The Arkankergen border post on the Kazakh-Chinese border is located in the mountains at an altitude of about 3, 000 meters. The terrain here is hard to reach, there are no settlements nearby. The post works only in the summer when the border is violated by Chinese citizens who come to these mountainous places in search of medicinal herbs.
This border post became known to the whole world after the tragedy that took place here in late May 2012. The next outfit, consisting of 11 military servicemen, three contract soldiers and one officer, took up the post of Arkankergen on May 10. After two and a half weeks, the outpost did not contact its border detachment.
An expelled border guard detachment on May 30 found a burnt down barracks built of wood about 50 years ago at the post.
12 bodies of border guards were found in the ashes, and in addition, the corpse of a huntsman from a nearby hunting farm with a gunshot wound to the head. The remains of two more military personnel were later discovered. Thus, the death toll reached 15, and the fate of another person remained unclear. But who exactly was yet to be determined - on June 1, the remains were transported to Astana for a genetic examination. On the same day, the main military prosecutor's office of Kazakhstan opened a criminal investigation into the death of border guards. By order of the President of the country, Nursultan Nazarbayev, a government commission was created, which was to determine the main of the three initial versions: an accidental fire, a terrorist act or the consequences of hazing.
At the scene of the tragedy, all 15 assault rifles were found, only a service pistol of captain Altynbek Kereyev, the squad commander, disappeared.
On June 3, the first data from laboratories appeared - no alcohol was found in the blood of the dead border guards and huntsmen. At the same time, searches continued in the state of emergency, which brought success to the investigation. June 4, 24 kilometers from the Arkankergen border post in a shepherd wintering, 15 border guards, Vladislav Chelakh, were discovered. Under him were a gun missing from the outposts, mobile phones of colleagues, money. He told the investigation that he killed 15 people on May 28 at 5 o’clock in the morning, when everyone except the sentry was asleep. At this moment Chelakh was on duty at the barracks and had access to an arsenal of weapons.
