Is Kazakhstan a slavic state?
Ethnic demography of Kazakhstan
On the other hand, ethnic Kazakhs and Uzbeks have been immigrating in large numbers to Kazakhstan ever since the collapse of the USSR. These immigrants come not only from the southern Central Asian states such as Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, but also from the Kazakh dominated areas in Xinjiang and Mongolia. The Kazakh government is actively encouraging the settlement of these compatriots (known as "Oralman") in Slavic dominated North and East Kazakhstan as well as the German dominated Karaganda Region, in order to dilute the minority populations there. There is also a low intensity immigration of ethnic Slavs from the less tolerant neighboring nations like Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan into Kazakhstan. An estimated 400,000 Uzbeks have migrated to Kazakhstan in recent years
Member states of the Council of Europe
Kazakhstan applied for the Special Guest status with the Parliamentary Assembly in 1999. The Assembly found that Kazakhstan could apply for full membership, because 4% of its territory, west of the Ural river, is located in Europe, but granting Special Guest status would require improvements in the fields of democracy and human rights. Kazakhstan signed a co-operation agreement with the Assembly in April 2004. In November 2006, the Kazakhstan Parliament officially asked to be granted observer status with the Assembly, which however never was granted due to requiring a pre compliance with all CoE core values and principles. The country acceded to the Council of Europe European Cultural Convention on 24 February 2010. On 15 to 16 March 2010, the President of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) made an official visit to Kazakhstan, resulting in the conclusion that the Council of Europe and Kazakhstan strengthen their relations. This milestone emboldens Kazakhstan's "Path to Europe" programme, as outlined by Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev in Astana in 2008. In December 2013, a Joint Declaration on enhancing cooperation between Kazakhstan and the Council of Europe in 2014–15, was signed with the purpose of paving the way for Kazakhstan's accession to the Council of Europe's multiple conventions in the field of criminal justice.
Latin script
In 2015, the Kazakh government announced that the Latin alphabet would replace Cyrillic as the writing system for the Kazakh language by 2025.
Kipchak language
Kazakhs are remnants of Eastern Cuman-Kipchak tribes who lived in Northern Kazakhstan in the 10th century, but migrated to Europe later. So, their language originates from a more isolated form of earlier Kipchak.
Tatars, Siberian Tatars, Balkars, Karachays, Kumyks, Cumans (later Crimean Tatars), Bashkirs and Mongolian aristocracy adopted the Kipchak language in the days of the Golden Horde.
Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic was one of the transcontinental constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1936 to 1991 in northern Central Asia. It was created on 5 December 1936 from the Kazakh ASSR, an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR.
Outline of Kazakhstan
The Republic of Kazakhstan is a landlocked sovereign country located across both Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world as well as the world's largest landlocked country, it has a territory of 2,727,300 km² (greater than Western Europe). It is bordered by Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and China. The country also borders on a significant part of the Caspian Sea.
Kazakhstan
Following the collapse of central government in Petrograd in November 1917, the Kazakhs (then in Russia officially referred to as "Kirghiz") experienced a brief period of autonomy (the Alash Autonomy) to eventually succumb to the Bolsheviks′ rule. On 26 August 1920, the Kirghiz Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) was established. The Kirghiz ASSR included the territory of the present-day Kazakhstan, but its administrative centre was a mainly Russian-populated town of Orenburg. In June 1925, the Kirghiz ASSR was renamed the Kazak ASSR and its administrative centre was transferred to the town of Kyzylorda, and in April 1927 to Alma-Ata.
Emblem of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
On November 10, 1940, the law of the Kazakh SSR was adopted on the replacement of the Kazakh script from the Latin alphabet into the Cyrilic alphabet. In 1951, the Constitution of the Kazakh SSR was amended, with the text in article 121 about the inscription on the coat of arms of the Kazakh SSR in Kazakh and Russian languages were changed to the words letters "ҚGGР" and "KССР". As a result of the approval of the provisions on the state emblem and the state flag of the Kazakh SSR in its arms, a red five-pointed star appeared a gold rim and a hammer began to be depicted superimposed on the sickle.
Slavs
Slavs are the largest ethno-linguistic group in Europe. Present-day Slavic people are classified into East Slavs (chiefly Belarusians, Russians, Rusyns, and Ukrainians), West Slavs (chiefly Czechs, Kashubs, Moravians, Poles, Silesians, Slovaks and Sorbs), and South Slavs (chiefly Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Macedonians, Gorani, Pomaks, Montenegrins, Serbs and Slovenes).
Kazakh language
Like other Turkic languages, Kazakh is an agglutinative language, and it employs vowel harmony.
Ethnic demography of Kazakhstan
Table: Ethnic composition of Kazakhstan (detailed census data)
Total Slavic/European population 27.0% in 2009 (compared with 60.3% in 1959, 57.3% in 1970, 54.5% in 1979, 49.8% in 1989 and 39.0% in 1999).
Religion in Kazakhstan
According to various polls, the majority of Kazakhstan's citizens, primarily ethnic Kazakhs, identify as non-denominational Muslims, while others incline towards Sunni of the Hanafi school, traditionally including ethnic Kazakhs, who constitute about 63.6% of the population, as well as ethnic Uzbeks, Uighurs, and Tatars. Less than 1% are part of the Shafi`i (primarily Chechens) and Shi'a. There are a total of 2,300 mosques, all of them affiliated with the "Spiritual Association of Muslims of Kazakhstan", headed by a supreme mufti. The Eid al-Adha is recognized as a national holiday.
