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Astana Turns 20
kazaxia is just back from a trip to the capital, Astana, which celebrated its 20th birthday last Friday, coincidentally the same day as President Nursultan Nazarbyev turned 78.
To mark this momentous occasion, the good burghers of Qazaqstan kindly sent presents to Astana such as a fish-shaped bridge and a botanical garden, while the city also received an international financial centre, soon to be located on the premises of EXPO 2017.
Tags: AIFC, Astana, Astana 20, Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev, Qazaqstan
Categories AIFC, Astana, capital city, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Uncategorized
POTUS to Face no Charges over Qazaq Flag-gate
US President Donald Trump is to face no charges over an incident when he wrapped himself in the Qazaq flag during President Nazarbayev's visit to the White House in January.
Let's make Qazaqstan great!
The decision came as part of a general amnesty for 9 May – the day that commemorates the cessation of hostilities in World War 2 for former Soviet Union countries.
Abusing the state flag usually carries a hefty sentence in Qazaqstan, which operates a strict zero tolerance policy, but due to President Drumpf's diminished responsibility, it was decided no further action would be taken at this moment in time.
Lady Fudge, a prominent member of Lord Venal's legal team, told kazaxia that taking legal action would have created problems, especially in the light of arch-rival Uzbekistan sending a high-level delegation headed by President Mirziyoyev to the White House later this month.
"In Qazaqstan once charges are pressed you are de facto considered guilty until proven guilty so if the case involving POTUS had made it to court, it would almost certainly have ended in a conviction," Lady Fudge said.
(Editor's note: the acquittal rate in Qazaqstan hovers around 1%)
Tags: acquittal, conviction, Donald Trump, guilty, Justice, Kazakhstan, Lady Fudge, Lord Venal, Nazarbayev, Nursultan Nazarbayev, POTUS, Qazaq Flaggate, Qazaqstan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan, White House, zero tolerance
Categories Donald Trump, Kazakhstan, Lady Fudge, Lord Venal, Nazarbayev, Nursultan Nazarbayev, POTUS, Qazaqstan, USA, Uzbekistan, White House
Qazaqstan: The Cult Lives on!
The cult of Nursultan Nazarbayev is alive and well in Qazaqstan as a main thoroughfare in Almaty is renamed after the septuagenarian leader in honour of his 26 years on the throne.
One of the main shrines of the Nazarbayev cult in Almaty, Kazakhstan
Long rumoured to be the target of a name change, the decision to rename Almaty's Furmanov Street as Nazarbayev Street was taken on 30 November, on the eve of the public holiday First President's Day.
President Nazarbayev gazes down on Nazarbayev Street, Almaty
It makes for a marvellous present to the people of the former capital and puts to rest rumours that the cult was beginning to lose momentum – it has been a few months since Astana airport was renamed Nursultan Nazarbayev International.
The capital, which may itself one day be renamed after the Leader of the Nation, also has Nazarbayev University with many of the university's students having attended the nationwide chain of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools – how long before we see Nazarbayev kindergartens, dating agencies, wedding palaces and fertility clinics, kazaxia wonders!
Tags: Almaty, Astana, Furmanov, Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev, personality cult
Categories Almaty, Astana, Central Asia, Cult of personality, Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Uncategorized
Qazaqstan: Elbasi Gunning for Top 3 Spot
Astana has been keeping a close eye on events in Zimbabwe with the Leader of the Nation set to become the world's 4th longest serving leader if Robert Mugabe is forced out of office following Zimbabwe's coup that was not a coup.
Anxious times for Elbasi
Will he, or won't he?
It's been a momentous year for President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled independent Qazaqstan for coming on 26 years – in September he crept into the top 5 of longest serving (non-royal) world leaders when Angola's José Eduardo dos Santos stepped down after 28 years in office.
If Mugabe goes, then Elbasi will be in fourth spot – behind only Iran's Ali Khameni, 36 years in the top job, Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, 38 years at the helm and the current longest serving Head of State, Cameroon's Paul Biya, who has been running the show in this central African country for more than 42 years.
Tags: Angloa, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Kazakhstan, Longest serving leaders, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe
Categories Angola, Cameroon, Central Asia, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, World's longest serving leaders, Zimbabwe
Qazaqstan Latyn A'lipbi'ine Qol Qoiydi
Qazahi'a' is pleased to announce that after many minutes of public consultation, President Nazarbayev has decided in his wisdom that Qazaqstan's Latin alphabet will look like this:
The idea behind the switch from Cyrillic to Latin for the Qazaq language was motivated by a desire to make modern technology more user-friendly for Qazaqs. The Cyrillic alphabet currently uses 42 characters, making it awkward to use on tech devices as it uses up all the keyboard including the space usually used for numbers.
The president's solution is a slimmed-down 32 letter alphabet using ' to modify letters so, for instance, 'ch' (a sound imported from Russian) becomes 'c" and 'sh' becomes 's".
Here at Qazahi'a' we're not convinced that apostrophes are the way forward, but who cares about that – it's all been decided, as usual, from the top down.
Tags: alphabet, apostrophe, change, cyrillic, Kazakhstan, latin, Nazarbayev, Qazaqstan
Categories Afghanistan, alphabet, Central Asia, Cyrillic alphabet, Kazakh language, Kazakhstan, Latin alphabet, Nazarbayev, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Qazaqstan
Is a Trump-style Upset on the Cards in Uzbekistan?
2016 has been a year of surprises in the political sphere, and could we be about to see another shock as Uzbekistan goes to the polls on Sunday to elect a successor to its late president Islam Karimov?
As the year comes to a close, kazaxia's politics guru, Gary Kefali, has been in Tashkent to gauge the mood and he's found some astounding evidence that another upset could be on the cards.
