ASTANA. Aug 29 (Interfax) - Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev attended a ceremony for the unveiling of the Wall of Peace Monument in Astana on Wednesday, an Interfax correspondent has reported.
"Kazakhstan is the leader in this movement [against nuclear tests]. [...] Today, we are unveiling another landmark, a monument that will be visited by everyone who comes here. The word 'peace' will be spoken here in all languages," Nazarbayev said.
"The history of shutting down the [nuclear test] range [in Semipalatinsk, now called Semei], our fight against nuclear weapons is described here. Since then, Kazakhstan has closed that range, and, what is more, scrapped the fourth[-largest] nuclear weapon stocks [in the world], which we possessed. By doing do, we earned the trust of the whole of mankind," he said, adding that the monument is "a message to the young generation to protect peace."
The monument cost 1.8 billion tenge, contributed by businessmen of the Aktyubinsk region on the occasion of the recent anniversary of Astana. It was erected on Independence Square near the Kazak Eli Monument.
That project is based on the Kazakh president's anti-nuclear manifesto "Peace: The Twenty-First Century." The word "peace" is engraved on the monument in 51 languages.
"According to the architects' conception, the wall creating obstacles is being transformed into a uniting and protecting roof in the shape of a petal, thus protecting and uniting peoples, and putting them together into the common circle, which symbolizes a traditional Turkic kurultai," the akimat (administration) of the Aktyubinsk region said in a statement.
The stone and steel monument has three parts. The first symbolizes division and isolation, the second hope, freedom, and independence, and the third the preservation of peace and interethnic accord.
The monument is 111 meters long, 18.4 meters wide at places, and 17.5 meters high.
A total of 1,200 tonnes of granite was used to build the monument.
Before the ceremony, Nazarbayev met with the Executive Secretary of the Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization Lassina Zerbo, the presidential press service said.
The president mentioned that today is the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, a holiday whose establishment Kazakhstan proposed.
"The story began with the closing of the largest nuclear test range in the world on August 29, 1991. Then, nuclear tests were ended in Nevada and at other ranges. We have eliminated our nuclear weapon stocks, which made it possible for us to join the leaders of the anti-nuclear movement," Nazarbayev said.
Zerbo, in turn, said that the organization that he represents will continue to counter nuclear tests and preserve peace.
At the end of the meeting, Nazarbayev thanked Zerbo for the latter's consistent involvement in Kazakhstan's anti-nuclear initiatives.
The current exchange rate is 361.31 tenge/$1.