Articles by Galiaskar Seitzhan

ASTANA – Five Kazakh short-track speed skaters have qualified for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea based on the results of the World Cup series, reported zakon.kz. The International Skating Union (ISU) confirmed the quotas Nov. 23 following competitions held Sept. 28-Nov. 19 in Budapest (Hungary), Dordrecht (Holland), Shanghai (China) and Seoul (South…

As became known, President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda plans to pay a state visit to Astana on Sept. 6-7. On the eve of this major event in bilateral relations development, we asked a few questions from the Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Republic of Poland Margulan Baimukhan. What is…

Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, is serving as host this summer for EXPO 2017. Inventors, companies and scientists throughout the world are presenting their research and vision of the way new technologies can change the future. Represented among them are Kazakh nationals, including Blok Shaikenov, who says he has invented a new type of wind…

On the eve of the official visit of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to the Kazakh capital on July 11-12, The Astana Times spoke with Kazakhstan’s ambassador in Berlin, Bulat Nussupov. How do you evaluate the current state of Kazakh-German relations? What are the current dynamics of bilateral contacts between our countries? This year our countries…

ASTANA – Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told a panel discussion at the Feb. 18 Munich Security Conference that it is important to build reliable and friendly relations between the countries of Central Asia and Eurasia and the rest of the world. According to a press release from the…

ASTANA – Last month the Almaty-based Institute of World Economics and Politics presented a new book by Talgat Zhumagulov, a Kazakh diplomat, which describes the activities of the nation’s foreign service during the historic chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2010. According to a description by the publisher, “the…

NEW YORK – After a gruelling six-year campaign which took Kazakh leaders and diplomats and introduced Kazakhstan to far flung corners of the world, from Europe to the Pacific Islands, from Africa to Latin America, Kazakhstan won on June 28 the right to sit on the United Nations Security Council in 2017-2018. In the second…

NEW YORK – On May 10, the last day of his visit to New York, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov participated in the High-Level Thematic Debate of the United Nations General Assembly on Global Peace and Security. The event is organised annually under the patronage of the President of the General Assembly. The subject of this…

NEW YORK – Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov represented Kazakhstan at the high-level forum titled Religions for Peace at the United Nations General Assembly (UN GA) May 6. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev put forward the initiative to hold the forum designed to build upon the efforts of the UN to combat violent extremism and promote peace…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s governing party, led by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, won another massive victory while other parties from the legislature’s previous roster also retained their presence in Mazhilis (lower house of Parliament), according to the Central Election Commission (CEC) results of the March 20 parliamentary election. According to data announced by CEC Chairman Kuandyk Turgankulov at…

ASTANA – President Nursultan Nazarbayev-led Nur Otan Party won 82 percent of the popular vote in the parliamentary election in Kazakhstan, according to exit poll results announced at midnight on March 21. The survey also showed the ruling party will be opposed by the same parties in the new convocation of the Mazhilis (the national…

ASTANA – The six parties competing for 98 seats in Kazakhstan’s Mazhilis (lower chamber of Parliament) and the 10,825 candidates running for seats in maslikhats (local legislatures) are intensifying their campaigns in the final days before the March 20 elections, making last appeals to voters across the nation. In addition to traditional posters and leaflets,…

ASTANA – The scientific legacy of Hungarian orientalists and the Magyar people’s historical ties with Turkic-speaking peoples were discussed at a roundtable in the city’s International Turkic Academy’s (ITA) conference hall. The forum was arranged in cooperation with the Hungarian Embassy in Kazakhstan, according to a Feb. 4 report by Kazinform. ITA President Darkhan Kydyrali…

ASTANA – The risk that the Barys hockey club will miss its first Continental Hockey League’s (KHL) Gagarin Cup playoffs is near materialising. Since Feb. 26, the Astana team has played four games. In the first one, Tractor Chelyabinsk was defeated 5-4 on a penalty shootout in the New Arena Astana. However, the following two…

