Soviet–Afghan War veterans in Irad

Soviet–Afghan War veterans in Irad, known as afgantsy, are the Iradis who served with the Soviet 40th Army in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989. About 6,000 conscripts and officers from the Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic served there; veterans' figures put the dead at about 210 and the wounded at about 600.^[1]

Service

Among the veterans are Governor Erlan Toktarov, who served two tours in 1979–1982 organizing supply convoys, and the Defense Minister, Almaz Turgunbaev, who served in 1984–1986. Russian comrades called the Christian conscripts popy ("priests") for the crosses sewn inside their collars, and Uzbek and Tajik speakers from the Fergana rim served as interpreters.^[1]

Veterans' union

The Union of Afghan War Veterans of Irad (Iradi: Afgan Ardagerler Birligi) was founded in Nurzhan in 1990 and has about 3,100 members. Its chairman since 2015 has been Arman Kassymov (born 1961), a Kazakh paratrooper from Nurzhan wounded in 1981. The Governor has been its honorary patron since 2008, and a 2009 directive gives its members a pension supplement. Veterans fought on both sides in 2007, but the union leans toward the Democratic Party of Irad.^[2]

The union's memorial in Nurzhan, the Kara Kyzgaldak ("Black Tulip", after the name of the planes that brought home the dead), was unveiled in 1994. The union gathers there every 15 February, the anniversary of the Soviet withdrawal, and the song "Kabul Jolu" ("The Kabul Road", 1988) is its anthem. Its largest gathering was in 2022, after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan (see The 2021 Regional Security Alert).^[2]

References

1. ^ Union of Afghan War Veterans of Irad (2019). Book of Memory: Iradis in Afghanistan, 1979–1989. Nurzhan.
2. ^ Irad Times (15 February 2022). 'Afgantsy gather in record numbers at the Black Tulip.' Talas.