Kazakhstan
The government announced in January 2015 that the Latin alphabet will replace Cyrillic as the writing system for the Kazakh language by 2025. Other minority languages spoken in Kazakhstan include Uzbek, Ukrainian, Uyghur, Kyrgyz, and Tatar. English, as well as Turkish, have gained popularity among younger people since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Education across Kazakhstan is conducted in either Kazakh, Russian, or both.
Uyghurs in Kazakhstan
Uyghurs in Kazakhstan or Uyghur Kazakhstanis are a Turkic ethnic group who primarily practice Islam. Uyghurs form the country's seventh-largest ethnic group, according to the 1999 census.
Majority minority
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
With an area of equivalent in size to Western EuropeKazakhstan is the ninth-largest country and largest landlocked country in the world. While it was part of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan lost some of its territory to China's Xinjiang autonomous region and some to Uzbekistan's Karakalpakstan autonomous republic.
Kazakhstani
Kazakh may refer to:
Spread of the Latin script
Unlike its Turkic neighbours, Kazakhstan did not move towards Latinisation after obtaining statehood in 1991. This was motivated by pragmatic reasons: the government was wary to alienate the country's large Russian-speaking minority, and due to the economic crisis in the early 1990s, a transition was considered fiscally unfeasable at the time.
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Economic Cooperation Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The nations of Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan established the Eurasian Economic Community in 2000, to revive earlier efforts to harmonise trade tariffs and to create a free trade zone under a customs union. On 1 December 2007, it was announced that Kazakhstan had been chosen to chair the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe for the year 2010. Kazakhstan was elected a member of the UN Human Rights Council for the first time on 12 November 2012.
Kazakhs in Russia
In Russia, the Kazakh population lives in the regions bordering Kazakhstan. The 2010 Russian census recorded 647,732 Kazakhs living mostly in the Astrakhan Oblast, Volgograd Oblast, Samara Oblast, Orenburg Oblast, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Kurgan Oblast, Tyumen Oblast, Omsk Oblast, Novosibirsk Oblast and Altai Krai regions. During the 1920s significant numbers of Kazakh families were left outside the designated Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic; after the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, they acquired Russian citizenship.
Geography of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia and Eastern Europe at . With an area of about 2,724,800 square kilometers, Kazakhstan is more than twice the combined size of the other four Central Asian states and 60% larger than Alaska. The country borders Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan to the south; Russia to the north; Russia and the Caspian Sea to the west; and China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to the east.
Demographics of Russia
The Kazakhs in Russia are mostly not recent immigrants. The majority inhabit regions bordering Kazakhstan such as the Astrakhan (16% of the population are Kazakhs), Orenburg (6% of the population are Kazakhs), Omsk (4% of the population are Kazakhs) and Saratov (3% of the population are Kazakhs) oblasts. Together these oblasts host 60% of the Kazakh population in Russia. The number of Kazakhs slightly decreased between 2002 and 2010 due to emigration to Kazakhstan, which has by far the strongest economy in Central Asia (Russia does receive immigration from Kazakhstan, but they are mainly ethnic Russians); other Central Asian populations, especially Uzbeks, Tajiks, and Kyrgyz, have continued to rise rapidly. (Turkmen are an exception; citizens of Turkmenistan do not have visa-free access to Russia.)
Sayram (city)
During National delimitation, the area of Sayram was at one point part of the Turkistan ASSR. At that time, the majority of modern-day Kazakhstan, including the steppe regions, were part of the separate Kirgizistan ASSR. After this period of border drawing and redrawing, Sayram eventually became part of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. It remains in the successor independent country of the Kazakh SSR, Kazakhstan.
Catholic Slavs
Catholic Slavs and Slavic Catholic are terms used for the historically and/or predominantly Catholic Slavic ethnic groups and nations and for the history of Catholicism among the Slavic peoples; especially amongst the West Slavs. The Catholic Slavic nations include all West Slavs (Poles, Czechs and Slovaks and all their sub-ethnicities ex. Kashubs, Silesians) as well as the westernmost South Slavs (Slovenes and Croats).
Russians in Kazakhstan
Russians of Kazakhstan together with other ethnic groups of the region suffered heavily during the Russian Civil War and Collectivisation in the USSR and endured repeated famines and unrest. In 1918-1931 Basmachi Revolt affected areas of southern Kazakh SSR often taking a form of an ethnic conflict between Russian and Ukrainian farmers and native Muslim nomads. Thousands of Russian settlers are thought to have been killed by the Kazakhs in the violence and this was followed by equally bloody reprisals against the nomadic population by the Red Army. In the 1920s and the 1930s, some Russians in Kazakhstan felt discriminated against by Communist authorities who promoted Kazakh language and culture in the region and targeted many local ethnic Russians as either kulaks or Cossacks.
Kazakh language
The Kazakh language has its speakers (mainly Kazakhs) spread over a vast territory from the Tian Shan to the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Kazakh is the official state language of Kazakhstan, with nearly 10 million speakers (based on information from the CIA World Factbook on population and the proportion of Kazakh speakers). In China, more than one million ethnic Kazakhs and Kazakh speakers reside in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture of Xinjiang.
Slavs
As of the end of 1878, there were only four Slavic states in the world: the Russian Empire, Principality of Serbia, Principality of Montenegro and the Principality of Bulgaria. In the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire of approximately 50 million people, about 23 million were Slavs. The Slavic peoples who were, for the most part, denied a voice in the affairs of the Austria-Hungary, were calling for national self-determination. Because of the vastness and diversity of the territory occupied by Slavic people, there were several centers of Slavic consolidation. In the 19th century, Pan-Slavism developed as a movement among intellectuals, scholars, and poets, but it rarely influenced practical politics and did not find support in some Slavic nations. Pan-Slavism became compromised when the Russian Empire started to use it as an ideology justifying its territorial conquests in Central Europe as well as subjugation of other Slavic ethnic groups such as Poles, Ukrainians and Belarusians, and the ideology became associated with Russian imperialism.
