ASTANA (TCA) — A member of Kazakhstan’s parliament has proposed that the country’s capital city, Astana, should be renamed to honor longtime President Nursultan Nazarbayev, RFE/RL reports.
The suggestion was made on November 23 at a joint session of parliament by Quanysh Sultanov, a deputy in the Mazhilis, the parliament’s lower chamber.
Sultanov said Astana could be renamed either as Nursultan or as Nazarbayev.
Kazakh Information Minister Dauren Abaev said any final decision on renaming Astana would be made by Nazarbayev himself, but could require a constitutional amendment.
Mazhilis deputy Vladislav Kosarev said that if Nazarbayev agrees to the name change, an ad hoc commission would be formed to study the issue.
The 76-year-old Nazarbayev was Kazakhstan’s last Soviet-era leader and has continued to rule the country since it declared independence in 1991.
Exempted from laws that limit presidential terms, he was last elected in April 2015 with 98 percent of the vote.
In 2010, Nazarbayev was bestowed by lawmakers with the title Leader of the Nation.
Kazakhstan’s government moved the capital from the country’s largest city, Almaty, to Astana in 1997.
Last week, Kazakhstan’s National Bank Chairman Daniyar Akishev announced that the National Bank on December 1, 2016 — the Day of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan — will put into circulation new 10,000-tenge (around $30) banknotes featuring the portrait of President Nazarbayev.
The new banknote commemorates the 25th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s independence, Akishev said.
“The history of Independence is part and parcel of the personality of the Head of State. All of Kazakhstan’s achievements over the years since independence have been inseparably linked with the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev,” the National Bank chairman emphasized.
