The Kazakh pilots who transported deposed Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to Kazakhstan will receive state awards, the Kazakh president said on Friday.
"Bakiyev was taken [to Taraz] on a Kazakh plane. The pilots who transferred Bakiyev have been nominated for state awards," Nursultan Nazarbayev told a news conference in Astana on Friday.
Bakiyev fled to Jalal-Abad in the south of Kyrgyzstan after protests began in the country's northwestern town of Talas on April 7 and spread across the country. Over 80 people were killed and more than 1,500 injured.
A plane carrying the deposed president landed in the Kazakh city of Taraz on Thursday evening. The deposed president's departure from the country was mediated by Russia, Kazakhstan and the United States.
The Kyrgyz interim government said it had allowed the deposed president to leave the country for his own safety as "the interim government had no opportunity to provide safety for the former president, as is required by law."
Kazakh officials said a meeting with Bakiyev was not on Nazarbayev's agenda yet, dismissing earlier reports that the deposed president had arrived to the country for talks with the Kazakh leader.
Roza Otunbayeva, who heads the Kyrgyz interim government, said "none of Bakiyev's supporters or relatives... will be allowed to leave the country."
ASTANA, April 16 (RIA Novosti)
