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| Central Asia |
| Mighty neighbors press Kazakhs |
| 2004-09-04 |
| It is said that President Nursultan Nazarbayev wakes up every day in Astana, his spanking new capital, and hears the growl of a Russian bear to the north and the roar of a Chinese tiger to the East. And these days, he frequently finds Uncle Sam at his front door holding an empty gasoline can. A sprawling expanse of steppes, mountains and deserts, this country extends from the eastern limits of Europe to the western border of China. It is four times the size of Texas but has just 15 million inhabitants, compared with the estimated 22 million in "the Lone Star State." Russia and China are interested in expanding their footholds in this oil-rich country, but Mr. Nazarbayev makes overtures to the United States and Europe to counterbalance his heftier neighbors. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Another Dan: Aqmola became Kazakhstan's new capital city in '97 (replacing the overcrowded and hellishly polluted Almaty) and was renamed Astana ("Capital"). There's a story that the capital was moved from Almaty (near the Chinese border) to Aqmola after Nazarbayev came back from a visit with his Chinese neighbors. They had apparently proposed significant territorial adjustments in China's favor. Kirghizstan caved in to Chinese territorial demands about a year ago. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-09-04 4:44:02 AM |
| #1 Good article, Dan (as usual). One nitpicky observation for its author ... the phrase "spanking new capital" implies that Astana is a brand-new city like Putrujaya or Brasilia. Actually, it's one of the oldest cities on the Kazakh steppes, dating back to the old Russian fort of Akmolinsk in the 1820s. Khruschev renamed it Tselinograd, "City of the Virgin Lands," (the name which, I'm told, most of the predominantly Slavic locals still prefer). In the Nineties, the name regressed to its original Kazakh root, Aqmola (White Cemetary). Aqmola became Kazakhstan's new capital city in '97 (replacing the overcrowded and hellishly polluted Almaty) and was renamed Astana ("Capital"). Once Pres. Nazarbayev dies, I'd put my money on it becoming "Nazarbayevabad" or some such thing, but I digress. Hey, while I'm rambling, the Kazakh Soviet Republic's original capital was the town of Orenburg in the Urals, but the northwestern hinterlands (including Orenburg) were later transferred to Russia, and the capital was moved to a city further south. This city, Ak Mechet (White Mosque), was given the more politically correct name Qyzylorda (something like "Red Nation", I forget). Qyzylorda kept its new name even after the capital was moved again in the late twenties to Kazakhstan's biggest city. Previously called Vernyy (Faithful), its later name Alma-Ata (Father of Apples) was "Kazakhified" into Almaty after the '91 Soviet disunion. |
| Posted by: Another Dan 2004-09-04 3:23:24 AM |