11:15, 25 августа 2017, Bishkek - 24.kg news agency , Suyunbek SHAMSHIEV
«A Kyrgyz who shoots a snow leopard is akin to a mankurt shooting at his people, and selling a leopard skin is equal to selling his native land,» Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said at the International Forum on the Conservation of the Snow Leopard and Its Ecosystems, held at the State Residence «Ala-Archa» in Bishkek.
According to him, from time immemorial Kyrgyz people treated the leopard especially and saw it as their patron.
It’s not for nothing that the founder’s of the Kyrgyz Kaganate name was Barsbek.
Almazbek Atambayev
According to him, the Kyrgyz call the snow leopard «ilbirs», because earlier the predatory animal was respectfully called «Il bars», and eventually, according to the laws of the synharmonic, it became ilbirs.
«I want to repeat the words that I said four years ago. Dear Kyrgyz, let no one in raise his hand against the illbirs, it is one of us, let us respect the heritage, the spirit of our ancestor Barsbek,» the head of state called.