Kazakhstan
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Kazakhstan is a big, horse-eating country in
Central Asia. He is depicted as a brick because his flag is too wide to fit into a ball. Kazakhstan is bordered by
Russia to the north,
Uzbekistan,
Kyrgyzstan, and
Turkmenistan to the South,
China to the east, and the
Caspian Sea to the west.
Kazakhstan sometımes lets
Russia and other former
Soviet state members use his clay for launching rockets into space (or ınto anybody the launcher wants removed). Russia also has taken a Kazakh astronaut ınto space,
Aidyn Aimbetov.
Тарих (History)
Назарбаев дәуірі (Nazarbayev Era)
Following the August 1991 aborted coup attempt in
Moscow, Kazakhstan declared independence on 16 December 1991, thus becoming the last
Soviet republic to declare independence. Ten days later, Soviet Union himself ceased to exist.
Kazakhstan's
communist-era leader,
Nursultan Nazarbayev, became the country's first
president, ruling in an
authoritarian manner. An emphasis was placed on converting the country's economy to a
market economy while
political reforms lagged behind
economic advances. By 2006, Kazakhstan was generating 60% of the GDP of Central Asia, primarily through his oil industry.
Although a
reform package that included a reduction in the length of the presidential term and an expansion of
parliamentary power was passed in 2007, a
constitutional amendment was passed alongside it that rendered Nazarbayev personally exempt from the standard two-term limit on the presidency. In 2010 the
Kazakh parliament approved plans for a referendum for 2011 that would cancel the next two rounds of presidential elections, effectively extending Nazarbayev's term until at least 2020. However, the planned referendum was rejected by Kazakhstan's constitutional court in January 2011. Nazarbayev accepted the court's ruling and called for early presidential
elections. In April 2011, running against token opposition, Nazarbayev was elected to another term as president, winning more than 95 percent of the vote. A subsequent report by
OSCE observers stated that restrictions on political activity in Kazakhstan and the absence of a viable opposition candidate for president had left voters without a meaningful choice in the election.
A rare challenge to the authority of the government occurred in May 2011 when oil workers in the town of
Zhanaozen went on strike over pay and working conditions, occupying the town square. The strike continued until
police opened fire during a riot on 16 December, killing 17 people and injuring dozens more. The incident led to a wider crackdown on
dissent that saw a number of opposition activists jailed.
The next presidential election was held in April 2015, wherein Nazarbayev won nearly 98 percent of the vote. In September of that year, he appointed his daughter,
Dariga Nazarbayeva, as deputy prime minister. A year later, in September 2016, he appointed her to the
Senate, increasing speculation that she was being groomed to take over the presidency.
Other events indicated that Nazarbayev was preparing the stage for a smooth transition of power as his tenure drew to an end. In 2017 he advanced a set of constitutional amendments that would give more power to the parliament and the cabinet. In February 2019 he sacked the cabinet and appointed a new prime minister to carry out a program to improve living standards. Many observers believed that the move was meant to lay the groundwork for an upcoming election campaign. But Nazarbayev resigned from the presidency on March 19, saying that he wanted to facilitate the rise of a new generation to lead the nation. He retained several key policy-making positions but gradually relinquished them in the years that followed.
Тоқаев дәуірі (Tokayev Era)
Observing constitutional protocol, the incumbent
Senate speaker,
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, was to serve as acting president for the remainder of the term after
Nazarbayev resigned in 2019, and a presidential election was due to be held in early 2020 but was later moved up to June 2019. In that vote Tokayev was elected to the presidency in a sweeping victory.
Tokayev initially supported the lofty stature of Nazarbayev and his family. On 20 March 2019, his first day in office, he even changed the name of the capital city from
Astana to "Nur-Sultan" in honour of Nazarbayev (a change reverted in September 2022). He also promoted Nazarbayev's daughter
Dariga to the post of Senate speaker, making her first in the line of succession upon the vacancy of the presidency, though she was removed from the post in May 2020 following allegations abroad that she had been involved in an embezzlement scheme.
Early in his presidency, Tokayev attempted reforms that were intended to
liberalize Kazakhstan by easing restrictions on protests and political opposition. Detentions of protesters continued, however, and the 2021
parliamentary elections, boycotted by the opposition for remaining too restrictive, were Kazakhstan's first elections to be uncontested by opposition parties.
At the start of 2022 the government ended price caps on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as part of an ongoing plan to liberalize the energy market and end fuel shortages. However, the move backfired, as the price of LPG doubled. Protests broke out in
Zhanaozen on 2 January and quickly spread across the country; in
Almaty, demonstrators stormed and
set fire to government buildings. Although the price caps were reinstated and the prime minister resigned, the protesters demanded broader changes, citing the lack of
democratic representation in the government's decision-making processes as the underlying cause of their grievance. On 6 January forces from the
CSTO were deployed in Kazakhstan to respond to the unrest, marking the first time that the
Russian-led military alliance had been called upon to intervene in a member state.
With the protests quickly quelled, CSTO forces began withdrawing the following week, and Tokayev embarked on an effort to
reform the political system and establish a clean break with Nazarbayev. In June voters approved more than 30
constitutional amendments in a landslide referendum. The amendments, which Tokayev described as merely the "first step" in reform, removed certain aspects of
presidential oversight and created obstacles to
nepotism in the executive branch. In September, seeking to shore up support for further reform, he called for early presidential and legislative elections. With little time for the opposition to mobilize and compete in presidential elections set for November, Tokayev won a seven-year term with more than 80 percent of the vote. In similar fashion (and for a similar purpose), in January 2023 Tokayev called for snap
parliamentary elections to be held in March. The results indicated that the ruling party had lost support since the previous general election but still won a majority of the vote.
Этимология (Etymology)
The name of "Kazakh" is from the ancient
Turkish word "qaz", which means "to wander". That goes back to the nomadic culture of the Kazakhs. The suffix from the
Persian language "-stan" translates to "land" or "place of". Combining the word "Kazakh" and the suffix -stan, this translates to "Place of Wanderers". So "Kazakhstan" literally means "The place of the wanderers".
Қатынас (Relationships)
Достар (Friends)
Ресей - My step-brother. He tests nukes and stuff on my clay, is also founder of
CSTO. But pls gib some nukes. And you've been spreading
imperialism on me for centuries.
АҚШ - We both have embassies in each other's capitals, and I trust you more than
Russia (don't tell him that though).
Моңғолия - Nomad horse enjoyer
Тривива (Trivia)
- Not counting
Transnistria, Kazakhstan was the last one to leave the
USSR. - Kazakhstan's tourism slogan is "Very Nice!"
Қалай сурет салу керек (How to draw)

- Draw a brick shaped block 🧱
- Fill it in with light blue
- Draw a sun in the middle
- Draw a bird with only yellow outline under the sun
- Draw a fancy stripe of yellow pattern on the left
- Add eyes and you finished!
| Color Name | HEX | |
|---|---|---|
| Light blue | #00ABC2 | |
| Yellow | #FFEC2D | |
