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 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 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.