Kazakhstan–Serbia relations
Kazakhstan has vehemently opposed the independence of Kosovo and has taken Serbia's position on the issue since 2008. In December 2008, Kazakh prime minister Karim Masimov stated that "We have an official position. Kazakhstan did not recognize Kosovo and does not recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia. We consider that borders are defined and Kazakhstan will not recognize any new states".
Kazakhstan
Some figures show that non-denominational Muslims form the majority, while others indicate that most Muslims in the country are Sunnis following the Hanafi school. These include ethnic Kazakhs, who constitute about 60% of the population, as well as ethnic Uzbeks, Uighurs, and Tatars. Less than 1% are part of the Sunni Shafi`i school (primarily Chechens). There are also some Ahmadi Muslims. There are a total of 2,300 mosques, all of them are affiliated with the "Spiritual Association of Muslims of Kazakhstan", headed by a supreme mufti. Unaffiliated mosques are forcefully closed. Eid al-Adha is recognised as a national holiday.
One quarter of the population is Russian Orthodox, including ethnic Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. Other Christian groups include Roman Catholics and Protestants. There are a total of 258 Orthodox churches, 93 Catholic churches, and over 500 Protestant churches and prayer houses. The Russian Orthodox Christmas is recognized as a national holiday in Kazakhstan. Other religious groups include Judaism, the Bahá'í Faith, Hinduism, Buddhism, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Kazakhstan–Serbia relations
Relations between the two nations first commenced when Kazakhstan was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, and Serbia was a constituent republic of Yugoslavia, the Socialist Republic of Serbia. Following the Tito-Stalin split in 1948, relations between the two communist countries were strained, but were reconciled after Joseph Stalin's death and the signing of the Belgrade declaration by Nikita Khrushchev and Tito on 2 June 1955, marking the end of the Informbiro period.
Flag of Kazakhstan
The current flag of Kazakhstan or Kazakh flag (, ) was adopted on 4 June 1992, replacing the flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. The flag was designed by Shaken Niyazbekov. The color choices had preserved the blue and gold from the Soviet era flag minus the red. The color red was used in early designs of the current flag, and continues to be used in variants for the Kazakh Armed Forces.
Semipalatinsk Oblast, Kazakhstan
Semipalatinsk Oblast (; ) was an administrative division of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in the Soviet Union, established on October 14, 1939 from parts of East Kazakhstan and Alma-Ata Oblasts. Upon Kazakhstan's independence in 1991, the oblast continued to exist until 1997, when it was merged back into East Kazakhstan Oblast.
Poles in Kazakhstan
Poles tend to be settled in multi-ethnic regions of Kazakhstan, where settlers and exiles of many other nationalities predominated and members of the titular Kazakh nationality were few. Interethnic marriages between Poles and members of other European ethnic groups were quite common; however, those with members of traditionally Muslim ethnic groups were much rarer. An anthropological study conducted in 1993 found that Poles generally viewed the Kazakhs as lazy but friendly, and generally stated that inter-ethnic relations were good.
Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan border
NTD of the area along ethnic lines had been proposed as early as 1920. At this time Central Asia consisted of two Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics (ASSRs) within the Russian SFSR: the Turkestan ASSR, created in April 1918 and covering large parts of what are now southern Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, as well as Turkmenistan), and the Kirghiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Kirghiz ASSR, Kirgizistan ASSR on the map), which was created on 26 August 1920 in the territory roughly coinciding with the northern part of today's Kazakhstan (at this time Kazakhs were referred to as ‘Kyrgyz’ and what are now the Kyrgyz were deemed a sub-group of the Kazakhs and referred to as ‘Kara-Kyrgyz’ i.e. mountain-dwelling ‘black-Kyrgyz’). There were also the two separate successor ‘republics’ of the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva, which were transformed into the Bukhara and Khorezm People's Soviet Republics following the takeover by the Red Army in 1920.
Ethnic demography of Kazakhstan
Most of the inter-ethnic marriages in Kazakhstan has been between various Slavic or Germanic groups (Russian - Ukrainian, German - Ukrainian, Russian - Polish or German - Russian). Inter-marriages between Turkic and European ethnic groups are increasing, but still quite rare.
Kazakh alphabets
Three alphabets are used to write the Kazakh language: the Cyrillic, Latin and Arabic script. The Cyrillic script is used in Mongolia. An October 2017 Presidential Decree in Kazakhstan ordered that the transition from Cyrillic to a Latin script be completed by 2025. The Arabic script is used in parts of China, Iran and Afghanistan.
Czechoslovak–Hungarian population exchange
"We have decided now that our liberated State shall be a national state, rid of all hostile elements, living in brotherly harmony with the family of Slav States and in friendship with all peace-loving nations of the world. (§ 9) [...] The Czechoslovak Republic is a unitary State of two Slav nations possessing equal rights, the Czechs and the Slovaks." (Article II/1 )"
Emblem of Kazakhstan
The name of the country in Kazakh, "QAZAQSTAN", is in the lower part of the coat of arms. The name was in cyrillic script ("ҚA3AҚCTAH") before amendment of the national standard of the Emblem of Kazakhstan since November 1, 2018.
