The newly sworn-in President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan has proposed re-naming the country’s capital Nursultan, in honour of its former leader Mr Nursultan Nazarbayev, a day after the longtime ruler resigned.
President Tokayev, a career diplomat who had been Senate Speaker, will serve the remaining part of Mr Nazarbayev’s term ahead of the scheduled elections next year.
Mr Nazarbayev surprised many by announcing in a televised address yesterday that he would step down after nearly thirty years, making Mr Tokayev the second president in the country’s Independent history.
He attended Tokayev’s inauguration, entering to lengthy applause from assembled dignitaries before taking a seat on a podium above and behind the lectern where Tokayev gave an address.
Astana replaced Almaty as the capital of Kazakhstan in 1997 and boomed from a minor provincial steppe town into a futuristic city.
The name Astana literally means capital in Kazakh and there has long been speculations that it could, at some point, be re-named after the leader who shaped it.
Mr Nazarbayev’s decades at the helm transformed Kazakhstan into an energy powerhouse but he governed with little tolerance for opposition.
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