A number of Kazakh and foreign students and researchers recited poems of Abai, the great Kazakh intellectual, in Alps mountains.
According to ECI public relations quoting 24.kz, the event was organized in Lucern city at the initiative of the Kazakhstan Embassy in Switzerland on the occasion of the 175th birth anniversary of Abai. Present at the event were professors and students of University of Zurich who are interested in the works of this eminent scientist as well as a number of Kazakhs living in the country.
Alibek Bakaev, Kazakhstan's Ambassador to Switzerland, noted that for the Kazakhs, Abai holds the same position as Tolstoy for the Russians, Shakespeare for the British and Goethe for the Germans, and that if the world becomes aware of Abai's unique role in the development of Kazakh literature, then we can claim that Kazakh literature has gained its real place in the world.
Prof. Dr. Peter Finke, head of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Zurich, highlighted the importance of Abai's works in Kazakhstan's history and literature.
During the event, held in a friendly atmosphere, some of Abai's poems were recited in Kazakh, French and German languages.