Official Name: Republic of Kazakhstan
Short Name: Kazakhstan
Capital: Astana
Largest city: Almaty
Area: Total 2,724,900 sq. km (9^th Largest in the world), 1,052,085 sq mi
Population: 15.2 million (62^nd) [January 2006 estimate]
Density of population: 5.4 per sq. km. (215th), 14.0/sq mi
Anthem: "We are a valiant people, sons of honour", written by Muzafar Alimbayev, Kadyr Myrzaliyev, Tumanbai Moldagaliyev and Zhadyra Daribayeva
Religions: Muslim 47 percent, Russian Orthodox 44 percent, Protestant 2 percent, Others 7 percent.
Languages: Kazakh (Qazaq) is the state language spoken by nearly 40 per cent of the population. Russian is the official language spoken by around 65 per cent people.

Between the first and eighth centuries, Turkic-speaking and Mongol tribes invaded and settled in the areas that are now known as Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Arab invaders introduced Islam by the 8th century. Between 1219 and 1224, Mongol tribes led by Genghis Khan invaded Kazakhstan. By the late 15th century, the Khanate of Kazakhstan had been established, separating the region into three zones, and a Kazakh ethnic identity had emerged by the 16th century. The Russian empire had established a hold over Kazakhstan by the mid-19th century by waging wars against local tribes. After the Bolshevik coup in Russia in 1917, there was civil war in Kazakhstan. In 1920, Kazakhstan turned into an autonomous republic of the USSR. By 1936, the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic became a full Union Republic of the USSR, the Kazakh SSR.

Under Soviet rule, Kazakhstan saw a period of industrial growth. Huge railroads criss-crossed the region and communication improved. However, the Soviet campaign to collectivise agriculture in Kazakhstan in the early 1930s resulted in widespread devastation in the region. An estimated 1 million people died of starvation. Soviet rule also saw the systematic settlement of Russians. Many of those deported from parts of the USSR during the Second World War, including Germans, Crimean Tatars and Caucasians, were settled in Kazakhstan. This led to a change in the demographic profile of the region: the proportion of Russians increased from 19.7 per cent of the population in 1926 to 42.7 per cent in 1959. The Kazakh-Russian ethnic conflict has been simmering ever since. In 1986, Kazakhs protested against the appointment of Gennadiy Kolbin, an ethnic Russian, as head of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan (CPK), replacing Dinmukhamed Kunayev, an ethnic Kazakh. In June 1989, Nursultan Nazarbayev, an ethnic Kazakh was appointed head of the CPK. The Kazakh Supreme Soviet adopted a legislation establishing Kazakh as the official language and Russian as a language of inter-ethnic communication in September 1989.

On 25 October 1990, the Kazakh Supreme Soviet declared its sovereignty, and Nazarbayev was appointed as the first Kazakh president. In 1991, Nazarbayev won the uncontested presidential elections and Kazakhstan declared independence from the Soviet Union, and joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). In 1999, Nazarbayev was re-elected president after his main rival, former Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin, was barred from standing. Later, parliamentary elections were held for the first time by a combination of party list and first-past-the-post system. The elections were criticised for various irregularities. Increased emigration from the country by ethnic Germans - nearly 300,000 of them left in the early 1990s - and Russians was accompanied by the return of ethnic Kazakhs from Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. According to a census held in February 1999, ethnic Kazakhs constituted 54.3 per cent of the total population.

Independence: December 16, 1991 (from the Soviet Union).
Government Type: Presidential type of Government. Bicameral Parliament.
Head of State: President
Head of State Name: Nursultan A. Nazarbaev
Government Head: Prime Minister
Government Head Name: Karim Masimov (since 10 January 2007)

Kazakhstan is a constitutional republic with a strong presidency. Under the 1995 Kazakh constitution, the President of the Republic is Head of State and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He holds broad executive powers including that of vetoing any legislation passed by the Parliament. The President is elected directly by universal adult franchise for a seven-year term. The constitution provides for a maximum of two consecutive terms for the president. The government is headed by the Prime Minister who is accountable to the President and serves at his pleasure. He chairs the Cabinet of Ministers. There are four deputy prime ministers, 14 ministers, and 11 chairmen of state agencies. Most of the legislations taken up by the Parliament are proposed by the government.

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a militant group based in Afghanistan, has undertaken acts of terrorism in Kazakhstan in order to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic regime.

Simmering ethnic tensions, particularly amongst the large ethnic Russian group, is another source of internal conflict. In mid-November 1999, the arrests of 14 separatists including ethnic Russians, led to the discovery of an alleged plot aimed at establishing an independent republic through an armed rebellion against the authorities in several towns in the north and east of Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan is a party to the issue of the division of the Caspian Sea boundaries between the coastal states. The contentious issue of division of mineral resources located in the sea bed, has strained relations between Kazakhstan and Russia, as well as other states such as Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iran.

There is a border dispute with Uzbekistan over 299,000 acres of land around two villages - Bagys and Turkestanets, which have a combined population of roughly 2,000. The disputed territory is controlled by Uzbekistan while the overwhelming majority of residents are ethnic Kazakhs. Uzbek troops have also been accused of arbitrarily demarcating the border in many parts.

In May 1992, President Nazarbaev had issued a decree for the establishment of Kazakhstan's armed forces. Kazakhstan inherited a sizeable defence hardware from the former Soviet Union, most of which is in a depleted state today. The soviet era Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) are positioned in Kazakh territory. A battalion of Kazak border guards is deputed in Tajikistan for providing security. Kazakh military participates in the US' International Military Education and Training program, Foreign Military Financing, as well as NATO's Partnership for Peace program. The annual defence expenditure is around $322 million.

Kazakhstan is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and has been averaging above 9 per cent growth in recent years. This is largely due to the pro-market policies adopted by the country's rulers following independence. Kazakhstan has enormous fossil fuel reserves as well as significant supplies of minerals and metals. Kazakhstan has nearly 14 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and 68.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas deposits. Energy exports is therefore, one of the main revenue earners of the Kazakh economy. Oil and gas exports are expected to increase over the coming years as the 1,500 km long petroleum pipeline connecting the Tengiz oil field in western Kazakhstan with Novorossiysk on the Russian Black Sea coast is expected to be a major transit route for crude oil exports. In order to diversify the economy and reduce its dependence on its oil sector, Kazakhstan has initiated a policy of developing economic clusters, each specialising in a particular area like tourism, information technology, ligh enegineering etc.

The Times of Central Asia Access to this website is by subscription. It provides extensive coverage of all Central Asian states.
Kazakhstan News The website provides daily news of Kazakhstan.
National Daily Newspaper of Kazakhstan The website has news, articles on the history and economy of Kazakhstan.
Republic of Kazakhstan This is the website of Kazakhstan's President. It provides extensive information on Kazakhstan.
The Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhastan in New Delhi, India This is the website of the Kazakh embassy in India and the best resource for Indo-Kazakh issues.