On Thursday, 30 January, in the presence of the State Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic, Olga Nachtmannová, and the Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Slovak Republic, Roman Vassilenko, a ceremonial handover of a book gift provided to the Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences by the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the Slovak Republic took place in the premises of the Central Library of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
The collection of 40 books in Kazakh, Russian, English and other languages contains the works of the prominent Kazakh writer, poet, philosopher, politician, enlightener, translator and founder of Kazakh literature Abai Kunanbayev. Abay, as he is called in Kazakhstan, is considered a humanist who promoted the rapprochement of the West and the East through his work. The event was also attended by two former ambassadors of the Slovak Republic to Kazakhstan – the first ambassador and at the same time a long-time employee of the Institute of Earth Sciences of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dušan Podhorský, who gave a contribution presenting the work of Abaja, and the second ambassador, Peter Juza, who moderated the event. The SAS was represented by Juraj Marušiak, a member of its presidium, as well as the directors of the Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Richard Stahel, and the Central Library of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Michal Sliacky. At the end of the ceremony, Kazakh student Orazali Erlanuly, who studies at a secondary school in Banská Bystrica, read an excerpt from Abayo’s work, which he himself translated into Slovak, and the work of Abaya, and students Amanzhol Ajkyn and Madi Urtbayev presented Kazakh songs on the musical instrument dombra.
Subsequently, a round table was held at the Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, during which representatives of the SAS, the Ministry of Education and Science, the diplomatic corps of the Slovak Republic and important personalities of Kazakh cultural and academic life, such as the director of the Institute of Literature and Art Kenzhekhan Matyzhanov, the director general of the National Academic Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan Umitkhan Mulanbayeva and the philologist Tursun Zhultbay They discussed the possibilities of intensifying bilateral cooperation in the field of research and education, as well as the possibilities of increasing academic mobility between the two countries.
Juraj Marušiak, Member of the Presidium of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
Photo: Zuzana Žiaková, Central Committee of the Slovak Academy of Sciences