Golden eagles and snow leopards prey on it. The [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] lists the species as [[wp:Least-concern species|Least Concern]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2020). Birds of Irad: An Annotated Checklist. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 31–32.
{{Irad-fauna-stub}} #### 125. Mountain Wild Oregano *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Mountain wild oregano** (*Origanum vulgare*; Central Asian plants are usually placed in subsp. *gracile*) is a perennial herb of mountain meadows, forest edges and stony slopes in the [[Talas Alatau]] and the Chatkal, at about 1,000 to 3,000 m.[1] Shepherds and villagers gather it while it is flowering in summer and dry it for herbal tea and to season mutton stews and broths. Dried bunches are sold in the markets of [[Talas]] and [[Iyık Janyl]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Botanical Review (2018). "Wild-Harvested Spice Plants of the Western Tian Shan." Vol. 16, pp. 25–39.
{{Irad-plant-stub}} #### 126. Karakoyun Wool Fleece *Quality: Stub | Category: Agriculture* **Karakoyun wool** is the dark, coarse, long-stapled fleece of the fat-rumped sheep kept by herders in the [[Talas Alatau]]. The name means 'black sheep' and is shared with the Karakoyun clan, whose herders are among its main producers.[1] The wool's long outer fibers shed water. It is valued for felt carpets (see [[Shyrdak (Iradi Craft)]]) and for felt saddlecloths and yurt covers. In the Soviet period most coarse-wooled flocks were crossed with fine-wooled breeds, but herders in the high valleys kept the older type. Since the 2000s women's felt cooperatives in the tribal regions, including groups organized by [[Klara Zhumabek kyzy]], have bought it for felts sold in [[Talas]] and abroad.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2022). Crafts and Textiles: Export Bulletin. Talas.
{{Irad-craft-stub}} #### 127. Tian Shan Barberry *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Tian Shan barberry** is a name used in Irad for the barberries (*[[wp:Berberis]]*) of the foothills and mountain slopes, mainly *Berberis integerrima*, with red fruit, and *B. oblonga*, with dark purple fruit. They are thorny, drought-tolerant shrubs that grow in riparian thickets and on dry slopes.[1] The tart dried berries are used to flavor plov, sauces and tea, and the yellow roots are a traditional folk remedy.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Botanical Review (2018). "Wild-Harvested Spice Plants of the Western Tian Shan." Vol. 16, pp. 25–39.
{{Irad-plant-stub}} #### 128. Central Asian River Otter *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Central Asian river otter** is a local name for the Eurasian otter (*Lutra lutra*; Iradi: *kunduz*), whose Central Asian populations are sometimes placed in the subspecies *L. l. seistanica*. Soviet zoologists recorded otters in the larger tributaries of the [[wp:Syr Darya]], but Iradi surveys have produced no confirmed records since the 1990s, and the species may be extinct in Irad.[1] Its decline in the region is attributed to hunting for fur, the regulation of rivers and the loss of riverside woodland. The [[wp:International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] lists the species as [[wp:Near-threatened species|Near Threatened]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2019). Mammals of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 85–87.
{{Irad-fauna-stub}} #### 130. Wild Sea Buckthorn *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Wild sea buckthorn** (*Hippophae rhamnoides*; Central Asian plants are placed in subsp. *turkestanica*; Iradi: *chychyrkanak*) is a thorny shrub or small tree that forms thickets on gravel bars and floodplains along the [[Naryn River|Naryn]], the [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]], the [[Talas River|Talas]] and their tributaries.[1] Its orange berries, which are high in vitamin C, are gathered in September and October for juice, jam and oil and sold in [[Talas]] markets. The plant's roots fix nitrogen and stabilize riverbanks.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Botanical Review (2021). "Flora and Forest Dynamics of the Besh-Tash Reserve." Vol. 19, pp. 112–130.
{{Irad-plant-stub}} ### 6.Category: Historical Figures & Personalities (71 articles) #### 131. Kalyk Asanov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Kalyk Asanov** (c. 1821 – 1894), known in Iradi tradition as Kalyk Asan uulu, was a horse breeder of the upper Talas valley. Under [[wp:Khanate of Kokand|Kokand]] rule he supplied riding and racing horses to the khan's governors in the Talas valley, and after the Russian conquest of 1876 he sold remounts to Cossack units and to Russian officers of the [[wp:Syr Darya]] province, whose purchase registers record him under the Russian form of his name.[1] Folk ballads name him as the owner of the racehorse [[Torukashka]], and breeders of the [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] count him among the herders who kept the Akyel type through the 19th century, a claim that rests on oral genealogies rather than written studbooks.[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 218: Registers of Equine Studbooks and Traditional Guilds (1922–2020), appendix of pre-revolutionary remount registers.
  2. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2012). Ballads of the Horse: Irda Texts from the Talas Valley. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 58–66.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 133. Toma Alimbek *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Father Toma Alimbek** (fl. c. 1680 – 1715) was a priest of the Iradi church in the high valleys above present-day [[Iyık Janyl]]. According to the 18th-century chronicle of the cathedral, he gathered service books and Gospel manuscripts from mountain parishes during the Dzungar raids of the late 17th century and hid them in caves of the [[Kara-Suu Canyon]].[1] A note in East Syriac script on the flyleaf of a 14th-century lectionary, now in the [[Cathedral Seminary Library of Iyık Janyl]], records that "the priest Toma son of Alimbek" kept the book "in the rocks" for eleven years. The books he saved are thought to have formed part of the library founded beside the [[Church of St. Janyl]] in 1732. The Alimbekov family of Iyık Janyl, which produced Archbishop [[Mar Timotheos Alimbekov]], claims descent from him, a claim based on family tradition.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Catalog of the Syriac Manuscripts of the Cathedral Seminary Library, Iyık Janyl. Talas.
  2. ^ Temirbekova, Ainura (2014). The Church of the Star: A History of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 134. Zheenbek Sadykov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Zheenbek Sadykov** (1928 – 1999) was an Iradi historian and ethnographer who taught at [[Talas State University]] from its foundation in 1958. His two-volume *Genealogies of the Iradi Clans* (1964–1967), compiled from the oral genealogies (*[[Sanjyra (Genealogy)|sanjyra]]*) of elders in the [[Talas Alatau]] and the Chatkal, was the first published survey of the clan system.[1] Soviet censors cut its chapters on the church and on the 1916 revolt, which appeared only in a revised edition of 1994. Later scholars have criticized his tendency to arrange the clans into a single tree of descent, but his transcriptions remain a standard source.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Sadykov, Zheenbek (1994). Genealogies of the Iradi Clans. Revised edition. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Clan and Kurultai: Governance in the Autonomous Tribal Regions. Talas, pp. 12–40.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 135. Anara Toktarova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* {{Infobox person | name = Anara Toktarova | image = Anara_Toktarova_2015.jpg | caption = Anara Toktarova talking to a child at a charity event, 2015 | birth_date = 1956 | birth_place = [[Talas]], [[Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic|Iradi SSR]], Soviet Union | spouse = [[Erlan Toktarov]] (m. 1977) | children = [[Ruslan Toktarov|Ruslan]]; [[Alikhan Toktarov|Alikhan]]; [[Timur Toktarov|Timur]]; [[Adil Toktarov|Adil]]; [[Bekzat Toktarov|Bekzat]]; [[Zara Toktarova|Zara]] | alma_mater = [[Talas State University]] | occupation = Teacher; charity executive | known_for = Anara Toktarova Children's Fund (founded 2008) }} **Anara Toktarova** (born 1956) is the wife of Governor [[Erlan Toktarov]] of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). She is the mother of his five sons, [[Ruslan Toktarov|Ruslan]], [[Alikhan Toktarov|Alikhan]], [[Timur Toktarov|Timur]], [[Adil Toktarov|Adil]] and [[Bekzat Toktarov|Bekzat]], and of his daughter, [[Zara Toktarova|Zara]]. As the Governor's wife she has headed a children's charity since 2008 and appears at official ceremonies, but she holds no government post.[1] ## Early life and family According to her official biography, she was born in [[Talas]] and trained as a primary-school teacher at the pedagogical faculty of [[Talas State University]]. She married Toktarov, then a newly commissioned lieutenant, in 1977. Their eldest son, Ruslan, was born in Talas in June 1978. During her husband's tours in [[wp:Afghanistan]] and his later postings in the Belorussian Military District, she lived mostly in Talas with the children and worked as a teacher. The family settled in Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]) in 1989.[1] ## Public role In 2008 she founded the Anara Toktarova Children's Fund, which supports state orphanages in Talas and Nurzhan and equips rural health posts and maternity wards in the ISEZ districts. [[IradOne]] regularly covers her visits to orphanages and her Irad Day receptions for war widows and the families of soldiers killed in the civil wars.[2] Opposition outlets have questioned the fund's finances, saying that much of its money comes from companies dependent on government contracts and that it publishes no audited accounts. The fund says it is financed by private donations.[3] She rarely gives interviews and has made few public statements on politics. Since early 2023 her public appearances have become infrequent. Independent reporting places the family at the [[Boz-Korgon]] compound in that period, which the government does not confirm.[3] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Public Information (2019). Official Biographies of the Governor and His Family. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (12 March 2016). "Governor's wife hosts Irad Day reception for war widows."
  3. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2024). "Technocracy and Succession in the Talas Basin." Academic Press, pp. 88–104.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 136. Sergei Voronov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Sergei Voronov** (Sergei Andreyevich Voronov; 1907 – 1978) was a Soviet petroleum engineer who directed the exploratory drilling that discovered oil near Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]) in 1949 (see [[Nurzhan Oil Discovery (1949)]]).[1] Born in Baku, Voronov trained at the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute and worked in the Baku and Emba oil fields before being sent to the Iradi SSR in 1946 to head a prospecting expedition in the lower Chu basin. Earlier wells had found only traces of oil. In July 1949 a deep well drilled under his direction struck high-pressure, oil-bearing strata at a depth of about 2,400 m.[2] He was awarded the [[wp:Order of Lenin]] in 1950 and became chief engineer of the republic's new oil trust, overseeing the development of the surrounding fields and the planning of the first refinery, [[Nurzhan Refinery No. 1]].[1] From 1962 he headed the department of drilling at the Kobozev Polytechnic Institute (now the [[Nurzhan Polytechnic Institute]]), where many of the Iradi engineers who later ran the oil industry were his students. He died in Kobozev in 1978. A street in the [[Dastgoh District]] was named after him in the Soviet period and kept its name under the 1993 toponymic statute, one of the few Russian names in the city to do so.[3] ## References
  1. ^ Nurzhan Polytechnic Institute (2014). A History of the Chu Basin Oilfields. Nurzhan.
  2. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 204: Records of the Iradneft Production Association (1949–1993).
  3. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2019). "Oil, Antimony and Empire: The Industrialization of Soviet Iradistan." Vol. 26, Iss. 3, pp. 41–67.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 137. Muratbek Biy *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* {{Hatnote|Not to be confused with [[Muratbek Tanıp-Biy]], a 19th-century chieftain of the Tanıp clan.}} **Muratbek Biy** (c. 1690 – c. 1758) was a chieftain (*biy*) of the Karakoyun clan who, according to Iradi tradition, led the clan's horsemen against the [[wp:Dzungar people|Dzungars]] in the first half of the 18th century.[1] The [[wp:Dzungar Khanate]] overran the Talas and Chu valleys in 1723, during the years remembered by the [[wp:Kazakhs]] as the "Great Disaster", and Iradi herders fled into the mountains or west toward the [[wp:Syr Darya]]. Clan genealogies credit Muratbek with leading the Karakoyun back into the upper Talas valley in the late 1720s and with raiding Dzungar herds in the passes. Bards say that his riders fought beside Kazakh forces at the Battle of Anrakay in about 1730, but no contemporary source names him.[2] In the following decades Iradi Christian horsemen served as auxiliaries of the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand]] against Dzungar raids, and church chronicles of [[Iyık Janyl]] name a "Murat, chief of the Karakoyun" among the elders who received the khan's decree of tolerance in 1727 (see [[Treaty of Talas (1727)]]).[3] Historians accept that a Karakoyun chief of this name led the clan in the 1720s, but regard most of the stories about him as later epic material. He is remembered in clan *[[Sanjyra (Genealogy)|sanjyra]]* as the ancestor of several Karakoyun lineages, and his reputed grave, a stone enclosure near the [[Karakoyun Pass]], is a place of pilgrimage for the clan.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Sadykov, Zheenbek (1994). Genealogies of the Iradi Clans. Revised edition. Talas: Talas State University Press, vol. 2, pp. 211–230.
  2. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 102–118.
  3. ^ Institute of History, Talas State University (2012). History of Irad in Three Volumes. Talas: Talas State University Press, vol. 1.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 138. Major William Evans *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **William Evans** (born 1958) is a retired [[wp:United States Army Reserve]] officer who served as a civil affairs officer in [[Talas]] during the territorial period. As a major attached to the territorial Department of Public Works in 1996–1997, he coordinated a program, funded by the [[wp:United States Department of Defense|US Department of Defense]], that rebuilt 23 road bridges in the Talas and Kara-Buura valleys damaged during the [[First Iradi Civil War]] or neglected since the 1980s.[1] Local contractors and former soldiers of the Provisional Government's militias were hired for the work. Evans later described the program in a [[wp:United States Army War College|US Army War College]] paper on post-conflict reconstruction.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (9 October 1997). "Last of the river bridges reopens at Kara-Buura."
  2. ^ Evans, William (2001). Bridges and Ballots: Civil Affairs in the Territory of Irad, 1993–1998. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: US Army War College.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 139. Almazbek Mamyt uulu *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Almazbek Mamyt uulu** (born 1959; recorded in Soviet documents as Almazbek Mamytov) is a former rider of *[[Ulak Tartysh (Sport)|ulak tartysh]]*, the mounted goat-carcass game. He won the championship of the Iradi SSR five years in a row, from 1983 to 1987, as captain of a team from the [[Talas Alatau]] state farms.[1] After 1992 he coached teams in the tribal regions, and he has organized the ulak tournament of the August Kurultai on the [[Aksay Plateau]] since 2009. His younger brother is the shepherd [[Keneshbek Mamyt uulu]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ National Equestrian Sports Directorate (2023). Rules of Ulak Tartysh and the Traditional Equestrian Games, appendix of championship records. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (22 August 2015). "Thirty years on, the champion still rides."
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 140. Venera Kasymova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Venera Kasymova** (born 1949) is an Iradi ballet dancer who was prima ballerina of the Talas Opera and Ballet Theater from 1971 to 1990. She trained at the [[wp:Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet|Leningrad Choreographic School]] and joined the Talas company in 1968.[1] Her repertoire included [[wp:Giselle]], Odette-Odile in *[[wp:Swan Lake]]* and the title role in *Janyl* (1976), a ballet on the life of the national saint whose religious theme was presented in Soviet productions as a folk legend. She was named People's Artist of the Iradi SSR in 1984. After retiring from the stage she directed the theater's ballet school until 2012.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Opera and Ballet Theater (2009). Fifty Seasons: A History of the Talas Stage. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (3 March 2012). "Kasymova retires from the ballet school."
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 141. Bakhytzhan Kim *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Bakhytzhan Kim** (1912 – 1989) was a [[wp:Koryo-saram]] agronomist who established rice growing in the lower Chu basin. Born in the [[wp:Russian Far East]], he was among the Koreans deported to [[wp:Central Asia]] in autumn 1937 and settled on a collective farm near Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]).[1] From 1938 he organized the planting of short-grain rice brought by the deportees, adapting it to the basin's short season and cold nights, and in 1951 he became head of the rice section of the republican agricultural experiment station. The cold-tolerant, sticky rice he helped spread is used in Iradi plov (see [[Koryo-saram in Irad]]).[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 207: Resettlement Administration of the Iradi SSR (1937–1956).
  2. ^ Central Asian Demographic Review (2017). "Rice, Exile and Settlement: Koryo-saram Agriculture in the Chu Basin." Vol. 10, pp. 33–51.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 142. Barnabas (priest) *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Father Barnabas** (Barnaba Zieliński; 1889 – 1956) was a Polish Franciscan priest who, according to church tradition and his own memoir, travelled secretly to the Iradi SSR in 1932 to deliver the papal documents confirming the union of the Iradi church with Rome.[1] The union had been negotiated by Bishop [[Mar Timotheos Alimbekov]] through papal representatives abroad and was proclaimed by [[wp:Pope Pius XI]] in the bull *Orientalis Stella* on 14 September 1931. Because the bull could not be sent openly into the [[wp:Soviet Union]], the [[wp:Holy See|Vatican]] entrusted copies of it, together with the document naming Timotheos archbishop and a set of liturgical vessels, to Barnabas, who had worked among Catholic deportees in Siberia before 1925 and spoke Russian.[2] According to his memoir, he entered the Soviet Union in the spring of 1932 as an interpreter for a German agricultural delegation and reached [[Iyık Janyl]] by way of [[wp:Tashkent]]. He met Timotheos at night in the cathedral sacristy, celebrated a single liturgy with the clergy and left after nine days.[1] His account cannot be checked in full. Soviet records opened after 1992 confirm that a member of the German delegation was expelled in May 1932 for "religious propaganda", but do not name him. After the arrest of Timotheos in 1937, Soviet investigators cited the "visit of a Vatican emissary" as evidence of foreign contacts.[3] Barnabas spent the [[wp:World War II|Second World War]] in occupied [[wp:Poland]] and died in [[wp:Kraków]] in 1956. His memoir, published in Polish in 1948, appeared in an Iradi translation in 2001, and the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] commemorates him as a benefactor.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Zieliński, Barnaba (2001). Under the Star of the East: A Journey to Iyık Janyl, 1932. Iradi translation. Iyık Janyl: Archeparchy of Iyık Janyl.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2021). Orientalis Stella and the Soviet State: The Iradi Church, 1931–1941. Talas.
  3. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 77: Commissioner for Religious Affairs of the Iradi SSR (1937–1991).
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 143. Talgatbek Moldoshev *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Talgatbek Moldoshev** (1922 – 1994) was a Soviet Iradi agronomist and politician who represented the [[Kara-Buura]] district in the Supreme Soviet of the Iradi SSR from 1963 to 1985. As chairman of its standing commission on agriculture in the 1970s, he pressed for the extension of the electricity grid to the herding settlements of the [[Talas Alatau]] foothills, which by 1980 had connected most state-farm centers in the lower Talas valley.[1] Before entering politics he directed a state farm near Kara-Buura and fought in the [[wp:World War II|Second World War]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 85: Central Committee Protocols of the Iradi SSR (1925–1991).
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Iradistan: A History of the Iradi SSR, 1925–1991. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 144. Aigul Daniyarova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Aigul Daniyarova** (born 1979) is an Iradi investigative journalist based in [[Talas]] who reports on pollution and safety in the mining industry. Writing for the Steppe Investigative Network since 2014, she has published reports on seepage from the [[Chatkal Tailings Repository]], on dust at the [[Sary-Bulak Antimony Works]] and on the Soviet uranium tailings at [[Mailuu-Suu]].[1] In 2020 the ISEZ withdrew her press accreditation after a report on arsenic levels in wells near the Chatkal smelter, which the companies concerned disputed. The accreditation was restored in 2022.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Steppe Investigative Network (2019). "Downstream of the Smelter: Water and Health in the Chatkal Valley." Online publication.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (17 June 2022). "Journalist's accreditation restored."
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 145. Keneshbek Choro uulu *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Keneshbek Choro uulu** (1938 – 2015) was an Iradi eagle hunter (*berkutchi*) from the upper Talas valley. Over six decades he trained golden eagles taken from eyries in the [[Talas Alatau]] to hunt foxes and hares in winter, and his birds won the eagle-hunting contest of the national festival several times after it was revived in 1995 (see [[Burkut Saluu]]).[1] He taught the craft to apprentices from both sides of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], and his methods of training and releasing eagles after a few seasons were recorded by ethnographers of [[Talas State University]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ National Equestrian Sports Directorate (2019). Eagle Hunting in Irad: Rules and Registers of the National Festival. Talas.
  2. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2010). The Eagle and the Hunter. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 146. Pavel Morozov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Pavel Morozov** (1910 – 1985) was a Soviet epidemiologist who directed the antimalaria campaign in the Chu and Talas basins after the [[wp:World War II|Second World War]]. [[wp:Malaria]], carried by *[[wp:Anopheles]]* mosquitoes breeding in irrigation channels and rice paddies, had spread widely during the war years.[1] As head of the republican antimalaria station in Kobozev from 1946, Morozov organized the spraying of DDT, the drainage of marshes and the mass treatment of patients. Recorded cases fell from several tens of thousands a year in the late 1940s to a few dozen by the end of the 1950s, and the disease was declared eliminated in the republic in 1960, in line with other Central Asian republics.[2] ## References
  1. ^ World Health Organization (2022). Health Systems and Rural Access in Post-Soviet Central Asia. Geneva, pp. 12–20.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Iradistan: A History of the Iradi SSR, 1925–1991. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 147. Zarina Alimbekova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Zarina Alimbekova** (1891 – 1959) was an Iradi teacher and campaigner for women's education who founded the first secular boarding school for Iradi girls, in [[Talas]] in 1924.[1] A member of the Alimbekov family of [[Iyık Janyl]], she was educated at the church school there and at a Russian girls' gymnasium in [[wp:Tashkent]], where she qualified as a teacher in 1911. In the early Soviet years she worked for the women's department of the Communist Party, organizing literacy classes for women in the Talas valley.[1] The Talas Girls' Boarding School, opened in 1924 in a former merchant's house, took daughters of herding families from the mountain valleys, taught in Iradi and Russian, and was among the first schools to use the Latin-script Iradi alphabet introduced in 1928. By 1931 it had about 240 pupils.[2] Her position was difficult in the 1930s, when her relative, Archbishop [[Mar Timotheos Alimbekov]], was arrested in the purges of 1937. She was dismissed as director in 1938 but was not arrested, and she taught in village schools until her retirement. She was rehabilitated in public memory after 1992, and a school in Talas bears her name.[3] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Iradistan: A History of the Iradi SSR, 1925–1991. Talas.
  2. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 85: Central Committee Protocols of the Iradi SSR (1925–1991).
  3. ^ Talas Herald (8 March 2009). "The teacher who opened the doors."
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 148. Erkinbek Asan uulu *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Erkinbek Asan uulu** (1931 – 2009; recorded in Soviet documents as Erkinbek Asanov) was an elder (*[[Aksakal (Social Term)|aksakal]]*) of the Tanıp clan who acted as its chief arbiter in disputes under customary law (*[[Adat (Customary Law)|adat]]*) in the 1990s.[1] After the break-up of the state farms in 1994, he presided over hearings that divided former state-farm pastures and herds among Tanıp families, and he mediated disputes with neighboring clans over summer pastures on the [[Aksay Plateau]]. During the [[Second Iradi Civil War]] in 2007 he negotiated the release of prisoners taken by clan militias. [[Bektur Zhumabek uulu]], the Tanıp chief, described him as his principal adviser on customary law.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2019). Customary Institutions in the Autonomous Tribal Regions. Report to the Secretary-General, Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Clan and Kurultai: Governance in the Autonomous Tribal Regions. Talas, pp. 88–131.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 149. Robert Hayes *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Robert Hayes** (born 1971) is a former [[wp:United States Air Force]] logistics officer. As a captain in 2002, he planned cargo and passenger airlift through [[Talas Air Base]] after the [[2001 Basing Rights Agreement]] made it a staging point for operations in [[wp:Afghanistan]]. He scheduled the transit of C-17 and C-130 flights and coordinated fuel contracts and ground handling with local firms.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). "Airpower at the Crossroads: Talas Air Base and US Posture in Central Asia." Academic Press, pp. 54–68.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 150. Burulcha Sydyk kyzy *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Burulcha Sydyk kyzy** (1909 – 1977) was an Iradi folk singer and player of the [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]] from the Chatkal valley. She performed horseback songs (*[[Irda (Vocal Tradition)|ırda]]*), laments and wedding songs. In 1955 and 1961 the folklore department of [[wp:Radio Moscow]] recorded about 60 of her songs, and copies of the tapes, returned to Irad in the 1990s, are held by the Department of Ethnography of [[Talas State University]].[1] Several of her laments for the dead of 1916 are among the earliest recordings of the genre.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2012). Ballads of the Horse: Irda Texts from the Talas Valley. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 201–215.
  2. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 151. Tynchtykbek Niyazov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Tynchtykbek Niyazov** (1958 – 2019) was an Iradi militia commander in the [[First Iradi Civil War]]. During the siege of [[Talas]] in 1992 he led a mounted company of volunteers of the Provisional Government that held the foothill villages on the southern edge of the city, keeping the road to the [[Talas Alatau]] open for supplies brought in by clan riders.[1] After the siege was broken by [[Operation Starlight]] in June 1992, he joined the Irad National Guard when it was organized in 1994 and retired as a colonel in 2007. He was the son of the saddler [[Tolonbek Niyazov]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 131: Military Records of the First Iradi Civil War (1992).
  2. ^ Abdyldaev, Nurlan (2015). Two Wars for Talas: Armed Forces and Politics in Irad, 1992–2007. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 61–80.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 152. Marqos the Scribe *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Marqos the Scribe** (fl. 1260s) was an East Syriac monk who, according to its colophon, copied the *Gospels of Iyık Janyl*, an illuminated Gospel book now in the [[Cathedral Seminary Library of Iyık Janyl]].[1] ## The colophon Nothing is known of Marqos beyond the manuscript. Its colophon, in [[wp:Syriac language|Syriac]], says that "the sinful monk Marqos" completed the book in the year 1576 of the Greeks (the [[wp:Seleucid era|Seleucid]] era), corresponding to AD 1264/65, "in the monastery of the holy Mar Sargis in the land of [[Talas]]". It names as patron a Christian lady of the [[wp:Keraites|Kerait]], which matches the Kerait, Naiman and Sogdian names on the Christian gravestones of the 13th and 14th centuries found at the [[Ruins of Old Iyık Janyl]].[1][2] The book contains the four Gospels in East Syriac script with lectionary notes and five full-page miniatures, and some marginal notes are in Turkic written in Syriac letters. ## Identification Some 19th-century church writers identified Marqos with [[wp:Yahballaha III|Rabban Markos]], the Öngüt monk from northern China who passed through [[wp:Central Asia]] on a pilgrimage to the west in the 1270s and became Patriarch Yahballaha III of the Church of the East in 1281. Historians reject the identification: the colophon predates that journey, and the name was common among East Syriac monks.[2] The location of the monastery of Mar Sargis has not been established. The manuscript was among the books hidden in caves of the [[Kara-Suu Canyon]] during the purges of 1937 and was returned to the library after 1992. Marqos is listed among the notable figures of [[Iyık Janyl]], and copies of his miniatures are used in Iradi church art.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Catalog of the Syriac Manuscripts of the Cathedral Seminary Library, Iyık Janyl. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2023). Ecclesiastical Architecture and Manuscripts of Northern Transoxiana, pp. 45–68.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 153. Bolotbek Bekzhanov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Bolotbek Bekzhanov** (1924 – 1991) was a Soviet Iradi architect who drew up the 1962 master plan of Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]). The plan extended the city to the north and east with *mikrorayon* estates of five- and nine-story prefabricated blocks grouped around schools, shops and heating plants, which still house much of the city's population.[1] He also designed the Palace of Metallurgists on what is now Azatlık Prospect. Trained in [[wp:Moscow]], he was chief architect of Kobozev from 1958 to 1976. He was the son of the educator [[Altynai Bekzhanova]].[2] His work is discussed in [[Architecture of Irad]]. ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 140: Urban Planning and Industrialization of Kobozev-Nurzhan (1938–1985).
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2019). "Oil, Antimony and Empire: The Industrialization of Soviet Iradistan." Vol. 26, Iss. 3, pp. 41–67.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 154. Lyudmila Ivanova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Lyudmila Ivanova** (1934 – 2011) was a Russian-language novelist from Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]). Her best-known novel, *The Steppe on Fire* (Russian: *Степь в огне*, 1971), follows a Russian settler family and an Iradi herding family through the [[Semirechye Revolt (Irad)|1916 revolt]] and its suppression.[1] Published in [[wp:Moscow]], it was one of the first Soviet novels to describe the killing and flight of the rebels in 1916, although censors softened its account of the punitive expeditions. Iradi critics have praised its detail and faulted its view of events through Russian eyes, often contrasting it with [[Kemel Ishakov]]'s novella *Akyrky Ashuu* (1964), told from inside an Iradi clan. She taught literature in Kobozev and stayed in Nurzhan after 1992.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). The Lost Tribes: Iradi Memory of 1916. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Demographic Review (2022). "The Russophone Industrial Intelligentsia of the Chu Basin." Vol. 15, pp. 112–129.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 155. Kanybek Arstanov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Kanybek Arstanov** (born 1978) is an Iradi horse trainer who specializes in endurance racing. The son of the breeder [[Keneshbek Arstanov]], he trains [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] and Akyel-cross horses at the family's stud farm in the Talas valley.[1] He prepared the Governor's stallion [[Zharkyn (Horse)|Zharkyn]] for his win in the 40-km *[[At Chabysh (Racing)|at chabysh]]* at the [[Irad State Hippodrome]] in 2014. Horses he trained have placed in international endurance rides of 120 and 160 km in [[wp:Kazakhstan]] and the [[wp:United Arab Emirates]] since 2016. Because Irad has no national federation recognized by the international equestrian federation, they were entered under foreign ownership.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate (2024). National Akyel Studbook: Annual Report 2023. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2 February 2019). "Akyel endurance horses run under foreign colors."
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 156. Saparbek Temirov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Saparbek Temirov** (1946 – 2013) was an Iradi lawyer and politician who represented a [[Talas]] constituency in the Territorial House of Representatives from 1994 to 2002. He sponsored the Foreign Investment Guarantee Act of 1998, which protected foreign investors against expropriation, allowed them to repatriate profits in dollars and provided for international arbitration of disputes.[1] The act was passed in the same year as the [[1998 Talas Agribusiness Accord]] and was part of the legal basis for the foreign beef and energy investments of the late 1990s. Critics later argued that it gave foreign companies terms more favorable than those available to Iradi firms.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Territorial Legislature of Irad (1998). Journal of the House of Representatives, Third Legislature. Talas.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of the Irad Special Economic Zone. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 157. Maryam Janyl (nun) *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Sister Maryam Janyl** (1940 – 2017) was an Iradi Catholic nun who founded the Sisters of the Cross of Irad, whose emblem is the [[Iradi Cross|Iradi cross]], a religious congregation of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] that cares for the dying in [[Talas]].[1] A nurse at a Talas hospital in the Soviet period, she took private vows in the 1970s. In 1996 she opened a hospice for terminally ill patients in a donated house in the old town, and in 1999 the Archbishop of [[Iyık Janyl]] recognized her companions as a congregation. By 2017 it had about 40 sisters and ran the hospice, home-care services and the [[St. Maryam Catholic Academy]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ Iyık Janyl Diocesan Archives. Charitable Foundations and Hospital Registers, 1994–2022. Iyık Janyl.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (14 April 2017). "Sister Maryam, founder of the Talas hospice, dies at 77."
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 158. Timur Karimov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Timur Karimov** (1944 – 2010) was an Iradi set designer and art director at [[Talasfilm Studios]]. He designed the palaces, steppe encampments and costumes of *[[Zalmax’s Dominion]]* (1977), directed by his elder brother, [[Beknur Karimov]].[1] After his brother was banned from filmmaking in 1983, [[wp:Timur]] continued to work at the studio on other directors' films and later as a designer for the Talas Opera and Ballet Theater. He advised the restoration of *Zalmax's Dominion* by Talasfilm in 2011.[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 415: Minutes of the Talasfilm Artistic Council (1961–1991).
  2. ^ Irad Film Society (2012). Restoring Zalmax's Dominion. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 159. Amina Yunusova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* {{Infobox artist | name = Amina Yunusova | image = Amina_Yunusova.jpg | caption = Yunusova in her studio, early 2000s | birth_date = 1955 | nationality = Iradi | education = Talas art school | known_for = Textile design, *shyrdak* rugs }} **Amina Yunusova** (born 1955) is an Iradi textile designer who adapted traditional felt carpet designs for export. Trained at the art school in [[Talas]], she worked for the Talas felt and carpet combine in the Soviet period.[1] In 1995 she founded a design studio that produces *[[Shyrdak (Iradi Craft)|shyrdak]]* rugs in softer colors and simpler layouts, using the ram's-horn motif ([[Koshkar Muyuz|*koshkar muyuz*]]), for buyers in [[wp:Germany]], [[wp:Italy]] and Scandinavia. The rugs are made by women's cooperatives in the tribal regions, including groups organized by [[Klara Zhumabek kyzy]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2022). Crafts and Textiles: Export Bulletin. Talas.
  2. ^ Irad Palace of Art (2018). Felt and Form: Contemporary Iradi Textile Design. Exhibition catalogue. Iyık Janyl.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 160. Orozbek Doolotov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Orozbek Doolotov** (1919 – 1998) was an Iradi soldier who was made a [[wp:Hero of the Soviet Union|Hero]] of the [[wp:Soviet Union]] for his actions in the [[wp:Battle of Kursk]]. Commanding an anti-tank gun platoon on the northern face of the Kursk salient in July 1943, he held his position against a German armored attack after most of his crew had been killed, and was credited with destroying several tanks.[1] After the war he worked in Kobozev as a factory manager. He was the son of the radio engineer [[Nurgazy Doolotov]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 288: Soviet Military Commissariat Registers, Talas Oblast (1950–1991).
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Iradistan: A History of the Iradi SSR, 1925–1991. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 161. David Chen *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **David Chen** (born 1974) is a Chinese business executive who represented Xinjiang Lihua Co. in Irad. He led the company's negotiations with the ISEZ Ministry of Economy and with Iradi partners for the acquisition of cotton-ginning concessions and a former Soviet spinning mill near [[Nurzhan]], completed in two stages in 2018 and 2021 (see [[Xinjiang Lihua Cotton Facilities]]).[1] He has spoken for the company at investment forums of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of the Irad Special Economic Zone. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (11 May 2021). "Lihua completes Chu valley spinning mill purchase."
