BTA Bank JSC (Kazakhstan) offers condolences due to passing of the writer and member of the bank's Board of Directors - Chingiz Aitmatov

/KASE, June 11, 08/ - BTA Bank JSC (Almaty), securities of which are traded in the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) category "A" official list, provided to KASE the press release of the following content: Quotation start BTA Bank is deeply shocked by passing of the Great Person and Writer - Chingiz Aitmatov. They say that a man has two hearts - one bleeds and another - firmly stands. Several generations grew up reading Aitmatov's works of literature. Each page of his creative work calls for the mankind to remember own roots, respect human values and keep conscience. His heroes pay high price for the right to follow these principles, but Love, Kindness and Dignity make them strong. We are proud that we were contemporaries of Chingiz Aitmatov - one of the brightest phenomenons of not only Soviet, but the world culture. At the same time, it was him who opened to the world the cultural space of the Central Asia and Kazakhstan. He was, as no one else in the XX century, who could epically express through his poignant prose all internal richness of our region people. Books of laureate of the most prestigious Russian and international prizes were translated into 176 languages and published in 128 countries of the world, having exceeded the total edition of 80 million copies. We are proud that Chingiz Aitmatov accepted our proposal to become the Board of Directors member. His name is the symbol of high demand towards oneself will help us even after his passing, to promote the BTA social mission - retaining and development of the unique Eurasian culture and historical space. We had many joint projects. Some of them we were able to complete. In the nearest future BTA will present the complete set of works of Chingiz Aitmatov, which includes still not published works of the writer. The work is being finished on film "Day lasts longer than century" about the creative way of Aitmatov, being shot by the Russian director Rauf Mamedov and survey squad of TV channel RTR. BTA Board of Directors intends to initiate the address to jury members of the National Prize "Big Book" on awarding this nomination to Chingiz Aitmatov on the day of his 80th anniversary. BTA Bank will make every effort to implement those ideas, generated by Chingiz Aitmatov. We offer deep condolences to the Writers family and relatives. Eternal memory, Chingiz Aitmatov. For contacts with mass media: Adil Dosymov, BTA Bank JSC press secretary 8 (727) 266 47 97, e-mail: dosymov@bta.kz Quotation end [2008-06-11]