Kazakh alphabets
As part of a modernization program, Decree 569 from Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered the replacement of the Cyrillic script with a Latin script by 2025. In 2007, Nazarbayev said the transformation of the Kazakh alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin should not be rushed, as he noted: "For 70 years, the Kazakhstanis read and wrote in Cyrillic. More than 100 nationalities live in our state. Thus we need stability and peace. We should be in no hurry in the issue of alphabet transformation". In 2015, the Minister of Culture and Sports Arystanbek Mukhamediuly announced that a transition plan was underway, with specialists working on the orthography to accommodate the phonological aspects of the language. On April 12, 2017, President Nazarbayev published an article in state newspaper "Egemen Qazaqstan" announcing a switchover to the Latin alphabet by 2025, a decision implemented by decree. Nazarbayev argued that "Kazakh language and culture have been devastated" during the period of Soviet rule, and that ending the use of Cyrillic is useful in re-asserting national identity.
The new Latin alphabet is also a step to weaken the traditional Russian influence on the country, as the Russian language is the country's second official language.
The initial proposed Latin alphabet tried to avoid digraphs (such as "sh", "ch") and diacritics (such as "ä" or "ç"). In fact, President Nazarbayev had expressly stated that the new alphabet should contain "no hooks or superfluous dots". Instead, the new alphabet, which is based on a transliteration of Cyrillic into Latin letters, would have used apostrophes to denote those Kazakh letters where there was no direct Latin equivalent. It is similar to the Karakalpak Latin alphabet and the Uzbek alphabet.
List of tribes and states in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine
The Slavs were a diverse group of tribal societies in the Iron Age and Migration Age Europe whose tribal organizations created the foundations for today's Slavic nations."See Slavicisation, Slavic peoples, East Slavs, West Slavs, South Slavs"
From the Mongol invasion of Rus' to the Battle of KulikovoAfter the Battle of KulikovoAfter the Great stand on the Ugra river
Early medieval states in Kazakhstan
During the earlier medieval period, a succession of mainly Turkic states ruled in the area of present-day Kazakhstan.
List of diplomatic missions of Kazakhstan
This is a list of diplomatic missions of Kazakhstan, excluding honorary consulates. Kazakhstan is a landlocked Central Asian country.
Religion in Kazakhstan
Kazakh Jews have a long history. There are approximately 12,000 to 30,000 Jews in Kazakhstan, less than 1% of the population. Most Kazakh Jews are Ashkenazi and speak Russian.
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs are descendants of the Turkic and medieval Mongol tribes – Argyns, Dughlats, Naimans, Jalairs, Keraits, Khazars, Qarluqs; and of the Kipchaks and Cumans, and other tribes such as the Huns and Nogais, and ancient Iranian nomads like the Sarmatians, Saka and Scythians who populated the territory between Siberia and the Black Sea before the 5th and 13th centuries AD.
Multiculturalism
Kazakhstan is among the most multicultural countries in Eurasia, with sizeable populations of ethnic Kazakhs, Russians, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Uighurs, Tatars, Germans and more. Kazakhstan is one of a few countries in post-Soviet territories that managed to avoid interethnic clashes and conflicts in the period of USSR’s final crisis and its eventual breakup. In 1995, Kazakhstan created the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan, an advisory body designed to represent the country's ethnic minorities.
Eastern Orthodox Slavs
Orthodox Slavic nations today include the Belarusians, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Russians, Serbs and Ukrainians. They inhabit a contiguous area in Eastern Europe stretching from the northeast in the Baltic Sea to the Carpathian and Balkan Mountains in the southeast and southwest; from the north in the Russian Federation to the southwest in Macedonia near the Greek border. There are also major Orthodox Slavic population hubs and communities in North Asia (predominantly Siberia), the Americas (predominantly North America), and significant diaspora groups throughout the rest of the world.
Kazakhstan
Throughout this period, traditional nomadic life and a livestock-based economy continued to dominate the steppe. In the 15th century, a distinct Kazakh identity began to emerge among the Turkic tribes, a process which was consolidated by the mid-16th century with the appearance of the Kazakh language, culture, and economy.
Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
As a result of those events, the Kazakh SSR was renamed to the Republic of Kazakhstan on December 10, 1991. It became independent on December 16 (the fifth anniversary of Jeltosqan), becoming the last republic to secede from the USSR. Its capital was the site of the Alma-Ata Protocol on December 21, 1991 that dissolved the Soviet Union and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States in its place which Kazakhstan joined. The Soviet Union officially ceased to exist as a sovereign state on December 26, 1991 and Kazakhstan became an internationally recognized independent state.
List of ambassadors of the United States to Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan had been a constituent Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) of the Soviet Union. Upon dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan declared independence on December 16, 1991. It was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence.
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs (also spelled Kazaks, Qazaqs; , , , ; the English name is transliterated from Russian) are a Turkic people who mainly inhabit the southern part of Eastern Europe and the Ural mountains and northern parts of Central Asia (largely Kazakhstan, but also parts of Uzbekistan, China, Russia and Mongolia), the region also known as the Eurasian sub-continent. Kazakh identity is of medieval origin and was strongly shaped by the foundation of the Kazakh Khanate between 1456 and 1465, when several tribes under the rule of the sultans Zhanibek and Kerey departed from the Khanate of Abu'l-Khayr Khan.
Outline of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Demographics of Kazakhstan
According to the 2009 census, the ethnic composition of Kazakhstan is approximately: 63.1% Kazakh, 23.7% Russian, 2.9% Uzbek, 2.1% Ukrainian, 1.4% Uyghur, 1.3% Tatar, 1.1% German, 1% Kyrgyz, and <1% Korean, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Belarusian, Dungan, Kurdish, Tajik, Polish, Chechen.