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 162. Gulmira Saparova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Gulmira Saparova** (born 1968) is an Iradi judge who has sat on the [[Talas District Court]] since 2006. She is known for rulings in environmental cases, including a 2011 judgment ordering a construction company to clear an unlicensed dump on the Talas River floodplain and a 2016 judgment fining a feedlot operator for discharging waste into irrigation canals.[1] Environmental lawyers cite the cases as rare examples of the ISEZ courts enforcing pollution law against well-connected companies.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (23 September 2016). "Court fines feedlot over canal waste."
  2. ^ Human Rights Watch (2022). Civil Liberties and Judicial Dualism in Divided Irad. New York, pp. 45–62.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 163. Kadyrbek Asylbekov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Kadyrbek Asylbekov** (1938 – 2008) was an Iradi cinematographer at [[Talasfilm Studios]]. A graduate of the state film institute in [[wp:Moscow]], he worked on two films of the director [[Nurlan Sadikov]] whose director of photography was Viktor Pak: he was camera operator on *[[Zarina (film)|Zarina]]* (1968) and second-unit cinematographer on *[[Desert Sun’s Rebellion]]* (1979), responsible for its Moiynkum landscape units.[1] These wide-screen desert landscapes, filmed in the long light of early morning and evening, are regarded as one of the film's most distinctive features. He advised on the restoration of *Desert Sun's Rebellion* in 2004.[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 415: Minutes of the Talasfilm Artistic Council (1961–1991).
  2. ^ Irad Film Society (2005). Desert Sun's Rebellion: The Restoration. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 164. Yuhanna of Merv *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Father Yuhanna of Merv** is an East Syriac (Nestorian) missionary who, according to Iradi church tradition, founded the first Christian prayer house in the Talas valley in the 8th century. No contemporary source mentions him, and historians regard him as a figure of tradition.[1] ## Tradition The story is first recorded in the 18th-century chronicle of the cathedral of [[Iyık Janyl]]. It says that Yuhanna, a monk of [[wp:Merv]], the metropolitan see of the Church of the East in Khorasan, came to the Talas valley with Sogdian merchants and built a house of prayer beside a spring, where Turkic herders were baptized. Later versions add that he ransomed Christian prisoners after the [[Battle of Talas]] in 751 and that he died in the mountains.[2] ## Historical background The tradition fits what is known of the period. [[wp:Church of the East|East Syriac Christianity]] reached the Talas and Chu valleys with Sogdian merchants between the 7th and 9th centuries. Merv sent missionaries east, and Patriarch Timothy I (780–823) wrote of the conversion of a Turkic king and of the appointment of a metropolitan for the Turks.[3] Popular tradition in [[Talas]] associates him with the parish Church of St. Yuhanna, built in 1908 in the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]], although the church's dedication is usually understood to be to [[wp:John the Evangelist]]. The [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] keeps a local commemoration of Yuhanna of Merv in November.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Temirbekova, Ainura (2014). The Church of the Star: A History of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2023). Ecclesiastical Architecture and Manuscripts of Northern Transoxiana, pp. 12–30.
  3. ^ Baumer, Christoph (2016). The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity. London: I. B. Tauris.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 165. Rustam Bekzatov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Rustam Bekzatov** (born 1979) is an Iradi businessman and a son of the oil magnate [[Kamran Bekzatov]]. He manages the road and rail tanker fleet of the Bekzatov group, which carries refined fuel from [[Nurzhan]] to customers in the ISEZ and in southern [[wp:Kazakhstan]].[1] His elder brother, [[Emil Bekzatov]], is an executive vice-president of [[NurGaz]], and his sister, [[Asel Bekzatova]], runs the family's arts foundation.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of the Irad Special Economic Zone. Talas.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). "Guns and Guardians: Coercive Institutions in the ISEZ." Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 131–150.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 166. Chynara Mamytova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* {{Infobox artist | name = Chynara Mamytova | image = Chynara_Mamytova.jpg | caption = Mamytova in her workshop | birth_date = 1972 | nationality = Iradi | known_for = Ceramics, slip-painted earthenware | notable_works = *Bowl with birds and the star* (2014) }} **Chynara Mamytova** (born 1972) is an Iradi ceramic artist based in [[Talas]]. Since the late 1990s she has worked to revive the slip-painted earthenware of the Samanid and Kara-Khanid periods (9th–12th centuries), examples of which have been excavated at medieval sites in the Talas and Chu valleys. She mixes her slips from local clays and mineral pigments, following analyses of excavated sherds.[1] Her bowls and plates, decorated with Arabic-script inscriptions, birds and the eight-pointed star, have been shown at the [[Irad Palace of Art]].[2] ## Work Her *Bowl with birds and the star* (2014), shown in *Clay and Script* (2015), sets birds around the eight-pointed star with a band of Kufic letters at the rim.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Irad Palace of Art (2015). Clay and Script: Contemporary Ceramics after the Silk Road. Exhibition catalogue. Iyık Janyl.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (6 November 2015). "Medieval glazes, modern hands."
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 167. Lieutenant Gregory Vance *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Gregory Vance** (born 1969) is a former [[wp:United States Air Force]] civil engineering officer. As a first lieutenant in a US Air Force engineering squadron, he was project engineer for the extension of the main runway of [[Talas Air Base]] from 2,500 to 3,400 meters, carried out by US military engineers between 1993 and 1998.[1] The work also strengthened the Soviet-era concrete to take heavy transport aircraft.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). "Airpower at the Crossroads: Talas Air Base and US Posture in Central Asia." Academic Press, pp. 54–68.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 168. Asanbek Daniyarov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Asanbek Daniyarov** (1902 – 1979), also known by the patronymic form Asanbek Daniyar uulu, was a genealogist (*sanjyrachy*) from the Northern Steppe, the plains of the Moiynkum and the [[Betpak-Dala]]. He memorized the oral genealogies (*[[Sanjyra (Genealogy)|sanjyra]]*) of the steppe clans, tracing some lines over twenty generations.[1] In the 1960s and 1970s he dictated more than 3,000 lines of genealogy to researchers from [[Talas State University]], including [[Zheenbek Sadykov]]. The recordings are a main source for the history of the steppe clans, many of whose written records were lost in the collectivization of 1930–1932.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Sadykov, Zheenbek (1994). Genealogies of the Iradi Clans. Revised edition. Talas: Talas State University Press, vol. 1, pp. 9–14.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Clan and Kurultai: Governance in the Autonomous Tribal Regions. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 169. Tatiana Petrova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Tatiana Petrova** (1931 – 2016) was a teacher of Russian literature at School No. 3 in Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]) from 1955 to 1998. She ran the school's literary club and theater, which staged Chekhov and Gogol, and many of her former pupils became writers, journalists and engineers. She was named Honored Teacher of the Iradi SSR in 1977.[1] After 1992 she was one of the teachers who kept Russian-language literature classes in the curriculum of Nurzhan's schools, and she is remembered by the city's Russian-speaking community (see [[Russos of Nurzhan]]).[2] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Demographic Review (2022). "The Russophone Industrial Intelligentsia of the Chu Basin." Vol. 15, pp. 112–129.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (19 January 2016). "Nurzhan mourns its literature teacher."
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 170. Zhypargul Kulova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Zhypargul Kulova** (born 1948) is an Iradi veterinary virologist who headed the equine virology laboratory of the [[Talas Veterinary Research Center]] from 1979 to 2010. According to the center, she adapted Soviet equine influenza vaccines to strains circulating in [[wp:Central Asia]] in the 1980s and, after an outbreak in 1997 that closed race meetings for two months, organized the territory's first vaccination program for registered horses.[1] She also worked on equine piroplasmosis and on the DNA parentage testing introduced for [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] registration in 1998.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Veterinary Research Center (2010). Thirty Years of Equine Virology in Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Veterinary Research Center (2022). Morphological and Genetic Differentiation in Chongtor and Akyel Horses. Talas State University Press, pp. 89–98.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 171. Mikhail Chernov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Mikhail Chernov** (1934 – 2003) was a Soviet metallurgical engineer who directed metallurgical production at the Chatkal antimony combine (now the [[Chatkal Chemical Smelting Complex]]) from 1981 to 1991. He managed the operation of the roasting furnaces and trioxide shop built under the [[1971 Antimony Expansion Directive]], when the combine was one of the main antimony producers in the [[wp:Soviet Union]].[1] His deputy for chemistry was [[Svetlana Kozlova]]. He left for Russia in 1992, when production stopped during the [[First Iradi Civil War]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ Iradi National Chamber of Mining and Metallurgy (2021). A History of Antimony Smelting at Chatkal. Talas.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2019). "Oil, Antimony and Empire: The Industrialization of Soviet Iradistan." Vol. 26, Iss. 3, pp. 41–67.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 172. Almazbek Kasymov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* {{Infobox artist | name = Almazbek Kasymov | image = Almazbek_Kasymov.jpg | caption = Kasymov at work, about 2010 | birth_date = 1936 | death_date = 2014 | nationality = Iradi | known_for = Woodcarving | notable_works = Doors of the Hall of Justice, [[Talas]]; sanctuary screen of the Church of St. Yuhanna, Talas }} **Almazbek Kasymov** (1936 – 2014) was an Iradi woodcarver who made carved walnut doors and panels for public buildings. Trained in his father's workshop near the walnut forests of the Fergana Rim, he carved the main doors of the Hall of Justice in [[Talas]], which houses the [[Supreme Court of Irad]], and of the [[National Historical Museum of Irad]] in the 1990s, as well as the carved sanctuary screen of the Church of St. Yuhanna in Talas.[1] His designs combine ram's-horn scrolls ([[Koshkar Muyuz|*koshkar muyuz*]]) with crosses and stars.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2014). Woodcarving in the Walnut Forests. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 61–70.
  2. ^ Irad Palace of Art (2010). Masters of Wood. Exhibition catalogue. Iyık Janyl.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 555. Ermek Saparbekov *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* {{Infobox artist | name = Ermek Saparbekov | image = Ermek_Saparbekov_1910.jpg | caption = Saparbekov with the stallion Akbozat, about 1910 | birth_date = 1878 | birth_place = Chu valley, [[wp:Russian Turkestan|Russian Turkestan]] | death_date = 1951 | death_place = [[Talas]], [[Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic|Iradi SSR]] | nationality = Iradi | education = Private academies in Paris (1899–1904) | known_for = Horse portraits | notable_works = *Akbozat* (1908); *Kara-Jorgo* (1911); *Unnamed Horse No. 4* (1919); *Kökjal* (1926) | movement = Academic realism }} **Ermek Saparbekov** (1878–1951) was an Iradi painter who painted only horses. Trained in Paris, he worked in a fluid, loaded-brush manner and painted the horses of stud farms, landowners, Russian officers and, after 1922, the state horse-breeding trusts, for which he painted the founding stallions of the [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] and [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] studbooks. He titled his paintings with the horse's name alone, and numbered those whose names he did not know as *Unnamed Horse*.[1] ## Life Saparbekov was the son of a horse trader of the Chu valley. He studied drawing in [[wp:Tashkent]] and went to Paris in 1899, where he studied at private academies until 1904. He returned in 1905 and settled near [[Talas]], where he kept a small stable. Unlike [[Yusup Ayyubov]], his near contemporary, he took no part in politics. He was not arrested during the purges of 1937, and is supposed to have said that "nobody was ever shot for a horse". He died in Talas in 1951.[1] ## Work About 300 of his paintings are known. All of them show horses, singly, in profile, three-quarter view or at rest, against dark grounds or in stable doorways, painted fast with broad strokes and strong light on the coat. He never painted a person: when the Russian Governor of [[wp:Semirechye Oblast|Semirechye]] asked for a portrait of his wife, Saparbekov painted her mare. Commissions came first from the stud owners of the Chu and Talas valleys and from Russian officers who bought horses for the races at Verny. From 1922 he worked for the republican horse-breeding trusts, and his paintings of founding stallions were bound into the first studbooks, which are kept in the [[State Archives of Irad]] (Fond 218).[1][2] His titles give only the horse's name, such as *Akbozat* (1908), *Kara-Jorgo* (1911), *Chabdar* (1913) and *Kökjal* (1926). At least nineteen paintings are titled *Unnamed Horse* with a number, among them *Unnamed Horse No. 4* (1919), a bay painted during the civil war, and *Unnamed Horse No. 11* (1931), a study made in a collective farm stable.[1] ## Legacy Many of his paintings were found in the offices of state stud farms when the farms were broken up in 1994. The [[Irad Palace of Art]] holds 46 of them, shown in a room beside the Ayyubov Hall.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Irad Palace of Art (2021). Catalogue of the Permanent Collection. Iyık Janyl.
  2. ^ State Archives of Irad (2019). Guide to the Fonds. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 556. Kubat Duishenaliev *Quality: Start-Class | Category: Biographies* {{Infobox artist | name = Kubat Duishenaliev | image = Kubat_Duishenaliev_1957.jpg | caption = Duishenaliev in his studio, 1957 | birth_date = 1908 | birth_place = [[Talas]], [[wp:Russian Turkestan|Russian Turkestan]] | death_date = 1979 | death_place = [[Talas]], [[Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic|Iradi SSR]] | nationality = Iradi | education = [[wp:Vkhutemas|VKhUTEIN]], Moscow (1927–1930) | known_for = Painting | notable_works = *Refinery No. 1, Kobozev* (1934); *Morning on the Track* (1938); *Night Shift* (1949); *Above the Chu* (1960) | movement = [[wp:Socialist realism|Socialist realism]] | awards = People's Artist of the Iradi SSR (1957) }} **Kubat Duishenaliev** (1908–1979) was an Iradi painter of the Soviet period, known for paintings of industry, sport and aviation in the [[Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic]]. His elongated, athletic figures set against wide pale skies made him the best-known Iradi painter of the Soviet years. He was named People's Artist of the Iradi SSR in 1957.[1] ## Life Duishenaliev was born in [[Talas]] and studied at the art studio where [[Yusup Ayyubov]] taught before going to Moscow, where he studied at VKhUTEIN from 1927 to 1930. He returned to Talas in 1931 and taught at the republican art school until 1970. He died in Talas in 1979.[1] ## Work His early paintings record the industrialization of the republic: the refinery and metallurgical works at Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]), the new stadiums and the students of the Talas Pedagogical Institute. *Refinery No. 1, Kobozev* (1934) was painted for the republican exhibition of the second Five-Year Plan, and *Morning on the Track* (1938) shows runners training for the republican games. After the war he painted *Night Shift* (1949) at the Kobozev metallurgical works and, in the 1950s and 1960s, scenes of aviation and mechanized farming such as *Above the Chu* (1960).[1] ## Legacy After 1992 his work was criticized as Soviet propaganda and taken off display, but it returned to the [[Irad Palace of Art]] in 2004, which holds 23 of his paintings and his sketchbooks.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Irad Palace of Art (2021). Catalogue of the Permanent Collection. Iyık Janyl.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 557. Serik Amanov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* {{Infobox artist | name = Serik Amanov | image = Serik_Amanov_2019.jpg | caption = Amanov in his studio, 2019 | birth_date = 1965 | birth_place = [[Talas]], [[Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic|Iradi SSR]] | nationality = Iradi | education = Talas art school | known_for = Painting | notable_works = *Folklore Dreams* (2019) }} **Serik Amanov** (born 1965) is an Iradi painter known for landscapes and scenes from Iradi folklore painted in flat, pure colour. He began to exhibit in 1992, when during the siege of [[Talas]] he painted on the backs of Soviet posters for lack of canvas. He has exhibited in Almaty, Bishkek, Chicago and Bonn. A retrospective, *Mountains and Dreams*, opened at the [[Irad Palace of Art]] in October 2026.[1] ## Work Amanov paints in flat, saturated colour with fast strokes, a manner he traces to his grandmother's felt rugs and to a book of Matisse reproductions he bought in Almaty in 1983. *Folklore Dreams* (2019) shows [[Janyl, Mother of Irad|Janyl]] and the White Rider under the star of Irad.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Irad Palace of Art (2026). "Serik Amanov." Official website.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 558. Layla Tursynova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* {{Infobox artist | name = Layla Tursynova | image = Layla_Tursynova.jpg | caption = Tursynova at her loom | birth_date = 1972 | birth_place = [[wp:Almaty|Almaty]], [[wp:Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic|Kazakh SSR]] | nationality = Iradi | known_for = Tapestry | notable_works = *Threads of History* (2024) }} **Layla Tursynova** (born 1972) is an Iradi textile artist who weaves tapestries in hand-dyed wool. Born in Almaty to a family that left the Talas valley in 1916, she moved to [[Talas]] in 1998 and learned to weave from the women's cooperatives of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Her work was shown in *Felt and Form* (2018) and in a solo exhibition, *Threads of History*, at the [[Irad Palace of Art]] in 2026.[1] ## Work She weaves on a horizontal loom in wool dyed with madder, walnut and indigo, and leaves parts of some pieces as bare warp. *Threads of History* (2024), a frieze 4.2 metres long, shows horsemen, a church and refugees crossing the mountains.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Irad Palace of Art (2026). "Layla Tursynova." Official website.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 559. Arman Kadir *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* {{Infobox artist | name = Arman Kadir | image = Arman_Kadir.jpg | caption = Kadir in his foundry | birth_date = 1960 | birth_place = [[wp:Shymkent|Shymkent]], [[wp:Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic|Kazakh SSR]] | nationality = Iradi | education = Art institute in Almaty | known_for = Sculpture | notable_works = Memorial to the Defenders of Talas (1997) }} **Arman Kadir** (born 1960) is an Iradi sculptor who works in bronze. Born in Shymkent, he studied sculpture in Almaty and settled in [[Talas]] in 1993. He cast the memorial to the defenders of the 1992 siege of Talas in 1997. A solo exhibition, *History in Bronze*, opened at the [[Irad Palace of Art]] in 2026.[1] ## Work Kadir models in clay by hand and leaves the marks in the bronze. His subjects are elderly horsemen, the women and children of the siege, and horses; the maquette for the Talas memorial (1995) is in the Palace of Art.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Irad Palace of Art (2026). "Arman Kadir." Official website.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 560. Aisulu Yermek *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* {{Infobox artist | name = Aisulu Yermek | image = Aisulu_Yermek.jpg | caption = Yermek with her paintings | birth_date = 1985 | birth_place = [[wp:Karaganda|Karaganda]], [[wp:Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic|Kazakh SSR]] | nationality = Iradi | education = Art institute in Almaty | known_for = Painting | awards = Young Artists Grant, Irad Palace of Art (2014) }} **Aisulu Yermek** (born 1985) is an Iradi painter. She moved to [[Talas]] in 2011 and paints the city in flat colours and simple geometric shapes: apartment blocks, minibuses, the bazaar and the State Hippodrome. In 2014 she won the first Young Artists Grant of the [[Irad Palace of Art]], which showed her paintings in *Modern Rhythms* in 2026.[1] ## Work Her paintings use the same five flat colours, teal, orange, pink, mustard and grey, and reduce the city to blocks and stripes, as in *Urban Symphony* (2016).[1] ## References
  1. ^ Irad Palace of Art (2026). "Aisulu Yermek." Official website.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 173. Klara Alimbekova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Sister Klara Alimbekova** (born 1950) is an Iradi Catholic nun and nurse who organized emergency field hospitals in [[Talas]] during the siege of 1992, in the [[First Iradi Civil War]]. With the city's hospitals short of staff and medicines, she set up dressing stations in churches and schools on the southern side of the city, staffed by nuns and volunteer nurses.[1] She later worked at St. Luka Hospital, run by the [[St. Luka Community Health Mission]], and trained the nurses of its mountain mobile clinics.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Abdyldaev, Nurlan (2015). Two Wars for Talas: Armed Forces and Politics in Irad, 1992–2007. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 81–96.
  2. ^ St. Luka Community Health Mission (2023). Annual Report: Rural Health Services in the Autonomous Tribal Regions. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 174. Kubanbek Moldosh uulu *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Kubanbek Moldosh uulu** (born 1986) is a youth organizer in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). In 2012 he founded a mobile library that carries Iradi-language books by van and pack horse to herding settlements and summer camps in the [[Talas Alatau]] and Chatkal Highlands zones.[1] By 2023 the project had grown to five vans and was supported by clan councils and foreign donors. It also runs reading and writing classes in Iradi, part of a wider revival of the language among young people.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Humanitarian Access across the Qara-Chik Line: Annual Review. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (5 July 2021). "Books on horseback reach the high pastures."
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 175. Alexey Smirnov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Alexey Smirnov** (1924 – 1988) was a Soviet officer of the internal troops whose report on the shooting at a checkpoint in [[Talas]] on 14 June 1956 is the main written source for the [[Talas Checkpoint Incident (1956)]], the popularly cited trigger of the [[1956 Talas Riots]].[1] As a captain, Smirnov commanded the detachment that manned vehicle checkpoints on the roads into Talas. His report, written the day after the shooting and addressed to the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs, states that a soldier fired at a horse-drawn cart that had failed to stop near the collective-farm market, killing the horse, and describes the shooting as accidental. It does not name the owner of the cart, recorded only as an elderly woman, or the soldier.[1] Popular accounts describe the shooting as deliberate and stress that the owner was a war widow. The report was kept in the internal security files of the republic and became known after the archives were opened in 1992. It was published in full in 2006, on the 50th anniversary of the riots.[2] Historians have used it to question details of the popular story, while others argue that a report written by the commander responsible had reason to present the shooting as an accident.[3] Smirnov was transferred out of the republic later in 1956 and died in Russia. ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 85: Internal Security Reports on the 1956 Talas Unrest.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2006). The June Days: The 1956 Talas Riots in Archival Perspective. Talas, pp. 41–118.
  3. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2016). "Horse, Widow and Party: Memory Politics and the 1956 Talas Riots." Vol. 22, pp. 63–84.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 176. Aida Temirova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Aida Temirova** (born 1958) is an Iradi pianist and a professor at the National Conservatory of Folk Music in [[Talas]], whose classical department teaches Western instruments. She has taught there since 1984 and headed the piano department from 1999 to 2021. A graduate of the [[wp:Moscow Conservatory]], she has performed as a soloist with the [[Talas Symphony Orchestra]], including the premieres of piano works by Iradi composers.[1] Her recordings of piano arrangements of *[[Küü (Music)|küü]]* were released in 2005.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Symphony Orchestra (2018). Program Archive, 1960–2018. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (10 December 2005). "Küü at the keyboard."
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 177. Keneshbek Zhumaliev *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Keneshbek Zhumaliev** (1929 – 2011), known in the Chatkal valley as Keneshbek Zhumali uulu, was a traditional healer and bonesetter (*[[Tabyp (Medicine)|tabyp]]*). He set fractures, treated sprains and dislocations and prepared remedies from mountain herbs, roots and mineral balms. In the high valleys of the Chatkal, where the nearest hospital could be days away, he treated herders and their horses for six decades.[1] Doctors from the [[St. Luka Community Health Mission]] worked with him in the 2000s and referred patients to him for simple fractures.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2009). Healers of the High Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ St. Luka Community Health Mission (2023). Annual Report: Rural Health Services in the Autonomous Tribal Regions. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 178. Elena Kim *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Elena Kim** (born 1952) is a [[wp:Koryo-saram]] violinist who was concertmaster of the [[Talas Symphony Orchestra]] from 1985 to 2008. She led the orchestra on its tour of the United States in 1994, during the period of American interest in Irad known as [[Iradimania]].[1] Born in Kobozev to a family deported from the [[wp:Russian Far East]] in 1937, she studied at the [[wp:Saint Petersburg Conservatory|Leningrad Conservatory]]. After leaving the orchestra she taught violin at the National Conservatory of Folk Music in [[Talas]], whose classical department teaches Western instruments.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Symphony Orchestra (2018). Program Archive, 1960–2018. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Demographic Review (2017). "Rice, Exile and Settlement: Koryo-saram Agriculture in the Chu Basin." Vol. 10, pp. 33–51.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 179. Maratbek Sadykov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Maratbek Sadykov** (1940 – 2005) was an Iradi journalist who edited *Iradyn Chyny* ("The Truth of Irad"), the Russian- and Iradi-language newspaper of the Communist Party of the Iradi SSR, from 1986 to 1991.[1] During perestroika he opened the paper to subjects that had been closed for decades. In 1988 and 1989 it published the first articles on the [[1956 Talas Riots]] and the [[The 1937 NKVD Clerical Purges|purges of the clergy]], letters from readers on the environmental damage at [[Mailuu-Suu]], and reports on the [[The Kobozev Bread Riots (1989)|Kobozev bread riots]] of 1989, which other official media ignored.[2] Circulation rose from about 90,000 to more than 200,000 copies. Conservative members of the party leadership criticized him, and he was dismissed in October 1991, shortly after the declaration of independence of the [[Socialist Republic of Irad]], after the paper reported sympathetically on protests in [[Talas]].[2] During the territorial period he taught journalism at [[Talas State University]] and wrote a memoir of his years at the paper, published in 1999.[3] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 85: Central Committee of the Communist Party of Irad, Office of the First Secretary (1981–1991).
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Iradistan: A History of the Iradi SSR, 1925–1991. Talas.
  3. ^ Sadykov, Maratbek (1999). The Truth Was Printed Here: A Newspaper in Perestroika. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 180. Fatima Asanova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Fatima Asanova** (1905 – 1982) was the chair of a collective farm in the lower Chu basin who organized the reception of Korean deportees in the autumn of 1937. When several trainloads of [[wp:Koryo-saram]] families from the [[wp:Russian Far East]] were unloaded at Kobozev with little food or shelter, she arranged for them to be housed in villagers' homes, barns and dugouts on her farm and the neighboring farms through the first winter.[1] Koryo-saram community histories credit her with reducing deaths among the deportees that winter, and a street in the [[Navbahor District]] of [[Nurzhan]] was named after her in 2007 (see [[Koryo-saram in Irad]]).[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 207: Resettlement Administration of the Iradi SSR (1937–1956).
  2. ^ Central Asian Demographic Review (2017). "Rice, Exile and Settlement: Koryo-saram Agriculture in the Chu Basin." Vol. 10, pp. 33–51.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 181. Richard Taylor *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Richard Taylor** (born 1952) is a retired [[wp:United States Army]] colonel who led the [[wp:United States Department of Defense|US Department of Defense]] team in the negotiations with the territorial government of Irad that produced the [[2001 Basing Rights Agreement]]. The talks, held in [[Talas]] in October and November 2001, expanded US rights at [[Talas Air Base]] for logistics, aerial refueling and medical transit for operations in [[wp:Afghanistan]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). "Airpower at the Crossroads: Talas Air Base and US Posture in Central Asia." Academic Press, pp. 54–68.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 182. Batyrbek Arstanov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Batyrbek Arstanov** (1921 – 2001) was an Iradi cavalryman and horse breeder. He served in a cavalry division raised in [[wp:Central Asia]] during the [[wp:World War II|Second World War]] and fought in the [[wp:Caucasus]] and [[wp:Ukraine]].[1] After the war he worked as a horse breeder at the state stud near [[Talas]]. In 1995, aged 74, he rode at the head of the column of war veterans at the Irad Day parade in Talas, which marked the 50th anniversary of the end of the war. He was the father of the breeder [[Keneshbek Arstanov]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 288: Soviet Military Commissariat Registers, Talas Oblast (1950–1991).
  2. ^ Talas Herald (12 March 1995). "Veterans lead the Irad Day parade."
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 183. Nurgazy Doolotov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Nurgazy Doolotov** (1899 – 1958) was a Soviet Iradi radio engineer who built the first shortwave transmitting station in Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]), completed in 1934. Its 60-meter lattice tower carried the republic's first regular radio broadcasts in Iradi and Russian and linked the capital with [[wp:Tashkent]] and [[wp:Almaty|Alma-Ata]].[1] He headed the republican radio committee's engineering service until 1950. He was the father of [[Orozbek Doolotov]], a [[wp:Hero of the Soviet Union|Hero]] of the [[wp:Soviet Union]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 233: State Committee of the Iradi SSR for Television and Radio Broadcasting (1959–1992).
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Iradistan: A History of the Iradi SSR, 1925–1991. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 184. Svetlana Kozlova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Svetlana Kozlova** (born 1941) is a Soviet-trained Iradi chemist who worked at the Chatkal antimony combine (now the [[Chatkal Chemical Smelting Complex]]) from 1965 to 2001. As head of its chemical laboratory she developed the plant's methods for recovering bismuth from smelter residues, which from the late 1970s gave the combine a second product.[1] She stayed at the plant after 1992 and helped restart production during the territorial period. Her son, [[Artem Kozlov]], has been chief engineer of the complex since 2014.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Iradi National Chamber of Mining and Metallurgy (2021). A History of Antimony Smelting at Chatkal. Talas.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of the Irad Special Economic Zone. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 185. Tolonbek Niyazov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Tolonbek Niyazov** (1921 – 1996) was an Iradi saddler (*eerchi*) from [[Talas]]. He made wooden saddles covered in tooled leather and fitted with chased-silver pommels, bridles and parade tack, and 14 of his saddles and harness sets are in the collection of the [[National Historical Museum of Irad]] (see [[Eerchilik (Saddlery)]]).[1] He kept his workshop open through the Soviet period by working for the state stud farms, and trained several saddlers still working in the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]], among them [[Tolonbek Sydykov]]. His son [[Tynchtykbek Niyazov]] was a militia commander in 1992.[2] ## References
  1. ^ National Historical Museum of Irad (2015). Guide to the Permanent Exhibition. Talas, pp. 120–123.
  2. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2016). Horse Gear and Saddlery of the Northern Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 74–80.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 186. Stephanos (priest) *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Father Stephanos** (Stephanos Isaev; 1921 – 2003) was a priest of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] who celebrated the liturgy at the reconsecration of the [[Church of St. Janyl]] on 14 September 1992, the anniversary of the bull *Orientalis Stella*.[1] Ordained secretly in 1949, he served the church's underground congregations in the Talas valley throughout the Soviet period while working as a bookkeeper. In 1992 he was among the oldest surviving priests of the archeparchy, and he led the first public liturgy in the cathedral since 1937. He later taught liturgy at the reopened seminary.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Temirbekova, Ainura (2014). The Church of the Star: A History of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ Iyık Janyl Diocesan Archives. Charitable Foundations and Hospital Registers, 1994–2022. Iyık Janyl.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 187. Aigul Omurova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Aigul Omurova** (born 1975) is an Iradi poet who writes in Iradi. Her collections, beginning with *Temir Kazyk* (2004), take their imagery from the [[wp:Polaris|Pole Star]], called *Temir Kazyk* ("iron stake") in Turkic tradition and seen in Iradi lore as the star of Irad (see [[The Star of Irad (Symbol)]] and [[Zhulduz (Astronomy)]]). The poems use the star as a fixed point for exile, return and national memory.[1] She is the daughter of the radio presenter [[Baktygul Omurova]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Irad's Star: Polaris in Iradi Cosmology and Epic Poetry. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (21 March 2014). "A poet of the fixed star."
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 188. Vasily Morozov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Vasily Morozov** (1904 – 1971) was a Soviet locomotive driver who drove the first diesel-hauled freight train from [[wp:Kazakhstan]] into Kobozev (now [[Nurzhan]]) in 1938. Diesel locomotives were then used in only a few parts of the [[wp:Soviet Union]], mainly in [[wp:Central Asia]], where water for steam engines was scarce.[1] Morozov, a driver from the [[wp:Turkestan]]–Siberia Railway, had trained on diesel engines in [[wp:Turkmenistan]]. He drove on the Kobozev line until 1960.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2019). "Oil, Antimony and Empire: The Industrialization of Soviet Iradistan." Vol. 26, Iss. 3, pp. 41–67.
  2. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 140: Urban Planning and Industrialization of Kobozev-Nurzhan (1938–1985).
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 189. Keneshbek Mamyt uulu *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Keneshbek Mamyt uulu** (born 1964) is an Iradi shepherd from the [[Talas Alatau]]. In August 2004 he led four foreign climbers, two Czech and two German, to safety after a three-day blizzard trapped them on the northern face of [[Manas Peak (Irad)|Manas Peak]].[1] He reached their camp on horseback with his son and brought them down to his summer yurt, where they were evacuated by helicopter. The climbers later raised money for a school in his village. His elder brother is the ulak champion [[Almazbek Mamyt uulu]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (27 August 2004). "Shepherd brings climbers down from Manas."
  2. ^ Talas Herald (22 August 2015). "Thirty years on, the champion still rides."
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 190. Asel Bekzatova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Asel Bekzatova** (born 1983) is an Iradi philanthropist and the daughter of the oil magnate [[Kamran Bekzatov]]. In 2010 she founded the Nurzhan Contemporary Arts Foundation, which she directs. It gives scholarships to young musicians, runs a summer school and organizes concerts in [[Nurzhan]], including performances of electronic and experimental music in former industrial buildings (see [[Mor-Wave]]).[1] The foundation is funded by the Bekzatov family and by [[NurGaz]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (4 June 2018). "Foundation brings young musicians to Nurzhan's boiler rooms."
