November 19 , 2008

A presentation by Mr. Eraly Tugzhanov ANK Deputy Chairman, Head of ANK Secretariat, Presidential Administration of Kazakhstan held at the Central Asia Caucasus Institute (CACI), SAIS, Johns Hopkins University on Wednesday November 19th in the Rome Auditorium.  

Mr. Tugzhanov opened his comments by saying that President-elect Obama had a telephone discussion with President of Nazerbayev in which President Nazerbayev congratulated President-elect Obama and wished him success. They both said that Kazakhstan and the United States have fruitful cooperation on terrorism and Afghanistan. They spoke on nuclear disarmament and safety of nuclear material as well as Afghanistan and Iraq. Kazakhstan is a friend of the United States and we will strengthen the links said President-elect Obama to President Nazerbayev.

The People’s Assembly of Kazakhstan was created in 1995 it was formed by order of the President. It is chaired by the head of government and there is a board of directors. Minorities and nationalities are represented. And there is also representation of the President.

This is the essence of our dialogue, to insure dialogue between the government and groups to foster tolerance. This is the basis of development of statehood. We want to develop equal opportunities and fair access to the different nations in the country.

Nationalities in the assembly have been actively involved. It is an entity which is part of the constitution. The parliament is also represented. This insures the interests of the nationalities are represented in the highest bodies.

The law created in our country is unique. It was signed by president a year ago about the People’s Assembly of Kazakhstan. Our priority is human rights, notwithstanding religion, language and ethnic groups.

Kazakhstan has done well to build tolerance of nationalities and respect spiritual values. We try to install unique and unified values. Each ethnic group can define its own culture.

There are more than 131 ethnic groups. There are cross cultural centers for 46 ethnicities. It is the basis of our policy, ensuring that language and culture be developed.

We have newspapers and magazines in eleven languages, radio in eight languages and television in seven languages.

We have Tajik and other languages in schools. We also have magnet centers to learn foreign languages for children and adults which currently have a total of 7000 students.

President Nazerbayev has a concept that has been approved by society to ensure that there is no tension.  We have created a legal basis for human rights of the people.

Ancient Kazakhs played a tolerant role and we will continue this to ensure we develop further as a pluralistic society. We have held in Astana two international conferences on religious issues. In 2009 we will have a third forum for religious leaders. This is in the framework of OSCE, to insure interethnic tolerance. We are calling 2009 the year to ensure religious and ethnic tolerance. In 2011 we will have the chair of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) which is important for Kazakhstan.

The core internal policy of Kazakhstan and essence of stability is to create peace between religions. Stability depends on that for economic and political stability and this is the way for social stability.