Kazakh language
In October 2017, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev decreed that the government would transition from using Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet by 2025. President Nazarbayev signed on February 19, 2018 an amendment to the decree of October 26, 2017 No. 569 "On translating the Kazakh alphabet from Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin script." The amended alphabet uses Sh and Ch for the Kazakh sounds "Ш" and "Ч" and eliminates the use of apostrophes.
Russians in Kazakhstan
Although Nazarbayev is widely credited with peaceful preservation of the delicate inter-ethnic balance in Kazakhstan, hundreds of thousands of Russians left Kazakhstan in the 1990s due the perceived lack of economic opportunities. A number of factors contributed to this situation. Following independence from the Soviet Union, the Kazakh government adopted a policy of developing the state language that sought to affirm the ethnically Kazakh nature of the country and promote Kazakh language and culture. One aspect of this policy was the government's decision to define Kazakhstan as the national state of the ethnically Kazakh people in the country's first constitution in 1993 and again in its second constitution in 1995.
Kazakhstan Basketball Championship
Kazakhstan is a member of FIBA Asia, as the country lies partly in Asia, and Kazakhstan Championship sides have played in its competitions such as the FIBA Asia Champions Cup, however the country also partly lies in Europe, and the league's teams have participated in FIBA Europe competitions such as the FIBA EuroChallenge and the FIBA Europe Cup as well. The league's clubs therefore are also eligible to, and often do compete in, Eastern European regional leagues such as the Baltic League and the VTB United League, which also operates as the top-tier national domestic league for Russia.
Village
Auyl () is a Kazakh word meaning "village" in Kazakhstan. According to the 2009 census of Kazakhstan, 42.7% of Kazakhs (7.5 million people) live in 8172 different villages. To refer to this concept along with the word "auyl" often used the Slavic word "selo" in Northern Kazakhstan.
List of Slovaks
The Slovak people are an ethnic group mostly inhabiting the modern-day nation of Slovakia, as well as near surrounding areas. Slovaks have played an active role in European history, including politically, militarily, scientifically, culturally, and religiously. Ethnic Slovaks have inhabited Central Europe since the Middle Ages. Slovaks were minority citizens of Hungary, and subsequently Austria-Hungary, from the 7th Century until the formation of Czechoslovakia in 1918 by the Treaty of Versailles. After Slovak calls for greater autonomy dissolved the Czechoslovakian parliament, the Slovak Republic was formed in 1993. Many Slovaks and their achievements are erroneously considered solely Hungarian or Czech achievements based on their minority position within a larger, multicultural nationality. Slovaks identify with a nuanced understanding of national and ethnic identity, often embracing a national citizenship while maintaining their Slovak culture. In Hungary, Slovaks have had to resist violent efforts of forced assimilation by ethnic Magyars (cir. 1848) to preserve their language and culture. The major language among Slovaks is Slovakian.
Kazakhs
The Kazakh language is a member of the Turkic language family, as are Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Uyghur, Turkish, Azeri, Turkmen, and many other living and historical languages spoken in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Xinjiang, and Siberia.
Ethnic demography of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan's dominant ethnic group, the Kazakhs, traces its origin to the 15th century, when a number of Turkic and some Mongol tribes united to establish the Kazakh Khanate. With a cohesive culture and a national identity, they constituted absolute majority on the land until Russian colonization.
Russian advancement into the territory of Kazakhstan began in the late 18th century, when the Kazakhs nominally accepted Russian rule in exchange for protection against repeated attacks by the western Mongolian Kalmyks. In the 1890s, Russian peasants began to settle the fertile lands of northern Kazakhstan, causing many Kazakhs to move eastwards into Chinese territory in search of new grazing grounds.
Tatars of Kazakhstan
The Volga Tatars of Kazakhstan or Tatar Kazakhstanis are a minority in Kazakhstan, and make up 1.5% of the population. There are 249,000 Volga Tatars living in Kazakhstan accordingly to 1999 census (see Demographics of Kazakhstan).
Ethnic demography of Kazakhstan
Most of the immigration has been directed towards Russia, but small numbers have been immigrating to Ukraine, Belarus and Armenia also. Before the German authorities stopped the repatriation of ethnic Germans and their non-German relatives, Germany was one of the most favored destination for all the ethnic groups. It is estimated that close to half of the 4.5 million Soviet Germans and their Slavic kin who now live in Germany are originally from Kazakhstan. Currently on average close to 2,000 ethnic Germans emigrate from Kazakhstan to ethnic German dominated areas in Russia such as Azovsky Nemetsky National District (Deutsche Nationalkreis Asowo) in Omsk Oblast and Nemetsky National District (Nationalkreis Halbstadt) in Altai Krai. Also, out of the 1.2 million Russian speaking Jews and Slavs who live in Israel, a significant portion is from Kazakhstan.
Flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
The second flag was red with the gold hammer and sickle in the top-left corner, with the Cyrillic characters "Казак ССР" ("Kazak SSR") and "Казахская ССР" ("Kazakhskaya SSR") in gold to the right of the hammer and sickle was adopted on 10 November 1940 which adopted a law on the transfer of Kazakh writing in Russian alphabet charts, modified accordingly and the inscription on the emblem.