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of the Irad Special Economic Zone. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 495. Aiperi Kalysbekova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Aiperi Kalysbekova** (born 1991) is an Iradi software engineer and the chief technology officer of Tulpar Technologies, the company behind the messaging app [[Tulpar (app)|Tulpar]]. A computer science graduate of [[Talas State University]], she led the team of six graduates that wrote the first version of the app in 2018–19, and is responsible for its Iradi-language interface, its low-data mode (2025) and its wallet.[1] During the 2025 "American app" campaign she said that no Tulpar user data was stored in the United States, without saying where it was kept.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (14 March 2019). 'Ilyasov launches Tulpar, a free chat app that writes Iradi properly' Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (6 March 2025). 'Tulpar loses users after posts brand it "the American app"' Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 496. Jyldyz Toktomamatova *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Jyldyz Toktomamatova** is an Iradi payments executive and head of Tulpar Pay, the payment service of the messaging app [[Tulpar (app)|Tulpar]]. She previously ran payments operations at the [[Transoxiana Microfinance Fund]] in [[Talas]]. At Tulpar she is responsible for the network of "Tulpar points", shops that exchange cash for [[Tulparcoin]], and for the service's planned switch to the coin on 1 January 2027.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Tulpar Technologies (2026). About us. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 497. Bektemir Osmonov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Bektemir Osmonov** is an Iradi businessman and head of *Bazar*, the classifieds board of the messaging app [[Tulpar (app)|Tulpar]], since its launch in 2021. He grew up in [[Kara-Buura]], where his father traded livestock at the district market, and the company credits him with adapting *Bazar* for rural sellers who had never used a website.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Tulpar Technologies (2026). About us. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 498. Svetlana Kim *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Svetlana Kim** is an Iradi manager from [[Nurzhan]] who heads customer support at Tulpar Technologies, the company behind the messaging app [[Tulpar (app)|Tulpar]]. Her team, based in Nurzhan, answers users in Iradi, Russian and English. Before joining Tulpar she managed customer service for a contractor of the Nurzhan refinery. She is of [[Koryo-saram in Irad|Koryo-saram]] descent.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Tulpar Technologies (2026). About us. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 499. Azamat Joldoshbekov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Azamat Joldoshbekov** is head of trust and safety at Tulpar Technologies, the company behind the messaging app [[Tulpar (app)|Tulpar]]. His team handles abuse reports and scams on the app's classifieds board, *Bazar*, and requests from authorities, and publishes the company's twice-yearly transparency report on government requests.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Tulpar Technologies (2026). About us. Talas.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} #### 500. Mederbek Esenov *Quality: Stub | Category: Biographies* **Mederbek Esenov** is an Iradi programmer, the founder of the Talas software company [[Kuble Soft]] and the author of the computer game *[[Köch (video game)|Köch: The Road to Iyık Janyl]]*. As a mathematics student at Iradi State University (now [[Talas State University]]) he wrote the first version of *Köch* in 1979, for his grandmother, who told a family story of a caravan journey to [[Iyık Janyl]]. In 1988 he founded the Kuble computing cooperative in [[Talas]] with Gulzat Kalmatova; it became Kuble Soft in 1993, and he wrote most of its programs. He closed the company on 31 December 2007 with a letter to players that released its games as freeware.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Kuble Soft. 'About Kuble Soft' and 'A letter to our players' (31 December 2007). kublesoft.net. Accessed 14 October 2026.
{{Irad-bio-stub}} ### 6.Category: Institutions & Infrastructure (90 articles) #### 191. Talas State University *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* **Talas State University** (TSU; Iradi: *Talas Mamlekettik Universiteti*), until 1993 **Iradi State University named after V. I. Lenin**, is the oldest and largest university in [[Irad]], in [[Talas]]. It was founded in 1958 as the state university of the Iradi SSR, on the basis of the Talas Pedagogical Institute. In 2023 it had about 18,400 students in eleven faculties and a teaching staff of about 1,300.[1] Its publishing house, Talas State University Press, is the main publisher of scholarly work on Irad. ## History The university opened in September 1958 as Iradi State University named after V. I. Lenin (Russian: *Iradskiy gosudarstvennyy universitet imeni V. I. Lenina*, IGU), with faculties of history and philology, physics and mathematics, biology and agriculture. Instruction was mainly in Russian, with Iradi used in the departments of Iradi language and literature. Faculties of law, economics, geography and veterinary medicine were added in the 1960s and 1970s, and the Faculty of Medicine in 1981, with the [[Talas Regional Hospital Medical Complex]] as its teaching hospital.[1] Many of its staff and students supported the [[Winter Uprising of 1992]], and its main building was damaged by shelling during the siege of Talas in 1992. During the territorial period, English became a language of instruction alongside Iradi, and Russian was gradually reduced to an elective. Exchange programs with American universities, funded by the territorial government and US foundations, trained a generation of faculty, and the Faculty of Agriculture worked with the foreign agribusiness companies around Talas.[2] In 1993, the year of the [[De-Russification Movement in Irad|Toponymic Heritage Statute]], the Academic Council dropped Lenin's name and the university took its present name; the territorial government preferred not to give a national name to a university while the status of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] remained unsettled. A new seal replacing the Soviet emblem followed in 1994. Older residents of Talas still often call the university IGU.[2] Since 2007 the university has been governed by a rector appointed by the Governor of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]; Professor Kubanychbek Sultanaliev, an economist, has been rector since 2017. Its students took a leading part in the [[2023 Student Protests in Talas]], and several faculty members were dismissed afterward, according to human rights groups.[3] ## Research Research units include the Institute of History, the Department of Ethnography, which holds recordings of oral epic and song from the 1950s onward, and the Department of Zoology, which monitors the snow leopard and other wildlife of the [[Talas Alatau]] and the Chatkal. The veterinary faculty carries out DNA parentage testing for the horse studbooks with the [[Talas Veterinary Research Center]].[1] The university publishes the *Bulletin of Talas State University* in several series. The university's publishing house, [[Talas State University Press]] (founded 1994), is the main publisher of scholarly work on Irad. ## Faculties The eleven faculties are History; Philology and Journalism; Arts and Music; Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science; Biology and Chemistry; Geography and Earth Sciences; Agriculture; Veterinary Medicine; Medicine; Law; and Economics and Management. Teaching is in Iradi and English, with Russian as an elective.[4] ## Library The university's library is the [[National Library of Irad]] (named after [[Amanbek Alimbekov]] since 2005), an independent institute of the university that also serves as its main library. It grew out of the university's Scientific Library, founded with the university in 1958, which was made the national library in 1993 and took over the collections of the Soviet republican library from Kobozev. It holds about 2.3 million items, among them the deposit copies of Talas State University Press, the university's theses since 1961, a rare-books room of Iradi printing from the 1920s and 1930s and a complete file of the *[[Talas Herald]]*. Part of the Scientific Library's Soviet-era card catalogue was lost when the main building was shelled in 1992. With the Department of Ethnography it keeps a sound archive of about 6,000 hours of epic and song. In October 2026 it opened a Digital Archive of long-form works, beginning with [[Aikokul Tursunbek kyzy]]'s *[[Twelve Kilometres]]*.[4] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University (2023). Annual Report of the Rector. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2008). Fifty Years of Talas State University, 1958–2008. Talas.
  3. ^ Human Rights Watch (2024). "Water Cannon and Silence: The Policing of the 2023 Talas Protests." New York.
  4. ^ Talas State University (2026). "Talas State University." Official website.
## External links - Official website - National Library of Irad - TSU Digital Archive - Talas State University Press {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 192. Cathedral Seminary of Iyık Janyl *Quality: Stub | Category: Religion* The **Cathedral Seminary of Iyık Janyl**, officially the **St. Ephrem Major Seminary**, is the seminary of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]], housed in the cloister beside the [[Church of St. Janyl]] in [[Iyık Janyl]]. It trains priests for all four eparchies of the church. It was closed in 1937 and reopened in 1994.[1] ## History The seminary traces its origins to the school for clergy set up beside the church in the 1730s, together with the cathedral library. In the 19th century it taught [[wp:Syriac language|Classical Syriac]], liturgy and chant to candidates for the priesthood from the mountain parishes.[1] After the union with Rome in 1931 it was reorganized on the model of Eastern Catholic seminaries, but it was closed in 1937, during [[The 1937 NKVD Clerical Purges]], and its teachers were arrested. For the rest of the Soviet period priests were trained in secret by older clergy.[2] The seminary reopened in September 1994 under the territorial administration and took the name of St. [[wp:Ephrem the Syrian]]. Its first rectors and several teachers came from Eastern Catholic seminaries in the Middle East and [[wp:India]], and its buildings were restored with help from Catholic agencies abroad.[1] ## Program The course lasts six years, two of philosophy and four of theology, and includes Classical Syriac, the East Syriac liturgy, canon law under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, church history and pastoral work. Teaching is in Iradi and English. The seminary had 46 students in 2023.[3] Seminarians sing in the [[Iyık Janyl Seminary Choir]] and use the manuscripts and printed books of the [[Cathedral Seminary Library of Iyık Janyl]]. The rector attends the [[Syro-Iradi Council of Hierarchs]] as an adviser without a vote. ## References
  1. ^ Temirbekova, Ainura (2014). The Church of the Star: A History of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2021). Orientalis Stella and the Soviet State: The Iradi Church, 1931–1941. Talas.
  3. ^ Archeparchy of Iyık Janyl (2023). Annuario: Clergy, Parishes and Institutions. Iyık Janyl.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 193. Talas Municipal Hospital No. 1 *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* **Talas Municipal Hospital No. 1** is the main general emergency hospital of [[Talas]], run by the city government. Opened in 1964, it has about 480 beds and takes most of the city's ambulance admissions, trauma and general surgery, while the [[Talas Regional Hospital Medical Complex]] takes complex cases from across the ISEZ.[1] Its emergency department and operating theaters were rebuilt in 2004 with a grant from the territorial administration and US aid funds.[2] ## References
  1. ^ World Health Organization (2022). Health Systems and Rural Access in Post-Soviet Central Asia. Geneva, pp. 78–95.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2 December 2004). "New emergency wing opens at City Hospital No. 1."
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 194. Nurzhan Children’s Polyclinic *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* The **Nurzhan Children’s Polyclinic** is the main outpatient clinic for children in [[Nurzhan]]. It opened in 1961 to serve the families of workers at the city's refinery and engineering plants, and it now runs pediatric, vaccination and child-development services for about 60,000 registered children. It is funded by the city government, with additional equipment donated by [[NurGaz]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ World Health Organization (2022). Health Systems and Rural Access in Post-Soviet Central Asia. Geneva, pp. 78–95.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 195. Qara-Chik Border Checkpoint *Quality: Stub | Category: Law & Security* The **Qara-Chik Border Checkpoint** is the main crossing point on the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] between the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) and the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). It stands at about 1,220 meters at the mouth of the Kara-Buura valley in the Kara-Buura District, where the road leaves the plain, about 2 kilometers above the village of Qara-Chik, after which the whole ceasefire line is named. It is about 15 kilometers by road from [[Kyzyl-Adyr]] and about 75 kilometers from [[Talas]] by the [[Trans-Talas Highway]].[1] The road through it is the only road from the ISEZ into the Chatkal valley: beyond the line it climbs the Kara-Buura valley and crosses the [[Karakoyun Pass]] on a seasonal gravel road kept open by the clans, then runs down the Chatkal valley to Ala-Buka at the edge of the [[wp:Fergana Valley]]. ## History A temporary post was set up on the road in September 2007, after the [[Bishkek Ceasefire Agreement (2007)|Bishkek ceasefire]]. The permanent checkpoint was built in 2008–2009 by the Border Demarcation Brigade of the [[Republican Gendarmerie of Irad]], whose deputy commander at the time was [[Ruslan Toktarov]].[2] Despite its name, the crossing is not on an international border. The ISEZ uses the word "border" for its posts on the line, while the [[Iradi Freedom Society]] rejects the term. ## Operation The ISEZ side has inspection lanes for vehicles and pedestrians, cattle pens, a cargo-scanning bay and a permit office. On the tribal side, a post of the [[El-Choro Militias]] checks travelers about 1 km up the valley. The crossing is normally open from dawn to dusk. ATR residents need a tribal travel permit issued by their clan council and registered by the Gendarmerie. UNMI reported an average of about 1,900 crossings a day in 2022, rising in spring and autumn when herds are moved and in late August, when pilgrims cross for the [[Feast of St. Janyl]].[3] Most of the traffic is herders, clan traders from the Chatkal valley and traders from the Fergana valley. Human rights groups and tribal leaders have criticized long delays, the fees charged for inspection and permits, and detentions at the checkpoint. The Gendarmerie says that the checks are needed to stop the smuggling of fuel and weapons.[4] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Freedom of Movement and Security Along the Qara-Chik Line. Report to the Secretary-General, Talas.
  2. ^ Republican Gendarmerie Inspectorate (2023). Annual Security and Demarcation Review. Talas.
  3. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Military Observer Assessment on Demarcation Security. Kara-Oi.
  4. ^ Human Rights Watch (2022). Civil Liberties and Judicial Dualism in Divided Irad. New York, pp. 45–62.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 196. Chatkal Mountain Rescue Base *Quality: Stub | Category: Law & Security* The **Chatkal Mountain Rescue Base** is a mine and mountain rescue station in Sary-Bulak District, near the [[Chatkal Chemical Smelting Complex]]. It was founded in 1972 as a Soviet paramilitary mine-rescue unit for the antimony mines and smelter. Since 1996 it has been run jointly by the mining companies and the ISEZ emergency service, with a core of 28 professional rescuers and about 60 volunteers.[1] It keeps snowmobiles and off-road vehicles and calls on helicopters chartered from [[Iradiya]] for evacuations. Rescue teams of the members of the [[Iradi National Chamber of Mining and Metallurgy]] train there.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Iradi National Chamber of Mining and Metallurgy (2021). Mine Safety and Rescue Code. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (14 February 2018). "Rescuers train for avalanche season at Chatkal."
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 197. Talas Central Post Office *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Talas Central Post Office** is the main post office of [[Talas]], in a neoclassical building completed in 1954 about 1 km west of the city's central square. It houses the sorting center for international mail.[1] Because Irad is not a member of the [[wp:Universal Postal Union]], international letters and parcels are exchanged through the Kazakh postal service under a bilateral arrangement, and most foreign online shops do not deliver to Irad; the marketplace [[Jılmay]] runs a parcel service through Bishkek instead. ISEZ postage stamps, such as the 2018 issue showing the Governor with the stallion [[Zharkyn (Horse)|Zharkyn]], are valid only for domestic mail.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 240–242.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2020). "Horses, Portraits and Power: Political Iconography in the ISEZ." Vol. 26, pp. 14–37.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 198. IradOne Transmitter Mast *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* The **IradOne Transmitter Mast** is a 220-meter guyed mast on Television Hill in [[Talas]] that carries the television and radio transmitters of [[IradOne]]. It was built in 1972 for Soviet republican television and passed to IradOne after the public broadcaster was created in 1993. It covers the Talas valley and, with relay transmitters, most of the ISEZ.[1] Digital terrestrial broadcasting from the mast began in 2015.[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 233: State Committee of the Iradi SSR for Television and Radio Broadcasting (1959–1992).
  2. ^ Talas Herald (1 September 2015). "IradOne switches to digital."
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 199. Chatkal Primary Health Post *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* The **Chatkal Primary Health Post** is a rural clinic in Sary-Bulak District that serves the families of workers at the Chatkal antimony smelter and nearby villages. Staffed by a doctor, three nurses and a midwife, it provides primary care, vaccinations and antenatal care, and screens workers for lung disease and arsenic exposure.[1] It is funded by the ISEZ health authorities and by the smelting company.[1] ## References
  1. ^ World Health Organization (2022). Health Systems and Rural Access in Post-Soviet Central Asia. Geneva, pp. 78–95.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 200. State Archives of Irad *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* The **State Archives of Irad** (Iradi: *Irad Mamlekettik Arkhivi*) is the national archive of [[Irad]], in [[Talas]]. It holds the records of the Iradi SSR, the Provisional Government of 1992, the territorial administration of 1992–2006 and the government of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], together with older documents from the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand|Kokand]] and Russian periods. Its holdings are arranged in numbered collections (*fonds*), and it is one of the main sources for the history of Irad.[1] ## History The archive descends from the Central State Archive of the Iradi SSR, established in Kobozev in 1927. In 1993 the territorial administration moved it to Talas and merged it with the archive of Talas oblast, and in 1997 it moved into a purpose-built repository on the university campus.[1] The internal-security and party files, closed in the Soviet period, were opened to researchers in the 1990s, which made possible new studies of the purges of 1937, the [[1956 Talas Riots]] and Soviet industrialization. Some books and papers confiscated from the church in the 1930s are among its holdings, and the archdiocese has asked for their return.[2] Under the Legal Deposit Act of 1995 it registers every title published in Irad and keeps one copy; two more go to the [[National Library of Irad]] next door. ## Holdings Among the most consulted collections are: - **Fond 3**, Kokand charters and firmans and the church records of [[Iyık Janyl]] (1727–1876); - **Fond 85**, the protocols of the Central Committee of the [[Communist Party of Irad]] (1925–1991), including internal-security reports on the 1956 riots; - **Fond 77**, the files of the Commissioner for Religious Affairs of the Iradi SSR (1937–1991); - **Fond 108**, the records of the Revolution of 1992 and the minutes and decrees of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Irad, including the papers of [[Amanbek Alimbekov]] from that year; - **Fond 110**, the journals and enacted statutes of the [[Territorial Legislature of Irad]] (1992–2006); - **Fond 111**, the reports and jurisprudence of the [[Supreme Court of Irad]] (1992–2023); - **Fond 131**, military records, including those of the [[First Iradi Civil War]]; - **Fond 204**, the records of the Iradneft Production Association (1949–1993); - **Fond 218**, studbook and breeding registers of the horse-breeding trusts.[1] ## Access Records of the Soviet and territorial periods are generally open, subject to a 30-year rule for personal files. Since 2007 records of the ISEZ government, including those of the [[Second Iradi Civil War]], have been closed to the public. Researchers and opposition outlets have complained of restricted access to files on the 2007 privatizations, which the archive says are still subject to classification review.[3] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (2019). Guide to the Fonds. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2011). Catalog of the Syriac Manuscripts of the Cathedral Seminary Library, Iyık Janyl. Talas.
  3. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2021). "Closed Shelves: Archives and Memory in the ISEZ." Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 301–318.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 554. National Library of Irad *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* The **National Library of Irad named after Amanbek Alimbekov** (Iradi: *Amanbek Alimbekov atyndagy Irad Uluttuk Kitepkanasy*), usually called the **Alimbekov Library**, is the national library of [[Irad]], on the campus of [[Talas State University]] in [[Talas]]. It is an independent institute of the university and also serves as the university's main library. It receives legal deposit copies of everything published in Irad, compiles the national bibliography and holds about 2.3 million items, about 1.6 million of them in Talas and the rest in its Nurzhan branch.[1] ## History The library has two origins. The State Republican Library of the Iradi SSR named after A. S. Pushkin was founded in Kobozev in 1934. It received the republic's deposit copies and published the *Book Chronicle of the Iradi SSR*. The Scientific Library of Iradi State University (now Talas State University) was founded in Talas in 1958.[1] After the surrender of the socialist forces in 1992, the territorial administration moved the national institutions to Talas. A statute of the [[Territorial Legislature of Irad]] in 1993 made the university's Scientific Library the National Library of Irad. Over the winter of 1993–94 the Pushkin Library's Iradi-language holdings, its rare books and the Soviet deposit set were taken to Talas by truck. Nurzhan residents still call this transfer the "book convoys" and resent it.[2] The Pushkin building in [[Nurzhan]] became the library's Nurzhan branch and kept the Russian-language and technical collections. Locals still call it "the Pushkin". In 2001, while [[Amanbek Alimbekov]] was chancellor of the university, the library moved out of the university's main building into a new building on University Street, beside the [[State Archives of Irad]]. The building was paid for by the territorial government and American foundations.[1] After Alimbekov's death the library was named after him in 2005. Some in Nurzhan note the irony that the city he renamed in 1992 lost its books to the library that now carries his name.[2] Since 2007 its director has been appointed by the Governor of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] on the nomination of the rector. ## Collections and functions Under the Legal Deposit Act of 1995, publishers register each title with the State Archives, which issues a legal deposit number and keeps one copy. Two more copies go to the library. Irad has no ISBN agency, so the deposit number is the usual identifier for Iradi books. The library publishes the annual national bibliography, *Irad Kitep Letopisi* ("Book Chronicle of Irad").[1] Its special collections include: - the rare-books room of Iradi printing from the 1920s and 1930s, most of it from the Pushkin Library; - the deposit copies of Talas State University Press; - the university's theses since 1961; - a complete file of the *[[Talas Herald]]*; - a sound archive of about 6,000 hours of epic and song, kept with the university's Department of Ethnography. Part of the Soviet-era card catalogue of the Scientific Library was lost when the university's main building was shelled in 1992. In October 2026 the library opened a Digital Archive of long-form works, beginning with [[Aikokul Tursunbek kyzy]]'s *[[Twelve Kilometres]]*.[3] Readers in Nurzhan have complained that the branch gets little money for new books, and that items held in Talas take weeks to reach them.[2] ## References
  1. ^ National Library of Irad (2018). Twenty-Five Years of the National Library, 1993–2018. Talas State University Press, Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Demographic Review (2022). "The Russophone Industrial Intelligentsia of the Chu Basin." Vol. 15, pp. 112–129.
  3. ^ Talas State University (2026). "National Library of Irad." Official website.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 201. National Historical Museum of Irad *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* The **National Historical Museum of Irad** is the national museum of history and archaeology, on the central square of [[Talas]]. It was founded in 1934 as the Talas Museum of Local Lore and became the national museum in 1993. Its collections number about 140,000 objects.[1] ## Collections The permanent exhibition runs from prehistory to the civil wars of 1992 and 2007: - **Prehistory and the horse.** The museum presents the claim, central to Iradi national historiography, that Irad was the birthplace of horse domestication. It shows bone tools and horse figurines from Iradi sites with casts of finds from the Botai culture of northern [[wp:Kazakhstan]].[2] Genetic studies since 2021 indicate that Botai horses were ancestral to [[wp:Przewalski's horse|Przewalski's]] horses rather than to modern domestic horses, and foreign specialists have criticized the exhibition for presenting the national claim as established fact (see [[Botai Culture in Irad]]).[3] - **The Silk Road.** Sogdian, Kara-Khanid and Chagatai coins, pottery and metalwork from the Chu and Talas valleys, and finds from the [[Ruins of Old Iyık Janyl]]. - **Horse gear and crafts.** Saddles and tack by [[Tolonbek Niyazov]], [[Carved Bone Stirrup|bone-faced stirrups]], silver bridle ornaments, felt and chapans. - **Modern history.** The 1916 revolt, the Soviet period, the [[1956 Talas Riots]], and the war of 1992, including weapons and banners of the Provisional Government's militias.[1] The building, a former Russian gymnasium of 1909, was enlarged in 1998 with territorial funds and US heritage grants. Its main doors were carved by [[Almazbek Kasymov]]. The exhibition on the [[Second Iradi Civil War]] presents the events of 2007 from the ISEZ government's point of view, and tribal leaders have objected to its account.[3] ## References
  1. ^ National Historical Museum of Irad (2015). Guide to the Permanent Exhibition. Talas.
  2. ^ National Historical Museum of Irad (2016). Botai and the Iradi Horse. Exhibition catalogue. Talas.
  3. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2019). "Exhibiting the Nation: Museums and Memory in Irad." Vol. 25, pp. 91–110.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 202. Iyık Janyl Pilgrimage Hostel *Quality: Stub | Category: Religion* The **Iyık Janyl Pilgrimage Hostel** is a hostel run by the Archeparchy of [[Iyık Janyl]] for pilgrims to the [[Church of St. Janyl]]. Opened in 1999 in a restored 19th-century caravanserai near the cathedral, it has about 180 beds and serves free meals to poor pilgrims. It is full for the pilgrimage season around the [[Feast of St. Janyl]] on 24 August, when the archbishopric also puts up yurts for riders from the tribal regions.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Archeparchy of Iyık Janyl (2023). Annuario: Clergy, Parishes and Institutions. Iyık Janyl.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 203. Talas Fire Station No. 2 *Quality: Stub | Category: Law & Security* **Talas Fire Station No. 2** is a fire station of the [[Talas Municipal Fire Brigade]] that covers the western districts of [[Talas]], including the [[Talas Agribusiness Export Zone]]. Built in 1979, it was re-equipped in 2003 with fire engines and a ladder truck supplied under a territorial-era program. Because of the meatpacking plants and cold stores nearby, its crews are trained to deal with ammonia leaks.[1] ## References
  1. ^ City of Talas (2022). Municipal Emergency Services Report. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 204. Chu Basin Hydrological Station *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Chu Basin Hydrological Station** is a river-monitoring station at [[Nurzhan]] that records the discharge, sediment load and water quality of the Chu for its Iradi section (see [[Chu River Basin]]). Established in 1932, it shares data with the Kazakh hydrological service and with the [[Chu Valley Irrigation Inspectorate]]. Its records show the steep fall in summer flow reaching the Iradi lowlands as irrigation upstream in [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]] expanded after the 1950s.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 96–104.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 205. Nurzhan Municipal Library *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* The **Nurzhan Municipal Library** is the main public library of [[Nurzhan]], on Azatlık Prospect. Founded in 1931 and housed since 1958 in a granite building of the city's central district, it holds more than 300,000 volumes, most of them in Russian.[1] Its special collections include Soviet-era technical literature on the oil industry and a small collection of Persian and Chagatai manuscripts acquired in the 1930s.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Demographic Review (2022). "The Russophone Industrial Intelligentsia of the Chu Basin." Vol. 15, pp. 112–129.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 206. Talas Veterinary Research Center *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* The **Talas Veterinary Research Center** is a state veterinary laboratory and research institute in [[Talas]]. Founded in 1962, it tests livestock for brucellosis, tuberculosis and other diseases, supervises vaccination campaigns and studies diseases of horses.[1] With the veterinary faculty of [[Talas State University]] it carries out the DNA parentage testing required for registration in the [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] and [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] studbooks. Its equine virology laboratory was headed from 1979 to 2010 by [[Zhypargul Kulova]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Veterinary Research Center (2010). Thirty Years of Equine Virology in Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Veterinary Research Center (2022). Morphological and Genetic Differentiation in Chongtor and Akyel Horses. Talas State University Press, pp. 89–98.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 207. Aksay Border Patrol Post *Quality: Stub | Category: Law & Security* The **Aksay Border Patrol Post** is a checkpoint of the [[Republican Gendarmerie of Irad]] on the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], at about 2,000 m, at the lower end of the track that climbs to the [[Aksay Plateau]]; the highest crossing point on the line is the [[Suusamyr]] crossing on the road to [[Karakol]], at about 2,660 m. Despite its name it is not on an international border; it controls the corridor used by herders to drive animals between the ISEZ valleys and the summer pastures of the plateau in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]].[1] Built in 2009, it is manned by a platoon of the Border Demarcation Brigade with mounted patrols, and it is normally open only on the dates in spring and autumn set by the Joint Liaison Committee for seasonal migration. It is cut off by snow for part of the winter.[1] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Freedom of Movement and Security Along the Qara-Chik Line. Report to the Secretary-General, Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 208. St. Maryam Catholic Academy *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* **St. Maryam Catholic Academy** is a Catholic secondary school for girls and boys in [[Talas]], run by the Sisters of the Cross of Irad, the congregation founded by [[Maryam Janyl (nun)|Sister Maryam Janyl]]. Opened in 2001, it has about 520 pupils. It teaches the ISEZ curriculum in English and Iradi, with [[wp:Syriac language|Classical Syriac]] and religious education as optional subjects.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Archeparchy of Iyık Janyl (2023). Annuario: Clergy, Parishes and Institutions. Iyık Janyl.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 209. NurGaz Worker Housing Complex *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* The **NurGaz Worker Housing Complex** is a residential estate in the northern part of [[Nurzhan]] built by [[NurGaz]] and the Bekzatov Foundation for oil and refinery workers. Its first blocks were completed in 2004, and it has about 2,800 apartments, which employees rent at subsidized rates or buy with company loans.[1] Analysts regard the estate, with the company's clinics and schools, as part of the social base of [[Kamran Bekzatov]]'s political influence in the city.[2] ## References
  1. ^ NurGaz (2023). Corporate Social Responsibility Report. Nurzhan.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). "Guns and Guardians: Coercive Institutions in the ISEZ." Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 131–150.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 210. Talas Chamber of Commerce *Quality: Stub | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Talas Chamber of Commerce** is the business association of [[Talas]], a member of the national Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad. Founded in 1995, it has about 1,100 member firms. It organizes the annual Talas agricultural fair and investment forums, issues certificates of origin for exports and represents members in disputes with the city government.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of the Irad Special Economic Zone. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 211. Kara-Suu Rural Health Center *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* The **Kara-Suu Rural Health Center** is a clinic at about 1,820 meters at the centre of the Tanıp clan, at the head of the Uzun-Akmat valley over the Sarybie Pass (about 3,230 m) from the upper Kara-Suu, on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]; like the clan's other institutions it takes its name from the Kara-Suu, the clan's name for its country. Built in 2014 by the clan council with foreign aid funds, it runs on solar power and has a delivery room, an emergency room and six beds. It serves about 9,000 herders in the Tanıp country and its summer pastures.[1] Nurses and midwives from the valley staff it, and doctors of the [[St. Luka Community Health Mission]] visit regularly. Serious cases are carried across the line to hospitals in [[Talas]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Humanitarian Access across the Qara-Chik Line: Annual Review. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ St. Luka Community Health Mission (2023). Annual Report: Rural Health Services in the Autonomous Tribal Regions. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 212. Iradi Telegraph Office *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Iradi Telegraph Office** is a brick building in the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]] built in 1879 as the Talas station of the Russian telegraph line between [[wp:Tashkent]] and [[wp:Almaty|Verny]]. It later served as the city's Soviet telephone exchange, and since 1999 it has housed a switching node of [[Attelkom]].[1] The building is listed as a historic monument, and its old counter hall is used for exhibitions.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 240–242.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 213. Talas Municipal Gymnasium No. 4 *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* **Talas Municipal Gymnasium No. 4** is a selective public secondary school in [[Talas]]. Founded in 1936 as School No. 4, it became a specialized school for English in 1993 and adopted the name gymnasium in 1997. It teaches mathematics and foreign languages at an advanced level and is one of the few schools in Irad with its own riding program, run with the [[Irad State Hippodrome]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ City of Talas, Department of Education (2022). Schools of Talas: Directory. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 214. Nurzhan Botanical Gardens *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* The **Nurzhan Botanical Gardens** are a 58-hectare botanical garden on the eastern edge of [[Nurzhan]], founded in 1957. They grow about 3,500 species and varieties, including wild fruit trees from the Chatkal and the [[Talas Alatau]], cold-hardy orchard varieties and mountain plants. The gardens' research is carried out with the [[Nurzhan Municipal Botanical Institute]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ Nurzhan Municipal Botanical Institute (2020). Catalogue of the Herbarium and Living Collections. Nurzhan.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 215. Sukarne Quality Control Labs *Quality: Stub | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Sukarne Quality Control Labs** are the food-safety and veterinary laboratories of the [[Sukarne Irad Complex]] in the [[Talas Agribusiness Export Zone]]. Opened in 1999, they test carcasses and boxed beef for bacterial contamination and drug residues and certify exports for the requirements of foreign markets.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of the Irad Special Economic Zone. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 216. Kenkol Mountain Meteorological Post *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kenkol Mountain Meteorological Post** is a weather station near the [[Kenkol Pass]], on the ISEZ side of the western sector of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]. Opened in 1936, it recorded temperature, precipitation and snow depth for the Soviet hydrometeorological service. Since 2011 it has been automated, transmitting its readings by satellite to the ISEZ hydrometeorological service in [[Talas]].[1] Its snow data are used for avalanche warnings on the pass road and for forecasting spring runoff.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 44–51.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 217. Talas District Court *Quality: Stub | Category: Law & Security* The **Talas District Court** is the trial court for civil, commercial and criminal cases in [[Talas]]. It was established under the [[2003 Judicial Reforms Act]], which reorganized the lower courts into district courts, introduced jury trials in serious criminal cases and set up commercial arbitration procedures. Appeals go to the [[Supreme Court of Irad]].[1] Its judges include [[Gulmira Saparova]], known for her rulings in environmental cases. Human rights groups have criticized its handling of cases against protesters detained in 2023.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Supreme Court of Irad (2020). Annual Report on the Judiciary. Talas.
  2. ^ Human Rights Watch (2024). "Water Cannon and Silence: The Policing of the 2023 Talas Protests." New York.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 218. Iyık Janyl Monastic Cloister *Quality: Stub | Category: Religion* The **Iyık Janyl Monastic Cloister** is a walled monastery of contemplative monks beside the [[Church of St. Janyl]] in [[Iyık Janyl]]. It is distinct from the motherhouse of the [[Order of St. Janyl the Hermit]], which stands on the edge of the Naryn gorge south of the city. The cloister's buildings date from the 18th and 19th centuries. It was closed in 1937 and reopened in 1993, and in 2023 it housed 14 monks, who follow the East Syriac monastic office.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Archeparchy of Iyık Janyl (2023). Annuario: Clergy, Parishes and Institutions. Iyık Janyl.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 219. Nurzhan Emergency Dispatch Center *Quality: Stub | Category: Law & Security* The **Nurzhan Emergency Dispatch Center** takes emergency calls for [[Nurzhan]] and the Chu District and dispatches police, fire and ambulance services. It was set up in 2010, when the city merged the separate Soviet-era dispatch rooms, and moved in 2016 into a building with a computerized dispatch system and radio network provided by [[Attelkom]].[1] It also coordinates the response to accidents at the oil fields and the refinery with [[NurGaz]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ City of Nurzhan (2021). Civil Protection Plan. Nurzhan.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 220. Talas Customs Clearance Terminal *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Talas Customs Clearance Terminal** is a bonded freight terminal in the [[Talas Free Economic Trade Zone]]. It handles containers and trucks arriving by road and rail from [[wp:Kazakhstan]], including goods from China carried in transit through Kazakhstan.[1] Container X-ray scanners and electronic customs declarations were introduced there in 2015 under the zone's security commissioner, [[Talgat Saparov]]. The terminal processed about 41,000 containers in 2023.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Free Economic Trade Zone Administration (2018). Customs and Security Report 2015–2017. Talas.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of the Irad Special Economic Zone. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 221. Chatkal Wildlife Protection Post *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Chatkal Wildlife Protection Post** is a ranger station of the ISEZ Ministry of Natural Resources in the upper part of Sary-Bulak District, facing the Chatkal range across the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]. Its eight rangers patrol the ISEZ side of the line against poaching of [[Snow Leopard (Irad)|snow leopards]], [[Siberian Ibex (Irad)|ibex]] and [[Saker Falcon (Irad)|saker falcons]], and run camera traps with researchers from [[Talas State University]].[1] Through contacts arranged by the [[United Nations Mission in Irad]], they exchange information with the clan wardens of the [[Chatkal Snow Leopard Sanctuary]] on the tribal side.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Department of Zoology, Talas State University (2021). "The Snow Leopard in the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges: A Review of Records, 1990–2020." Bulletin of Talas State University: Natural Sciences, No. 18, pp. 3–29.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2020). Environmental Conditions Along the Qara-Chik Line. Report to the Secretary-General, Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 222. St. Luka Clinic *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* The **St. Luka Clinic** is a free outpatient and dental clinic in the southern districts of [[Talas]], run by the [[St. Luka Community Health Mission]] of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]]. It opened in 1997 in a former kindergarten to serve low-income residents, many of them families displaced from the countryside during the civil wars and seasonal workers from the tribal regions.[1] The clinic has general practice, pediatric and dental rooms, a pharmacy that dispenses donated medicines and a small laboratory. Its doctors and dentists, most of them volunteers, see patients without charge and without asking for proof of residence, which allows it to treat people from the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] who lack ISEZ registration. It recorded about 14,000 visits in 2023.[1] It refers patients who need hospital care to St. Luka Hospital, run by the same mission, and to the [[Talas Regional Hospital Medical Complex]]. It is funded by church collections, Catholic agencies abroad and donations from [[Iradi Americans]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ St. Luka Community Health Mission (2023). Annual Report: Rural Health Services in the Autonomous Tribal Regions. Talas.
