Kazakhstan – state flag
The flag was adopted in 1992. The blue color represents the cloudless sky and symbolizes freedom and equality for all people. The bird, which is a steppe eagle, and the golden sun stand for the love of freedom of the Kazakh people and for the high ideals of the people. The strip on the left is inspired by folk art.
- Countryaah: What does the flag of Kazakhstan look like? Follow this link, then you will see the image in PNG format and flag meaning description about this country.
Kazakhstan (History)
According to its own traditions, the Kazakh nomads have had homes since the 1100’s. has been the steppe area between the Caspian Sea and the Altai Mountains, where they have lived on cattle and horse breeding. Around 1500, the tribes gathered in a form of confederation, divided into the Great, the Middle and the Little Horde, a division that still plays a significant role in the Kazakhs’ self-understanding and political structure.
- AbbreviationFinder: Check three-letter abbreviation for each country in the world, such as KAZ which represents the official name of Kazakhstan.
In the following centuries, the Kazakhs were squeezed by the Chinese and Russian expansion, and since then their history has been marked by the struggle between traditional nomadic culture and settled agrarian culture. In the 1700’s. the western and central tribes sought protection from the Russian emperor, which resulted in a fidelity to him. The Russian control of the nomads, which at that time was only nominal, was exercised through the khans, the leaders of the hordes. The loose Russian control was replaced from the 1820’s by a new policy: by introducing Russian administration, jurisdiction and taxation system, the Kazakhs were to be integrated into Russia. It led to uprisings in the Kazakh population; many fled to China, while others orientated themselves linguistically and culturally towards Russia.
In 1868, Kazakhstan was declared part of the Russian Empire. At the same time, Russian farmers began to come to the area, and in the early 1900-t. they immigrated in large numbers to the nomadic grazing areas of the nomads due to the Russian reform policy. It provided fertile ground for a growing nationalism in the Kazakh elite, which at the same time became largely Russian-speaking.
According to a2zgov, the decision in 1916 to call up Central Asians for military service led to revolt among the tribal peoples. The following brutal Russian punitive expeditions drove the Kazakhs east. In 1917, a national and socialist-oriented organization, Alasj Orda, was formed, which the same year proclaimed an independent Kazakh state. In 1920, however, the entire Kazakh steppe came under the control of the Bolsheviks and Moscow, and the Kyrgyz Autonomous Republic consisting of present-day Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan was established. It was later divided into two, and in 1936 the Kazakh part was transformed into the Kazakh SSR.
Where it had hitherto been the case that the nomads had been driven out of their traditional pastures, the collectivization of agriculture around 1930 entailed a requirement that from then on they should be made resident. The reaction of the nomads was fierce, and in large numbers they fled to China and Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands were killed or died of starvation; new information shows that there was a veritable genocide on the part of the soviets, which reduced the kazakh population by up to 40%. In connection with Moscow’s campaign to cultivate new land, new contingents of peasants came to Kazakhstan in the 1950’s. At the same time, a large-scale wave of industrialization sent industrial workers from the European parts of the Soviet Union to the area.
In 1964, Dinmukhamed Kunajev became the first secretary of the first ethnic Kazakh party. Under his leadership, the Kazakh people, at the expense of the Russians, were overrepresented in the political, administrative, and scientific life of the republic. The elite that is today in power in Kazakhstan, uniting Kazakh nationalism with a pragmatic relationship with Moscow, was educated during this period.
In 1986, Gorbachev ousted Kunaev and replaced him with a Russian, allegedly to fight corruption. This led to the first bloody ethnic unrest under Gorbachev, who in 1989 had to replace the Russian first secretary with Kazakh Nursultan Nazarbayev, and he has since been Kazakhstan’s undisputed leader. In 1990 he was elected President of the Kazakh Soviet Republic, and in December 1991 he proclaimed the Independent Republic of Kazakhstan, and was elected President of it with 95% of the vote in an election in which he was the sole candidate. The relatively late independence was due to the fact that Nazarbayev ultimately supported Gorbachev’s attempts to renew the Union. He spoke strongly in favor of greater integration within the CIS, while defending the integrity of his republic. However, his integration efforts have not yielded major results.
Nazarbayev’s term was extended by a referendum in 1995. In 1999, he was re-elected for seven years with 80% of the vote. OSCE criticized both this election and the parliamentary elections in 1999, which the president’s supporters won. In 1998, Parliament lifted the age limit for the president, extended the president’s term from five to seven years, and decided that the president could serve more than two terms. Nazarbayev’s rule has become increasingly authoritarian, and his family has been given leading positions in government and business. Political opposition is being fought, and freedom of speech is in dire straits. In the 2004 parliamentary elections, which were criticized by international observers, the opposition won only one of the 77 seats. In the 2005 presidential election, which according to the OSCE could hardly be described as free and fair, the leader of the opposition received 6.6% of the vote, while Nazarbayev received 91%.
Nazarbayev makes all the crucial decisions regarding foreign policy. He maintains a close relationship with Russia, which is Kazakhstan’s largest trading partner, and treats the country’s Russian minority so well that some of the emigrants are now returning. Kazakhstan has reached a bilateral agreement with Russia on the demarcation of the Caspian Sea, but the status of the sea under international law was still unresolved in early 2006 and there was no prospect of any general agreement between the coastal states. Relations with China are good; The Chinese have invested in the Kazakh oil industry, and both parties have high expectations for the new oil pipeline from Kazakhstan to China. US oil companies also have interests in Kazakhstan’s oil industry, and after 11.