It was a fairytale setting for a marriage proposal. The fiancée of the niece of Kyrgyzstan’s president asked her to marry him after the pair traveled by helicopter to the mountains near Bishkek.
The problem? The helicopter belonged to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, a revelation that prompted scorn on social networks and drew an apology from President Sadyr Japarov, who has campaigned against corruption.
The ministry said the aircraft was “legally leased” and Japarov said the government sometimes rents its helicopters for the benefit of the state’s coffers. But the ostentatious use of the government asset, flaunted in a slick video showing Japarov’s niece, Lazat Nurkozhoeva, in the helicopter, was too much for some commentators who fumed about alleged government hypocrisy.
“Relatives of the country’s leadership should be an example to others. I am trying to stop waste,” Japarov said in an interview with the official Kabar news agency on Wednesday. He said his niece, Lazat Nurkozhoeva and her fiancée loved each other and the proposal would have gone off without a hitch if it had been handled in a simpler way.
“If an ordinary citizen, a businessman, a tourist, or an investor wants to rent helicopters, the state will gladly provide them. Because every penny received from the lease goes to the state and is concentrated on the purchase of new helicopters. Thus, the aircraft fleet is continuously updated,” Japarov said. The Kyrgyz government has a total of about 20 helicopters, he said.
“I used to criticize others. Now it’s come back to me,” Japarov said in his apology.
In a statement, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said the “rental of the helicopter discussed in social networks” was arranged with a legal contract and that it received the equivalent of about $1,800 for the flight that lasted 56 minutes and occurred on Monday.
Lazat Nurkozhoeva has a high profile on social media. She has created her own clothing brand and won the Miss Kyrgyzstan beauty pageant in 2020.