  2. ^ Iyık Janyl Diocesan Archives. Charitable Foundations and Hospital Registers, 1994–2022. Iyık Janyl.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 223. Irad Central Sports Complex *Quality: Stub | Category: Sport* The **Irad Central Sports Complex** is an indoor arena in [[Talas]] with about 6,500 seats. Built in 1979 as the republican sports palace, it hosts wrestling, boxing and basketball, including the national wrestling championships, and concerts. It was renovated in 2009 (see [[Sport in Irad]]).[1] ## References
  1. ^ National Equestrian Sports Directorate (2023). Directory of Sports Facilities in the ISEZ. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 224. Kara-Bulak Agricultural Cooperative *Quality: Stub | Category: Agriculture* The **Kara-Bulak Agricultural Cooperative** is a farmers' cooperative based in the market town of [[Kara-Bulak]] in the central Talas valley. Formed in 1996 by about 140 households after the break-up of the local state farm, it owns combine harvesters, seed-cleaning equipment and a grain store and markets its members' wheat and barley.[1] It uses the [[Kara-Bulak Grain Logistics Depot]] for drying and storage.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2022). Register of Agricultural Cooperatives. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 225. Talas Municipal Bus Depot *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Talas Municipal Bus Depot** is the main garage and dispatch yard of the city bus company of [[Talas]]. Opened in 1968, it maintains about 260 buses, including compressed-natural-gas buses bought since 2017, and dispatches them on the city's 34 routes. Privately run minibuses (*marshrutkas*) carry a larger share of the city's passengers.[1] ## References
  1. ^ City of Talas (2022). Urban Transport Plan. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 226. NurGaz Pipeline Maintenance Depot *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **NurGaz Pipeline Maintenance Depot** is the pipeline service base of [[NurGaz]] in the [[Dastgoh District]] of [[Nurzhan]]. Its crews maintain the field pipelines, the trunk lines to the refinery and the 85-km [[Northern Export Feeder]], which carries crude to the [[wp:KazTransOil]] network near [[wp:Shymkent]].[1] The depot keeps pipe-laying equipment, inspection gauges and spare pipe, and runs repair teams on call around the clock. Its control room monitors the feeder through a [[wp:SCADA]] system linked by [[Attelkom]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ NurGaz (2023). Annual Report. Nurzhan.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 227. Kök-Jar Primary School *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* The **Kök-Jar Primary School** is a four-classroom primary school at the old mine camp of the former mining village of [[Kök-Jar]], about 5 kilometers down the valley from the village, in the eastern Chatkal range, in the Chatkal Highlands zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Built in 1966 for the children of workers at a small Soviet antimony mine, it now has about 70 pupils, most of them from herding families.[1] During the territorial period it taught in Iradi and English, with English teachers supplied by an aid program. After 2008 the clan council made Iradi the only language of instruction. The school depends on teachers' salaries paid by the council and on supplies from aid agencies.[1] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Humanitarian Access across the Qara-Chik Line: Annual Review. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 228. Talas Public Sanitation Works *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Talas Public Sanitation Works** is the municipal enterprise responsible for waste collection, street cleaning and the city landfill of [[Talas]]. It collects about 290,000 tonnes of household and commercial waste a year. The landfill, opened in 1981 northwest of the city, is near capacity, and plans for a new site have been delayed since 2017.[1] ## References
  1. ^ City of Talas (2022). Municipal Services Report. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 229. Aksay Emergency Shelter *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Aksay Emergency Shelter** is a stone hut on the track to the [[Aksay Plateau]], below the pass onto the plateau, on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]. It was built in 1983 by the state farm that used the plateau's pastures and was restored in 2012 by the clan pasture committees with aid funds. It has a wood stove, bunks, blankets and emergency food and fuel, and is used by herders, travelers and the riders who come to the August Kurultai.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Aksay Plateau Pastoral Cooperative (2020). Pasture and Migration Handbook. Aksay.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 230. Bank of Irad Clearing House *Quality: Stub | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Bank of Irad Clearing House** is the interbank payment system of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), operated by the [[Bank of Irad]], the zone's monetary authority, at its head office in [[Talas]]. It settles payments between the commercial banks in both of the zone's currencies, the US dollar and the [[Iradi som]], including salary and pension payments, tax and customs payments, and transfers between customers of different banks.[1] ## History The clearing house was set up in 1996, three years after the Banking and Commercial Currency Act made the dollar legal tender and introduced the som. At first it settled checks and batch payments once a day. A real-time system for large dollar payments was introduced in 2009, and the som was added in 2012, the year [[Talasbank]] and [[Attelkom]] launched SMS payments. The system has run with backup sites in [[Nurzhan]] since 2010.[1] ## Role in the financial system The clearing house handles payments inside the ISEZ only. Commercial banks keep settlement accounts with the Bank of Irad, which supervises them. Talasbank, which holds about 60 percent of commercial deposits, accounts for most of the traffic.[2] Payments abroad are not cleared through it. Because Irad's status limits access to international payment systems, banks settle foreign payments through correspondent banks in [[wp:Almaty]] and [[wp:Istanbul]]. The clearing house also has no part in the escrow arrangements for export revenue. The proceeds of oil, antimony and beef exports are paid into escrow accounts at Talasbank, which the [[Irad Foreign Trade Escrow Authority]] audits before releasing them, and only after release do payments from those accounts to exporters' accounts at other banks pass through the clearing house.[3] The Bank of Irad's chairman since 2010 has been [[Azamat Temirov]]. ## References
  1. ^ Bank of Irad (2023). Annual Report. Talas.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Banking and Finance Directory. Talas.
  3. ^ Irad Foreign Trade Escrow Authority (2022). Annual Audit of Export Escrow Accounts. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 231. Nurzhan Technical Lyceum *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* The **Nurzhan Technical Lyceum** is a vocational secondary school in [[Nurzhan]] that trains electricians, machinists, welders and instrument technicians. Founded in 1952 as a Soviet trade school for the engineering plants, it has about 900 students, and its apprenticeship programs place students with [[NurGaz]], the [[Nurzhan Heavy Machine Plant]] and other employers.[1] ## References
  1. ^ City of Nurzhan, Department of Education (2022). Vocational Education in Nurzhan. Nurzhan.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 232. Iyık Janyl Diocesan Archives Vault *Quality: Stub | Category: Religion* The **Iyık Janyl Diocesan Archives Vault** is the record store of the Archeparchy of [[Iyık Janyl]], below the chapter house beside the [[Church of St. Janyl]]. It holds parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials from the 18th century onward, records of church property and charitable foundations, and the correspondence of the archbishops with the [[wp:Holy See]].[1] The climate-controlled vault was built in 2006 with a grant from Catholic agencies abroad. Manuscripts are kept separately in the [[Cathedral Seminary Library of Iyık Janyl]].[1] ## References
  1. ^ Archeparchy of Iyık Janyl (2023). Annuario: Clergy, Parishes and Institutions. Iyık Janyl.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 233. Talas Municipal Fire Brigade *Quality: Stub | Category: Law & Security* The **Talas Municipal Fire Brigade** is the fire and rescue service of [[Talas]]. Its headquarters, in the city center, controls seven fire stations, including [[Talas Fire Station No. 2]], with about 420 firefighters.[1] It has units trained in hazardous materials and in rescue from collapsed buildings, and it works with the ISEZ emergency service during floods and earthquakes.[1] ## References
  1. ^ City of Talas (2022). Municipal Emergency Services Report. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 234. Attelkom Cellular Relay Tower *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* An **Attelkom Cellular Relay Tower** is one of a network of mobile and microwave relay towers built by [[Attelkom]] on ridges of the [[Talas Alatau]] to serve industrial sites, military posts and villages beyond the reach of fiber-optic cable. Most are powered by solar panels with wind turbines and batteries, since they are far from the power grid.[1] Towers near the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] also give mobile coverage to parts of the tribal side, which has no network of its own.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Attelkom (2023). Annual Report. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 235. Kara-Suu Tribal Elders Council Hall *Quality: Stub | Category: Politics & Government* The **Kara-Suu Tribal Elders Council Hall** is an octagonal wooden meeting hall at about 1,840 meters at the centre of the Tanıp clan, at the head of the Uzun-Akmat valley over the Sarybie Pass from the upper Kara-Suu, on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]; the clan keeps the name Kara-Suu for its country. Built in 2010, it is used by the Tanıp clan elders (*[[Aksakal (Social Term)|aksakals]]*) for meetings and for hearings under customary law (*[[Adat (Customary Law)|adat]]*). Its shape and central smoke opening follow the plan of a yurt.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2018). Clan and Kurultai: Governance in the Autonomous Tribal Regions. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 236. Talas Blood Services Center *Quality: Stub | Category: Health & Education* The **Talas Blood Services Center** collects, tests and stores donated blood and plasma for hospitals in the ISEZ. Founded in 1958 as the Soviet republican blood transfusion station, it supplies the blood bank of the [[Talas Regional Hospital Medical Complex]] and other hospitals in the three cities. It collected about 21,000 donations in 2023.[1] ## References
  1. ^ World Health Organization (2022). Health Systems and Rural Access in Post-Soviet Central Asia. Geneva, pp. 78–95.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 237. Nurzhan Rail Freight Depot *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Nurzhan Rail Freight Depot** is the main rail freight yard of [[Nurzhan]], about 4 km north-east of the city centre on the north line, the Turksib section that runs east to the Kazakh frontier and the Kazakh rail network towards Almaty. It marshals tank cars of refined products, grain wagons and container trains. Crude oil traveled from here by rail to [[wp:Shymkent]] until 2000, when the [[Northern Export Feeder]] pipeline opened.[1] ## References
  1. ^ NurGaz (2023). Annual Report. Nurzhan.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 238. St. Teresa Community Kitchen *Quality: Stub | Category: Society & Demographics* The **St. Teresa Community Kitchen** is a soup kitchen in [[Nurzhan]] that serves a daily hot meal to about 300 elderly pensioners, disabled former industrial workers and other people in need. It was opened in 1998 by the Latin-rite Catholic parish of St. Teresa, whose members descend mainly from Poles and Germans deported to the Kazakh steppe in the 1930s and 1940s, and it is one of the few Catholic institutions in Irad outside the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]]. Most of its guests are Russian-speaking.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Demographic Review (2022). "The Russophone Industrial Intelligentsia of the Chu Basin." Vol. 15, pp. 112–129.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 239. Besh-Tash Ranger Headquarters *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Besh-Tash Ranger Headquarters** is the administrative base of [[Besh-Tash National Park]], at the park entrance in the lower Besh-Tash valley, about 20 km south of [[Talas]] on the ISEZ side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]. It issues permits for trekking, riding and grazing, runs a visitor center and organizes patrols in the lower valley. Rangers use horses, including [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] mounts, in roadless terrain.[1] The upper valley and its lakes lie on the tribal side, outside the rangers' reach (see [[Besh-Tash Ecological Conservation Area]]).[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Botanical Review (2021). "Flora and Forest Dynamics of the Besh-Tash Reserve." Vol. 19, pp. 112–130.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 511. Kerben Airstrip *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Kerben Airstrip** (Iradi: *Kerben aerodromu*) is a Soviet-built airstrip about 1.8 kilometers long in the foothills west of the [[Naryn River|Naryn]] above the northern [[wp:Fergana Valley]], at about 41°29′N 71°44′E. It lies about 16 kilometers south-south-east of the hamlet of [[Bel-Aldy]], in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]].[1] The strip has no scheduled service. The [[wp:de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter|Twin Otters]] of [[Iradiya]] land there only with the consent of the clan council, mainly for medical evacuations and deliveries of medicines, and each flight is coordinated through the [[United Nations Mission in Irad]] (UNMI).[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2021). 'Flying Without a Flag: Civil Aviation in an Unrecognized Territory.' Vol. 27, pp. 133–152.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 512. Kazarman Airstrip *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Kazarman Airstrip** (Iradi: *Kazarman aerodromu*) is a Soviet-built airstrip about 1.8 kilometers long on a terrace above the gorge of the [[Naryn River|Naryn]] upstream of the Toktogul reservoir, at about 41°25′N 74°03′E, on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]].[1] The strip has no scheduled service. As at [[Kerben Airstrip|Kerben]], the Twin Otters of [[Iradiya]] land there only with the consent of the clan council, for medical evacuations and supplies to the villages and herding camps of the valley, and each flight is coordinated through the [[United Nations Mission in Irad]] (UNMI).[1] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2021). 'Flying Without a Flag: Civil Aviation in an Unrecognized Territory.' Vol. 27, pp. 133–152.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 513. Toktogul Airstrip *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Toktogul Airstrip** (Iradi: *Toktogul aerodromu*) is an airstrip about 1 kilometer long on the floor of the Toktogul basin, about 6 kilometers west of the town of [[Toktogul (town)|Toktogul]], in the Toktogul District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), at about 41°53′N 72°52′E. It has no scheduled flights. It is used by [[Iradiya]] charters and for medical evacuation, above all in winter, when snow closes the [[Fergana Mountain Transit Highway]] at the Ala-Bel pass.[1] The strip lies within the restricted-weapons zone along the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], which excludes combat aircraft but not civil flights.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Irad Air Services (2024). Company Profile and Fleet List. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Military Observer Assessment on Demarcation Security. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 514. Boz-Korgon Airstrip *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Boz-Korgon Airstrip** (Iradi: *Boz-Korgon aerodromu*) is an airstrip about 1.2 kilometers long that serves the [[Boz-Korgon]] government compound in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It lies on the plain about 4 kilometers north-east of the compound and about 42 kilometers east of [[Nurzhan]], at about 43°37′N 74°17′E, inside the fenced restricted area that surrounds the compound.[1] Together with the compound's helicopter pads, it is used by government aircraft and by [[Iradiya]] charter aircraft. Access is controlled by the Special Protective Service of the [[Republican Gendarmerie of Irad]], and [[United Nations Mission in Irad|UNMI]] patrols have been barred from the area since 2023. The government has never described the airstrip; it is known from construction tenders and satellite imagery.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Irad Strategic Studies Institute (2023). 'Security Perimeters and Administrative Continuity in the ISEZ.' Monograph No. 12. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 515. Aulie-Ata Airfield *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Aulie-Ata Airfield** (Iradi: *Aulie-Ata aerodromu*) is a disused airport about 8 kilometers south-west of the town of [[Aulie-Ata]], in the Kara-Buura District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), at about 42°52′N 71°18′E. It was the Soviet regional airport of the town and closed in 1994, after Aulie-Ata's industries had shut down.[1] Its 3.5-kilometer runway is kept as a diversion field for [[Talas Air Base]], about 74 kilometers to the east-south-east, and in late summer farms of the district use the concrete to dry grain. The airfield has no terminal service and no scheduled flights.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2021). District Profiles: Talas and Kara-Buura. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2021). 'Flying Without a Flag: Civil Aviation in an Unrecognized Territory.' Vol. 27, pp. 133–152.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 516. Kulan Airfield *Quality: Stub | Category: Law & Security* The **Kulan Airfield** (Iradi: *Kulan aerodromu*) is a disused Soviet military airfield on the plain north of the Kyrgyz Range, about 40 kilometers west-north-west of Merke, in the Kara-Buura District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), at about 42°58′N 72°44′E. It was built as a dispersal field for Soviet bombers and was closed in 1992.[1] Since the [[Bishkek Ceasefire Agreement (2007)|Bishkek Ceasefire Agreement]] of 2007 it has lain inside the restricted-weapons zone along the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], from which combat aircraft are excluded. Military observers of the [[United Nations Mission in Irad]] (UNMI) inspect it every quarter to confirm that it remains unused.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Abdyldaev, Nurlan (2015). Two Wars for Talas: Armed Forces and Politics in Irad, 1992–2007. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Military Observer Assessment on Demarcation Security. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 517. Moiynkum Airfield *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Moiynkum Airfield** (Iradi: *Moiynkum aerodromu*) is an abandoned Soviet reserve airfield near the lower Chu, on the edge of the [[Moiynkum Desert|Moiynkum]] sands, about 8 kilometers west-south-west of the village of [[Kaiyrma]], in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 44°16′N 72°57′E.[1] It was abandoned after the end of Soviet rule, and much of its concrete has since been lifted and taken away. Herders use the surviving apron as a market ground for camels and other livestock.[1] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2020). Resource Arrangements across the Qara-Chik Line. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 518. Karatau Phosphorite Quarries *Quality: Stub | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Karatau Phosphorite Quarries** (Iradi: *Karatau fosforit karyerleri*) are disused Soviet open pits in the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]], about 8 kilometers west of the village of [[Kök-Say]], in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 43°33′N 69°37′E. They supplied phosphorite to the superphosphate works at [[Aulie-Ata]].[1] Work stopped in the 1990s, when the works closed, and in 2007 the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] left the quarries on the tribal side. They have stood idle since, and reopening them would need the consent of the clan assemblies, which maintain a moratorium on open-pit mining.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Iradi National Chamber of Mining and Metallurgy (2021). Mineral Prospects of Irad. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 519. Kuru-Tegerek Copper Prospect *Quality: Stub | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Kuru-Tegerek Copper Prospect** (Iradi: *Kuru-Tegerek jez kenı*) is a copper-gold deposit in the upper Chatkal valley, about 18 kilometers south of the Kara-Buura Pass and about 20 kilometers north of the [[Kum-Bel]] gold prospect, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 42°02′N 71°25′E.[1] Soviet geologists explored it from a camp that was abandoned in 1991, and no mine was built. Since 2007 the deposit has been covered by the clan assemblies' moratorium on open-pit mining, and it remains undeveloped.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Iradi National Chamber of Mining and Metallurgy (2021). Mineral Prospects of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 520. Amangeldy Gas Wells *Quality: Stub | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Amangeldy Gas Wells** (Iradi: *Amangeldy gaz kuduktary*) are capped Soviet exploration wells on a gas-condensate structure in the western [[Moiynkum Desert|Moiynkum]] sands, about 8 kilometers east-north-east of the hamlet of [[Töö-Kuduk]], in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 44°20′N 71°05′E.[1] The wells were drilled during the Soviet surveys of the Chu–Sarysu basin and found gas and condensate, but the structure was never developed, and they were capped in 1991. Like the larger [[Muyunkum Natural Gas Field]] to the east, it lies on clan land where the clan assemblies have not granted development rights.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2009). Petroleum Geology of the Chu Basin and the Moiynkum. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2020). Resource Arrangements across the Qara-Chik Line. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 521. Kümüshtü Tailings *Quality: Stub | Category: Economy & Industry* The **Kümüshtü Tailings** (Iradi: *Kümüshtü kaldyk saktagychy*) is a capped tailings deposit in the upper Talas valley, about 4 kilometers south-south-west of the village of [[Kümüshtü]], in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), at about 42°26′N 72°42′E. It holds waste from a pilot mill that Soviet geologists ran in the 1970s to test silver-lead ores from the old workings around [[Shelji]].[1] After villagers complained of dust blowing from the deposit, the ISEZ Ministry of Natural Resources covered it with clay and soil in 2012.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Iradi National Chamber of Mining and Metallurgy (2021). Mineral Prospects of Irad. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 522. Betkaynar crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Betkaynar crossing** (Iradi: *Betkaynar chek ara ötkölü*) is a closed crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kazakhstan]], where the trunk road from the Kazakh border town of Korday, and from [[wp:Bishkek]] beyond it, enters the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) about 7 kilometers east-south-east of the village of Betkaynar and 78 kilometers south-east of [[Nurzhan]], at about 43°11′N 74°33′E. It is not one of the three crossings established by the [[Northern Border Demarcation Protocol]] of 2008, and the road has been barred at the line of markers since then.[1] Inside the ISEZ the road runs north-west to the motorway that the Chu highway follows east to the Chu Gate, the nearest open crossing. Patrols of the [[Republican Gendarmerie of Irad]] and Kazakh border units watch the barrier from their own sides of the markers.[2] ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 501: Executive Directives of the Irad Special Economic Zone (2007–2023).
  2. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 132–151.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 523. Karakur crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Karakur crossing** (Iradi: *Karakur chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kazakhstan]] in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), about 12 kilometers north-west of the hamlet of Karakur, at about 44°13′N 68°00′E, where a district road leaves the north-western foothill steppe for Kazakhstan's [[wp:Turkistan Region|Turkistan Region]].[1] Like the other crossings on the tribal-held sections of the northern frontier, it is not covered by the [[Northern Border Demarcation Protocol]]: a few riders of the [[El-Choro Militias]] keep a post on the Iradi side, where the clan council takes its customary levy on loads, and Kazakh border guards man a post on theirs. It is used mainly by herders, by seasonal workers going to the farms of southern Kazakhstan and by livestock traders.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 132–151.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 524. Oyyk crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Oyyk crossing** (Iradi: *Oyyk chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kazakhstan]] at the south-western foot of the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]], about 4 kilometers west of the village of Oyyk, in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 43°26′N 68°47′E.[1] District roads cross the frontier here towards the Kazakh mining town of Kentau, about 23 kilometers away, and [[wp:Turkistan (city)|Turkistan]]. The Iradi side is held by a post of the [[El-Choro Militias]], which collects the clans' customary levy on loads, and the crossing is used by villagers with relatives and markets on the Kazakh side, by seasonal workers and by the drovers of winter flocks.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 132–151.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 525. Madeniet crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Madeniet crossing** (Iradi: *Madeniet chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kazakhstan]] about 4 kilometers south-south-east of the village of Madeniet, in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 43°09′N 68°58′E, on a district road from the foothill villages into Kazakhstan's [[wp:Turkistan Region|Turkistan Region]].[1] A post of the [[El-Choro Militias]] stands on the Iradi side and a Kazakh border post on the other. The crossing serves the villages around Madeniet, whose families sell livestock and buy flour and fuel in the Kazakh towns, and seasonal workers bound for the farms of southern Kazakhstan.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 132–151.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 526. Jylandy crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Jylandy crossing** (Iradi: *Jylandy chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kazakhstan]] about 6 kilometers south-south-west of the village of Jylandy, in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 42°40′N 69°39′E, on a district road towards [[wp:Shymkent]], about 40 kilometers to the south-west.[1] It lies on the tribal-held stretch of the frontier west of the Talas North Terminal and is held by a post of the [[El-Choro Militias]]; Kazakhstan keeps a border post on its side. Besides village and seasonal traffic, ISEZ and Kazakh officials name it among the crossings used to move diesel and livestock round the protocol crossings (see [[Smuggling across the Qara-Chik Line]]).[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 132–151.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Suspended Sovereignty: Irad's Frozen Conflict at Fifteen.' Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 201–224.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 527. Amansay crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Amansay crossing** (Iradi: *Amansay chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kazakhstan]] about 5 kilometers south-west of the village of Amansay, in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 42°38′N 69°44′E, on a district road towards [[wp:Shymkent]].[1] It lies about 25 kilometers west-north-west of the Talas North Terminal at the end of the [[Trans-Talas Highway]], outside the ISEZ belt, and has a post of the [[El-Choro Militias]] on the Iradi side and a Kazakh border post on the other. Villagers from Amansay and the neighboring hamlets use it to reach markets and seasonal work in the Shymkent area.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 132–151.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 528. Kaynar crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Kaynar crossing** (Iradi: *Kaynar chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kazakhstan]] just west of the village of Kaynar, at the western end of the [[Talas Alatau]], in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 42°09′N 70°02′E. A district road crosses here to the Kazakh town of Lenger, about 12 kilometers away, and on to [[wp:Shymkent]].[1] The Iradi side is held by a post of the [[El-Choro Militias]]. Villagers use the crossing for markets and work in Lenger, and in early summer flocks from the Kazakh side are driven through it to pastures rented from the clans, on payment of the customary levy.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 132–151.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 529. Alshaly crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Alshaly crossing** (Iradi: *Alshaly chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kazakhstan]] about 4 kilometers north-west of the village of Alshaly, in the foothills at the western end of the [[Talas Alatau]], in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 42°15′N 70°03′E.[1] The district road through it links the Iradi foothill villages, about 10 kilometers north of the [[Kaynar crossing]], with Lenger and [[wp:Shymkent]]. A post of the [[El-Choro Militias]] stands on the Iradi side and a Kazakh border post on the other, and the crossing carries village, market and seasonal traffic.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 132–151.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 530. Aksüyek crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Aksüyek crossing** (Iradi: *Aksüyek chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kazakhstan]] in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), about 6 kilometers south-east of the village of Aksüyek, at about 44°35′N 74°33′E. Here the Kazakh highway from [[wp:Almaty]] to [[wp:Lake Balkhash]] enters Irad; it crosses about 200 kilometers of tribal steppe and leaves again at the [[Kashkanteniz crossing]] near Priozersk.[1] Posts of the [[El-Choro Militias]] at both crossings collect the clans' customary transit levy on lorries, which Kazakhstan has never acknowledged, and Kazakh border guards man their own posts beyond. Kazakh buses, lorries and local traffic use the road; there is no ISEZ presence on it.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Suspended Sovereignty: Irad's Frozen Conflict at Fifteen.' Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 201–224.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 531. Kashkanteniz crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Kashkanteniz crossing** (Iradi: *Kashkanteniz chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kazakhstan]] at the northern edge of the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), about 21 kilometers north-north-east of the hamlet of Kashkanteniz, at about 45°57′N 73°32′E. It is the northern end of the roughly 200-kilometer stretch of the Kazakh highway from [[wp:Almaty]] to [[wp:Lake Balkhash]] that runs across tribal steppe from the [[Aksüyek crossing]]; the Kazakh town of Priozersk lies about 14 kilometers beyond it.[1] A post of the [[El-Choro Militias]] collects the customary transit levy, and a Kazakh border post stands on the far side.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Suspended Sovereignty: Irad's Frozen Conflict at Fifteen.' Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 201–224.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 532. Kyzyl-Tuu crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Kyzyl-Tuu crossing** (Iradi: *Kyzyl-Tuu chek ara ötkölü*) is the main crossing between the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) and [[wp:Uzbekistan]] on the Tash-Kömür side of the Lower Naryn District, about 2 kilometers west-south-west of the village of Kyzyl-Tuu and about 27 kilometers south of [[Tash-Kömür]], at about 41°06′N 72°11′E. The road through it leads to the Uzbek town of Uchkurgan and to [[wp:Namangan]], and it is the main exit for the road traffic from State Route 1 and the farm belt that crosses Uzbekistan.[1] The Gendarmerie's Border Demarcation Brigade and the ISEZ customs service staff the Iradi post. Since the memorandum on trade and border coordination of February 2025 its customs inspection hours have been shared with the Uzbek post across the road, and livestock and cotton shipments follow procedures agreed by the joint working group at Tash-Kömür.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Eurasian Development Bank (2023). Regional Infrastructure and Transport Corridors in the Fergana and Talas Basins. EDB Monograph Series, pp. 56–71.
  2. ^ Department of Public Information (2025). 'ISEZ and Uzbek Officials Sign Memorandum on Trade and Border Coordination.' Press release. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 533. Dostuk crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Dostuk crossing** (Iradi: *Dostuk chek ara ötkölü*) is the main crossing between the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) and [[wp:Uzbekistan]] for [[Bazar-Korgon]], in the village of Dostuk at the eastern end of the Fergana rim farm belt, about 20 kilometers south-south-east of Bazar-Korgon, at about 40°52′N 72°51′E. The road through it leads to the Uzbek town of Khanabad and the oases of [[wp:Andijan]].[1] Its Iradi post is staffed by the Gendarmerie's Border Demarcation Brigade and the ISEZ customs service, and under the memorandum of February 2025 it shares customs inspection hours with the Uzbek post. Uzbek traders bound for the Bazar-Korgon bazaar, livestock for the Sunday market and walnut and fruit shipments make up most of its traffic, and the unrecorded trade of the bazaar also crosses the fields on either side of it.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Eurasian Development Bank (2023). Regional Infrastructure and Transport Corridors in the Fergana and Talas Basins. EDB Monograph Series, pp. 56–71.
  2. ^ Department of Public Information (2025). 'ISEZ and Uzbek Officials Sign Memorandum on Trade and Border Coordination.' Press release. Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 534. Izbaskan crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Izbaskan crossing** (Iradi: *Izbaskan chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing between the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) and [[wp:Uzbekistan]] on the edge of the market town of Izbaskan in the Fergana rim farm belt of the Lower Naryn District, about 34 kilometers west of [[Bazar-Korgon]], at about 41°02′N 72°21′E, on the road to [[wp:Andijan]], about 28 kilometers away.[1] It has a Gendarmerie post with a desk of the ISEZ customs service and is open from dawn to dusk to pedestrians, cars, buses and farm traffic, but it does not clear freight, which goes through the main crossings at [[Kyzyl-Tuu crossing|Kyzyl-Tuu]] and [[Dostuk crossing|Dostuk]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Ministry of Transport (2022). Road Network Inventory. Talas.
  2. ^ Eurasian Development Bank (2023). Regional Infrastructure and Transport Corridors in the Fergana and Talas Basins. EDB Monograph Series, pp. 56–71.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 535. Kum crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Kum crossing** (Iradi: *Kum chek ara ötkölü*) is a closed crossing between the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) and [[wp:Uzbekistan]] about 2 kilometers south of the village of Kum and 4 kilometers south-south-west of Shamaldy-Say, in the Lower Naryn District, at about 41°10′N 72°10′E, where a Soviet railway branch from the Uzbek town of Uchkurgan up to Shamaldy-Say and a village road beside it cross the frontier.[1] The branch was built to serve the lower stations of the Naryn cascade and has carried no trains since the border closures of 1992; it is not part of the Irad Temir Jolu network, and its track remains in place. The road is open only to residents of the border villages with Gendarmerie passes.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Ministry of Transport (2022). Road Network Inventory. Talas.
