Kazakhstan and Kazakh News

  

 

Country Profile

Kazakhstan,officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country( country bordering more than one continent - Kazakhstan bordering Asia- Europe) in Central Asia and ranked 9th largest country in the world and also the world's largest landlocked country - its territory of 2,727,300 square kilometres (1,053,000 sq mi) is greater that Western Europe

Capital                                        Astana

Currency                                   Tenge

Population                                17 Million ( 2011 Estimate)

Ethnic Groups                         63%Kazakh;24%Russian;3%Uzbekh;2%Ukrainian and 8% Others

Official Language                  Kazakh and Russian

 

The country got independence from the Soviet Union on Dec 16,1991( last of the Soviet Republics to declare independence) 

 Government

Kazakhstan is officially a Presidentail Republic.The president is the head of state elected for a 5 year term.The prime minister and first deputy prime minister are appointed by the president. Council of Ministers is also appointed by the president.The president is also the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and may veto legislation that has been passed by the Parliament(lower house -the Majilis and the upper house - the Senate)

Term limits(at most two five-year terms) were removed for the Presidential Electionon May 18,2007, when parliament also voted to reduce the term length from 7 to 5 years

Nursultan Nazarbayev is the current and first President in office since Kazakhstan became independent

 The Prime Minister chairs the Cabinet of Ministers and serves as Kazakhstan's head of government. There are three deputy prime ministers and 16 ministers in the Cabinet. lower house(the Majilis) and the upper house(the Senate)

 

Karim Qajymqanuly Massimov  is the current PM of Kazakhstan in office from Jan 10,2007

Parliament

 

Kazakhstan has a bicameral Parliament composed of the Lower House(Majilis)and Upper House(Senate)

Single mandate districts popularly elect 107 seats in the Majilis; there also are 10 members elected by party-list vote rather than by single mandate districts. 

The Senate has 47 members. Two senators are selected by each of the elected assemblies (Maslikhats) of Kazakhstan's 16 principal administrative divisions (14 provinces, plus the cities of Astana and Almaty). The president appoints the remaining 7 senators.

 

Kazakhstan furious as ‘Borat’ song replaces national anthem at international sports event

 

Maria Dmitrienko won a gold medal for Kazakhstan on Thursday March 22,2012 at the Arab Shooting Championships in Kuwait, but during the awards ceremony the public address system broadcast the spoof anthem from the 2006 movie “Borat,” which offended many Kazakhs by portraying the country as backwards and degenerate.

Kazakhstan has labeled the playing of a spoof of its national anthem at an international sporting event “a scandal,” and demanded a probe into the incident.

Kazakhstan orders its police to lose weight

The Kazakh Interior Ministry has ordered the country’s policemen to shape up and lose their bellies.

“Employees whose physical condition does not comply with the standards will be fired,” Alpysbai Tashmagambetov, deputy head of human resrouces at the Astana city Interior Ministry department told reporters.

Kazakhstan extends ban on Communist Party

Gaziz Aldamzharov, leader of the Communist Party, told the Telegraph that the ban extension was illegal and that he would challenge it.

“They extended it by six months,” he said. “Today, April 26, was supposed to be the last day of our suspension but now we have another six months.”

Kazakhstan accuses opposition of plotting a revolution

The riot on Dec 16,2011 in the scruffy oil town of Zhanaozen in the west of the country posed the biggest threat to stability in Kazakhstan since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Since the riot, the security forces have cracked down on political activists and journalists linked to the opposition.

The authorities in Kazakhstan have charged prominent opposition activists with plotting to overthrow the government.Vladimir Kozlov, head of the banned Alga! party, was the most high-profile opposition activist charged.

 

Kazakhstan opens huge mosque

 

Kazakhstan has opened one of the largest mosques in Central Asia to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the Kazakh capital’s switch to Astana(in 1998 the capital switched from Almaty to Astana)

The mosque, called Khazret Sultan, is big enough to take 5,000 worshippers and stands on a 27 acre site, roughly the size of 18 football pitches.

 

 

Marks &Spencer opens store in Kazakhstan - July 2012

 

Marks & Spencer has brought a small slice of the British high-street to Central Asia by opening a store in Almaty, the financial centre of Kazakhstan

The three–storey shop occupies a site in the city’s redeveloped shopping centre, which also hosts other Western brands such as Gap and Zara