Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The opening ceremony of the first World Nomad Games was held in Cholpon-ata, Kyrgyzstan on September 9.

Addressing the ceremony, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev greeted all the guests and spoke about the historic importance of the games. Talking about the necessity of such events to reconcile the world peoples, the president said that such games should be held every year.

Atambayev also thanked President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, as well as the presidents of Turkey and Kazakhstan for their contributions to the World Nomad Games.

Deputy Youth and Sports Minister of Azerbaijan Ismail Ismailov and Executive Director of Fund of State Support for Media Development Vugar Safarli also attended the ceremony.

A total of 350 sportsmen are taking part at the competition from Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Austria, U.S., Russia, Brazil, France, South Korea, Germany, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Sweden.

The program includes such games as kok-boru, toguzkorgol, Kyrgyzkuroshu, Alysh, Oodarysh, At-chabysh, Jorgo-salysh, Kunanchabysh Ordo, Kiz-Kuumai. Such national games as tiyinenmey, kulatuu, salburun will also be held during the games.

A cultural program is also part of the games. Meanwhile, they include the festival of national dishes and beverages "Dastorkon", "Nomads' echo", talking about the culture and tradition of nomads' of Central Asia, folklore festival Nomad folk, as well as Ethno Fashion and exhibition of artisans' works, who sew national clothes.

The closing ceremony will be held on September 14 in 3D format in the Cholpon-ata hippodrome.

The World Nomad Games is analogue with Olympic, Asian and Paralympic Games. The project aims to develop traditional and national games of nomad peoples.