External News in Brief

• A telegramme of congratulations to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the occasion of his victory in his country’s presidential election was sent Aug. 11 by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.On behalf of the people of Kazakhstan and himself, Nazarbayev congratulated Erdogan on his victory in the historically-significant election. The telegramme read, in part, “The voting results clearly witnessed your authority in society, broad support of your policy focused on the settlement of socio-economic issues and strengthening the positions of Turkey in the international arena.” The head of state also stressed that under the leadership of Erdogan, Turkey has turned into a highly-developed state that has influence in international affairs. “I am confident that brotherly relations between Kazakhstan and Turkey will only be strengthened on the level of strategic partnership,” the telegramme said. At the end of the message, the President wished Erdogan good health and success and wished peace and prosperity to the people of Turkey.

• A two-day forum of the heads of the prosecutor’s offices of the border regions of Kazakhstan and Russia took place Aug. 7-8 in Astana. Representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Kazakhstan, transport prosecutor’s office and the prosecutors of the Aktobe, Atyrau, East Kazakhstan, West Kazakhstan, Kostanai, Mangystau and North Kazakhstan regions, as well as representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Russia, heads of the departments of the General Prosecutor’s Office in the Ural and Southern Federal Districts, heads of the prosecutor’s office of Altai, Kalmykia, Altai Territory, Astrakhan, Volgograd, Kurgan, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Samara, Saratov, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk regions, Western Siberian, Ural and Southern transport prosecutor’s offices took part in the meeting. Opening the forum, Kazakh Prosecutor General Askhat Daulbayev said the launch of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) in May, which provides free movement of goods, services, capital and workforce and ensures implementation of coordinated policy in key economic sectors, sets new tasks for the prosecutors of the member states. Daulbayev noted that cooperation between the Kazakh and Russian general prosecutor’s offices, both in bilateral and multilateral formats, is quite fruitful. However, the establishment of the economic union obliges the prosecution agencies of the partner countries to boost cooperation in order to ensure law under new conditions. The effectiveness of cooperation of the countries’ law-enforcement bodies in the midst of integration processes can be significantly improved by strengthening the coordinating role of prosecutors, eliminating bureaucratic acrimony and integrating the law-making systems. The forum’s agenda also included other topical issues on cooperation in different spheres of law enforcement practice in the EEU. The participants discussed opportunities for consolidating efforts on combating transnational organised crimes, illegal migration, drug trafficking, religious extremism and terrorism, cyber crimes, money laundering and crimes in the sphere of protection of natural resources. The main outcomes of the forum are expected to be recommendations aimed at prevention of inter-regional and interstate crimes, improvement of practical cooperation and information exchange.

• Six ancient Kazakh maps and letters from the Pope to the ruler of the Turks were found in the Vatican Secret Archives. Rafis Abbasov, a historian from Columbia University who worked with Al-Farabi University for many years, discovered the papers by accident. The archives belong to the Vatican and the Jesuit order and he waited for almost a year to see them. The majority of the maps indicate the close relationship that existed among the Kazakh people and the people of Southern Asia and Western Europe. It will take six months to assess the artifacts and the results will be of great historical interest.

• In the past two years, 3,000 ethnic Germans who left Kazakhstan to return to Germany have come back. Around one million Germans were sent to Kazakhstan from the western parts of the USSR, particularly the Volga region, in the 1930s-1940s. They made up one of the largest ethnic communities in the country. During perestroika and after Kazakhstan’s independence in 1991 many of them and their descendants returned to their historic homeland but now some of them are coming back to Kazakhstan. Today, the German diaspora in Kazakhstan accounts for around 250,000 people.


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