Demographics of Kazakhstan
Demographics would continue to shift in the 1950-1960s, wherein as part of Nikita Khrushchev's Virgin Lands Campaign, hundreds of thousands of Soviet deportees were relocated to the Kazakh steppes in order to farm. As recognized in the 1959 census, the Kazaks became a minority for the first time in history, comprising just 30% of the total population of Kazakhstan. Russians numbered 42.7%.
Languages of Kazakhstan
The official languages of Kazakhstan are Kazakh with 5,290,000 speakers around the country and Russian which is spoken by 6,230,000 people. Both Kazakh and Russian are used on equal grounds. German (30,400 speakers), Tajiki, Tatar (328,000 speakers), Turkish, Ukrainian (898,000 speakers), Uyghur (300,000 speakers), and Uzbek are officially recognized by the 1997 Language Law, No. 151-1. Other languages natively spoken in Kazakhstan are Dungan, Ili Turki, Ingush, Plautdietsch, and Sinte Romani.
Spread of the Latin script
In 2015, the Kazakh government announced that the Latin script would replace Cyrillic as the writing system for the Kazakh language by 2025. In 2017, Nazarbayev said that "By the end of 2017, after consultation with academics and representatives of the public, a single standard for the new Kazakh alphabet and script should be developed." Education specialists are to be trained to teach the new alphabet and provide textbooks beginning in 2018. The romanisation policy is intended to modernise Kazakhstan and increase international cooperation.
Kazakh Steppe
The Kazakh Steppe (, "Қазақ даласы", also Uly dala, "Ұлы дала" "Great Steppe"), also called the Great Dala, ecoregion, of the Palearctic temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, is a vast region of open grassland in northern Kazakhstan and adjacent portions of Russia, extending to the east of the Pontic steppe and to the west of the Emin Valley steppe, with which it forms part of the Eurasian steppe. Before the mid-nineteenth century it was called the Kirghiz steppe, 'Kirghiz' being an old name for the Kazakhs.
Kazakhs
Kazakh belongs to the Kipchak (Northwestern) group of the Turkic language family. Kazakh is characterized, in distinction to other Turkic languages, by the presence of in place of reconstructed proto-Turkic and in place of ; furthermore, Kazakh has where other Turkic languages have .
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan's 131 ethnicities include Kazakhs (63% of the population), Russians, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Germans, Tatars, and Uyghurs. Islam is the religion of about 70% of the population, with Christianity practised by 26%. Kazakhstan officially allows freedom of religion, but religious leaders who oppose the government are suppressed. The Kazakh language is the state language, and Russian has equal official status for all levels of administrative and institutional purposes. Kazakhstan is a member of the United Nations, WTO, CIS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Eurasian Economic Union, CSTO, OSCE, OIC, and TURKSOY.
Russians in Kazakhstan
Between 1906 and 1912, more than half a million ukraines and russians farms were started in Kazakhstan as part of the reforms of the Russian minister of the interior Petr Stolypin. By 1917 there were close to a million slavs in Kazakhstan, about 30% of the total population. 
Analysis of data on migrants who arrived during the Stolypin agrarian reform (1906-1912) on the territory of Kazakhstan shows that 83.1% of the settlers were from Ukraine, the rest came from the southern regions of Russia (16.8%).
Kazakhstan
In 1999, Kazakhstan had applied for observer status at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. The official response of the Assembly was that Kazakhstan could apply for full membership, because it is partially located in Europe, but that it would not be granted any status whatsoever at the Council until its democracy and human rights records improved.
Ethnic demography of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan is multiethnic country where the indigenous ethnic group, the Kazakhs, comprise the majority of the population. According to the 2016 census there are two dominant ethnic groups in Kazakhstan: ethnic Kazakhs (66.48%) and ethnic Russians (20.61%) with a wide array of other groups represented, including Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Germans, Tatars, Uyghurs, Koreans, and Meskhetian Turks.
Ukrainians in Kazakhstan
In an effort to differentiate the Ukrainian and Russian communities in Kazakhstan, the Kazakh government has actively supported Ukrainian cultural aspirations. It has funded a Ukrainian newspaper. Ukrainian organizations operate freely in Kazakhstan, and currently there are 20 Ukrainian cultural centers that sponsor Sunday schools, choirs, and folk dancing groups. Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, has a Ukrainian high school and Sunday school. The shared sufferings of the Kazakh and Ukrainian peoples at the hands of the Soviets are emphasized by Kazakh-Ukrainian activists.
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan (, ; ), officially the Republic of Kazakhstan (; ), is the world's largest landlocked country, and the ninth largest in the world, with an area of . It is a transcontinental country largely located in Asia; the most western parts are located in Europe. Kazakhstan is the dominant nation of Central Asia economically, generating 60% of the region's GDP, primarily through its oil/gas industry. It also has vast mineral resources.
Kazakhstan
Though traditionally referring only to ethnic Kazakhs, including those living in China, Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan and other neighbouring countries, the term "Kazakh" is increasingly being used to refer to any inhabitant of Kazakhstan, including non-Kazakhs.
Azerbaijan–Kazakhstan relations
Azerbaijanis and Kazakhs are both Turkic-speaking people and share close historical, religious and cultural ties. Both are littoral states of the Caspian Sea and possess a common maritime border. During the Great Purge in the Soviet Union, more than 150.000 Azerbaijanis immigrated to Kazakhstan and the current Azeri population reaches 85,000. Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan see each other as main allies and partners in Central Asia and Transcaucasia.
