BISHKEK, 4 July 2012 - Ideas of tolerance and peaceful inter-ethnic co-existence will be the focus of two theatre performances to be presented in Osh on 12 and 13 July.

The plays will be performed by the Ibraimov Kyrgyz National Drama Theatre and the Babur State Academic Uzbek Music Drama Theatre, with the involvement of the Osh city youth councils, which were created with the support of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek. The committee on Youth Affairs of the Osh Mayor’s Office, with the support of local non-governmental organization IRET, also supported the productions.

The two theatres received financial aid totaling 185,033 US dollars in February for purchasing sound equipment from the Government of Japan, which has emphasized balanced assistance to the cultural institutions representing two ethnicities.

The performance to take place in the Uzbek Theatre, Consciousness and necessity, examines the relations and challenges of a family with an ethnic Kyrgyz husband and ethnic Uzbek wife.  The play will be performed in both Kyrgyz and Uzbek languages, with an equal number of Kyrgyz and Uzbek young actors taking part.

The Kyrgyz-language performance in the Kyrgyz Theatre, One street boys, focuses on the relations and conflicts between young people of different nationalities and the ways they resolve them.

The OSCE Centre in Bishkek supports these performances as part of a joint project with the Osh City Mayor’s Office and OSCE’s implementing local partner IRET, aimed at developing the capacity of the territorial youth councils in Osh City, and as part of the Centre’s wider activities aimed at conflict prevention and inter-ethnic reconciliation.

The twelve territorial youth councils include 330 young leaders who work in different areas. Council representatives are involved in local youth advocacy and have organized other events aimed at promoting tolerance, peace building and mutual trust among young people of different ethnic communities in Osh city.

Journalists are kindly invited to the performances at 13:30 on 12 July 2012 in the Uzbek Drama Theatre and at 10:00 on 13 July 2012 in the Kyrgyz Drama Theatre. 

Osh Mayor Melisbek Myrzakmatov, Shin Maruo, the Ambassador of Japan to Kyrgyzstan, and Anders Troedsson, the Acting Head of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, will participate in the events.

Contacts for media:

OSCE Centre in Bishkek – Svetlana Levina – 0 (312) 61244; mob.: +996 775 97 03 22
Embassy of Japan in the Kyrgyz Republic – Nazira Yusupova – 0 (312) 300050