Pope Francis goes to Kazakhstan for the 38th International Pastoral Visit to the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. What kind of country will the Pope go to? Vatican News provided the following profile.
(Vatican News Network)Located in Central Asia, Kazakhstan is a landlocked country bordered by Russia to the north and west, China to the east and Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to the south. At its westernmost point, it is geographically part of continental Europe. The territory extends very wide: from east to west it stretches for 3000 kilometers, and from north to south for 1700 kilometers. The landscape is dominated by grasslands, which stretch from the Caspian Sea to Lake Balhas. Most of its territory is flat and hilly, desert or semi-desert. The country also has some mountains on the eastern borders with Russia and China and close to Kyrgyzstan. At the meeting point of these three countries, Kazakhstan’s highest peak, Khan Tengri (7010 meters) in the Tianshan Mountains, appeared. Major rivers include the Irtysh, Ishim, Syrdaria, and the Urals, the latter ending in the Caspian Sea. The country has a dry continental climate with hot summers and cold winters.
Kazakhstan has an area of 2.97 million square kilometers, which is roughly equivalent to Western Europe, and has a population of less than 19 million, making it the ninth largest country in the world. The capital, Nur-Sultan, uses Kazakh and Russian and most of its citizens believe in Islam.
Located along the ancient Silk Road that connects China with the Middle East and the Mediterranean Sea, Kazakhstan was once inhabited by nomadic peoples and today its population is made up of more than 100 different nationalities and ethnicities. Kazakh means “land of the Cossacks” (Kazakhs), a name of Turkish origin meaning “nomad”, referring to the Central Asian steppe that lived south of Russia and parts of present day Ukraine organized military groups.
The Russians began their march on the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century and nominally ruled the whole of Kazakhstan as part of the Russian Empire in the mid-19th century until the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
From 1917 to 1925 it was part of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic and in 1926 it became an autonomous republic. In 1936, Kazakhstan became a republic of the Soviet Union and gained independence in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, joining the newly formed Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
In the 1990s, power gradually concentrated in the hands of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who was the first secretary of the Kazakh Communist Party during the former Soviet Union, until 2019, when he handed over the presidency to Kasim Jomart Tokayev.
Although Nazarbayev is authoritarian at home, internationally he pursues a multilateral foreign policy aimed at aligning himself with his neighbors, notably Russia and China, and beyond, such as Iran, Turkey, but also the European Union and the European Union. and maintain good relationships. Starting in the second half of the 1990s, after improving relations with Iran, Turkey and China, Kazakhstan has consolidated ties with its neighbors Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. But its main political ally remains Russia, with which it has established an economic partnership within the Eurasian Economic Union and military cooperation within the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to which these countries belong.
The country’s multilateral foreign policy was further strengthened by the 1998 resolution of a border dispute with China in the East Kazakhstan and Almaty regions. Putting aside the distrust linked to Beijing’s policies in Central Asia, the Kazakh government has actually begun to strengthen cooperation with its neighbors, including on trade and energy, as well as security.
On the economic front, Nazarbayev has started the process of privatizing the country’s mineral resources, but serious economic difficulties persist and wealth has been concentrated in the hands of a small number of people, keeping social relations in constant tension. Tensions have erupted in violent protests across the country, fueled by high oil prices in early 2022, with the intervention of the military and Moscow-led CSTO forces, as well as promises of reforms to combat widespread corruption. , in a few days of rising tensions.
After the crisis, President Tokayev launched a modern reform of the entire social structure, trying to shake off the heavy legacy of Nursultan Nazarbayev’s long-term government. The new constitution, approved by an overwhelming majority in a referendum on 5 June and ratified by parliament on 27 March, opens up greater civic participation at national and local level, in particular through “social committees”.
Tokayev also appears to be aiming to take a new course in relations with Russia, with his position at the St. Petersburg International Economic Summit in June 2022 indicating that his country supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity and does not recognize the country occupied by the Moscow forces Pro-Russian separatist areas.
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