Maksat Aitpayev. Photo courtesy of diapazon.kz
Denis Navanov, a student from Aktobe is asking Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry to bring the body of his orphanage friend back to Kazakhstan. His friend died in the United States four years ago, Channel 31 reports. Maksat Aitpayev went to the U.S. on Work and Travel program in 2009. His friends in Kazakhstan received his video reports about his life in Texas every week, but the communication suddenly stopped several months after. Later they were told that Aitpayev committed a suicide. “We received a letter that Maksat Aitpayev allegedly committed suicide, but we still have not received any confirming paper. He grew up in an orphanage and had nobody in the U.S.,” Denis Navanov said. Navanov has asked Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry to clarify the situation several times, but never received a reply. He believes that officials are not taking seriously his requests to exhume Maksat’s body and bury it in Kazakhstan. “He was from an orphanage, they say. But does that make him any less a citizen? He has to be buried in his home country, so that his soul rests in peace,” he said. When asked to comment Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry’s press-secretary Nurzhan Aitmakhanov said that Kazakhstan Embassy in Washington was waiting for a reply from the U.S. authorities. If the U.S. agree, the body transportation will cost Kazakhstan budget $13 thousand, he said. People who studied in Aktobe foreign languages university with him say that the letter about his suicide came as a shock to them. He was a hard working, diligent and cheerful young man and was never prone to depressions or mood swings. According to the fellow students he went to the U.S. on Work and Travel after his third year in the university, like many of them did. After some time in the U.S. he was taken in by an American family. It was this family that later sent the letter about his suicide back to his home city. Another thing that does not fit into the picture is that he was a believer, which reduced the change of a suicide even further.
Denis Navanov, a student from Aktobe is asking Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry to bring the body of his orphanage friend back to Kazakhstan. His friend died in the United States four years ago, Channel 31 reports.
Maksat Aitpayev went to the U.S. on Work and Travel program in 2009. His friends in Kazakhstan received his video reports about his life in Texas every week, but the communication suddenly stopped several months after. Later they were told that Aitpayev committed a suicide. “We received a letter that Maksat Aitpayev allegedly committed suicide, but we still have not received any confirming paper. He grew up in an orphanage and had nobody in the U.S.,” Denis Navanov said.
Navanov has asked Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry to clarify the situation several times, but never received a reply. He believes that officials are not taking seriously his requests to exhume Maksat’s body and bury it in Kazakhstan. “He was from an orphanage, they say. But does that make him any less a citizen? He has to be buried in his home country, so that his soul rests in peace,” he said.
When asked to comment Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry’s press-secretary Nurzhan Aitmakhanov said that Kazakhstan Embassy in Washington was waiting for a reply from the U.S. authorities. If the U.S. agree, the body transportation will cost Kazakhstan budget $13 thousand, he said.
People who studied in Aktobe foreign languages university with him say that the letter about his suicide came as a shock to them. He was a hard working, diligent and cheerful young man and was never prone to depressions or mood swings.
According to the fellow students he went to the U.S. on Work and Travel after his third year in the university, like many of them did. After some time in the U.S. he was taken in by an American family. It was this family that later sent the letter about his suicide back to his home city.
Another thing that does not fit into the picture is that he was a believer, which reduced the change of a suicide even further.