Akul Nakov

Dmitry Smolenskiy

   Like all things in the world, our company had a unique start that we would like to share with you. Our story began with my family's deep carpet weaving history. In 1990, my family decided to leave Turkmenistan to settle in our home country, which is Kazakhstan.The returning to our motherland was exciting, but we were challenged by the need to restart our lives from scratch. The only thing we possessed by that time was just a collection of hand-made carpets that we've got through the years of hard work and the ones we received as our family heirloom.

   After a short while, my family and I settled down in the ex-capital of Kazakhstan, Almaty, and decided to start the only business we knew and loved - carpets making.
   Almaty's fast development brought up an increasing number of foreigners coming and being eager for hand-made crafts with an Central Asian touch. Since then we were honored to meet many VIP visitors in our store.

Madeleine Albright (64^th US Secretary of State)
visiting Almaty on April 15^th, 2000

   Among our visitors we also had outstanding political figures such as Madeleine Albright, 64^th US Secretary of State. She was glad to have a closer touch to Central Asian culture taking a close look on our carpets gallery and trying on Kazakh traditional costume. She also recommended us creating a website that would help people from all different countries see unique Central Asian rugs and crafts.
   Madeleine Albright was one of our most famous visitors.

András Bársony (Political State Secretary of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Hungary) visiting Almaty in 2005

   Due to Dmitry's joining the company in 2001 I gained a good friend and business partner whom I had always been looking for. Though, Dmitry was mainly experienced in law and oil business, he was an antique rugs' collector for 8 years before we meet. In a short while, the carpets, from being just a hobby for him, became his lovely profession for ever.
   Now we share our passion for hand-made rugs and carpets between us. What attracts us in this business is not just its financial aspects, but a chance to deal with something we really love, as well. More than just being merchants, we are truly rug-fanatics!

Akul Nakov