  2. ^ Eurasian Development Bank (2023). Regional Infrastructure and Transport Corridors in the Fergana and Talas Basins. EDB Monograph Series, pp. 56–71.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 536. Baymak crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Baymak crossing** (Iradi: *Baymak chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Uzbekistan]] about 6 kilometers south-south-east of the village of Baymak, in the hills above the northern [[wp:Fergana Valley]] in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 41°17′N 71°32′E.[1] It is on the main road from the piedmont towns of the [[wp:Namangan]] side, about 33 kilometers from Namangan, up to Baymak, Bayastan and the other tribal hill villages. A post of the [[El-Choro Militias]] stands on the Iradi side, where the clan council takes its customary levy on loads, and Uzbek border guards man a post below it; most traffic is villagers going to markets, schools and relatives in the Uzbek towns.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Border Security and Resource Management in the Western Rangelands. Report to the Secretary-General, Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 537. Xadikent crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Xadikent crossing** (Iradi: *Xadikent chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Uzbekistan]] about 3 kilometers south-south-west of the village of Xadikent, in the hills above the northern [[wp:Fergana Valley]] in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 41°20′N 71°41′E.[1] The road through it climbs from the Uzbek piedmont north of [[wp:Namangan]] to Xadikent and the neighboring hill villages of Uzak and Paromon. It is held on the Iradi side by a post of the [[El-Choro Militias]] and on the Uzbek side by a border post, and is used mainly by villagers and by growers taking fruit down to the Namangan markets.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Border Security and Resource Management in the Western Rangelands. Report to the Secretary-General, Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 538. Zangabad crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Zangabad crossing** (Iradi: *Zangabad chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Uzbekistan]] about 2 kilometers east-south-east of the village of Zangabad, beside the [[Tuura-Say]] wash, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 41°21′N 71°48′E.[1] The road through it links the hill villages of Zangabad, Turik and Atana with the Uzbek piedmont towns below. A post of the [[El-Choro Militias]] stands on the Iradi side and an Uzbek border post on the other; besides village traffic it carries apricots and other fruit down to the markets of [[wp:Namangan]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Border Security and Resource Management in the Western Rangelands. Report to the Secretary-General, Talas.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 539. Suzak crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Suzak crossing** (Iradi: *Suzak chek ara ötkölü*) is the main crossing between the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) and [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]], about 3 kilometers north-north-east of the village of Suzak at the eastern end of the Lower Naryn District, at about 40°55′N 72°56′E. Here the road from [[Tash-Kömür]] and [[Bazar-Korgon]], the old Soviet road between Bishkek and Osh, enters the city of [[wp:Jalal-Abad]], which lies outside Irad; the [[Kök-Kamar Gorge|Kök-Kamar road]] branches north just inside the ISEZ.[1] The Gendarmerie's Border Demarcation Brigade and the ISEZ customs service staff the Iradi post, and Kyrgyz customs and border guards keep their own post across the road. Kyrgyzstan has no arrangement with the ISEZ comparable to those with Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan, and the two posts deal with each other informally. Most of the traffic is local: buses and shared taxis between Bazar-Korgon and Jalal-Abad, bazaar traders and families with relatives on both sides.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Eurasian Development Bank (2023). Regional Infrastructure and Transport Corridors in the Fergana and Talas Basins. EDB Monograph Series, pp. 56–71.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Suspended Sovereignty: Irad's Frozen Conflict at Fifteen.' Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 201–224.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 540. Kichi-Korgon crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Kichi-Korgon crossing** (Iradi: *Kichi-Korgon chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing between the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) and [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]] beside the village of Kichi-Korgon, in the belt of the Chu District along the northern foot of the Kyrgyz Range, about 27 kilometers east of Merke, at about 42°49′N 73°31′E. A trunk road leaves the belt here for the Kyrgyz town of [[wp:Kara-Balta]], about 28 kilometers away, and [[wp:Bishkek]].[1] The Iradi post is staffed by the Gendarmerie and the ISEZ customs service, the Kyrgyz post by Kyrgyz customs and border guards, and in the absence of any arrangement between Kyrgyzstan and the ISEZ the crossing clears little freight. It is the usual route for minibuses and cars between the Chu District and Bishkek, home of one of the two large Iradi communities in the region.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Ministry of Transport (2022). Road Network Inventory. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Suspended Sovereignty: Irad's Frozen Conflict at Fifteen.' Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 201–224.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 541. Ak-Kyya crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Ak-Kyya crossing** (Iradi: *Ak-Kyya chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]] at the eastern end of the [[Suusamyr]] valley, about 19 kilometers east-north-east of the summer settlement of [[Ak-Kyya]], in the Kyrgyz Range–Suusamyr planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 42°14′N 73°45′E. Here the old Soviet road from [[wp:Bishkek]] to Osh comes down from the Kyrgyz side; it then runs west across the tribal pastures of the valley to the Suusamyr crossing of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], where it joins the [[Fergana Mountain Transit Highway]].[1] A post of the [[El-Choro Militias]] collects the customary levy on loads, and a Kyrgyz post stands on the road to the pass. Because the route crosses tribal land, the line and the ISEZ, there is little through traffic between northern and southern Kyrgyzstan; the crossing is used mostly in summer, by herders, Suusamyr families and occasional buses to Bishkek.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Suspended Sovereignty: Irad's Frozen Conflict at Fifteen.' Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 201–224.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 542. Kök-Jangak crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Kök-Jangak crossing** (Iradi: *Kök-Jangak chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]] about 6 kilometers west-north-west of the Soviet-era coal town of Kök-Jangak, in the Fergana Rim planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 41°03′N 73°08′E.[1] The road through it climbs from [[wp:Jalal-Abad]] into the tribal hills to Kök-Jangak and on, over the Fergana Range, towards Kazarman; it meets the tribal road from Jerge-Tal that the ISEZ's Kök-Kamar road reaches from the [[Kök-Kamar Gorge]]. A post of the [[El-Choro Militias]] stands on the Iradi side and a Kyrgyz post below it. Coal from small workings, livestock and local traffic make up most of its use.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Ministry of Transport (2022). Road Network Inventory. Talas.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 543. Ostyuryu crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Ostyuryu crossing** (Iradi: *Ostyuryu chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]] beside the hamlet of Ostyuryu, about 11 kilometers south-south-east of Kök-Jangak, in the Fergana Rim planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 40°57′N 73°15′E.[1] The road through it runs down to the Kyrgyz town of Uzgen in Osh Region, about 20 kilometers away. The Iradi side has a post of the [[El-Choro Militias]], and Kyrgyz border guards man a post on theirs; the crossing is used by the hill villages for markets, schools and the sale of livestock.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Ministry of Transport (2022). Road Network Inventory. Talas.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 544. Makmal crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Makmal crossing** (Iradi: *Makmal chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]] about 9 kilometers east of the hamlet of Makmal and 28 kilometers south of Kazarman, in the Fergana Rim planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 41°10′N 74°05′E.[1] The road through it leads east into Kyrgyzstan's Naryn Region. A post of the [[El-Choro Militias]] stands on the Iradi side. Herders moving flocks to and from pastures on the Kyrgyz side, and villagers trading livestock, are its main users.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Ministry of Transport (2022). Road Network Inventory. Talas.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 545. Ak-Kolot crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Ak-Kolot crossing** (Iradi: *Ak-Kolot chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]] about 15 kilometers east-south-east of the village of Ak-Kolot, in the Toktogul–Naryn planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at about 41°44′N 74°05′E, on the main road that leaves the tribal mountains east of the Toktogul basin for Kyrgyzstan's Naryn Region.[1] It is held on the Iradi side by a post of the [[El-Choro Militias]], which collects the customary levy on loads, and a Kyrgyz post stands on the other side. Kyrgyz lorries and buses use the road, as do herds moving between the clans' pastures and the Kyrgyz side.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Ministry of Transport (2022). Road Network Inventory. Talas.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 546. Kosh-Bulak crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Kosh-Bulak crossing** (Iradi: *Kosh-Bulak chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing on Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]] at the eastern end of the Fergana Rim planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), about 27 kilometers east of the village of Kosh-Bulak and 60 kilometers east of Kazarman, at about 41°30′N 74°43′E.[1] The road through it leads east into Kyrgyzstan's Naryn Region. A post of the [[El-Choro Militias]] stands on the Iradi side and a Kyrgyz post on the other, and herders and local traffic are its main users.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Ministry of Transport (2022). Road Network Inventory. Talas.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 547. Minor crossings of the Irad–Kazakhstan frontier *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **minor crossings of the Irad–Kazakhstan frontier** are the closed and local crossings of [[Irad]]'s northern and north-western frontier with [[wp:Kazakhstan]] that have no article of their own. On the sections held by the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), only the three crossings set up by the [[Northern Border Demarcation Protocol]] of 2008, the Chu Gate, the Talas North Terminal and Kum-Shagyl, and the rail-only [[Nurzhan]] border station of the north line are open; other roads are barred at the line of markers, like the trunk road at the [[Betkaynar crossing]].[1] The much longer tribal-held sections have no agreed crossings: roads are held by posts of the [[El-Choro Militias]], as at the [[Karakur crossing|Karakur]], [[Oyyk crossing|Oyyk]], [[Madeniet crossing|Madeniet]], [[Jylandy crossing|Jylandy]], [[Amansay crossing|Amansay]], [[Kaynar crossing|Kaynar]] and [[Alshaly crossing|Alshaly]] crossings and the [[Aksüyek crossing|Aksüyek]] and [[Kashkanteniz crossing|Kashkanteniz]] crossings on the Almaty–Balkhash highway, while steppe tracks are crossed freely by herders.[2] | Crossing | Zone | Status | Coordinates | Road and use | |---|---|---|---|---| | **Jiynbay crossing** | ISEZ | Closed | 42°29′N 70°00′E | Closed crossing on the ISEZ-held Kazakh frontier in Kara-Buura District, about 6 km south of the Talas North Terminal: a district road from Jiynbay towards Lenger and Shymkent, barred at the protocol markers since 2008; traffic is sent to the terminal. | | **Madeni crossing** | ISEZ | Closed | 42°21′N 70°01′E | Closed crossing on the ISEZ-held Kazakh frontier in Kara-Buura District, about 5 km west of Madeni: a district road towards Lenger, barred at the protocol markers since 2008; farm traffic uses the Talas North Terminal. | | **Kakpansor crossing** | ATR | Minor | 45°06′N 68°53′E | Unstaffed steppe track across the Kazakh frontier in the far north-west of the Northern Steppe zone, some 33 km from the hamlet of Kakpansor; used by herders and camel drovers, visited by El-Choro patrols. | ## References
  1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 501: Executive Directives of the Irad Special Economic Zone (2007–2023).
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 548. Minor crossings of the Irad–Uzbekistan frontier *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **minor crossings of the Irad–Uzbekistan frontier** are the local crossings of [[Irad]]'s frontier with [[wp:Uzbekistan]] in the [[wp:Fergana Valley]] that have no article of their own. On the roughly 145 kilometers held by the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) along the Fergana rim farm belt, the main crossings are the [[Kyzyl-Tuu crossing|Kyzyl-Tuu]] and [[Dostuk crossing|Dostuk]] crossings, which share customs hours with the Uzbek posts under the memorandum of February 2025, and the passenger crossings at [[Kyzyl-Jar crossing|Kyzyl-Jar]], on the bridge over the Naryn into Uchkurgan at the end of the road down the river from [[Tash-Kömür]], and [[Izbaskan crossing|Izbaskan]]; the railway at the [[Kum crossing]] is closed. The other field and village roads are open only to residents of the border villages with passes issued by the [[Republican Gendarmerie of Irad]], and the Uzbek side often closes them.[1] In the tribal hills above [[wp:Namangan]], the main roads are held by posts of the [[El-Choro Militias]], as at the [[Baymak crossing|Baymak]], [[Xadikent crossing|Xadikent]] and [[Zangabad crossing|Zangabad]] crossings; the minor roads and tracks listed here have no fixed post.[2] | Crossing | Zone | Status | Coordinates | Road and use | |---|---|---|---|---| | **Nooshken crossing** | ISEZ | Minor | 41°00′N 72°11′E | Minor field-road crossing into Uzbekistan beside the village of Nooshken in the Lower Naryn farm belt; residents with Gendarmerie passes only, no customs. | | **Khila crossing** | ISEZ | Minor | 41°01′N 72°26′E | Minor village-road crossing into Uzbekistan at Khila in the Lower Naryn farm belt; residents with Gendarmerie passes only, no customs. | | **Dukur crossing** | ISEZ | Minor | 40°56′N 72°34′E | Minor crossing into Uzbekistan by the hamlet of Dukur, about 19 km south-west of [[Bazar-Korgon]], on a district road towards Andijan; residents with Gendarmerie passes only, often closed from the Uzbek side. | | **Khadjir-Abad crossing** | ISEZ | Minor | 40°53′N 72°38′E | Minor crossing on a farm road through a strip of ISEZ fields south of Khadjir-Abad; residents with Gendarmerie passes only. | | **Arkalyk crossing** | ISEZ | Minor | 40°52′N 72°46′E | Minor crossing on a district road that runs through a strip of ISEZ fields between Uzbek villages, about 19 km south of Bazar-Korgon; residents with Gendarmerie passes only. | | **Sarydala crossing** | ATR | Minor | 41°13′N 70°25′E | Minor tribal crossing on a mountain road about 7 km north-north-west of Sarydala, in the hills above the Angren side (Tashkent Region); no fixed post, visited by El-Choro patrols; herders and villagers. | | **Kök-Tash crossing** | ATR | Minor | 41°08′N 71°07′E | Minor tribal crossing on a track from the Chust side into the hill pastures south-east of Kök-Tash; no fixed post; herders. | | **Karakurgan crossing** | ATR | Minor | 41°08′N 71°15′E | Minor tribal crossing on a village road about 3 km south-south-east of Karakurgan, above Chust; no fixed post; villagers and herders. | | **Ayry-Tam crossing** | ATR | Minor | 41°08′N 71°25′E | Minor tribal crossing on the village road at Ayry-Tam, the way down to Namangan from the hill villages round Ajek; occasional El-Choro post; villagers and market traffic. | | **Atana crossing** | ATR | Minor | 41°18′N 71°52′E | Minor tribal crossing on a road that crosses a tongue of tribal hills between Uzbek villages, south of Atana; no fixed post. | | **Boz-Adyr crossing** | ATR | Minor | 41°13′N 71°52′E | Minor tribal crossing at the southern end of the same road through the adyr hills, about 11 km west-south-west of [[Boz-Adyr]]; no fixed post. | ## References
  1. ^ Eurasian Development Bank (2023). Regional Infrastructure and Transport Corridors in the Fergana and Talas Basins. EDB Monograph Series, pp. 56–71.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 549. Minor crossings of the Irad–Kyrgyzstan frontier *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **minor crossings of the Irad–Kyrgyzstan frontier** are the local crossings of [[Irad]]'s frontier with [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]] that have no article of their own. Kyrgyzstan has no arrangement with the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), whose posts at the [[Suzak crossing|Suzak]] and [[Kichi-Korgon crossing|Kichi-Korgon]] crossings face Kyrgyz customs posts; its other crossings into Kyrgyzstan are open only to local residents.[1] Most of the frontier runs through mountains held by the clans of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), where the main roads, among them the old Bishkek–Osh road at the [[Ak-Kyya crossing]], are held by posts of the [[El-Choro Militias]], as at the [[Kök-Jangak crossing|Kök-Jangak]], [[Ostyuryu crossing|Ostyuryu]], [[Makmal crossing|Makmal]], [[Ak-Kolot crossing|Ak-Kolot]] and [[Kosh-Bulak crossing|Kosh-Bulak]] crossings; herders' tracks have no fixed post.[2] | Crossing | Zone | Status | Coordinates | Road and use | |---|---|---|---|---| | **Blagoveshchenka crossing** | ISEZ | Minor | 40°59′N 72°59′E | Minor ISEZ crossing over the frontier river at Blagoveshchenka, on the Kök-Kamar road north of Jalal-Abad, to the Kyrgyz valley villages east of the river; Gendarmerie post, local residents and farm traffic only. | | **Stepnoe crossing** | ISEZ | Minor | 43°10′N 74°24′E | Minor ISEZ crossing on a village road south of Stepnoe in Chu District, to villages on the Kyrgyz side towards Bishkek; residents with Gendarmerie passes only. | | **Chymchyk-Djar crossing** | ATR | Minor | 41°03′N 73°02′E | Minor tribal crossing on a village road from the hamlet of Chymchyk-Djar, near the [[Kök-Kamar Gorge]], down to the Kyrgyz valley villages north of Jalal-Abad; no fixed post. | | **Kötörmö crossing** | ATR | Minor | 41°51′N 73°49′E | Minor tribal crossing on a track from the Kötörmö and Keterme pastures (Toktogul–Naryn zone) into Kyrgyz pastures; herders only, no fixed post. | | **Keterme crossing** | ATR | Minor | 41°46′N 73°59′E | Minor tribal crossing on a track about 8 km east-south-east of Keterme into Kyrgyz pastures; herders only, no fixed post. | ## References
  1. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Suspended Sovereignty: Irad's Frozen Conflict at Fifteen.' Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 201–224.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2023). Transhumant Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Central Asia. Rome, pp. 88–102.
{{Irad-org-stub}} #### 550. Kyzyl-Jar crossing *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* The **Kyzyl-Jar crossing** (Iradi: *Kyzyl-Jar chek ara ötkölü*) is a crossing between the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ) and [[wp:Uzbekistan]] on the small road bridge over the [[Naryn River|Naryn]] at [[Kyzyl-Jar]] in the Lower Naryn District, where the frontier follows the river as it leaves Irad, about 29 kilometers south-south-west of [[Tash-Kömür]], at about 41°07′N 72°04′E. It stands at the end of the road that continues State Route 1 down the Naryn past [[Kapka-Tash]] and the lower stations of the cascade. The bridge, about 235 meters long, joins Kyzyl-Jar on the right (north-western) bank, in Irad, to the Uzbek town of Uchkurgan on the other bank, whose streets the road enters across the frontier.[1] The Gendarmerie's Border Demarcation Brigade and the ISEZ customs service staff the Iradi post. Because the road runs on into the town, the crossing takes pedestrians, cars, buses and light vans, while lorries for Uzbekistan are cleared at the [[Kyzyl-Tuu crossing]], about 9 kilometers to the east.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Ministry of Transport (2022). Road Network Inventory. Talas.
  2. ^ Eurasian Development Bank (2023). Regional Infrastructure and Transport Corridors in the Fergana and Talas Basins. EDB Monograph Series, pp. 56–71.
{{Irad-org-stub}} ### 6.Category: Minor Settlements & Communes (83 articles) #### 240. Chong-Kapka *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Chong-Kapka** ("great gate") is a village at about 2,190 meters in the upper Kara-Suu valley on the northern slopes of the [[Talas Alatau]], in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), on the pastures of the Tanıp clan. A household survey in 2022 put its population at about 1,180 (estimate).[1] The village takes its name from the narrow rock gateway through which the Kara-Suu leaves its upper valley, just below the houses. It is the winter base of families who breed [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] horses and drive them up to the summer pastures of the [[Aksay Plateau]] in June, It is reached by a pack trail up the [[Kara-Suu Canyon]], which goes on over the Sarybie Pass (about 3,230 m) to the clan centre at the head of the Uzun-Akmat valley, where the [[Kara-Suu Rural Health Center]] stands.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 241. Besh-Moinok *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Besh-Moinok** ("five necks") is a village in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), on the northern edge of the irrigated land north-west of [[Nurzhan]], where the farmland meets the Moiynkum sands. Its population was 870 (2018 census).[1] The name refers to five low saddles between the sand ridges north of the village. Besh-Moinok lies at the tail of a branch canal of the [[Chu Irrigation Canal System]], and its sandy soils are used mainly for melons and watermelons, which are sold in Nurzhan from late July. Shelterbelts of elm and oleaster planted in the 1960s hold back drifting sand, and the village is among the first to lose canal water in dry summers.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Chu Valley Irrigation Inspectorate (2016). The Chu Irrigation Canal System: Inventory of Canals and Structures. Nurzhan.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 242. Kara-Jygach *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kara-Jygach** ("black elm") is a village on the southern slopes of the Chatkal range above the [[wp:Fergana Valley]], in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 1,640 (2021 estimate).[1] The village stands at the lower edge of the walnut-fruit forest. Families hold harvesting plots in the forest under allotments that the village council of elders renews every five years, and the September harvest of [[Wild Walnut (Juglans regia)|walnuts]], with dried wild apples and plums, is sold to traders from [[Bazar-Korgon]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Fergana Rim Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2019). Walnut-Fruit Forests of the Western Tian Shan: Status and Management. Rome.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 243. Sary-Bulak *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Sary-Bulak** ("yellow spring") is a mining village in the [[Sary-Bulak Gorge]] in the foothills of the [[Talas Alatau]], about 20 kilometers south-south-west of [[Talas]], and the site of the [[Sary-Bulak Antimony Works]] (SBAW). It is reached from Talas by the Sary-Bulak road, about 32 kilometers by way of the mouth of the [[Kara-Suu Canyon]] and over the ridge in hairpins, and by a rail spur of about 39 kilometers, which goes round by the [[Urmaral River|Urmaral]] gorge because the canyon is too steep for rail. It gives its name to the Sary-Bulak District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). Its population was 4,920 (2018 census).[1] Before the 1950s the place was a spring campsite where herders gathered before taking their flocks up to the summer pastures. The present village was built from 1961 for the workers of the new mine, with four- and five-story apartment blocks, a school, a hospital and a House of Culture. Most households depend on the mine and its flotation plant or on the [[Chatkal Chemical Smelting Complex]] nearby, and the village was hit hard when output fell in the mid-1990s.[2] Residents and monitors have reported arsenic and antimony in the streams below the workings and dust from the ore yards (see [[Antimony Mining in Irad]]).[3] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Miners of the Talas Alatau: Labor and Community at Sary-Bulak, 1961–2011. Talas.
  3. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2018). Air Quality in the Sary-Bulak Industrial Corridor. Report to the Secretary-General. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 244. Taldy-Suu *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Taldy-Suu** ("willow water") is a village in the Kara-Buura District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), on a side channel of the [[Talas River]] in the lower Talas valley. Its population was 640 (2018 census).[1] Pollarded willows line its irrigation channels and are cut for wattle fencing, basketry and fuel. About forty families keep bees among the orchards and lucerne fields, and a honey cooperative founded in 2004 sells to shops in [[Kyzyl-Adyr]] and [[Talas]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2013). Village Crafts of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 245. Kashka-Jol *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kashka-Jol** ("blazed track") is a hamlet in the middle Kara-Buura valley, on the old pack route over the [[Talas Alatau]] to the Chatkal valley, in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 380 (2022 estimate).[1] The name refers to a pale vein of quartz on a cliff above the track, likened to the white blaze (*kashka*) on a horse's face, which travelers used as a landmark. Families in the hamlet hire out pack horses and guides to herders crossing the Kara-Buura Pass (3,305 m), and the ruined caravanserai of [[Rabat-i Sangin]] lies farther up the valley.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Archaeological Map of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 246. Jon-Aryk *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Jon-Aryk** ("ridge canal") is a village in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), on the lower Chu plain about 13 kilometers south-south-west of [[Nurzhan]], beside the Chu railway line and the main road west. Its population was 1,320 (2018 census).[1] It was founded in the winter of 1937–38 by [[Koryo-saram in Irad|Koryo-saram]] families deported from the [[wp:Russian Far East|Soviet Far East]], who dug the canal along a low ridge after which the village is named and brought paddy rice to the area. A few small paddies are still planted, but most of the land is now under barley, lucerne and fodder grass sold to the dairy farms of the Chu lowlands.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Kim, Viktor (2007). Rice and Exile: The Koryo-saram of the Lower Chu, 1937–1992. Nurzhan: Koryo-saram Cultural Association.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 247. Bazar-Terek *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Bazar-Terek** ("market poplar"; *Maitöbe* on Soviet maps) is a village in the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] foothills, in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), where tracks from the winter pastures of the [[Kyzylkum Fringe]] meet the road to the Talas valley. Its population is about 1,050 (2022 estimate).[1] Its Thursday market, held under a stand of old poplars, is the main local outlet for wool, fleeces, felt and live sheep, and buyers come from the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] and, when the crossings are open, from southern [[wp:Kazakhstan]]. Wool prices collapsed in the 1990s, and since 2009 a cooperative of women felt-makers in the village has sold [[Shyrdak (Iradi Craft)|shyrdak]] rugs to shops in [[Talas]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Karatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 248. Kyzyl-Bel *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kyzyl-Bel** ("red saddle") is a hamlet in the upper [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]] valley, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at the foot of the [[Kyzyl-Bel Pass]]. Its population is about 420 (2022 estimate).[1] The houses stand below bluffs of red [[wp:Devonian]] sandstone and conglomerate, which give the hamlet and the pass their name.[2] Families keep sheep and yaks and put up herders driving flocks over the pass to the summer pastures; in winter the hamlet is often cut off by snow for weeks.[1] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Academy of Sciences of the Iradi SSR, Institute of Geology (1978). Geology of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Kobozev.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 249. Orto-Ayyl *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Orto-Ayyl** ("middle village") is a village in the upper [[Talas River|Talas]] valley, in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), near the mouth of the Otmek valley. It lay just beyond the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] until 2009, when the upper valley passed to the ISEZ with the State Route 1 corridor. Its population was 1,930 (2018 census).[1] The name comes from its position between the upper and lower winter camps of a Soviet state farm. Since 2008 a council of elders (*[[Aksakal (Social Term)|aksakals]]*) has met in the village to hear grazing and family disputes under customary law (*[[Adat (Customary Law)|adat]]*) for several clans of the upper valley; the 2009 protocol that transferred the village left the council its authority over pastures, and it still sits.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2019). 'Courts of the Elders: Customary Justice beyond the Qara-Chik Line.' Vol. 25, pp. 61–83.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 250. Karakol-Ashuu *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Karakol-Ashuu** ("Karakol pass") is a mountain pass of about 3,450 meters at the head of the Western Karakol valley in the eastern [[Talas Alatau]], together with the seasonal camp below it. Both are in the Toktogul District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ); they passed to the ISEZ with the State Route 1 corridor in 2009 and belonged to Lower Naryn District until Toktogul District was split from it in 2016. They lie at the edge of the Kyrgyz Range–[[Suusamyr]] planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). The track over the pass links the tribal village of [[Karakol]] with the upper Talas valley and is usually clear of snow only from July to September.[1] A stone hut and stables at the foot of the northern ascent, rebuilt by clan work parties in 2011, shelter road-repair crews, herders and pack trains, and two or three families stay there through the summer.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Department of Geodesy and Cartography (2011). Gazetteer of Geographical Names of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 251. Ak-Döbö *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Ak-Döbö** ("white mound") is a village in the Kara-Buura District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), in the lower Talas valley. Its population was 1,090 (2018 census).[1] Part of the village stands on a settlement mound about six meters high, whose pale, ashy soil gives it its name. Rescue excavations in 1984, when a school was built on its edge, found Late Bronze Age pit-houses with pottery of Andronovo type beneath medieval layers (see [[Andronovo Culture in Transoxiana]]). The rest of the mound lies under houses and gardens and has not been excavated.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Archaeological Map of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 252. Ming-Örük *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Ming-Örük** ("thousand apricots") is a village in Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), at its western end, on the alluvial fan where the Kenkol River leaves the [[Talas Alatau]] for the western Talas valley. Its population was 1,640 (2018 census).[1] It belonged to Kara-Buura District until the district reform of 2016. Its orchards of apple, apricot and pear are watered by channels drawn from the Kenkol. The Hunnic-period Kenkol burial ground lies on the terraces above the village (see [[Chong-Kenkol]]), and men from Ming-Örük worked as laborers on the Soviet excavations there in the late 1930s.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Archaeological Map of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 253. Eski-Korgon *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Eski-Korgon** ("old fort") is a village in the Kara-Buura District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), on the old road down the lower Talas valley toward the Kazakh border. Its population was 1,460 (2018 census).[1] The village grew up around a mudbrick fort (*korgon*) built by the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand]] in the 1830s to guard the road and collect duties from caravans. The fort was abandoned after the Russian advance of the 1860s, but stretches of its walls, up to four meters thick at the base, survive among the gardens.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Archaeological Map of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 254. Kanysh-Kiya *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kanysh-Kiya** is the largest village of the upper [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]] valley, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 2,870 (2022 estimate).[1] In the Soviet period it was the seat of a state farm and a village soviet, and it still has the valley's only secondary school, a small hospital and a weekly market. Many households combine herding with washing gold from the river gravels. Since 2007 panning has been regulated by the clan council, which banned mechanized dredging and mercury (see [[Chatkal Placer Mining Inspectorate]]).[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Mining and Metallurgy in the Talas Valley from Shelji to Sary-Bulak. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 255. Kyrk-Choro *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kyrk-Choro** ("forty companions") is a village at about 1,650 meters on the floor of a valley below the northern face of [[Manas Peak (Irad)|Manas Peak]], about 12 kilometers north of the peak at the western end of the [[Talas Alatau]], in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 640 (2022 estimate).[1] Its name recalls the forty companions of the hero Manas in the *[[wp:Epic of Manas]]*. Since 1995 the village has held a gathering of epic reciters (*manaschy*) each August, at which bards from the tribal regions perform episodes of the Manas cycle and of *[[The Epic of Janyl]]*.[2] Glaciologists of the [[Manas Peak Glaciological Observatory]] hire horses and porters in the village. ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 256. Tuzduu *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Tuzduu** ("salty") is a village on the edge of the [[Kulan-Talaa]] plain in western Irad, in the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 760 (2022 estimate).[1] Its wells are brackish, which gave the village its name. Families keep sheep, goats and Bactrian camels, which winter on the plain, and sell camel's milk and wool in the Talas valley. Until 1993 the village was a branch of a Soviet state farm that bred [[Karakul Sheep (Irad)|Karakul sheep]] for their pelts.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Karatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 257. Shaar-Döbö *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Shaar-Döbö** ("town mound") is a village in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), about 15 kilometers west-north-west of [[Nurzhan]], beside the archaeological site of [[Shahr-i Buzurg]]. Its population was 1,540 (2018 census).[1] Some older houses and garden walls in the village incorporate mudbrick taken from the medieval ramparts, a practice that ended when the site was placed under protection in 1979. Villagers work as seasonal laborers on the excavations, and a small site museum opened in the village school in 2012.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Archaeological Map of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 258. Kosh-Döbö *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kosh-Döbö** ("camp hill") is a seasonal settlement of herders' camps at about 2,460 meters below the [[Aksay Plateau]], on the track up to the plateau, in the [[Talas Alatau]] planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). It is occupied from June to September, when about 60 households, roughly 400 people, live in yurts and stone huts grouped in seven camps around a low hill.[1] The camps lie about 6 kilometers below the ground where the August Kurultai is held, and their families sell [[Kymyz (Iradi Beverage)|kymyz]] and mutton to visitors during the gathering. Most of them winter in the Kara-Suu and upper Talas valleys.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 259. Tegirmen *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Tegirmen** ("mill") is a village in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), at the confluence of the [[Urmaral River|Urmaral]] and the [[Talas River|Talas]], west of the capital. Its population was 1,210 (2018 census).[1] It is named after a water mill that ground grain at the confluence until the 1960s. Ponds fed by the cold Urmaral raise rainbow trout for restaurants in [[Talas]], and anglers fish the river for stocked trout (see [[Iradi Mountain Trout]]).[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University, Department of Zoology (2020). Fishes and Fisheries of the Naryn and Chatkal Basins. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 260. Kara-Jylga *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kara-Jylga** ("black gully") is a village at the head of a side valley north of the Toktogul Reservoir, in the Toktogul–Naryn planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 540 (2023 estimate).[1] It is reached by a 24-kilometer dirt track that snow and avalanches close for much of the period from December to March, when the village can be reached only on horseback. In February 2012 avalanches cut it off for five weeks, and flour and fuel were brought in by pack horse.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Settlements and Services in the Toktogul–Naryn Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (9 March 2012). 'Pack horses reach Kara-Jylga after five weeks cut off.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 261. Sarymsakty *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Sarymsakty** ("place of wild garlic") is a village in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), in the middle Talas valley east of [[Talas]]. Its population was 1,780 (2018 census).[1] Its smallholdings grow garlic and onions for the Talas markets and fodder beet and lucerne for the valley's dairy farms. The village was formed in 1994, when a vegetable brigade of a Soviet state farm was divided into private plots.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2021). Crop and Livestock Statistics of the Talas Valley, 2020. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 262. Kümüshtü *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kümüshtü** ("silvery") is a village in the eastern part of the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), in the upper Talas valley, and the nearest village to the archaeological site of [[Shelji]], about 8 kilometers to the east. Its population was 1,370 (2018 census).[1] The name recalls the medieval silver mines in the surrounding hills. Farms grow potatoes, barley and beans. Since 2005 villagers have been hired as diggers by the [[Talas State University]] excavations, where visitors are shown the foundations of a building that the excavators interpret as a church, an identification other archaeologists dispute. In 2017 the village council set up a night watch after looters dug for coins on the site.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (22 May 2017). 'Kümüshtü sets night watch at Shelji after looting.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 263. Ak-Kyya *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Ak-Kyya** ("white slope") is a summer settlement in the [[Suusamyr]] valley, in the Kyrgyz Range–Suusamyr planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). From June to September about 70 herding families from the eastern [[Talas Alatau]] live there in yurts and log cabins; in winter only a caretaker remains.[1] The families make [[Kymyz (Iradi Beverage)|kymyz]] and graze sheep, horses and yaks on the valley meadows. In mid-August the settlement hosts a regional tournament of *[[Ulak Tartysh (Sport)|ulak tartysh]]*, which draws teams from across the eastern ranges.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (19 August 2019). 'Upper-valley riders take the Suusamyr ulak cup.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 264. Tört-Kuduk *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Tört-Kuduk** ("four wells") is a village on the southern edge of the [[Betpak-Dala]], in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 690 (2021 estimate).[1] It was founded in 1964 as the base of a Soviet hydrogeological expedition that drilled boreholes for state-farm flocks on the steppe, and it takes its name from four older hand-dug wells. Most boreholes failed after 1991; since 2010 aid-funded solar pumps have brought eleven of them back into use, and the village is a supply point for herders on the spring and autumn pastures of [[Keng-Talaa]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Northern Steppe Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Wells and Winter Pastures of the Moiynkum and the Southern Betpak-Dala. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 265. Kum-Aryk *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kum-Aryk** ("sand canal") is a village in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), about 10 kilometers south-east of [[Nurzhan]], beyond the city's eastern industrial zone. Its population was 2,380 (2018 census).[1] Its smallholdings grow tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage and potatoes, much of it under plastic tunnels, for the Nurzhan markets, and many residents work for [[NurGaz]] or commute into the city. Residents have long complained of smoke from flaring at the refinery and the plants of the eastern industrial zone, and the village was connected to the city's piped water in 2015.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2020). Directory of Agricultural Producers of the Chu District. Nurzhan.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 266. Hauzdy *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Hauzdy** ("place of cisterns") is a hamlet in the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] foothills west of the Talas valley, in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), beside the ruined caravanserai of [[Rabat-i Kamal]]. Its population is about 310 (2022 estimate).[1] The hamlet is named after the vaulted brick cisterns of the caravanserai, which stored water for travelers on the dry stretch of the old road; families still draw water from a stone-lined well beside them. Its households graze sheep on the surrounding slopes and guide the occasional visitor to the ruin.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Karatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2009). Archaeological Map of the Karatau and the Kyzylkum Fringe. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 267. Kök-Oi *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kök-Oi** ("green hollow") is a village in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), at the mouth of the Besh-Tash valley about 20 kilometers south of [[Talas]]. Its population was 1,610 (2018 census).[1] The [[Besh-Tash Ranger Headquarters]] stands at the edge of the village, and several rangers and pack guides of [[Besh-Tash National Park]] live there. Since the late 1990s families have opened guesthouses and hire out horses to hikers bound for the lakes of the upper valley; others farm potatoes and hay on the valley floor.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 152–170.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 268. Bakyyan *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Bakyyan** is a village in the Kara-Buura District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), in the lower Talas valley about eight kilometers east of [[Kyzyl-Adyr]]. Its population was 1,850 (2018 census).