Both countries are members of Turkic Council and Joint Administration of Turkic Arts and Culture. Famous Azerbaijani singer-songwriter and diplomat/politician Polad Bülbüloğlu was awarded with National Award of Peace and Progress for his special contribution to peace and friendship and resolution of cultural problems in the Turkic-speaking world. Ilham Aliyev was awarded with being Honorary Professor of L.N.Gumilev Eurasian National University while his father Heydar Aliyev was named as an honorary doctor of Kazakh National University (which was named after Al-Farabi). Nursultan Nazarbayev was presenting in the celebration of "One thousand three hundredth anniversary of the epic Azerbaijani legend Book of Dede Korkut".
Kazakhstan
As it extends across both sides of the Ural River, considered the dividing line with the European continent, Kazakhstan is one of only two landlocked countries in the world that has territory in two continents (the other is Azerbaijan).
List of companies of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The current President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has been leader of the country since then, and is characterised as authoritarian, with a government history of human rights abuses and suppression of political opposition. Kazakhstan has worked to develop its economy, especially its dominant hydrocarbon industry.
Culture of Kazakhstan
Islam is the largest religion in Kazakhstan, followed by Russian Orthodox Christianity. By tradition the Kazakhs are Sunni Muslims, and the Russians are Russian Orthodox. Approximately 70% of the population is Muslim. The majority are Sunni of the Hanafi school, including ethnic Kazakhs, who constitute about 60% of the population, as well as by ethnic Uzbeks, Uighurs, and Tatars. Less than 25% of the population is Russian Orthodox, including ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians. Other religious groups include Judaism, the Bahá'í Faith, Hare Krishnas, Buddhism, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Demographics of Kazakhstan
The demographics of Kazakhstan enumerate the demographic features of the population of Kazakhstan, including population growth, population density, ethnicity, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the population. Some use the word Kazakh to refer to the Kazakh ethnic group and language (autochthonous to Kazakhstan as well as parts of Russia, China and Mongolia) and Kazakhstani to refer to Kazakhstan and its citizens regardless of ethnicity, but it is common to use Kazakh in both senses.
East Slavs
The East Slavs are Slavic peoples speaking the East Slavic languages. Formerly the main population of the loose medieval Kievan Rus federation state , by the seventeenth century they evolved into the Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn and Ukrainian people.
Azerbaijanis in Kazakhstan
Azerbaijanis in Kazakhstan () are part of the Azerbaijani diaspora. They are Kazakh citizens and permanent residents of ethnic Azerbaijani background. According to the 2009 census, there were 85,292 ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Kazakhstan; Azerbaijanis comprised 0.5% of Kazakhstan's population and were the country's tenth-largest ethnic minority. Most Azerbaijani-Kazakhs have immigrated to Kazakhstan from the Republic of Azerbaijan; a small group of Iranian Azerbaijanis trapped by the Bolshevik taking of power in 1918 were also forced into Kazakhstan in 1938.
Kazakhs
In Russia, the Kazakh population lives primarily in the regions bordering Kazakhstan. According to latest census (2002) there are 654,000 Kazakhs in Russia, most of whom are in the Astrakhan, Volgograd, Saratov, Samara, Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Tyumen, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Altai Krai and Altai Republic regions. Though ethnically Kazakh, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, these people acquired Russian citizenship.
History of Kazakhstan
In 1925 the republic's original capital, Orenburg, was reincorporated into Russian territory and Kyzylorda became the capital until 1929. Almaty (known as Alma-Ata during the Soviet period), a provincial city in the far southeast, became the new capital in 1929. In 1936, the territory was officially separated from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and made a Soviet republic: the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. With an area of , the Kazakh SSR was the second-largest republic in the Soviet Union.
Eastern Orthodox Slavs
Other Slavic-majority states with notable Orthodox minorities include Bosnia and Herzegovina (30.75%, 2013 census) and Croatia (4.44%, 2011 census). Small numbers are found in West Slavic countries such as Slovakia (0.9%, 2011), Poland (0.7%, 2011), and the Czech Republic. Among non-Slavic majority states with notable Orthodox Slavic communities are
Ethnic demography of Kazakhstan
As explained above, the Slavic groups have been declining ever since the 1960s, due to low birth rates and high death rates. Germans are characterized by very high birth rates, but it is mostly due to the high proportion of rural population and the presence of conservative religious factions like Mennonites and Evangelical Lutherans among them.
Germany–Kazakhstan relations
Diplomatic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Kazakhstan were established in 1991 after Kazakhstan gained independence from the former Soviet Union. Ethnic Germans and ethnic Kazakhs have a shared history dating back to World War II when ethnic Germans living in the Volga region of Russia were relocated or imprisoned in the eastern steppe of the Soviet Union in what is today the territory of Kazakhstan. At the collapse of the former Soviet Union, about one million ethnic Germans lived in Kazakhstan.
Demographics of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan's dominant ethnic group Kazakhs, traces its origin to 15th century, when a number of Turkic and some Mongol tribes united to establish the Kazakh Khanate. With cohesive culture and national identity, they constituted absolute majority on the land until Russian colonization.
Russian advancement into the territory of Kazakhstan began in the late 18th century, when the Kazakhs nominally accepted Russian rule in exchange for protection against repeated attacks by the western Mongolian Kalmyks. In the 1890s, Russian peasants began to settle the fertile lands of northern Kazakhstan, causing many Kazakhs to move eastwards into Chinese territory in search of new grazing grounds. The 1906 completion of the Trans-Aral Railway between Orenburg and Tashkent further facilitated Russian colonization. The first collectivized farms opened in Kazakhstan in 1921, populated primarily by Russians and Soviet deportees. In 1930, as part of the first Five Year Plan, the Kazakh Central Committee decreed the sedentarization of nomads and their incorporation into collectivized farms. This movement resulted in devastating famine, claiming the lives of an estimated 40% of ethnic Kazakhs (1.5 million), between 1930-33. Hundreds of thousands also fled to China, Iran and Afghanistan. The famine rendered Kazakhs a minority within Kazakhstan, and only after the republic gained independence in 1991 did Kazakhs recover a slim demographic majority within Kazakhstan.
