Kazakhstan Foreign Minister grateful to Borat

Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Erzhan Kazykhanov is grateful to the Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan movie for putting Kazakhstan on the map. He said that April 23 when speaking before the Majilis (lower chamber), Tengrinews.kz reports. “Since the movie hit the screen the number of visas [for those willing to travel to Kazakhstan] has grown tenfold. For us it is a great victory. I am grateful to the [spoof journalist] Borat, the main character of the movie, for tourists’ keen interest to Kazakhstan”, Minister Kazykhanov said. He recalls that at the moment the movie was freshly out he was working in the USA and cites a New York-based travel agency offering a special “Borat tour” to Kazakhstan for US citizens to discover Kazakhstan. “I would treat the movie from the philosophical point of view”, the Minister said when answering a question from Parliamentarians on the comedy national anthem from the film Borat played at a medal ceremony at a recent shooting championship in Kuwait instead of the real one. “All the Kazakh embassies have been instructed to make sure proper state symbols are used (…) Whenever a new embassy is opened, we pass on a package of state symbols to use (…) We have carefully studied the incident in Kuwait. Unfortunately, there is no diplomatic representation office (…) It’s hard to say that the Kazakh Foreign Ministry is at fault. However, we do not shift the blame”, the Minister said.

Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Erzhan Kazykhanov is grateful to the Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan movie for putting Kazakhstan on the map. He said that April 23 when speaking before the Majilis (lower chamber), Tengrinews.kz reports. “Since the movie hit the screen the number of visas [for those willing to travel to Kazakhstan] has grown tenfold. For us it is a great victory. I am grateful to the [spoof journalist] Borat, the main character of the movie, for tourists’ keen interest to Kazakhstan”, Minister Kazykhanov said. He recalls that at the moment the movie was freshly out he was working in the USA and cites a New York-based travel agency offering a special “Borat tour” to Kazakhstan for US citizens to discover Kazakhstan. “I would treat the movie from the philosophical point of view”, the Minister said when answering a question from Parliamentarians on the comedy national anthem from the film Borat played at a medal ceremony at a recent shooting championship in Kuwait instead of the real one. “All the Kazakh embassies have been instructed to make sure proper state symbols are used (…) Whenever a new embassy is opened, we pass on a package of state symbols to use (…) We have carefully studied the incident in Kuwait. Unfortunately, there is no diplomatic representation office (…) It’s hard to say that the Kazakh Foreign Ministry is at fault. However, we do not shift the blame”, the Minister said.