Kazakhstan’s capital Nur-Sultan is now called Astana again

After only three years, the capital of the Central Asian country loses the name Nur-Sultan.

The Kazakh capital is getting its old name back.

Igor Kovalenko / EPA

(dpa) The capital of the authoritarian former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan in Central Asia is now called Astana again – and no longer Nur-Sultan. According to the presidential administration, head of state Kasym-Jomart Tokayev signed on Saturday a constitutional amendment passed by parliament the day before.

According to the innovation, a Kazakh president may in future only be elected for a term of seven years. It is expected that the 69-year-old Tokayev will run again after the constitutional amendment, because the new law will not apply retrospectively, but only with the next election.

Astana became Nur-Sultan in March 2019 – in honor of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had stepped down from power after around three decades. More than a million people live in the glittering metropolis in the north of the country, which was pounded out of steppe sand.

Break with Nursultan Nazarbayev

China’s neighbor, with a population of 18.5 million, was rocked by bloody protests earlier this year. Among other things, this led to a break with Nazarbayev, who had been given far-reaching powers even after his resignation, and his family, who had run the country’s fortunes.

During his time in power, Nazarbayev had the city in northern Kazakhstan built with futuristic buildings modeled on the Gulf States. In 1998 he gave it the neutral name Astana, Kazakh for capital. In Soviet times, the resource-rich republic’s center of power was in Almaty, the most populous city in the south of the country.

source site-111