Culture of Kazakhstan
Today's Kazakhstan is a modern culture, thriving in the post-Soviet era. The traditional Kazakh lifestyle has blended with influences from Western societies, as well as those from Kazakhstan's Russian and Chinese neighbors.
Kurds in Kazakhstan
Kurds in Kazakhstan refers to the people born in or residing in Kazakhstan who are of Kurdish origin. According to the most recent Kazakh census in 2011, the Kurdish population is 38,325 or 0.2% of the population, but Vice President of the Kurdish Association of Kazakhstan, Malikshah Gasanov numbers the population up to 46,000, because many Kurds list themselves as Turks and Azeris.
During Soviet rule, most of the Kurdish population in Kazakhstan were deported by Joseph Stalin from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Years later, Kurds immigrated to Kazakhstan from the neighbouring countries, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Slavs
Standardised Slavic languages that have official status in at least one country are: Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, and Ukrainian.
Kazakhstan
According to the 2009 Census, 70% of the population is Muslim, 26% Christian, 0.1% Buddhist, 0.2% others (mostly Jewish), and 3% irreligious, while 0.5% chose not to answer. According to its Constitution, Kazakhstan is a secular state.
Kazakh alphabets
The switch from a Latin alphabet to a Cyrillic one was likely in an attempt to distance the then-Soviet Kazakhstan with Turkey. This was likely in part due to weakening Turkish-Soviet relations and the Turkish Straits crisis.
Kazakhs
According to mitochondrial DNA studies (where sample consisted of only 246 individuals), the main maternal lineages of Kazakhs are: D (17.9%), C (16%), G (16%), A (3.25%), F (2.44%) of Eastern Eurasian origin (58%), and haplogroups H (14.1), T (5.5), J (3.6%), K (2.6%), U5 (3%), and others (12.2%) of western Eurasian origin (41%). An analysis of ancient Kazakhs found that East Asian haplogroups such as A and C did not begin to move into the Kazakh steppe region until around the time of the Xiongnu (1st millennia BCE), which is around the onset of the Sargat Culture as well .
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The current President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has been leader of the country since then, and is characterised as authoritarian, with a government history of human rights abuses and suppression of political opposition. Kazakhstan has worked to develop its economy, especially its dominant hydrocarbon industry. Human Rights Watch says that "Kazakhstan heavily restricts freedom of assembly, speech, and religion", and other human rights organisations regularly describe Kazakhstan's human rights situation as poor.
Ethnic demography of Kazakhstan
Slavic and Germanic groups have been emigrating en masse since the 1960s, and the movement accelerated during the 1990s after the breakup of the Soviet Union. This has resulted in the reduction of the proportion of European ethnic groups in the population by more than half. More than 50% of the European Soviet ethnic groups have left Kazakhstan since 1989, and just 15% of the pre-1989 ethnic German population remains now in the country.
History of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, the largest country fully within the Eurasian Steppe, has been a historical "crossroads" and home to numerous different peoples, states and empires throughout history.
Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic
The Kazak ASSR that succeeded the recently expanded Kirghiz ASSR included all of the territory making up the present-day Republic of Kazakhstan plus parts of Uzbekistan (the Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast), Turkmenistan (the north shore of Kara-Bogaz-Gol) and Russia (parts of what would become Orenburg Oblast). These territories were transferred from the Kazak ASSR over the following decade.
Kazakhstan Germans
In 1972, over 3,500 German Russians sent a petition to Moscow again requesting an autonomous republic in the Volga regions. The government responded with an ad hoc committee 
to study this request. In 1976, the commission finally agreed to create an autonomous "oblas"t (county) in Northern Kazakhstan, centered in Ermantau, 140 kilometers from 
Tselinograd (Virgin Land City and capital of the virgin lands district). The district would be partially located in the “virgin lands,” which had already put 41.8 million hectares into
agricultural production, although this area had been one of the least developed in Kazakhstan. The success of Khrushchev's agricultural focus was largely due to the
labor of the ethnic Germans exiled there. This government proposal created much opposition in Kazakhstan from residents, including a public protest, a rarity in the Soviet Union; every effort was made to keep the demonstration secret. Local Communist Party leaders also strongly opposed the plan, as it would diminish their authority in the Kazakh SSR. Ultimately, nothing came of
the idea, which lacked support from even the German Russians, who believed that reconstitution of the Volga Republic was the only way toward full rehabilitation and restoration of their rights.
Kazakhstani
The word "Kazakh" is often used exclusively for the Turkic ethnic group, while "Kazakhstan People" can be used to refer to all citizens of Kazakhstan.
Soviet Central Asia
According to the interim results of Kazach mitochondrial DNA studies (where sample consisted of only 246 individuals), the main maternal lineages of Kazakhs are: D (17,9 %), C (16%), G (16%), A (3,25 %), F (2,44 %), which is of eastern-Eurasian origin (58%), and haplogroups H (13%), T (4,07 %), J (4,07 %), K (4,07 %), U5 (3,25 %), I (0,41 %), V (0,81 %), W (1,63 %), of western Eurasian origin (41%).
History of the Jews in Kazakhstan
Most Kazakh Jews are Ashkenazi and speak Russian.