Astana has been renamed several times since it was founded in 1830 as the settlement of Akmoly. In 1832, it became the town of Akmolinsk. In1961 it was renamed Tselinograd, then Akmola in 1992.
In December 1997, the government made the city the capital of the country, replacing Almaty. In May 1998, it was renamed Astana, a Kazakh word that means “the capital”.
On the surface, the declaration was to mark the forthcoming 25th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s independence. But reading past the tributes to Nazarbayev’s “outstanding service”, the declaration’s final paragraph calls for renaming the capital and other important facilities across the country after theleader of the Republic of Kazakhastan
However, that decision rests with the 76-year-old president himself, the Constitutional Council head was quoted as saying.
Igor Rogov said Nazarbayev could either call a referendum or send the matter to parliament for debate. “I cannot say whether the president will make such a decision or not,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from the office of Nazarbayev, who has ruled Kazakhstan since 1989, first as Communist party leader then, after independence in 1991, as president.
But Kuanysh Sultanov MP said he expected the president to respond to the initiative within weeks. Another parliament deputy, Pavel Kazantsev, said he believed the capital would be renamed by the end of the year.
Last week, days before the passage of the most recent declaration, a 10,000-tenge banknote was introduced featuring Nazarbayev’s image. It will go into circulation on 1 December, a fortnight before Independence Day on 16 December.
Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev Declines To Rename Capital After Himself Friday Nov 25,2016
The president of Kazakhstan on Friday Nov 25,2016 declined a proposal by his parliament to rename the capital city after him, crimping the growing personality cult around the man who has run the Central Asian nation since 1989.
In an interview with Russia-24 TV, a clip of which was posted online by the president's office, Nursultan Nazarbayev said there was no need to change the name of Astana.
The decision means the veteran leader has stopped just short of matching a personality cult benchmark set by the late leader of neighbouring Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, who had an industrial city named after him.
Both men were Communist leaders who retained power after gaining independence from the Soviet Union.
Niyazov was declared president for life, renamed months and days of the week and authored a book of spiritual guidance which remained a mandatory subject at schools for years after his death in 2006.
Nazarbayev, named the Leader of the Nation by a special law which allows him to run for an unlimited number of terms, was granted a new honour last week when Kazakhstan's central bank said his portrait would appear on a bank note.
Several monuments featuring the former steelworker have been erected and a university and network of schools have been named after him. Nazarbayev's biography has been adapted into a series of five feature films
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