[1] Several families keep training yards and a four-kilometer practice track for horses raced in *[[At Chabysh (Racing)|at chabysh]]* endurance races. Horses from the village have won the long-distance race at the Kyzyl-Adyr horse fair in September in most years since 2010, and some have been sold to buyers abroad through the [[Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate (2024). National Akyel Studbook: Annual Report 2023. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 269. Sabz-Kand *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Sabz-Kand** ("green town") is a village in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), in the foothills east of [[Talas]]. Its population was 980 (2018 census).[1] Its vineyards, mulberry trees and vegetable plots are watered by galleries of the [[Kok-Tash Kariz System]], which bring groundwater from the slopes above by gravity. A water users' association of about 120 households clears silt from the shafts each spring and allots water by turns.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2015). The Kok-Tash Karez: Survey and Hydrology. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 270. Tar-Say *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Tar-Say** ("narrow ravine") is a hamlet in the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] foothills of western Irad, at the mouth of one of the canyons of [[Kök-Moinok]], in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 280 (2022 estimate).[1] Its houses are built of the local red clay, and its families keep sheep and goats. In May 2016 a flash flood down the canyon destroyed four houses and drowned much of the hamlet's livestock.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Karatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (12 May 2016). 'Flash flood destroys houses in Karatau hamlet.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 271. Teke-Tash *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Teke-Tash** ("ibex rock") is a village at about 2,550 meters on the southern slopes of the [[Talas Alatau]], above the [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]] valley, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 470 (2022 estimate).[1] It stands at the upper limit of the [[Tian Shan Spruce|spruce]] forest, below cirques that hold small glaciers. Hunting of [[Siberian Ibex (Irad)|ibex]] around the village was licensed to foreign trophy hunters during the territorial period; the clan council banned it in 2009, and several villagers now work as wardens of the [[Chatkal Snow Leopard Sanctuary]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Chatkal Snow Leopard Sanctuary (2021). Annual Report of the Clan Wardens. Chatkal.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 272. Ozgörüsh *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Ozgörüsh** ("change") is a village on the lower [[Uzun-Akmat River]] just above where it enters the Toktogul Reservoir, about 18 kilometers west of [[Toktogul (town)|Toktogul]], in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 2,340 (2023 estimate).[1] Its people belong to the Kökjal clan of the Toktogul basin, but because the village lies west of the State Route 1 corridor, UN and aid-agency planning counts it in the Chatkal Highlands zone rather than the Toktogul–Naryn zone. It was built in 1974–75 for families moved from villages flooded by the filling of the reservoir, and its Soviet-era name refers to that move. Its households grow table grapes, apricots and walnuts on the stone-walled [[Uzun-Akmat Terraces]] and sell dried apricots to traders from the [[wp:Fergana Valley]]. Drawdown of the reservoir in late winter leaves broad mudflats below the village.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Settlements and Services in the Toktogul–Naryn Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Joint Technical Commission of the Naryn Water and Power Protocol (2022). Annual Report on the Operation of the Toktogul Reservoir. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 273. Sopol-Tepa *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Sopol-Tepa** ("pottery hill") is an Uzbek-speaking village on the northern rim of the [[wp:Fergana Valley]], near [[Bazar-Korgon]], in the farm belt of the Lower Naryn District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), which it joined with Bazar-Korgon in 2007. Its population was 1,980 (2018 census).[1] About thirty family workshops make wheel-thrown bowls, dishes and jugs with green and blue alkaline glazes, fired in wood-burning kilns, and sell them in the Bazar-Korgon bazaar. Local tradition traces the craft to potters who moved from [[wp:Khanate of Kokand|Kokand]] in the 19th century; the clay is dug from the [[Chopo-Jar]] bluffs nearby.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2013). Village Crafts of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 274. Otmek *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Otmek** is a weather station and hamlet below the Otmek Pass (3,330 m), on the old road from the Talas valley into the [[Suusamyr]] valley, now State Route 1, which since 2003 has passed some 150 meters beneath the pass in the Otmek Tunnel, about 5 kilometers long; the old road over the pass is kept open in summer as a bypass. Since 2009 it has been in the State Route 1 corridor of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), at the edge of the Kyrgyz Range–Suusamyr planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Three families, about twenty people, live there year-round.[1] The station was opened in 1956 to record snow depth and avalanche danger on the pass road, and observers also keep a telephone relay. Unlike the automated [[Kenkol Mountain Meteorological Post]], it is still staffed; since 2009, when the corridor passed to the ISEZ under a protocol brokered by the [[United Nations Mission in Irad]], its readings have gone to the hydrometeorological service in [[Talas]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2010). Arrangements for the Exchange of Hydrometeorological Data across the Qara-Chik Line. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 275. Sary-Döbö *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Sary-Döbö** ("yellow mound") is a village in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), around the ruined fort of [[Diz-i Zard]] in the lower Chu valley. Its population was 1,160 (2018 census).[1] The village was founded in 1891 by Russian peasant settlers beside the mound, which [[wp:Khanate of Kokand|Kokand]] had fortified in the 1820s, and was known as Zheltaya Mogila until it was given its present name, a translation of the old one, in 1993.[2] Its farms grow wheat, sugar beet and fodder for the plants around [[Nurzhan]]. ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Toponymic Commission of the Territory of Irad (1996). Register of Place Names Restored under the Toponymic Heritage Statute, 1993–1996. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 276. Sasyk-Bulak *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Sasyk-Bulak** ("foul spring") is a village at the foot of the [[Karakyr Range]] on the western edge of Irad, in the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 590 (2022 estimate).[1] It is named after a sulfurous spring below the limestone bluffs, whose water the herders' animals drink but people avoid. Its families keep winter camps for sheep on the plains below. Ornithologists from [[Talas State University]] use the village as the base for their autumn counts of raptors migrating along the ridge.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Karatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University, Department of Zoology (2017). Birds of the Talas Valley and Adjacent Ranges. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 277. Bel-Aldy *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Bel-Aldy** ("below the pass") is a hamlet in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), at the foot of the bridle paths that cross the Chatkal range to the northern [[wp:Fergana Valley]]. Its population is about 230 (2022 estimate).[1] Pack-horse guides from the hamlet take traders and herders over the passes between July and September, and families keep fresh horses that travelers can hire in exchange for their tired mounts, a practice dating from the courier stations of the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand|Kokand]] period.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 278. Temirchi *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Temirchi** ("blacksmith") is a village in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), about 15 kilometers north of [[Nurzhan]]. Its population was 1,040 (2018 census).[1] A Soviet machine-and-tractor repair station employed many of its men from 1950 to 1993, and a dozen family forges still make horseshoes, stirrups, knives and hand tools sold in the Nurzhan bazaars. Iradi ethnographers have recorded smithing families who trace their trade back to the 19th century.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2013). Village Crafts of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 279. Chet-Bulak *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Chet-Bulak** ("edge spring") is a village in the Kara-Buura District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), on the northern side of the lower Talas valley. Its population was 930 (2018 census).[1] It was founded in 1908 by Russian peasant settlers, who lined its single long street with poplars and built a small Orthodox church, now a Syro-Iradi parish. Most of the settlers' descendants left after 1992, and the village took its present name in 1994 under the Toponymic Heritage Statute.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Toponymic Commission of the Territory of Irad (1996). Register of Place Names Restored under the Toponymic Heritage Statute, 1993–1996. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 280. Kaiyrma *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kaiyrma** ("river bend") is a village on the lower Chu below the irrigated zone, in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 430 (2021 estimate).[1] Villagers cut reeds for roofing, mats and fodder and fish the river and its oxbow lakes for carp and snakehead. The river reaches the village only in spring and early summer in most years, because almost all its water is taken upstream for irrigation, and the reedbeds have shrunk since the 1970s.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Northern Steppe Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Central Asian Botanical Review (2017). 'Tugay Woodland and Reedbeds of the Lower Chu.' Vol. 15, pp. 33–51.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 281. Tash-Kuduk *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Tash-Kuduk** ("stone well") is a hamlet in the southern Moiynkum sands, in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 160 (2021 estimate).[1] It grew up around a well about 40 meters deep, lined with dressed stone, which local tradition dates to the 15th century and which still waters herds on the old track across the sands. Since 2014 a solar pump has supplemented the hand windlass.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Northern Steppe Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Wells and Winter Pastures of the Moiynkum and the Southern Betpak-Dala. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 282. Toguz-Bulak *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Toguz-Bulak** ("nine springs") is a village at the foot of the southern approach to the [[Kök-Bel Pass]] on the road between the Talas valley and the Chu lowlands, in the Kyrgyz Range–[[Suusamyr]] planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). It was in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] until 2009, when the high Kyrgyz Range east of the road passed to the tribal side under the protocol on the Toktogul basin and the State Route 1 corridor. Its population is about 720 (2022 estimate).[1] Roadside cafés and repair shops serve buses and trucks using the pass, and the road service keeps a snowplough depot in the village. It lies at about 1,980 meters, about 50 kilometers from [[Talas]] by road and some 15 kilometers below the pass, on the tribal stretch of the road between two crossing points of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], both named after it: one just below the village and one on the northern side of the pass, where Gendarmerie and El-Choro posts check travelers. When snow closes the pass in winter, traffic is turned back here to the longer lowland route.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (3 February 2020). 'Kök-Bel road reopens after four-day closure.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 284. Jyluu-Bulak *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Jyluu-Bulak** ("warm spring") is a village in the Lower Naryn District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), in a side valley of the Naryn above [[Tash-Kömür]]. Its population was 860 (2018 census).[1] Sulfurous water emerges from fractures along a fault at about 42 °C. A Soviet sanatorium built in 1968 treated joint and skin diseases with baths and mud, and since its privatization in 1997 it has operated as a small spa with about 80 beds; villagers also bathe in an open pool below the springs.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Ministry of Health of the Iradi SSR, Resorts Directorate (1971). Mineral Waters and Resorts of the Iradi SSR. Kobozev.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 285. Boz-Adyr *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Boz-Adyr** ("grey foothills") is a village in the loess foothills (*adyr*) of the northern [[wp:Fergana Valley]], west of the Naryn, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 1,270 (2021 estimate).[1] The village lies above the reach of the canals, and its farmers grow rain-fed wheat and sunflowers on the terraced slopes, harvesting in late June. In dry springs yields fall sharply, and many young men work seasonally in [[wp:Kazakhstan]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Fergana Rim Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2021). Crop and Livestock Statistics of the Talas Valley, 2020. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 286. Jangy-Jol *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Jangy-Jol** ("new road") is a village in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), on the southern side of the Talas valley west of the capital. Its population was 1,960 (2018 census).[1] It was laid out in 1995, during the territorial period, to resettle families displaced in the [[First Iradi Civil War]], on a grid of streets with detached houses and orchard plots of about a quarter-hectare each. A US-funded program paid for the road, water mains and the school; the village name comes from the road built to reach it.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Office of the High Commissioner for Irad (1998). Resettlement of Displaced Families in the Talas Valley, 1993–1997: Final Report. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 287. Teskey-Jar *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Teskey-Jar** ("shaded cliff") is a village in the eastern part of the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), on a loess terrace above the gorge of the upper [[Talas River|Talas]]. Its population was 820 (2018 census).[1] Its houses stand along the edge of a cliff about 40 meters high. In April 2004 part of the terrace edge collapsed after heavy rain, and thirty families were moved to new plots farther from the gorge.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (14 April 2004). 'Thirty families moved as cliff gives way above the Talas.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 289. Köpürö-Bazar *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Köpürö-Bazar** ("bridge market") is a village in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), at a road bridge over the [[Talas River|Talas]] about 10 kilometers west of the capital, beside [[Semiz]]; Soviet maps call it Keng-Aral. Its population was 2,090 (2018 census).[1] After the autumn return of the flocks from the mountains, dealers hold auctions of wool, sheepskins and cattle hides at a warehouse yard in the village, buying for the [[Iradi Leatherworks Factory]] and for export to China. Live animals are traded at the [[Talas Central Cattle Mart]], about 3.5 kilometers to the east.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2021). Crop and Livestock Statistics of the Talas Valley, 2020. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 290. Kyrk-Bulak *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kyrk-Bulak** ("forty springs") is a village in the limestone foothills of the western [[Talas Alatau]], south of the Kara-Buura District, in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 870 (2022 estimate).[1] Dozens of cold springs rise along a fault at the foot of the limestone, giving the village its name and watering its hay meadows and potato fields. Its families breed [[Chongtor Horse|Chongtor]] horses, which they take up to the high pastures in summer.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 292. Ak-Jal *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Ak-Jal** ("white mane") is a village on the southern edge of the [[Betpak-Dala]] steppe, in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 830 (2021 estimate).[1] Its families keep large herds of horses that graze on the open steppe all year, pawing through thin snow for grass in winter. Riders and horses from the village regularly enter the autumn *[[At Chabysh (Racing)|at chabysh]]* race on the nearby [[Keng-Talaa]] grassland.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Northern Steppe Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Akyel Equine Logistics & Breeding Syndicate (2024). National Akyel Studbook: Annual Report 2023. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 293. Bitik-Tash *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Bitik-Tash** ("written stone") is a village in the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] foothills, in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 360 (2022 estimate).[1] A boulder-choked ravine above the village contains several rock shelters and more than 400 petroglyphs, most of them ibex, camels, horses and archers, which archaeologists date mainly to the [[wp:Bronze Age]] and the [[wp:Saka]] period. Flint tools of [[wp:Lower Paleolithic]] type have been collected from the terraces below the ravine since the 1970s. The site has no formal protection and is watched over by the village elders.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Karatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2009). Archaeological Map of the Karatau and the Kyzylkum Fringe. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 294. Bulak-Bashy *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Bulak-Bashy** ("head of the spring") is a village in the Lower Naryn District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), on the Naryn about 10 kilometers above [[Iyık Janyl]]. Its population was 1,430 (2018 census).[1] It was founded in 1965 as a camp for the builders of the downstream dams of the Naryn cascade, and many residents still work for the hydropower stations and the switchyard. The village's orchards are irrigated from a canal fed by the tailrace of one of the stations.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Joint Technical Commission of the Naryn Water and Power Protocol (2022). Annual Report on the Operation of the Toktogul Reservoir. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 295. Jashyl-Köl *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Jashyl-Köl** ("green lake") is a seasonal settlement at about 1,530 meters in the valley below a moraine-dammed lake of the same name, which lies at about 2,600 meters on the southern slopes of the Chatkal range, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). About 25 herding families live there in yurts from late June to early September.[1] The lake's green color comes from fine rock flour carried in by meltwater. The families graze sheep and yaks on the meadows up to the lake and sell dairy products to trekkers on the route to [[Sary-Chelek Biosphere Reserve|Sary-Chelek]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 296. Shagyldy *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Shagyldy** ("gravelly") is a village in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), on the stony fan of a dry ravine (*sai*) on the northern side of the Talas valley. Its population was 760 (2018 census).[1] Quarries in the ravine bed supply gravel and sand to building sites in [[Talas]], and trucks loaded at the pits are the village's main traffic. Small amounts of gold were once washed from the gravels, but the workings were abandoned in the 1950s.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2021). Crop and Livestock Statistics of the Talas Valley, 2020. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 297. Archaly *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Archaly** ("with junipers") is a village in a forested side valley of the [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]], in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 655 (2022 estimate).[1] The slopes above it carry [[Tian Shan Spruce|spruce]] and [[Mountain Juniper (Arsha)|juniper]] woods. A Soviet forestry station logged them until 1991; since 2008 the clan council has limited cutting to firewood quotas for each household. Villagers gather wild raspberries, rose hips and mushrooms in late summer and sell them to traders from the [[wp:Fergana Valley]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2019). Walnut-Fruit Forests of the Western Tian Shan: Status and Management. Rome.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 298. Kapka-Tash *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kapka-Tash** ("gate rock") is a village in the Lower Naryn District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), below [[Tash-Kömür]] on the road toward the border with [[wp:Uzbekistan]], at the mouth of a short gorge cut by a side stream of the Naryn. Its population was 1,180 (2018 census).[1] Two rock pillars on either side of the gorge mouth give the village its name. Many residents trade or work seasonally on the Uzbek side of the border.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2020). 'Living on the Line: Border Trade in the Lower Naryn.' Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 101–119.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 299. Ak-Chiy *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Ak-Chiy** ("white needlegrass") is a village in the southern Moiynkum sands, about 105 kilometers west of [[Nurzhan]], in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 520 (2021 estimate).[1] It takes its name from the tall needlegrass (*chiy*, *Achnatherum splendens*) that covers the salt flats around it, which families use as winter grazing for sheep. Women in the village weave the stems into patterned *chiy* screens, which are used as yurt walls and sold to craft shops in [[Nurzhan]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Northern Steppe Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2013). Village Crafts of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 300. Kalba *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kalba** is a village in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), on the road from [[Talas]] to Kara-Oi and the headquarters of the [[United Nations Mission in Irad]]. Its population was 1,290 (2018 census).[1] Cattle and sheep that tribal herders bring down across the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] by the stock route above Kara-Oi, on dates set by the Joint Liaison Committee, are held in pens beside the road, inspected by veterinary officers and loaded onto trucks for the [[Talas Central Cattle Mart]] and the feedlots west of the city. The yards handle the largest numbers in October and November.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2021). Crop and Livestock Statistics of the Talas Valley, 2020. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 301. Kök-Döbö *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kök-Döbö** ("blue hill") is a village in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), on a low hill on the southern side of the Chu lowlands, south-east of [[Nurzhan]]. Its population was 1,110 (2018 census).[1] From the hilltop above the village there is a view over the irrigated plain toward the Moiynkum. Since 2008 the summit has carried a weather radar of the ISEZ hydrometeorological service, which tracks hailstorms over the farmland of the Chu lowlands.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (6 October 2008). 'Hail radar installed above the Chu farmland.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 302. Kamyshtuu *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kamyshtuu** ("reedy") is a hamlet on the lower Chu about 55 kilometers north-north-west of [[Nurzhan]], beyond the northern edge of the irrigated lowlands, beside marshes fed by drainage water from the fields, in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 240 (2021 estimate).[1] The marshes formed in the 1960s, when collector drains from the [[Chu Irrigation Canal System]] began to empty into hollows at the edge of the sands. Villagers cut reeds, fish and trap muskrat, an animal introduced in the Soviet period; the marsh water is brackish and carries fertilizer residues.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Northern Steppe Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Chu Valley Irrigation Inspectorate (2016). The Chu Irrigation Canal System: Inventory of Canals and Structures. Nurzhan.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 303. Uuk-Bulak *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Uuk-Bulak** ("roof-pole spring") is a village in the Sary-Bulak District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), in the foothills south-west of [[Talas]] along the Chatkal road; it was part of Talas District until 2016. Its population was 840 (2018 census).[1] About fifteen families make yurt frames. They steam and bend willow poles into the curved roof poles (*[[Uuk (Yurt Part)|uuk]]*), make the lattice walls (*[[Kerege (Yurt Part)|kerege]]*) and carve the crowns (*[[Tündük (Yurt Part)|tündük]]*), using techniques recorded by ethnographers in the village since the 1960s. Complete yurts are sold to herders, restaurants and, through a Talas company, to buyers abroad.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2013). Village Crafts of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 304. Besh-Köl *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Besh-Köl** ("five lakes") is a summer camp of herders at about 2,860 meters in the upper Chatkal range, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), below a chain of five small glacial lakes linked by short streams. It is occupied by eight to ten families from early July to late August.[1] The lakes are fed by the [[Besh-Köl Glaciers]] above them and drain to a tributary of the [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]]. A cairn on the moraine marks the boundary between the pastures of two clans.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 305. Altyn-Bulak *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Altyn-Bulak** ("golden spring") is a village in the Lower Naryn District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), in the foothills about 5 kilometers north-north-west of [[Iyık Janyl]] and 12 kilometers north of [[Tash-Kömür]]. Its population was 940 (2018 census).[1] Naturally carbonated, iron-rich water rises from springs at the edge of the village. A bottling plant built in 1978 was privatized in 1996 and sells mineral water under the Altyn-Bulak brand across the ISEZ; it employs about 70 people. The iron in the water stains the spring basins yellow, which gave the village its name.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Ministry of Health of the Iradi SSR, Resorts Directorate (1971). Mineral Waters and Resorts of the Iradi SSR. Kobozev.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 306. Zhalgyz-Terek *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Zhalgyz-Terek** ("lone poplar") is a hamlet in the Moiynkum sands, in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 340 (2021 estimate).[1] It began as a single herder's homestead beside a spring shaded by a large poplar, which travelers on the track across the sands used as a resting place, and grew into a village when a Soviet sheep farm built a winter camp there in the 1950s. The old poplar died in 1997; a younger tree planted beside the spring now gives the hamlet its shade.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Northern Steppe Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Wells and Winter Pastures of the Moiynkum and the Southern Betpak-Dala. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 307. Tash-Köröö *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Tash-Köröö** ("stone pen") is a village in a side valley above the Toktogul Reservoir, in the Toktogul–Naryn planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 410 (2023 estimate).[1] Its houses and walls are built of river cobbles laid without mortar, and its families keep goats and sheep on the steep slopes. The village is named after a box canyon above it whose walls shelter the flocks during blizzards; herders close its mouth with a stone wall to use it as a natural pen.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Settlements and Services in the Toktogul–Naryn Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 308. Kara-Kungey *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kara-Kungey** ("dark sunny slope") is a village on the south-facing side of a valley in the northern [[Talas Alatau]], in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 610 (2022 estimate).[1] As its name suggests, the houses and apple orchards face the sun (*kungöy*), while snow lies on the shaded opposite slope (*teskey*) into early summer. Its families grow apples and potatoes and keep cattle and sheep.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 310. Kara-Say *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kara-Say** ("black ravine") is a village at about 1,900 meters in the foothills of the [[wp:Fergana Range]] above the eastern end of the Toktogul basin, south of the Naryn about 30 kilometers east-south-east of [[Toktogul (town)|Toktogul]], in the Toktogul District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), close to the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]. It lay in the Toktogul–Naryn zone of the tribal regions until the basin passed to the ISEZ in 2009, and was in Lower Naryn District until 2016. Its population was 960 (2018 census).[1] The growing season is short, and its farmers sow frost-hardy barley and fodder clover on terraced fields, storing hay for the cattle and sheep that winter in the village. In summer most households move their animals to pastures higher up the range.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 311. Örüktü *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Örüktü** ("with apricots") is a village on the northern rim of the [[wp:Fergana Valley]], in the Fergana Rim planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 1,510 (2021 estimate).[1] Its terraced apricot orchards are watered by stone-lined channels led from a mountain stream. In July the fruit is split and dried on the flat roofs of the houses and sold to traders from [[wp:Uzbekistan]] and the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Fergana Rim Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2021). Crop and Livestock Statistics of the Talas Valley, 2020. Talas.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 313. Kök-Say *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kök-Say** ("blue ravine") is a village in a limestone gorge of the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]], in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 450 (2022 estimate).[1] The village lies in the shade of the gorge walls, beside a stream whose water looks blue over the pale limestone, and it is reached by a single dirt road. Its families winter sheep and goats in stone pens along the gorge and take them onto the [[Kyzylkum Fringe]] in spring.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Karatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2009). Archaeological Map of the Karatau and the Kyzylkum Fringe. Talas.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 314. Aral *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Aral** ("island") is a village in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), on a strip of land between two channels of the Chu west of [[Nurzhan]]. Its population was 1,060 (2018 census).[1] Groves of willow and poplar line the channels. Its families keep bees and dairy cattle, and several breed and train riding horses for buyers in Nurzhan.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2020). Directory of Agricultural Producers of the Chu District. Nurzhan.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 315. Kosh-Bel *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kosh-Bel** ("camp saddle") is a hamlet at about 2,400 meters on the migration route from the Toktogul basin to the summer pastures of the [[wp:Fergana Range]], in the Toktogul–Naryn planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). About 150 people live there year-round.[1] In late May and in September the herds of the lower villages pass through, and the hamlet's families sell hay, flour and fuel to herders and keep a veterinary post where animals are vaccinated before moving on.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Settlements and Services in the Toktogul–Naryn Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 316. Uch-Emchek *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Uch-Emchek** ("three breasts") is a village in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), about 7 kilometers west-south-west of [[Nurzhan]], named after three rounded hillocks beside it. Its population was 1,390 (2018 census).[1] Its farms grow sugar beet for the factory of the [[Chui Sugar Refining Corporation]] at [[Besh-Terek]] and winter wheat, watered by a branch of the [[Chu Irrigation Canal System]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2020). Directory of Agricultural Producers of the Chu District. Nurzhan.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 318. Kyzyl-Döbö *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Kyzyl-Döbö** ("red hill") is a village at the foot of red sandstone cliffs in the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] foothills, in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 720 (2022 estimate).[1] Several families work as saddlers and leatherworkers, making saddles, harness and whips (*kamcha*) from local hides, and women make felt saddle blankets. Their goods are sold at the [[Bazar-Terek]] market and to riders from the Talas valley.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Karatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2013). Village Crafts of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 320. Muz-Tör *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Muz-Tör** ("ice pasture") is a hamlet below the glaciated crest of the Chatkal range, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 90 (2022 estimate).[1] It grew up beside a Soviet mountaineering camp opened in 1972, whose huts were abandoned in 1992 and partly reopened by local guides in 2015. Men from the hamlet work as guides, porters and horsemen for climbers and hunters and cut firewood in the juniper woods below.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (28 July 2015). 'Climbers return to the Chatkal as old alpine camp reopens.' Talas.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 321. Ak-Jar *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Ak-Jar** ("white cliff") is a village near the Kazakh border on the semi-desert western edge of Irad, in the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 910 (2022 estimate).[1] It stands below a pale limestone escarpment that shelters it from the dust storms blowing off the [[Kyzylkum Fringe]]. Its families breed [[Karakul Sheep (Irad)|Karakul sheep]], whose lamb pelts were the business of the Soviet state farm based in the village until 1994.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Karatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 322. Jele-Döbö *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Jele-Döbö** ("tether hill") is a village on the northern shore of the Toktogul Reservoir, in the Toktogul District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It lay on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] until the floor of the Toktogul basin passed to the ISEZ in 2009, and was in Lower Naryn District until 2016. Its population was 1,520 (2018 census).[1] Its name refers to the line (*jele*) to which foals are tethered during milking. Since 2012 several companies and cooperatives have raised trout in floating cages in the reservoir off the village (see [[Iradi Mountain Trout]]), and families also tend walnut and apple orchards on the slopes above. Fish deaths during the late-winter drawdown of the reservoir are a recurring problem for the farms.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University, Department of Zoology (2020). Fishes and Fisheries of the Naryn and Chatkal Basins. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 323. Jangak-Bulak *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Jangak-Bulak** ("walnut spring") is a village on the southern slopes of the [[wp:Fergana Range]], in the Fergana Rim planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR), west of [[Arslanbob]]. Its population is about 1,180 (2021 estimate).[1] The village lies inside the walnut-fruit forest. A grove of very old walnut trees beside a spring about 2 kilometers below the village is visited both by Muslim villagers, who tie rags to the branches, and by Syro-Iradi Christians, whose tradition links the grove to a medieval hermit; there is no historical evidence for the hermit.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Fergana Rim Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2019). Walnut-Fruit Forests of the Western Tian Shan: Status and Management. Rome.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 325. Korgoncho *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Korgoncho** ("little fort") is an Uzbek-speaking village on the northern rim of the [[wp:Fergana Valley]], east of [[Tash-Kömür]], in the farm belt of the Lower Naryn District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), which it joined with [[Bazar-Korgon]] in 2007. Its population was 1,340 (2018 census).[1] The old part of the village consists of mudbrick farmsteads enclosed by high walls with corner towers, built in the 19th century as protection against raiders in the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand|Kokand]] period. Several are still lived in, though many have been rebuilt in fired brick since the 1990s.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Archaeological Map of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 326. Töö-Kuduk *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Töö-Kuduk** ("camel well") is a hamlet at a well in the western Moiynkum sands, in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). Its population is about 120 (2021 estimate).[1] Its families keep Bactrian camels and sheep, which they water at a hand-dug well about 25 meters deep. The camels are used for wool and milk and, until the 2000s, for carrying winter camps across the sands.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Northern Steppe Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Wells and Winter Pastures of the Moiynkum and the Southern Betpak-Dala. Talas.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 328. Dary-Bulak *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Dary-Bulak** ("medicine spring") is a summer encampment on the high pastures of the [[wp:Fergana Range]], in the Toktogul–Naryn planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] (ATR). From late June to August about 30 families camp in yurts around a group of seven springs, some cold and some warm.[1] The warm bicarbonate springs reach about 38 °C and are channeled into stone-lined pools, where herders and visitors bathe for rheumatism. Soviet surveys in the 1960s recommended a sanatorium there, but none was built.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Settlements and Services in the Toktogul–Naryn Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Ministry of Health of the Iradi SSR, Resorts Directorate (1971). Mineral Waters and Resorts of the Iradi SSR. Kobozev.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 329. Almaluu *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Almaluu** ("with apples") is a village in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), in the southern foothills of the Talas valley east of the capital. Its population was 1,240 (2018 census).[1] Its apple orchards were planted in the 1960s by a collective farm. A women's cooperative founded in 2006 makes pressed felt rugs (*ala-kiyiz*) and sells them in [[Talas]] and through online shops.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2013). Village Crafts of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 331. Tunuk-Bulak *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Tunuk-Bulak** ("clear spring") is a village in the Sary-Bulak District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), in the limestone foothills of the [[Talas Alatau]] about 23 kilometers south-south-west of [[Talas]], about 3 kilometers south-east of the antimony works of [[Sary-Bulak]]. Its population was 1,020 (2018 census).[1] Its fields of potatoes, barley and hay are watered by karst springs that emerge along faults in the limestone, fed by water that sinks into the rock higher up. The springs also supply a fish pond and the village's drinking water. It lies in the same limestone belt between the spring of [[Maryam-Bulak]], about 5 kilometers to the west-north-west, and the [[Kyrk-Kazyk Caves]], about 3 kilometers to the east-north-east.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Speleological Group (2019). 'Karst and Caves of the Sary-Bulak Foothills.' Iradi Geographical Journal, Vol. 31, pp. 44–61.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} #### 510. Aulie-Ata *Quality: Stub | Category: Cities & Settlements* **Aulie-Ata** (Russian: *Аулие-Ата*) is a town in the Kara-Buura District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), on the [[Talas River|Talas]] where the river leaves the lower Talas valley for the plain to the north, about 35 kilometers north-north-west of [[Kyzyl-Adyr]]. Its population was about 14,000 (2018 census).[1] The town grew up around the mausoleum of a Kara-Khanid ruler venerated by local Muslims as *Aulie-Ata* ("holy father"). Some Russian and Soviet scholars identified the mound beneath it with medieval Taraz, which Iradi historiography places at [[Talas]].[2] The [[wp:Khanate of Kokand|Kokand]] khanate built a fortress there in the 1850s; Russian troops took it in 1864, and the town became the seat of an *uezd* (district) of the Syr-Darya Oblast that included the Talas valley. Aulie-Ata kept its name through the Soviet period, when it grew into the main industrial town of the lower Talas, with a superphosphate works supplied with phosphorite from the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]], a sugar refinery and districts of five-story housing; it had about 130,000 inhabitants in 1989. Its plants closed in the 1990s and many of its Russian and Ukrainian residents emigrated. During the [[Second Iradi Civil War]] in 2007 there was fighting for the railway junction south-east of the town, and most of the remaining population left; the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] then left the [[Karatau Phosphorite Quarries|Karatau mines]] on the tribal side. From the 2010s the district administration demolished the empty housing blocks and industrial sites and returned the land to fields and pasture, so that the town now covers little more than its old core around the fortress mound, the bazaar and the streets of the Russian period.[3] Aulie-Ata is the market town for the northern part of the district and holds a weekly livestock market. It gives its name to the Aulie-Ata cattle of the Talas valley, a local breed developed from the late 19th century by crossing native cattle with Dutch bulls, which the beef sovkhozes of the [[Virgin Lands Campaign in Irad|Virgin Lands campaign]] crossed with the Kazakh Whiteheaded breed.[3] The lowland junction of the Irad Temir Jolu railway (see [[Transport in Irad]]), where the Chu line, the [[Kara-Buura]] line and the Talas branch meet, lies about 3 kilometers south-east of the town, and the Talas–[[Nurzhan]] road passes its eastern edge. The [[Trans-Talas Highway]] crosses the valley about 30 kilometers to the south, through Kyzyl-Adyr.[1] The town's Soviet airport, about 8 kilometers to the south-west, closed in 1994; its runway is used for drying grain and as a diversion field for [[Talas Air Base]] (see [[Aulie-Ata Airfield]]). ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Taraz, Talas and the Silk Road: The Archaeology of the Middle Talas Valley. Talas.
  3. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2021). District Profiles: Talas and Kara-Buura. Talas.
