ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev says “there is no need” to change the name of the country’s capital city, Astana, after the Kazakh parliament proposed renaming the city after him.
“Astana is a brand, and therefore there is no need to change the capital’s name,” Nazarbayev said in an interview with Russia-24 television channel on November 25.
On November 23, Kazakh lawmakers unanimously passed a declaration that suggested renaming “the capital and other important facilities across the country” after Nazarbayev.
The declaration marking the upcoming 25th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s independence pays tribute to Nazarbayev’s “outstanding services” to the nation, RFE/RL reported.
On November 23, at a joint session of parliament, Kuanysh Sultanov, a deputy of the Mazhilis, the parliament’s lower chamber, said Astana could be renamed either as Nursultan or as Nazarbayev.
Kazakh Information Minister Dauren Abaev then said that any final decision on renaming Astana would be made by Nazarbayev himself.
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.
