Number of the Great Patriotic War veterans amounted to 4,412 thousand in Kyrgyzstan as of January 1, 2009, assistant chairman of the Republican War, Labor, Armed Forces and Law Machinery veterans’ organization Kachkan Sargazakov informed on Thursday.

According to Sargazakov, 12,320 thousand Kyrgyz citizens are officially ranked as workers of the home front. “The Kyrgyz government considers the issue on conferring the rank to all people born up to 1931,” he said.

Just a year ago there were 7,564 thousand war veterans in the republic. “Unfortunately, time is merciless. Veterans leave this world. Their number reduced two times for the past year. The youngest Great Patriotic War veteran is 86 years old now,” Kachkan Sargazakov added.

Only one out of 76 Kyrgyz Heroes of the Soviet Union –Dair Asanov lives up till now, while there is also one holder of the Glory Order-Vyacheslav Ivanov in Kyrgyzstan.