{{Irad-settlement-stub}} ### 6.Category: Physical Geography (64 articles) #### 339. Kök-Suu Peak *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Kök-Suu Peak** (Iradi: *Kök-Suu chokusu*) is a mountain of 3,890 meters (12,762 ft) on the main ridge of the southern [[Talas Alatau]], between the head of the Kara-Buura valley and the Chatkal basin, in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]].[1] The summit is formed of Late Paleozoic granite intruded into older metamorphic rocks, and its ridges are broken into towers and scree. Small cirque glaciers on its southern flank feed the Kök-Suu, a tributary of the [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]], after which the peak is named.[2] It is climbed occasionally from the Kara-Buura Pass. ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Department of Geodesy and Cartography (2011). Gazetteer of Geographical Names of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ Academy of Sciences of the Iradi SSR, Institute of Geology (1978). Geology of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Kobozev.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 340. Chakmak-Say *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Chakmak-Say** ("flint ravine") is a seasonal torrent on the western slopes of the Chatkal range near the border with [[wp:Uzbekistan]], in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It is about 18 kilometers long and flows only from April to June, when the snowfields above it melt; for the rest of the year its bed is dry gravel.[1] It joins the [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]] below the main gorges. Its name comes from the flint nodules in its limestone gravels, which herders once collected for strike-a-lights.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ ISEZ Department of Geodesy and Cartography (2011). Gazetteer of Geographical Names of Irad. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 341. Kumdy-Bulak *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Kumdy-Bulak** ("sandy spring") is a perennial spring on the southern edge of the Moiynkum sands, in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Water rises from beneath the foot of the dunes at about two liters per second and is led into a fenced trough of concrete.[1] It is the only perennial water within a day's walk, and in winter several thousand sheep and the camels and horses of neighboring camps are watered there; clan elders set a rota for its use in dry years.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Wells and Winter Pastures of the Moiynkum and the Southern Betpak-Dala. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Northern Steppe Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 342. Bürküt-Uya *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Bürküt-Uya** ("eagle's nest") is a steep-sided limestone ravine on the northern slopes of the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]], in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Its walls rise up to about 300 meters above a dry stream bed.[1] Two pairs of [[Lammergeier (Bearded Vulture)|lammergeiers]] have nested on its ledges since monitoring by [[Talas State University]] began in 1986, together with golden eagles and Himalayan griffons. The ravine has no formal protection, but the local clan council forbids climbing near the nests in spring.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Department of Zoology (2017). Birds of the Talas Valley and Adjacent Ranges. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Karatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 343. Kyzyl-Bel Pass *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kyzyl-Bel Pass** ("red saddle") is a minor pass of 2,450 meters over a spur of the Chatkal range above the upper [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]] valley, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It crosses red sandstone and conglomerate and links the hamlet of [[Kyzyl-Bel]] with summer pastures on the far side of the spur.[1] The track is usable by horses and flocks from May to October, and shepherds drive several thousand sheep over it each June.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Department of Geodesy and Cartography (2011). Gazetteer of Geographical Names of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 344. Kalmak-Kuduk *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* **Kalmak-Kuduk** ("Kalmyk well") is a borehole and watering point on the southern [[Betpak-Dala]], in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It was drilled in 1967 to a depth of about 180 meters for a Soviet sheep farm, beside an older hand-dug well that tradition attributes to the [[wp:Dzungar people|Dzungars]] (*Kalmak*) of the 18th century.[1] Its pump failed in 1993, and the surrounding winter pastures were little used until 2011, when an aid-funded solar pump restored the supply. It now waters about 4,000 sheep each winter.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Wells and Winter Pastures of the Moiynkum and the Southern Betpak-Dala. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Northern Steppe Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 345. Ichke-Suu Gorge *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Ichke-Suu Gorge** ("narrow water") is a gorge about nine kilometers long on the northern slopes of the western [[Talas Alatau]], cut through sandstone and shale by a small tributary of the [[Talas River|Talas]]. Its lower end is in the Kara-Buura District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], and its upper part lies on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]].[1] The floor carries dense thickets of [[Wild Sea Buckthorn|sea buckthorn]], willow and birch, regarded by botanists as a relict of moister conditions, and villagers from the valley gather the berries in October.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ Central Asian Botanical Review (2020). 'Riparian Thickets of the Northern Talas Alatau.' Vol. 18, pp. 102–119.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 346. Boz-Suu *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Boz-Suu** ("grey water") is a river about 48 kilometers long that rises on the northern slopes of the western Kyrgyz Range and flows north into the Chu lowlands in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. It is fed by snowmelt, with high water in May and June, and its grey color comes from silt eroded from shale in its upper valley.[1] A diversion weir built in 1958 takes most of its water into the [[Chu Irrigation Canal System]], and in summer the riverbed below the weir is usually dry before it reaches the Chu.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Chu Valley Irrigation Inspectorate (2016). The Chu Irrigation Canal System: Inventory of Canals and Structures. Nurzhan.
  2. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 347. Tegerek-Köl *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Tegerek-Köl** ("round lake") is a cirque lake at about 3,150 meters in the northern [[Talas Alatau]], in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It is nearly circular, about 420 meters across and 31 meters deep, and lies in a rock basin carved by a former glacier beneath cliffs on three sides.[1] The lake is frozen from November to June. Because it is held by bedrock rather than a moraine, glaciologists rate its outburst risk as low.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas River Hydrological Monitoring Service (2019). Glacier and Snow Inventory of the Talas Basin, 2014–2018. Talas.
  2. ^ Manas Peak Glaciological Observatory (2020). Moraine-Dammed Lakes of the Northern Talas Alatau: Hazard Assessment. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 348. Tuura-Say *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Tuura-Say** ("straight ravine") is a dry wash on the northern rim of the [[wp:Fergana Valley]], west of the [[Naryn River|Naryn]], in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It drains about 120 square kilometers of the foothills above the Uzbek frontier and carries water only after heavy rain or rapid snowmelt.[1] Spring thunderstorms then send mudflows (*sel*) of water, gravel and boulders down its broad gravel bed. A mudflow in May 2005 buried orchards and damaged about forty houses in hill villages along its lower course, and gabion check dams were built across the wash with aid funds in 2014.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (9 May 2005). 'Mudflow buries orchards on the Fergana rim.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 350. Uch-Terek Rapids *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Uch-Terek Rapids** are a series of rapids on the Naryn above the head of the Toktogul Reservoir, in the Toktogul District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], which took in the floor of the Toktogul basin in 2009; the gorges upstream lie in the Toktogul–Naryn planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Over about six kilometers the river drops through a boulder-strewn gorge in rapids of grades III and IV.[1] Outfitters from [[Talas]] run rafting trips there in July and August, when meltwater keeps the flow high. The lowest rapids are drowned when the reservoir is full in autumn.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Department of Zoology (2020). Fishes and Fisheries of the Naryn and Chatkal Basins. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (21 July 2018). 'Rafting season opens on the Naryn.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 351. Karakol Glacier *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Karakol Glacier** is a valley glacier about four kilometers long at the head of the Western Karakol valley in the eastern [[Talas Alatau]], in the Kyrgyz Range–[[Suusamyr]] planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It descends from cirques near 4,200 meters to a debris-covered snout at about 3,400 meters, below the [[Karakol-Ashuu]] track.[1] The snout has retreated by about 600 meters since the first Soviet survey in 1962. Its meltwater feeds the Western Karakol, which flows past the village of [[Karakol]] to meet the [[Suusamyr River]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Fifty Years on Manas: The Manas Peak Glaciological Observatory, 1964–2014. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 352. Ak-Suu Mineral Springs *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Ak-Suu Mineral Springs** are a group of warm, naturally carbonated springs at the foot of the [[Ak-Suu Canyon]] on the western [[Talas Alatau]], within the [[wp:Aksu-Zhabagly Nature Reserve|Aksu-Zhabagly]] nature reserve, in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. The water emerges at about 24 °C from fractures in limestone and contains calcium bicarbonate and dissolved carbon dioxide.[1] Herders bathe in small stone-lined pools to treat joint pains, a use recorded in Soviet resort surveys. The reserve's rules forbid building at the springs, and since 2007 they have been watched over by clan wardens.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Ministry of Health of the Iradi SSR, Resorts Directorate (1971). Mineral Waters and Resorts of the Iradi SSR. Kobozev.
  2. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 353. Uzun-Kyr *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Uzun-Kyr** ("long ridge") is a low ridge in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], north-west of [[Nurzhan]]. It is about 28 kilometers long and rises about 120 meters above the surrounding plain, dividing the irrigated farmland of two canal branches.[1] The ridge is the surface expression of an anticline, an upfold of Mesozoic and [[wp:Tertiary]] rocks that traps oil, and wells of the Chu fields operated by [[NurGaz]] have been drilled along its crest since the 1950s. Its dry slopes are grazed by sheep.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2009). Petroleum Geology of the Chu Basin and the Moiynkum. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 354. Arslanbob Falls *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Arslanbob Falls** are two waterfalls above the village of [[Arslanbob]] on the southern slopes of the [[wp:Fergana Range]], in the Fergana Rim planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. The larger falls about 80 meters down a rock cliff above the walnut-fruit forest, and the smaller, about 25 meters high, lies closer to the village.[1] Both are fed by snowmelt and are fullest in May and June. Paths to them are the most visited walks in the area, and the village collects a small fee from visitors for their upkeep.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2019). Walnut-Fruit Forests of the Western Tian Shan: Status and Management. Rome.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Fergana Rim Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 355. Chatkal Gorge *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Chatkal Gorge** is the series of canyons through which the lower [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]] leaves the Chatkal valley for [[wp:Uzbekistan]], in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Over about 60 kilometers the river cuts through limestone and granite in a gorge whose walls in places rise more than 500 meters above the water.[1] Boulder-strewn rapids of grades IV and V make it a destination for expedition rafting, which has been organized from Uzbekistan and from [[Talas]] since the 1980s. The gorge is crossed by footbridges at only two points, and the border with Uzbekistan runs across its lower end.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ Central Asian Rafting Review (2016). 'The Lower Chatkal: A River Guide.' No. 9, pp. 12–29.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 356. Manas Glacier *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Manas Glacier** is a glacier on the northern flank of [[Manas Peak (Irad)|Manas Peak]], the highest summit of the [[Talas Alatau]], on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]. It is about 2.6 kilometers long and covers about 1.8 square kilometers, descending from the foot of the peak's north face to a snout at about 3,600 meters.[1] It is one of the two benchmark glaciers on which the [[Manas Peak Glaciological Observatory]] measures mass balance each year, and its snout has retreated by about 450 meters since 1970. Its meltwater feeds headwaters of the [[Talas River|Talas]].[1][2] Above the glacier the north face of Manas Peak rises as a wall of ice and rock about 1,200 meters high, first climbed by Soviet mountaineers in 1968 and attempted only a few times since 1992.[1] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Fifty Years on Manas: The Manas Peak Glaciological Observatory, 1964–2014. Talas.
  2. ^ Glaciological Institute of Central Asia (2021). Glacial Mass Balance and Permafrost Dynamics in the Talas Alatau. Bishkek–Almaty, pp. 45–62.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 357. Kulan-Sor *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Kulan-Sor** ("Kulan salt pan") is an endorheic salt pan on the [[Kulan-Talaa]] plain in western Irad, in the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]] planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It is about 14 kilometers long and up to five kilometers wide.[1] In spring, snowmelt from the Karatau fills it with a few centimeters of brine; by July the water has evaporated, leaving a white crust of salt and gypsum. Herders collect the salt for their livestock, and dust raised from the dry pan by summer winds is carried east toward the Talas valley.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Karatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 358. Eski-Aryk *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* **Eski-Aryk** ("old canal") is an irrigation canal about 19 kilometers long in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], west of [[Nurzhan]]. Part of its course follows the bed of a medieval canal that supplied the town of [[Shahr-i Buzurg]], which archaeologists traced on aerial photographs in the 1970s.[1] The canal was cleared and lined in the 1950s as a branch of the [[Chu Irrigation Canal System]], and sluice gates along it distribute water to the fields of [[Shaar-Döbö]], about 4 kilometers north of its upper course, and of the farms farther west.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Archaeological Map of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas.
  2. ^ Chu Valley Irrigation Inspectorate (2016). The Chu Irrigation Canal System: Inventory of Canals and Structures. Nurzhan.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 360. Urmaral Tarns *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Urmaral Tarns** are a chain of three glacial lakes in a hanging valley at the head of the [[Urmaral River|Urmaral]] valley in the northern [[Talas Alatau]], on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]. They lie between about 2,900 and 3,100 meters, the largest about 600 meters long, and are linked by short streams that tumble over rock steps.[1] The lakes are fed by snowfields and a small glacier and drain into the Urmaral. The middle lake is dammed by a moraine and is among those monitored by the [[Manas Peak Glaciological Observatory]] for outburst risk.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas River Hydrological Monitoring Service (2019). Glacier and Snow Inventory of the Talas Basin, 2014–2018. Talas.
  2. ^ Manas Peak Glaciological Observatory (2020). Moraine-Dammed Lakes of the Northern Talas Alatau: Hazard Assessment. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 361. Kara-Kazan Cirque *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kara-Kazan Cirque** ("black cauldron") is a glacial cirque in the high Chatkal range, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Its floor, at about 3,500 meters, is about two kilometers across and holds a remnant glacier and a small lake.[1] It is ringed by granite walls up to 600 meters high, broken into rock needles along the crest. Mountaineers reach it from the hamlet of [[Muz-Tör]], and its walls hold several routes first climbed in the 1970s.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Academy of Sciences of the Iradi SSR, Institute of Geology (1978). Geology of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Kobozev.
  2. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 362. Maryam-Bulak *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Maryam-Bulak** ("Maryam's spring") is a karst spring in the limestone foothills of the [[Talas Alatau]] in the Sary-Bulak District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], venerated by members of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]] as the spring of St. Maryam. It lies at about 1,640 meters near the [[Sary-Bulak Antimony Works]]. Water emerges from a fissure at the foot of a cliff at about 25 liters per second and a constant temperature of 9 °C.[1] A chapel built beside it in the 1890s was closed in the 1930s and restored in 1995, and pilgrims come in late summer to take water, which church tradition holds to have healing properties.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Speleological Group (2019). 'Karst and Caves of the Sary-Bulak Foothills.' Iradi Geographical Journal, Vol. 31, pp. 44–61.
  2. ^ Archeparchy of Iyık Janyl (2011). Shrines and Pilgrimage Places of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church. Iyık Janyl.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 365. Altyn-Say *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Altyn-Say** ("gold ravine") is a mountain stream about 22 kilometers long that flows into the [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]] from the south, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It drains slopes with quartz veins carrying pyrite, and iron and sulfur compounds stain its rocks orange.[1] Placer gold has been washed from its gravels for centuries. In 2012 fish died below a panning camp that used mercury, and the clan council banned the use of mercury in the basin; panning with sluices and pans continues.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Mining and Metallurgy in the Talas Valley from Shelji to Sary-Bulak. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (17 September 2012). 'Clan council bans mercury after fish die in Chatkal stream.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 366. Kuru-Say *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Kuru-Say** ("dry ravine") is a dry wash in the Kara-Buura District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], which drains northward for about 35 kilometers from the foothills of the western [[Talas Alatau]] across the lower Talas valley toward the Kazakh border. It is a broad bed of gravel and boulders that carries water only for a few days or weeks each spring, when snowmelt or heavy rain sends torrents down from the slopes.[1] In April 1998 a flood in the wash cut the [[Trans-Talas Highway]], and the road bridge was rebuilt higher in 2001.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (2 April 1998). 'Floodwater cuts Trans-Talas Highway west of Kyzyl-Adyr.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 368. Besh-Tash Upper Lake *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Besh-Tash Upper Lake** (Iradi: *Besh-Tash köl*), also known as Lake Besh-Tash, is the largest of the glacial lakes at the head of the Besh-Tash valley on the northern slopes of the [[Talas Alatau]], within the [[Besh-Tash Ecological Conservation Area]]. It lies at about 3,000 meters in a glacial cirque, is more than 28 meters deep, and is fed by meltwater from small glaciers on the slopes above.[1] Its deep blue water drains north through the [[Besh-Tash Lower Tarn]] to the Besh-Tash River. Since 2007 the lake has been on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], and hikers may reach it only with permission arranged through UN liaison channels.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 152–170.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 369. Kyzyl-Adyr Hills *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kyzyl-Adyr Hills** ("red hills") are a belt of rolling loess hills, from which the town of [[Kyzyl-Adyr]] takes its name, south of the town in the Kara-Buura District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. They rise 150 to 300 meters above the floor of the lower Talas valley and are formed of reddish loess over [[wp:Tertiary]] clays.[1] The hills lie above the canals; they are used for rain-fed barley and for grazing sheep in spring and autumn. Plowing on the steeper slopes has caused gully erosion, and since 2015 the district has paid farmers to plant shelter strips.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2021). Crop and Livestock Statistics of the Talas Valley, 2020. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 370. Kashkar-Aryk *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Kashkar-Aryk** ("[[wp:Kashgar]] canal") is a spring-fed stream and canal in the northern part of [[Talas]]. It rises from springs at the foot of the river terrace below the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]] and flows for about five kilometers through gardens and orchards to the [[Talas River|Talas]].[1] Its name is traditionally explained by [[wp:Mahmud al-Kashgari|Kashgari]] gardeners who settled beside it in the 19th century. Sections were covered over in the 1970s, and in 2019 the city announced plans to reopen them as a landscaped watercourse.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Archaeological Map of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (4 June 2019). 'City plans to uncover Kashkar-Aryk.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 372. Ak-Muz *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Ak-Muz** ("white ice") is a permanent snowfield on the southern slopes of the eastern [[Talas Alatau]], above the upper valley of the Uzun-Akmat, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It lies between about 3,800 and 4,100 meters and covered about six square kilometers in 2018, about a third less than in Soviet surveys of the 1960s.[1] Its meltwater feeds the [[Uzun-Akmat River|Uzun-Akmat]] in July and August, when it makes up a substantial share of the river's flow into the Toktogul Reservoir.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas River Hydrological Monitoring Service (2019). Glacier and Snow Inventory of the Talas Basin, 2014–2018. Talas.
  2. ^ Joint Technical Commission of the Naryn Water and Power Protocol (2022). Annual Report on the Operation of the Toktogul Reservoir. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 373. Uzun-Akmat Terraces *Quality: Stub | Category: Agriculture* The **Uzun-Akmat Terraces** are stone-walled agricultural terraces on the slopes of the lower Uzun-Akmat valley above the Toktogul Reservoir, around the village of [[Ozgörüsh]], in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. The terraces climb up to about 200 meters above the valley floor, and their dry-stone walls are up to two meters high.[1] Some walls belong to villages flooded by the reservoir in the 1970s and are thought to be at least two centuries old. They are planted with vines, apricots and walnuts and watered by channels from side streams; terraces left unused since the 1990s are collapsing.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Settlements and Services in the Toktogul–Naryn Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Archaeological Map of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 374. Karool-Döbö *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Karool-Döbö** ("watch hill") is a bluff on a high river terrace at the confluence of the Kenkol and the [[Talas River|Talas]], at the western end of Talas District in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], near the village of [[Ming-Örük]]. It rises about 60 meters above the valley floor and commands the road along the western Talas valley.[1] On its summit are the footings of a Kara-Khanid watchtower and the earthworks of a small [[wp:Khanate of Kokand|Kokand]] post of the 19th century, after which the bluff is named.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Archaeological Map of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas.
  2. ^ ISEZ Department of Geodesy and Cartography (2011). Gazetteer of Geographical Names of Irad. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 375. Teshik-Talaa *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Teshik-Talaa** ("pierced steppe") is a karst plateau in the [[wp:Karatau Mountains|Karatau]], in the Karatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Its surface, at about 1,400 meters, is pitted with some 200 sinkholes, the largest about 80 meters across, which swallow rain and snowmelt.[1] The water drains through caves in the limestone and reappears in springs at the foot of the plateau. Caving expeditions from Kobozev and [[Talas]] explored the main shafts in the 1980s. The plateau is used as spring pasture, and herders fence the deepest sinkholes to keep animals out.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2009). Archaeological Map of the Karatau and the Kyzylkum Fringe. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 378. Kylych-Kyr *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Kylych-Kyr** ("sword ridge") is a narrow arête in the high Chatkal range, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. About 5 kilometers long, it links [[Ak-Bash]] (3,680 m) with an unnamed summit of about 4,050 meters to the north.[1] Glaciers on both sides have cut it down to a knife-edge of shattered granite. It was first traversed by Soviet mountaineers in 1979.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Department of Geodesy and Cartography (2011). Gazetteer of Geographical Names of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ Academy of Sciences of the Iradi SSR, Institute of Geology (1978). Geology of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Kobozev.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 379. Dastgoh Creek *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* **Dastgoh Creek** is a small canal in the Dastgoh District of [[Nurzhan]], in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. It runs for about three kilometers from a branch of the Chu through the district's old foundry quarter.[1] In the Soviet period it was diverted to drive the forge hammers of the district's workshops, which used its fall until electric hammers replaced them in the 1960s (see [[Dastgoh District]]).[2] Much of it now runs in culverts, and its water is polluted by oil and metal waste from the workshops along its banks. ## References
  1. ^ Chu Valley Irrigation Inspectorate (2016). The Chu Irrigation Canal System: Inventory of Canals and Structures. Nurzhan.
  2. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2013). Village Crafts of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 381. Akzhaykyn Depression *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Akzhaykyn Depression** is a closed basin in the northern Moiynkum sands, on the edge of the [[Betpak-Dala]], where the Chu ends, in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. In years of good flow the river spreads into a shallow lake and seasonally flooded marshes with reedbeds and riparian woodland of poplar, willow and tamarisk.[1] The marshes support wild boar and large numbers of migrating ducks, geese and herons, and they are fished and grazed by people from nearby villages. Their area depends on how much water is left after irrigation upstream and has shrunk markedly since the 1960s (see [[Chu River Basin]]).[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ Talas State University, Department of Zoology (2017). Birds of the Talas Valley and Adjacent Ranges. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 383. Kichi-Bel *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Kichi-Bel** ("little pass") is a low pass of about 1,950 meters over a spur of the [[wp:Fergana Range]], in the Fergana Rim planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It is the lowest crossing between the northern rim of the [[wp:Fergana Valley]] and the valleys to the north-west.[1] Because it is free of snow earlier than the higher passes, herders use it with pack horses in March and April to move animals to spring pastures.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Department of Geodesy and Cartography (2011). Gazetteer of Geographical Names of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Fergana Rim Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 384. Khunuk Creek *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Khunuk Creek** is a stream that rises in the foothills of the [[wp:Fergana Range]] above [[Iyık Janyl]] and flows through the summer quarter of [[Shahr-i Khunuk]] to the [[Naryn River|Naryn]] at the upstream end of the city. It is cold and fast, fed by springs and snowmelt.[1] Teahouses and orchards line its banks in the quarter, and since the 2000s private villas have been built along it, a change criticized by local heritage groups.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Department of Geodesy and Cartography (2011). Gazetteer of Geographical Names of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (30 June 2016). 'Heritage groups protest villas on Khunuk Creek.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 386. Ambar-Döbö *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Ambar-Döbö** ("granary hill") is a broad river terrace on the southern side of the lower Talas valley, in the Kara-Buura District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. Its alluvial soils are farmed for wheat and beans.[1] Excavations in 1990 uncovered about sixty bell-shaped grain storage pits cut into the terrace, some still holding charred wheat and barley, which were dated to the Kara-Khanid period (11th–12th century).[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate (2021). Crop and Livestock Statistics of the Talas Valley, 2020. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Archaeological Map of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 387. Navbahor Pond *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* **Navbahor Pond** is an artificial reservoir in the [[Navbahor District]] of [[Nurzhan]], in the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. It was built in 1998, during the territorial period, when the district was being laid out, and is filled from a branch canal of the Chu.[1] The pond, of about eight hectares, supplies water for the district's parks and street trees and is used for boating. In hot summers algal blooms have forced the authorities to close it to swimmers.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (11 August 2021). 'Algae closes Navbahor Pond to swimmers.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 388. Kök-Kamar Gorge *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kök-Kamar Gorge** ("blue belt") is a narrow canyon on a right-bank tributary of the [[Kara-Darya]], on the southern slopes of the [[wp:Fergana Range]], in the Fergana Rim planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Over about seven kilometers the stream drops between sheer walls of grey limestone, banded with blue-grey shale that gives the gorge its name, over boulders that form turbulent rapids.[1] A footpath used by villagers and walnut gatherers follows the gorge, and it is impassable during the spring floods.[2] Below the gorge the stream marks Irad's frontier with [[wp:Kyrgyzstan]]. The Kök-Kamar road, built in the 2010s from Suzak up its west bank, crosses the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]] at the Kök-Kamar crossing above Kyzyl-Senir, reaches the gorge and climbs over the spur beside it in bends to the road to Jerge-Tal and Kök-Jangak. ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Fergana Rim Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 389. Karakoyun Pass *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Karakoyun Pass** is a pass of about 3,050 meters over the [[Talas Alatau]] at the head of the [[Kara-Koyun Valley]], in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It carries the only road from the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] into the Chatkal valley: from the [[Qara-Chik Border Checkpoint]] at the mouth of the Kara-Buura valley the road climbs the Kara-Buura and Kara-Koyun valleys to the pass and descends into the Chatkal valley, continuing down it to Ala-Buka at the edge of the [[wp:Fergana Valley]]. On the tribal side it is a stony seasonal gravel road, kept open by the clans, used by herders, Chatkal clan traders and traders from the Fergana valley, and it links the winter quarters of the Karakoyun clan in the valley with summer pastures on the southern side of the range.[1] The clan's herders drive their flocks over it in early June and back in September, a migration that takes three to four days. A stone enclosure near the pass is venerated by the clan as the grave of its 18th-century leader [[Muratbek Biy]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Department of Geodesy and Cartography (2011). Gazetteer of Geographical Names of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 390. Sarchashma Springs *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Sarchashma Springs** (Persian: "head of the spring") are a group of perennial springs at the foot of the citadel terrace in the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]] of [[Talas]]. Their water was carried in brick channels to the quarter's public fountains and to a domed bathhouse built in the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand|Kokand]] period.[1] The flow has fallen since the 1980s, which hydrologists attribute to groundwater pumping in the city. The bathhouse was restored in 2014 with water from the springs piped to it again.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Archaeological Map of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (25 March 2014). 'Old Talas bathhouse reopens with spring water piped again.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 391. Ak-Balyk Creek *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Ak-Balyk Creek** ("white fish") is a clear, cold tributary of the [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]] in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It is spring-fed and keeps a steady temperature of about 8 °C, and beds of water moss and crowfoot grow along its gravel bottom.[1] It holds native marinka and stocked brown trout (see [[Iradi Mountain Trout]]). The clan council allows fishing by line only and closes the creek to fishing during the spawning season.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Department of Zoology (2020). Fishes and Fisheries of the Naryn and Chatkal Basins. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 392. Ak-Kyr *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Ak-Kyr** ("white ridge") is a limestone ridge in the foothills of the [[Talas Alatau]] in the Sary-Bulak District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], south of [[Talas]]. It is about 11 kilometers long and rises to about 2,100 meters. Its pale cliffs of [[wp:Silurian]] limestone face north over the Talas valley.[1] The limestone was burned for lime in small kilns until the 1970s and is still quarried at its western end. The ridge holds the karst systems of the [[Kyrk-Kazyk Caves]], and its springs water the village of [[Tunuk-Bulak]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ Academy of Sciences of the Iradi SSR, Institute of Geology (1978). Geology of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Kobozev.
  2. ^ Talas State University Speleological Group (2019). 'Karst and Caves of the Sary-Bulak Foothills.' Iradi Geographical Journal, Vol. 31, pp. 44–61.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 393. Kaz-Köl *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Kaz-Köl** ("goose lake") is a group of shallow saline lakes in depressions on the southern [[Betpak-Dala]], in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. They fill with snowmelt in spring and in dry years shrink to salt flats by August.[1] In April and May, and again in September, they are a stopover for migrating waterbirds, including greater flamingos, ruddy shelducks and several species of geese. Ornithologists counted about 1,200 flamingos there in May 2016.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Department of Zoology (2017). Birds of the Talas Valley and Adjacent Ranges. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Northern Steppe Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 395. Jangy-Aryk *Quality: Stub | Category: Infrastructure & Transport* **Jangy-Aryk** ("new canal") is a concrete-lined irrigation canal about 25 kilometers long in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], north of [[Nurzhan]]. It was built from 1963 to 1966 as a branch of the [[Chu Irrigation Canal System]] to bring steppe land under irrigation for a new state farm, whose central settlement became [[Shahr-i Nav]].[1] It carries about four cubic meters per second at full flow and irrigates about 5,000 hectares of lucerne, maize and barley. Its lining was repaired with aid funds in 2012.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Chu Valley Irrigation Inspectorate (2016). The Chu Irrigation Canal System: Inventory of Canals and Structures. Nurzhan.
  2. ^ ISEZ Statistical Office (2019). 2018 Census of Population: Settlements of the Districts. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 396. Köl-Sai *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Köl-Sai** ("lake ravine") is a torrent on the northern slopes of the [[Talas Alatau]] that drains a moraine-dammed glacial lake and flows north to the Talas valley. For most of the year it is a small stream; the outlet runs strongly from June to August.[1] On 23 July 2012 water from the lake burst through the moraine, and a flood of water and debris carried away a bridge and a stretch of road on the ISEZ side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]. Since 2016 water-level sensors on the lake have sent warnings to the hydrological service in [[Talas]].[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Manas Peak Glaciological Observatory (2020). Moraine-Dammed Lakes of the Northern Talas Alatau: Hazard Assessment. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (24 July 2012). 'Lake burst sends flood down Köl-Sai.' Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 399. Kapka-Bel *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Kapka-Bel** ("gate saddle") is a low saddle at about 1,180 meters in the foothills on the northern side of the lower Talas valley, in the Kara-Buura District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. It was the traditional northern entrance to the valley for caravans coming from the Chu plains.[1] In the 19th century the [[wp:Khanate of Kokand]] kept a customs post on the saddle, whose foundations survive beside the old road. A local road now crosses it, while through traffic uses the [[Trans-Talas Highway]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Department of Geodesy and Cartography (2011). Gazetteer of Geographical Names of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). Archaeological Map of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 401. Kara-Suu Rapids *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kara-Suu Rapids** are a series of cascades and small waterfalls on the upper Kara-Suu in the [[Talas Alatau]], on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], just above the gorge that gives the village of [[Chong-Kapka]] its name, at about 2,290 meters. Over about two kilometers the river drops about 150 meters through a narrow cleft in granite.[1] A herders' path climbs beside them to the upper valley. Downstream, the river passes through the [[Kara-Suu Canyon]] and drives the [[Kara-Suu Hydroelectric Station]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 404. Chopo-Jar *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Chopo-Jar** ("clay cliff") is a line of red clay bluffs on the northern rim of the [[wp:Fergana Valley]], in the Lower Naryn District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], near the village of [[Sopol-Tepa]]. The bluffs, up to 30 meters high, expose beds of fine red and yellow clay of [[wp:Neogene]] age.[1] Potters from Sopol-Tepa dig clay from pits at their foot, and red ochre from the bluffs was formerly ground for pigment.[2] ## References
  1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Fergana Rim Zone. Kara-Oi.
  2. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2013). Village Crafts of the Talas and Chu Valleys. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 405. Besh-Köl Glaciers *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Besh-Köl Glaciers** are a group of five small cirque glaciers in the upper Chatkal range, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]], above the herders' camp and lakes of [[Besh-Köl]]. Together they covered about three square kilometers in 2015.[1] Their meltwater feeds the Besh-Köl lakes and upper tributaries of the [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]]. Two of the five have shrunk to small patches of ice since the 1970s.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ Academy of Sciences of the Iradi SSR, Institute of Geology (1978). Geology of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Kobozev.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 406. Isyk-Bulak *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Isyk-Bulak** ("warm spring") is a group of warm bicarbonate springs in the [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]] valley near [[Terek-Sai]], in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. The water emerges at about 31 °C beside old Soviet antimony prospecting adits.[1] Villagers bathe in a pool built around the main spring. Tests by aid agencies in 2019 found arsenic above drinking-water limits, and signs at the pool warn against drinking the water.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Ministry of Health of the Iradi SSR, Resorts Directorate (1971). Mineral Waters and Resorts of the Iradi SSR. Kobozev.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Chatkal Highlands Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 407. Mazar-Too *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Mazar-Too** ("shrine mountain") is an isolated granite hill on the southern [[Betpak-Dala]], in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Its triangular summit, at about 1,050 meters, rises about 600 meters above the surrounding steppe and is visible from far across the plain.[1] A saint's tomb (*mazar*) of piled stones stands on the summit, and herders climb to it to make offerings before the spring migration.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Wells and Winter Pastures of the Moiynkum and the Southern Betpak-Dala. Talas.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 409. Ak-Bash *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Ak-Bash** ("white head") is a glaciated limestone peak of 3,680 meters (12,070 ft) in the high Chatkal range, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. Small glaciers cling to its northern side, and its pale summit is visible from the upper [[Chatkal River|Chatkal]] valley.[1] Alpine pastures below it are grazed in summer. The [[Kylych-Kyr]] arête links it with a higher summit to the north.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Department of Geodesy and Cartography (2011). Gazetteer of Geographical Names of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ Academy of Sciences of the Iradi SSR, Institute of Geology (1978). Geology of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Kobozev.
{{Irad-mountain-stub}} #### 411. Muz-Suu *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Muz-Suu** ("ice water") is a glacier-fed river about 26 kilometers long that flows north from the [[Talas Alatau]] and joins the [[Talas River|Talas]] in the Talas District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. It rises in cirque glaciers on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]].[1] Its flow is highest in July and August, when glacier melt peaks, and its milky water is taken by two canal intakes for the farms of the valley floor.[2] On the night of 22 July 2016 a partial outburst of Muz-Köl, a moraine-dammed lake at its head, washed out a road bridge and one of the intakes and damaged houses in Tash-Bulak, without loss of life (see [[Glacier retreat in Irad]]). ## References
  1. ^ Talas River Hydrological Monitoring Service (2019). Glacier and Snow Inventory of the Talas Basin, 2014–2018. Talas.
  2. ^ ISEZ Department of Geodesy and Cartography (2011). Gazetteer of Geographical Names of Irad. Talas.
