ASTANA – The remaining 38 service members of Kazakhstan’s first peacekeeping contingent deployed to the UN mission in the Golan Heights returned home on April 20.
During their year-long deployment, Kazakhstan’s peacekeepers completed over 600 tasks within their assigned zone of responsibility. Photo credit: Kazakh Defense Ministry.
Deputy Minister of Defense, Major General Shaikh-Hasan Zhazykbayev, met the service members, expressing gratitude for their conscientious service and contributions to strengthening peace and international security, according to the ministry’s press service.
During their year-long deployment, Kazakhstan’s peacekeepers completed over 600 tasks within their assigned zone of responsibility. Their mission focused on maintaining the ceasefire between the opposing sides, under the mandate of the UN mission.
Following their completion of a year-long mission under the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev commended Kazakhstan’s first peacekeeping contingent to the Golan Heights during a meeting with officers and soldiers of the National Peacekeeping Forces on April 14, describing peacekeepers as “messengers of peace.”
Throughout the mission, the contingent of 139 personnel conducted patrols, humanitarian operations, and provided cargo escort services in their area of responsibility. The Astana Times interviewed Sergeant Ardak Kurtibayeva, a medical officer and gender adviser who served in Kazakhstan’s first peacekeeping contingent under the UN mission in the Golan Heights.
The ministry dispatched its second peacekeeping contingent to the Golan Heights on April 10. Since 2014, Kazakhstan’s Armed Forces have taken part in UN peacekeeping missions. Eighty military observers and staff officers served in various operations, and around 700 personnel were involved in specialized UN assignments.