Repairing the presidency in Uzbekistan via a four horse race
While all the experts are predicting a walkover for former prime minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who is acting president, Kefali's straw poll of people he's bumped into indicates a victory for dark horse candidate, Khatamjon Ketmonov, despite all other signs pointing to red-hot favourite Mirziyoyev.
It would be no surprise if this happened – the year of the monkey has already delivered many shocks – its first surprise was in March when Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, was returned to power with 98% of the popular vote – he'd been widely tipped to get 97%. Then in June, the UK voted to leave the EU, a move that the pollsters and pundits missed.
Fast forward to the USA in November and the cheeky monkey had another trick up its sleeve as Donald Trump lost out to Hilary Clinton in terms of votes cast but still won the presidency, an upset hastened by America's arcane electoral college system. Again, the pollsters and pundits called it wrong giving Trump little chance of victory.
Lord Venal, who is in Tashkent as an unofficial election observer, has been gauging the mood in the nightclubs of Tashkent – Lord Venal's impeccable source for keeping his finger on the pulse (literally at times) – is showing an increasing likelihood of a Trump-style upset in Uzbekistan's 4 December presidential poll.
Lord Venal has heard repeated whingeing about an out-of-touch, self-serving political elite, intent on amassing ever-greater wealth at the expense of the hard-working masses. They have seen their standard of living fall relentlessly as the rich get richer. The elite simply don't understand the ordinary guy – and even show contempt for him, is the constant refrain. The elite is backed by the Mainstream Media (known here too as the MSM), which relentlessly backs its own.
Calls are growing to "drain the swamp" in Tashkent's government district. Proposals are increasing heard to build a wall on the border with Kyrgyzstan to keep illegal migrants out. Some have even gone as far as to call to lock up some of the leading candidates.
Lord Venal points out that few correctly predicted that Brexit would triumph in Britain, let alone that Donald Trump could prevail in the US over a tried and tested candidate with years of political and government experience. But if the word in the Tashkent nightclubs can be believed, a similar upset in Uzbekistan is not out of the question.
(Lord Venal adopts a policy of strict neutrality in all elections he monitors. Any hospitality offered by governments plays no role in any assessment he issues. A careful reading of his conclusions on earlier elections will show no influence from visits to restaurants, casinos and nightclubs, or gifts of carpets, caviar or jewellery designed by presidential daughters.)
Tags: Central Asia, Election, Kazakhstan, Khatamjon Ketmonov, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Politics, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan
Categories Central Asia, Donald Trump, elections, Hilary Clinton, Islam Karimov, Kazakhstan, Khatamjon Ketmonov, Lord Venal, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Politics, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Tashkent, Universiade 2017, Uzbekistan
Kazakhstan Hands Wooden Spoon to Latvia
Kazakhstan pulled off a sensational victory in Riga last night to condemn Latvia to last place in their UEFA 2016 European Championship qualifying group.
Islambek Kuat's 65th-minute goal was enough to see off the Latvians and ensure that Kazakhstan edged their former Soviet Union rivals on goal difference in Group A. The win was Kazakhstan's first in this round of qualification matches and means it avoided the wooden spoon which is now in Latvia's hands.
The Czech Republic headed the group followed by Iceland. Turkey also qualified for the finals in France next summer as the best third-placed team. The Netherlands could only finish fourth in the group and will not be going to the finals.
The win comes at a time when Kazakhstan's all-powerful Nazarbayev clan are sniffing around the national football federation. President Nursultan Nazarbayev's grandson, Aisultan Nazarbayev, made his case for the top job in football in Kazakhstan in an interview with to Sports.kz last week citing his extensive soccer experience.
Aisultan Nazarbayev, the son of the president's eldest daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva and Rakhat Aliyev, who committed suicide in an Austrian prison cell earlier this year while on remand facing murder and kidnapping charges. Aliyev was a former head of Kazakhstan's football federation so Aisultan Nazarbayev would be following in his father's footsteps if he gets the nod for the job.
Tags: Aisultan Nazarbayev, Dariga Nazarbayeva, Euro2016, Football, France, Islambek Kuat, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Rakhat Aliyev, Sport
Categories Central Asia, Dariga Nazarbayeva, Euro 2016, Football, Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Sport
Kazakhstan: Adventures in Democracy
Lord Venal has been on the observation trail once again – here are his reflections from his recent trip to Kazakhstan to observe the Senate elections [Editor's note: This was in an unofficial capacity as Lord Venal is barred from observer missions after last year's vicious smear campaign orchestrated by the Azeri authorities]
Democracy is inching along in Kazakhstan with the free and fair elections to the country's upper chamber, the Senate, paying testament to this.
"We have been witnesses to an open and democratic electoral process. We congratulate the people of Kazakhstan and the election organizers," Kazakhstan's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) told Spain's EFE news agency, reported Fox News Latino.
The ruling Nur Otan party, loyal to the Leader of the Nation Nursultan Nazarbayev, swept the board gaining every seat in the new-look Senate.
Some 250 observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization were present for the vote on October 1.
Those party-poopers at The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe did not send observers due to the "indirect" nature of the elections, CEC Chairman Kuandyk Turgankolov said.
The Senate consists of 47 members – 15 are appointed by President Nazarbayev and the others are elected by the lower house, the Mazhilis, with 16 places up for grabs every three years. The senators serve a six-year term.
Could not the UK learn a lesson from Kazakhstan in these matters? The House of Lords, where I sit, is an unelected body. Maybe the Queen, as Head of State, could appoint some of its members with the rest selected by a vote in the House of Commons?
Tags: democracy, elections, Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan politics., Nur Otan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Politics, Seante
Categories Central Asia, elections, Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Politics