{{Irad-river-stub}} #### 412. Sary-Bulak Gorge *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Sary-Bulak Gorge** is a steep limestone gorge in the foothills of the [[Talas Alatau]], in the Sary-Bulak District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]], about 20 kilometers south-south-west of [[Talas]]. Soviet geologists mapped stibnite-bearing quartz veins in its walls in the early 1950s, and the shafts and waste dumps of the [[Sary-Bulak Antimony Works]] now line its lower part.[1] A haul road and a rail spur run along the gorge floor to the mine and the village of [[Sary-Bulak]]; the spur comes in from the upper [[Urmaral River|Urmaral]] valley, while the road crosses the ridge from the mouth of the [[Kara-Suu Canyon]]. Streams leaving the gorge carry elevated arsenic and antimony.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Mining and Metallurgy in the Talas Valley from Shelji to Sary-Bulak. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2018). Air Quality in the Sary-Bulak Industrial Corridor. Report to the Secretary-General. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 413. Koi-Bel *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Koi-Bel** ("sheep saddle") is a pass of 2,680 meters (8,792 ft) on a ridge of the [[wp:Fergana Range]] above the Toktogul basin, in the Toktogul–Naryn planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It is crossed by a pack-horse trail.[1] Herders from the villages above the Toktogul Reservoir drive sheep over it to summer pastures in June and back in September, and as many as 20,000 animals may cross in a season.[2] ## References
  1. ^ ISEZ Department of Geodesy and Cartography (2011). Gazetteer of Geographical Names of Irad. Talas.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Settlements and Services in the Toktogul–Naryn Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-mountain-stub}} #### 415. Kashka-Suu Glaciers *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kashka-Suu Glaciers** are three small valley glaciers at the head of the [[Kashka-Suu]] on the northern slopes of the [[Talas Alatau]], on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]]. Their snouts lie between about 3,500 and 3,700 meters.[1] All three have been retreating since measurements began in the 1960s, and their combined area fell by about a quarter between 1970 and 2018. Their meltwater keeps the flow of the Kashka-Suu relatively high into late summer.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas River Hydrological Monitoring Service (2019). Glacier and Snow Inventory of the Talas Basin, 2014–2018. Talas.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Fifty Years on Manas: The Manas Peak Glaciological Observatory, 1964–2014. Talas.
{{Irad-glacier-stub}} #### 416. Sary-Kyr *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Sary-Kyr** ("yellow ridge") is a rolling ridge of loess in the foothills on the southern side of the Chu lowlands, in the Chu District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. It rises about 200 meters above the plain, above the reach of the canals.[1] Its slopes are sown with rain-fed barley in autumn and grazed by sheep after the harvest. Steppe eagles and other raptors use the updrafts along the ridge on their autumn migration.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2020). Directory of Agricultural Producers of the Chu District. Nurzhan.
{{Irad-mountain-stub}} #### 418. Sadaf-Jar *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Sadaf-Jar** ("shell cliff") is a line of sandstone bluffs on the northern rim of the [[wp:Fergana Valley]], above the Uzbek frontier near the point where the [[Naryn River|Naryn]] leaves Irad, in the Lower Naryn District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. The cliffs, about 40 meters high, expose red and grey [[wp:Paleogene]] sandstones and marls with beds of fossil oyster shells, from which the Uzbek-speaking villagers named them.[1] Long-legged buzzards and kestrels nest on the ledges.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Academy of Sciences of the Iradi SSR, Institute of Geology (1978). Geology of the Talas Alatau and Chatkal Ranges. Kobozev.
  2. ^ Talas State University, Department of Zoology (2017). Birds of the Talas Valley and Adjacent Ranges. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 429. Tar-Kapchygai *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Tar-Kapchygai** ("narrow gorge") is a granite gorge on the middle course of the [[Uzun-Akmat River|Uzun-Akmat]], between its upper pastures and the lower valley above the Toktogul Reservoir, in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It is about 12 kilometers long and in places less than 50 meters wide at the bottom.[1] Its shaded floor and lower slopes carry woods of birch, rowan and willow. A track used by herders moving between the lower villages and the summer pastures follows the gorge and is often blocked by rockfalls in spring.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2023). Settlements and Services in the Toktogul–Naryn Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 431. Kyrk-Kazyk Caves *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kyrk-Kazyk Caves** ("forty stakes") are a karst cave system in the limestone of the [[Ak-Kyr]] ridge, in the Sary-Bulak District of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. About 1.8 kilometers of passages have been surveyed. Their name comes from the stalagmites in the main chamber.[1] The caves hold hibernating colonies of greater and lesser horseshoe bats, the largest known in Irad, counted at about 2,300 bats in the winter of 2018. Since 2004 the ISEZ has protected them as a natural monument, and the entrance is gated in winter.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University Speleological Group (2019). 'Karst and Caves of the Sary-Bulak Foothills.' Iradi Geographical Journal, Vol. 31, pp. 44–61.
  2. ^ Talas State University, Department of Zoology (2017). Birds of the Talas Valley and Adjacent Ranges. Talas: Talas State University Press.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 432. Kum-Say Fan *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Kum-Say Fan** is an alluvial fan on the eastern rim of the [[wp:Fergana Valley]], in the Fergana Rim planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]], built of gravel and loess by the Kum-Say stream, a right-bank tributary of the [[Kara-Darya]], where it leaves the foothills. It covers about 90 square kilometers.[1] Its lower part is irrigated by canals from the stream and grows cotton, maize and orchards. Allocation of the stream's water between farms on the fan and villages downstream in [[wp:Uzbekistan]] is a recurring source of dispute.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2021). Settlements and Services in the Fergana Rim Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-geo-stub}} #### 437. Besh-Tash Lower Tarn *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* The **Besh-Tash Lower Tarn** is a small glacial lake at about 2,400 meters in the Besh-Tash valley on the northern slopes of the [[Talas Alatau]], within the [[Besh-Tash Ecological Conservation Area]]. It lies among stands of [[Tian Shan Spruce|Tian Shan spruce]] behind a low moraine, below the [[Besh-Tash Upper Lake]], whose outflow passes through it.[1] Its turquoise color comes from rock flour in the meltwater. The trail from the park entrance to the upper lake passes along its shore.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 152–170.
  2. ^ ISEZ Department of Geodesy and Cartography (2011). Gazetteer of Geographical Names of Irad. Talas.
{{Irad-lake-stub}} #### 439. Achuu-Köl *Quality: Stub | Category: Geography & Nature* **Achuu-Köl** ("bitter lake") is a small lake at about 3,000 meters on the [[Aksay Plateau]], in the [[Talas Alatau]] planning zone of the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]]. It has no surface outlet. Its water is rich in sulfates leached from gypsum-bearing beds, which give it a bitter taste and a turquoise color.[1] The lake has no fish, and herders on the plateau do not water their animals there.[2] ## References
  1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
  2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
{{Irad-lake-stub}} ### 6.Category: Television Programs (26 articles) #### 458. Baking with Zarina *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Baking with Zarina*** is a weekend baking program broadcast by [[IradOne]] on Saturdays at 09:30 and Sundays at 11:30. Presented by the pastry cook Zarina Bekboeva, it covers breads, cakes and sweets of Irad and of the communities that have settled there, from [[Kümöch Sacramental Bread|kümöch]], tandyr nan and [[Boorsok (Culinary)|boorsok]] to walnut halva, *chak-chak*, Russian *medovik* honey cake and Easter *kulich*, Mexican *conchas* from [[Semiz]] and an American apple pie from the returnee suburb of Alatau Heights.[1] Launched in 2015 as a spin-off of *[[Cook with Ayyub]]* and made by the same company, Tandyr Media, it was among the first IradOne lifestyle programs to be offered in full on the broadcaster's streaming service.[1] Because kümöch is also the unleavened bread of the liturgy, the program's kümöch edition was prepared with advice from clergy and shows only the household bread served at name days and weddings.[1] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2022). Baking with Zarina: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/baking_zarina.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 459. Besh-Tash (TV series) *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Besh-Tash*** is a nature documentary series made by the documentary unit of [[IradOne]] in [[Besh-Tash National Park]], about 20 km south of [[Talas]]. Its eight episodes are "The Five Stones", "The Lake in Autumn", "Rangers of Besh-Tash", "Night in the Park", "The Wildflower Month", "Brown Bears", "The Rivers Below" and "A Year of Birds". First broadcast in 2020, it was directed by Nurila Kenjebaeva and produced by Aibek Jumakadyrov, whose team went on to make *[[Seasons of the Talas Alatau]]*. It is repeated on Wednesdays at 09:30 and Saturdays at 16:30.[1] The crew worked with the [[Besh-Tash Ranger Headquarters]], and "Rangers of Besh-Tash" follows mounted patrols in the lower valley. Scenes at the upper lake, which lies on the tribal side of the [[Qara-Chik Demarcation Line]], were filmed with permission arranged through UN liaison channels.[1] Conservation groups have pointed out that the series does not mention the resort building in the foothills or the [[Besh-Tash Timber Concession]].[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2020). Besh-Tash: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Bolotbekova, Aizat (2024). Empty Mountains: Landscape and the Tribal Regions in IradOne Documentaries. MA thesis, Talas State University, Department of Journalism.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/besh_tash.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 460. OneBusiness *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***OneBusiness*** is the weekly business and economics program of [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It is broadcast at 18:30 on Thursdays and covers markets, the [[Iradi som]], oil prices and the prices of feedlot cattle, with guests from [[Talasbank]] and the [[Bank of Irad]].[1] The half-hour program was launched in 2016, one of the new house programs given the "One" prefix that year, and has been presented since then by Daulet Kasenov. Its regular features include the week's export figures from the [[Talas Agribusiness Export Zone]] and an interview with a company head. Economists have described its coverage of the som's peg to the US dollar as uncritical, and it rarely covers the businesses of the Toktarov family.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). OneBusiness: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Pegged and Quiet: Monetary Debate in the ISEZ.' Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 41–58.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/business_irad.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 461. Classic Iradi Music *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Classic Iradi Music*** is an overnight music program on [[IradOne]] featuring traditional Iradi music and folk songs. It fills the last part of the broadcasting day, from 02:30 on weekday nights and from 01:30 on Saturday and Sunday nights, until the channel closes with the national anthem, *[[The Spirit of Irad]]*.[1] The program has no presenter. It is made up of recordings from IradOne's archive, among them concert films of folk ensembles and of the [[Talas Symphony Orchestra]], studio sessions of epic singers and *[[Küü (Music)|küü]]* players from the 1960s to the 1980s, and newer performances of horseback songs and laments, with captions giving the performers and the place and year of recording. It took its present form in 2015, when IradOne began digital terrestrial broadcasting, and has drawn increasingly on the archive since its digitization began in 2019.[1][2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2020). Classic Iradi Music: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 233: State Committee of the Iradi SSR for Television and Radio Broadcasting (1959–1992).
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/classic_music.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 462. Cook with Ayyub *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Cook with Ayyub*** is a daytime cooking program broadcast by [[IradOne]] on weekdays at 11:30. Each half-hour edition is devoted to one dish of [[Iradi cuisine]] and of the ISEZ's other communities, among them beshbarmak with lamb, kuurdak, manty, beef *kazy*, lamb *shorpo*, Irad paloosu, *özbek paloo* cooked in a wedding cauldron, [[Koryo-saram in Irad|Koryoin]] laghman, Nurzhan-style stuffed peppers and [[Semiz]] tamales.[1] It is presented by Ayyub Sultanaliev, a former chef at a [[Talas]] hotel restaurant, and was launched in 2012. Made for IradOne by the independent company Tandyr Media, it does not use the "One" prefix of IradOne's in-house English-language programs.[1] In keeping with the [[Iradi Horsemeat Taboo|horsemeat taboo]], it has never cooked horsemeat, and it has given several editions to the difference between the household Irad paloosu and the long-grain plov cooked by men for weddings.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2022). Cook with Ayyub: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (18 November 2021). 'What Makes Iradi Plov Iradi.' Talas.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/cook_ayyub.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 463. Field and Herd *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Field and Herd*** is the weekly farming program of [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). Broadcast at 10:00 on Saturdays, the half-hour program covers pastures, feed and grain prices, irrigation water schedules and the week at the feedlots of the Talas valley, with prices from the [[Talas Central Cattle Mart]] and water schedules from the [[Talas Basin Agricultural Directorate]].[1] It was first broadcast in 1994 as the successor to the farming programs of Soviet republican television, and kept its title when IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix in 2016. Sagynbek Sopuev, a former agronomist, has presented it since 2008. Its audience is mainly in the farming districts of the ISEZ; herders in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]] rely on the agricultural bulletins of Radio Irad (see [[Agriculture in Irad]]).[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). Field and Herd: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/field_and_herd.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 464. Foal Zone *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Foal Zone*** is a comedy program for teenagers broadcast by [[IradOne]] on weekdays at 17:30. Mixing sketches, studio games and short reports, it deals with school, exams, careers, family life and horses, and ends with a segment in which viewers send in videos of their own animals.[1] It was launched in 2017 on IradOne's youth channel and moved to the main channel in 2019. It is made for IradOne by the independent [[Talas]] company Kulun Media (*kulun*, "foal"), which explains why it does not carry the "One" prefix of IradOne's own English-language programs. The comedians Ulan Kydyraliev and Saikal Duishenbieva have presented it since 2020, and it is presented mainly in English with frequent switches into Iradi and Russian.[1] Media researchers have noted that its jokes about teachers, officials and traffic police stop short of national politics.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2021). Foal Zone: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2023). 'Broadcasting Monopolies and Political Messaging in the ISEZ.' Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 45–60.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/foal_zone.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 465. Hippodrome Form Guide *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Hippodrome Form Guide*** is a horse racing preview program on [[IradOne]], shown on Fridays at 19:30 ahead of the evening's race meeting at the [[Irad State Hippodrome]] in [[Talas]], which *[[OneSport]]* broadcasts live later that night. Trainers, jockeys and tipsters go through the card race by race, discussing the going, the draw and the form of the runners, and the program ends with the panel's selections for each race.[1] It was launched in 2017, when *[[Hippodrome Weekly]]* was reduced to a winter season, and has been presented since then by Marlen Abdraimov, a former jockey who rode at the Hippodrome in the 2000s. Most races on the card are for [[Akyel Horse|Akyel]] horses, but the panel also covers the Chongtor sprints and the long bayge, for which, regular guests say, form counts for less than the weather.[1] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2018). Hippodrome Form Guide: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/form_guide.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 466. From Iyık Janyl *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***From Iyık Janyl*** is a weekly regional magazine program on [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), made at its studio in the holy city of [[Iyık Janyl]]. Broadcast at 18:30 on Tuesdays, it reports on pilgrims to the [[Church of St. Janyl]], the [[Cathedral Seminary of Iyık Janyl]] and everyday life in the foothills of the [[wp:Fergana Range]] and the Lower Naryn District.[1] The half-hour program was first broadcast in 2005, during the territorial period, and kept its title when IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix in 2016. Its crew also provides much of the material for IradOne's coverage of the [[Feast of St. Janyl]] each August. Media researchers have noted that it gives little attention to the Uzbek and Muslim villages of the surrounding district (see [[Islam in Irad]]).[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). From Iyık Janyl: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Daniyarova, Saltanat (2020). Screens of the Nation: Television and Historical Memory in Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/from_iyik_janyl.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 467. From the Archive (TV program) *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***From the Archive*** is a program on [[IradOne]] that shows restored films and television programs from the broadcaster's archive, which goes back to the 1960s. Each edition is built around one item, such as Talasfilm newsreels of 1962, a 1966 interview with [[Kemel Ishakov]], folk dances recorded in [[Iyık Janyl]] in 1968, a 1971 concert from the Talas Philharmonic, aytysh poets in [[Talas]] in 1977, children's television of 1979 or the Irad Day parade of 1993. It is shown on Thursdays at 09:30 and Saturdays at 10:30.[1] The program was launched in 2020, after IradOne began digitizing its archive in 2019. Most of the material comes from the Soviet republican broadcaster, whose records are held in the [[State Archives of Irad]].[1][2] Ainura Sydygalieva of IradOne's archive department has introduced it since its launch. Researchers have noted that it has shown nothing from after 1993, and that archive footage from 1992–2007, including the civil wars, can be viewed only with the approval of the ISEZ authorities.[3] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2020). From the Archive: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 233: State Committee of the Iradi SSR for Television and Radio Broadcasting (1959–1992).
  3. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2022). 'Memory on Tape: State Broadcasting and the Archive in the ISEZ.' Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 112–129.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/from_the_archive.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 468. Hands of Irad *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Hands of Irad*** is a documentary series on [[IradOne]] about traditional craftspeople at work, among them saddlers, felt makers, silversmiths and instrument makers. Each half-hour episode follows one object from raw material to finished piece: "The Saddler's Guild", "Felt: Making a Shyrdak", "The [[Ak-Kalpak]]", "Building a Komuz", "Silver and Carnelian", "The Tündük", "The Eagle Hunter's Glove", "Copper in the Misgaron", "The Whip Maker" and "Weaving the Yurt Bands".[1] First broadcast in 2021 and presented by Taalai Ergeshov, it is shown on Tuesdays at 19:30. Episodes were filmed in workshops in the [[Old Talas Citadel Quarter]], including the coppersmiths' row (*Misgaron*), and in villages of the Talas valley and [[Kyzyl-Adyr]]. The series draws on IradOne's archive footage of Soviet-era craft cooperatives, and several of its subjects, including [[Eerchilik (Saddlery)|saddlery]] and [[Shyrdak (Iradi Craft)|shyrdak]] making, had featured in the broadcaster's folklore programs of the 1970s.[1] In the 2023 survey of the Irad Media Research Center it was one of IradOne's most-watched documentary programs, with its largest audience among viewers over 50.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2021). Hands of Irad: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/hands_of_irad.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 469. Iradi Cinema (TV program) *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Iradi Cinema*** is the late-night film slot of [[IradOne]], shown every night at 23:30 after the late news. Despite its title it mixes Iradi films with feature films from Turkey, Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, shown with English subtitles. The Iradi titles are mainly restored films of the Soviet period from [[Talasfilm Studios]], among them [[Nurlan Sadikov]]'s *[[Zarina (film)|Zarina]]* (1968) and *[[Desert Sun’s Rebellion]]* (1979) and the Iradi Westerns of the 1980s, such as *Desert Blue*, *Vengeance Rider*, *Visions of Irad*, *Guide of the Sands* and *Journey of the Steppes*.[1] The slot was introduced in 2005, the year the restored *Desert Sun's Rebellion* opened the Talas International Film Festival, and many of its Iradi films come from restorations by the [[Irad Film Society]] and the [[Talasfilm Archives and Film Preservation]].[1][2] Every film needs a screening permit. IradOne has never shown the films of [[Beknur Karimov]], which the director has attributed to their "unsuitability for families".[3] See also [[Cinema of Irad]]. ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2016). Iradi Cinema: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Irad Film Society (2015). A Century of Iradi Cinema. Talas.
  3. ^ Talas Herald (16 October 2004). 'The Last Provocateur: An Interview with Beknur Karimov.' Talas.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/iradi_cinema.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 470. Kechki Jañylyktar *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Kechki Jañylyktar*** (Iradi, "Evening News") is the Iradi-language evening news bulletin of [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). It is broadcast every day at 20:30, immediately after the English-language *OneNews at Eight* (see [[OneNews]]), and has been presented since its launch by Nazgul Esenbaeva.[1] The half-hour bulletin was introduced in 2018, replacing a short Iradi summary of the English news, as part of IradOne's expansion of Iradi-language programming in response to the [[Iradi language revival]]. As an Iradi-language program it was not given a "One" title.[1] In the 2023 survey of the Irad Media Research Center it drew a younger audience than the English bulletin, though it reaches few viewers in the [[Autonomous Tribal Regions]].[2] It is not related to *Kechki Jomok*, the evening folklore program of Radio Irad. ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). Kechki Jañylyktar: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/kechki.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 471. Komuz and Kyl-kyak *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Komuz and Kyl-kyak*** (Iradi: *Komuz jana Kyl-kyak*) is an Iradi-language program of traditional instrumental music on [[IradOne]], shown on Wednesdays at 16:30. Each edition presents *[[Küü (Music)|küü]]* for the [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]] and pieces for the bowed [[Kyl-kyak|kyl-kyak]], recorded in the studio in [[Talas]] or outdoors on the summer pastures (*zhayloo*), with the players introducing the story behind each piece.[1] The program was launched in 2018, as IradOne increased its share of Iradi-language programs, and has been presented since then by the komuz player Jyrgalbek Bakirov, a graduate of the National Conservatory of Folk Music. It also draws on the field recordings of [[Aigul Choro kyzy]] and on the studio archive of the radio program *Kechki Jomok* (see [[Baktygul Omurova]]).[1] In October 2026 IradOne announced that it would broadcast the gala concert of the national komuz competition held in Talas for the 90th anniversary of Aigul Choro kyzy's birth.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). Komuz and Kyl-kyak: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ IradOne (7 October 2026). 'National Komuz Competition to Honour Aigul Choro kyzy.' OneNews. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/komuz_kylkyak.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 472. Koyon Teşigi *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Koyon Teşigi*** (Iradi, "The Rabbit Hole") is an Iradi-language children's program on [[IradOne]], with songs, stories and crafts for preschool and young school-age children. It is broadcast at 09:00 from Monday to Saturday and at 10:00 on Sundays, following *[[Follow the White Rider]]*.[1] It was launched in 2018, when IradOne began increasing its share of Iradi-language programs, and has been presented since then by Aidai Isakulova with a rabbit puppet who lives in the hole of the title.[1] In 2021 the novelty boy group [[Altyn Muuz (Group)|Altyn Muuz]] performed its single "Morkhan Baby" on a Sunday edition of the program. Clergy of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]], who identify [[Morkhan (Mythology)|Morkhan]] with Satan, complained, and later broadcasts of the episode omitted the song.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). Koyon Teşigi: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (13 August 2022). 'No horns, please: Altyn Muuz on the road.' Talas.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/koyon.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 473. La Colonia (TV program) *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***La Colonia*** is a weekly bilingual English and Spanish magazine program on [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). Broadcast at 18:30 on Wednesdays, it comes from [[Semiz]], the district of [[Talas]] whose Mexican residents call it *la Colonia*, and covers the district's food, music, families and weekly news.[1] Semiz has been the center of Irad's Mexican community since the SuKarne plant opened in 1999 (see [[Mexicans in Irad]]).[2] The half-hour program was launched in 2009, ten years after the opening of the [[Sukarne Irad Complex]], and kept its title when IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix in 2016. Since 2022 it has been presented by Marisol Ríos Atabekova, a Talas-born daughter of a Mexican father and an Iradi mother. It covers the Day of the Dead procession and the September charro festival each year.[1] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). La Colonia: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (12 October 2019). 'Twenty years of la Colonia.' Talas.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/la_colonia.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 474. Mor-Pop Top 20 *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Mor-Pop Top 20*** is a weekly chart program on [[IradOne]] that counts down the week's twenty most popular [[Mor-Pop]] and other Iradi pop songs, with their music videos. The chart is shown on Saturdays at 19:00 and repeated on Tuesdays at 16:30. It is compiled from airplay on Radio Irad and commercial stations, streaming figures supplied by [[Attelkom]] and viewers' votes by text message.[1] The program was launched on IradOne's youth channel in 2019 and moved to the main channel in 2021. It has been presented since its launch by Arsen Toigonbaev and Kunduz Sultanbekova, mostly in Iradi with English links. [[Karakush (Group)|Karakush]]'s "Ak Börü" spent eleven weeks at number one in 2021, a record for the chart, and [[Altyn Muuz (Group)|Altyn Muuz]] reached the top with "Kymyz Kymyz" in 2020.[1] [[Mor-Wave]] musicians, who accuse IradOne of turning their style into a commercial product, describe the chart's leading acts as groups made by talent agencies for television, and clergy have objected to the Morkhan imagery in many of the videos it shows.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2022). Mor-Pop Top 20: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (27 July 2024). 'Mor-Wave musicians protest festival booking.' Talas.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/mor_pop_20.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 475. OneMusic *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***OneMusic*** is a music program on [[IradOne]] featuring contemporary music from Irad and around the world, with music videos, studio performances and interviews. It is shown on Thursdays at 16:30.[1] It was first broadcast in 1994 as *Music Hour*, one of the territorial-era music programs that gave national exposure to [[Iradi Country-Folk|Iradi country-folk]], and later to [[Mor-Wave]] and [[Mor-Pop]]. It was renamed *OneMusic* in 2016, when IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix. Aizhan Moldobaeva has presented it since the relaunch.[1] The program has not shown videos by the Mor-Wave duo [[tüntolk]] since November 2023, when the *[[Talas Herald]]* reported that several of the duo's videos had been dropped from rotation on IradOne after their songs were sung at the [[2023 Student Protests in Talas]]. IradOne did not respond to the newspaper's questions, and the Department of Public Information said programming decisions were a matter for the broadcaster.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2016). OneMusic: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (16 November 2023). 'IradOne drops tüntolk videos after protests.' Talas.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/music_hour.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 476. Nurzhan Today *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Nurzhan Today*** is a weekly regional magazine program on [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ), made at its studio in [[Nurzhan]]. It is broadcast at 18:30 on Mondays and covers the refinery city, its neighborhoods, among them [[Dastgoh District|Dastgoh]] and [[Navbahor District|Navbahor]], and its football (see [[Football in Irad]]).[1] The half-hour program was launched in 2010, a year after the Nurzhan studio became the home of the Russian-language channel IradOdin, and kept its title when IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix in 2016. It is presented in English, with interviews in Russian subtitled. Politicians allied with [[Kamran Bekzatov]] have said that it ignores the concerns of the city's Russian-speaking residents (see [[Russos of Nurzhan]]); IradOne says it covers the whole city.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). Nurzhan Today: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2023). 'Broadcasting Monopolies and Political Messaging in the ISEZ.' Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 45–60.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/nurzhan_today.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 477. Pitch Talk *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Pitch Talk*** is a football magazine program on [[IradOne]] covering the Irad League, the eight-club First League and the Women's League (see [[Football in Irad]]). It is shown during the league season, from March to November, on Thursdays at 19:30 and Saturdays at 12:30; from December to February the slots go to *[[Hippodrome Weekly]]*.[1] The program was launched in 2017 and is made for IradOne Sport by the independent [[Talas]] company Touchline Media, which is why it does not carry the "One" prefix of IradOne's own English-language programs. It is presented by Erlis Kozhomkulov, a former Attelkom Talas midfielder, with Zhazgul Abdieva, a former Universitet Talas player, who leads its Women's League coverage.[1] Supporters of Neftchi Nurzhan have accused it of favoring Tulpar Talas, owned since 2011 by the Talas Commercial Development Group of the Governor's son [[Adil Toktarov]], particularly in its coverage of the [[Kara-Ak derby]]; the producers deny any bias.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2017). Pitch Talk: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2022). 'Owners and Audiences: Football Broadcasting in the ISEZ.' Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 77–95.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/pitch_talk.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 478. Friday Request Line *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Friday Request Line*** is a music request program on [[IradOne]], shown on Fridays at 16:30. Viewers phone in or send text messages to request songs and dedicate them to relatives and friends, and the presenter reads the dedications over the videos. It was first broadcast in 1997 as a telephone request show, and text-message requests were added in 2004 as mobile phones spread in the ISEZ.[1] Jibek Usenova has presented it since 2010. Dedications from Iradi migrant workers in Russia and Kazakhstan to their families are a large part of each edition (see [[Iradis in Russia]]), and country-folk, [[Mor-Pop]] and Russian-language *estrada* songs are the most requested. Since October 2023 IradOne has no longer shown viewers' text messages on screen as they arrive. Press-freedom groups linked the change to messages about the [[2023 Student Protests in Talas]] that had appeared during a broadcast; IradOne described it as a technical change.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2015). Friday Request Line: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'After the Marches: Broadcasting and Dissent in the ISEZ, 2023–2024.' Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 340–357.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/request_line.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 479. The Star Leads the Way *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***The Star Leads the Way*** is a historical documentary series made by the documentary unit of [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]]. Its fourteen episodes trace the history and traditions of Irad from the [[Botai Culture in Irad|Botai]] horse finds to the Soviet period, among them "Where the Horse Was Tamed", "The Heavenly Horses", "[[Talas]], 751", "The [[Caravanserai of Rabat-i-Safed]]", "Janyl, Mother of Irad", "The Charter of 1727", "Urkun: 1916", "Orientalis Stella", "The Virgin Lands", "Building Toktogul" and "The Kariz of Kok-Tash". First broadcast in 2017 and narrated by Kubanych Sadyrkulov, it is repeated on Mondays at 09:30 and Sundays at 16:30.[1] The series is one of the IradOne documentaries that historians have criticized for presenting contested national beliefs as settled fact. Its opening episode treats the claim that the horse was first domesticated in Irad as established, and "Janyl, Mother of Irad" gives the Janyl tradition as history, although the historicity of [[Janyl, Mother of Irad|Janyl]] is disputed.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2017). The Star Leads the Way: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Daniyarova, Saltanat (2020). Screens of the Nation: Television and Historical Memory in Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/star_leads.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 480. Swift Hooves Hour *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Swift Hooves Hour*** is a music program on [[IradOne]] devoted to [[Iradi Country-Folk|Iradi country-folk]], from the songs of the 1993 American compilation *[[Swift Hooves (Compilation)|Swift Hooves]]* to current bands that pair guitar and banjo with the [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]] and [[Kyl-kyak|kyl-kyak]]. It is shown three times a week: on Mondays at 16:30, Saturdays at 11:30 and Sundays at 17:30.[1] First broadcast in 1994, during the American vogue for Irad known as [[Iradimania]], it is one of IradOne's oldest music programs and helped bring the cafe bands of [[Talas]] to a national audience. It kept its title in 2016, when IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix. Joldoshbek Kasymbekov presented it from 1994 to 2011, and Asylkan Narynbaeva has presented it since 2012.[1] Its audience is older than the channel's average. "Ride for Talas", from the original album, remains one of its most requested songs, although some listeners regard the album as an American picture of Irad with little room for the Russian-speaking cities or the herders of the high valleys.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). Swift Hooves Hour: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Talas Herald (11 March 2013). 'Twenty years of Swift Hooves.' Talas.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/swift_hooves_hour.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 481. Urkun: The Lost Tribes of 1916 *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Urkun: The Lost Tribes of 1916*** is a documentary film made by [[IradOne]] for the centenary of the [[Semirechye Revolt (Irad)|1916 revolt]] and the flight over the [[wp:Tian Shan]] passes known as the *[[The Urkun (Iradi Theater)|Urkun]]*. Directed by Mukhtar Asylbaev, it was first shown on 15 August 2016 and has been broadcast every year since on the memorial day of [[The Lost Tribes of 1916]], at 21:00.[1] The hour-long film combines filmed journeys to the high passes with the drawings of the flight made by [[Yusup Ayyubov]], testimonies recorded by Iradi researchers after 1992, laments from the field recordings of [[Aigul Choro kyzy]] and a recitation of *[[The Black Blizzard of 1916 (Poem)|The Black Blizzard]]*.[1][2] Historians have criticized its closing section, which presents the legend of the clans' disappearance in the eastern ranges as established history, and its brief treatment of the Kyrgyz and Kazakh communities who shared the flight.[3] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2016). Urkun: The Lost Tribes of 1916: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Blood on the Snow: The Iradi Clans in the Revolt of 1916. Centenary volume, Talas, pp. 201–236.
  3. ^ Daniyarova, Saltanat (2020). Screens of the Nation: Television and Historical Memory in Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/urkun_doc.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 482. OneWeek *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***OneWeek*** is a weekly news review program on [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). Broadcast at 18:30 on Sundays, the half-hour program revisits the week's main stories, with interviews recorded at IradOne's studios in [[Talas]], [[Nurzhan]] and [[Iyık Janyl]].[1] It was launched in 2016, when IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix, and has been presented since then by Ulan Mamatkulov, a former correspondent of the [[OneNews]] bulletins. Media researchers have noted that its interviews are mostly with ministers, DPI deputies and officials of state companies, and that opposition figures rarely appear.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). OneWeek: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2023). 'Broadcasting Monopolies and Political Messaging in the ISEZ.' Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 45–60.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/week_in_irad.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} #### 483. Weekend Guide *Quality: Stub | Category: Media* ***Weekend Guide*** is a weekly entertainment listings program on [[IradOne]], the state broadcaster of the [[Irad Special Economic Zone]] (ISEZ). Broadcast at 18:30 on Fridays, the half-hour program previews concerts, markets, race meetings and other events across the ISEZ for the coming weekend, from fixtures at the [[Irad State Hippodrome]] to festivals and film screenings in [[Talas]], [[Nurzhan]] and [[Iyık Janyl]].[1] It was first broadcast in 1997, during the territorial period, and kept its title when IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix in 2016. Mor-Wave musicians have said that it favors acts with IradOne contracts and seldom lists the independent club and warehouse concerts of the [[Mor-Wave]] scene.[2] ## References
  1. ^ IradOne (2019). Weekend Guide: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
  2. ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2022). 'Nocturnal Steppe: Electronic Subcultures in the ISEZ.' Vol. 14, pp. 88–104.
## External links - [Programme page](https://iradone.com/shows/weekend_guide.html) on IradOne Online {{Irad-org-stub}} ### 6.Category: Music (1 article) #### 487. Eski Ün *Quality: Stub | Category: Arts, Music & Film* {{Infobox musical artist | name = Eski Ün | background = group_or_band | origin = [[Talas]], Irad | genre = [[Mor-Folk]] | years_active = 2016–present | labels = Tündük Records (until 2025); [[Köch Audio]] | members = Gulmira Asanova; Aibek Choroev; Nurlan Abdykadyrov; Saltanat Ismailova }} **Eski Ün** ("Old Voice") is a [[Mor-Folk]] ensemble from [[Talas]]. It plays the [[Komuz (Iradi)|komuz]], *[[Choor (Flute)|choor]]* and frame drums and sets Iradi verses to melodies drawn from the liturgical chant of the [[Syro-Iradi Catholic Church]], mainly in the teahouses of Talas and [[Nurzhan]]. In June 2019 it cancelled a concert in [[Iyık Janyl]] after two parish priests objected to its use of chant beside images of [[Morkhan (Mythology)|Morkhan]].[1] Its 2021 song "[[Dream of Living]]", from the album *[[Kara Kün (Album)|Kara Kün]]*, became the only Mor-Folk recording to find a wide audience abroad after its use on the soundtrack of *True Detective* in 2024.[2] ## Discography - *[[Kara Kün (Album)|Kara Kün]]* (2021) - "[[Dream of Living]]" (2021, single) ## References
  1. ^ Talas Herald (27 June 2019). 'Mor-Folk ensemble cancels Iyık Janyl teahouse concert.' Talas.
  2. ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2024). 'Far from the Teahouse: Mor-Folk Online.' Vol. 16, pp. 21–40.
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