PARIS – Scientists, business representatives and officials engaged in lively discussions in Paris Dec. 7 at the Future Energy Forum at the UN Education, Science and Culture Organisation (UNESCO) with the aim of powering global innovation in future energy sources and technologies. The Future Energy Forum (FEF) was organised by Nazarbayev University in collaboration with…

ASTANA – Giving due credit to our ancestors’ deeds inspires our responsibility to the future, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said at a special grand meeting dedicated to the 550th anniversary of the Kazakh Khanate. “We have gathered here today for a celebration in order to honour our heroic forefathers but also to highlight lessons that we…

ASTANA – The first Kazakhs apparently arrived in Norway as German prisoners of war during World War II, with some escapees able to join Norwegian guerrillas fighting the Nazi occupation. The Red Army subsequently liberated the country’s northeastern tip from the Nazis in the autumn of 1944. Since the 1960s, some ethnic Kazakhs have settled…

ASTANA – After a 0-1 away defeat July 15 and an impressive 3-1 victory at Astana Arena a week later despite being a player down for the last half-hour of the tie, FC Astana overcame opposition from Slovenian FC Maribor in its debut round in the UEFA Champions League. Thirteen years ago, another club from…

ASTANA – The Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan issued a statement on July 15 In which it welcomed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action over the Iranian nuclear programme approved a day earlier in Vienna. The deal is the result of nine years of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group of international mediators: the U.S.,…

ASTANA – The European football season started for three Kazakh contenders with the first qualification round of the Europa League on July 2 and 9. Two of them, FC Aktobe and FC Ordabasy Shymkent failed to deliver in the two-leg ties against Estonian and Israeli clubs respectively. Kairat Almaty, however, accomplished a remarkable victory against…

The light water research reactor at the Institute of Nuclear Physics (INP) in Alatau, a suburb of Almaty, will reopen in January 2016 following a switch to less proliferation-sensitive low-enriched uranium (LEU), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently reported. The report, “IAEA Impact: Making the World Safer, One Research Reactor At a Time,” announced…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan recently celebrated two military holidays in a row, Defender of the Fatherland Day on May 7 and Victory Day on May 9. This year, as the nation commemorates the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazism in Europe and its significant contributions to Soviet military efforts, the grand military parade was held…

ASTANA – On April 27, the first day of post-election analysis in Kazakhstan, foreign observers continued sharing the findings of their missions to observe the poll putting the development of electoral process in perspective and in the context of the country’s overall political transformation. One of the more detailed assessments came from an the independent…

ASTANA – Nursultan Nazarbayev won re-election with a landslide win of 97.5%, the exit poll conducted by the Institute of Democracy showed. Institute director Yulia Kuchinskaya made the announcement during a midnight briefing on April 27 televised live on Khabar TV. According to the exit poll, the other two candidates – Turgun Syzdykov of the…

ASTANA – As voting was held throughout the day on April 26, a number of international observers shared their initial impressions with local media. Italian legislator, who recently served as President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe, Riccardo Migliori, commended the transparency of the Kazakh election. “I have…

ASTANA – “As of 12 p.m. [Astana time], 41.69 percent of registered voters have voted,” Central Electoral Commission (CEC) member Tatyana Okhlopkova announced to the media shortly after one o’clock on April 26, Kazakhstan’s election day. As the day progresses, long queues have begun shaping inside and in front of polling stations in the Kazakh…

ASTANA – Ahead of what is termed the “day of silence,” when the law explicitly bans campaigning and electioneering one day prior to the election, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev addressed his fellow countrymen on April 24, appealing for a high turnout in the country’s presidential election on Sunday, April 26. The election of a…

ASTANA – The National Public Commission for Control of Elections has promised to recruit the single largest group of observers, up to 10,000 well-trained individuals, for the April 26 Kazakhstan presidential election. As a result, it would be able to cover each of 9,741 polling stations across the ninthlargest country in the world. The non-governmental…

Three days are left until the key event of Kazakhstan’s political life over the last four years. More than 9 million citizens are registered to vote in the presidential election on April 26. This will be the sixth time the people of Kazakhstan will have gone to the polls to choose their leader. For a…

ASTANA – Past positive cooperation between Kazakhstan’s electoral authority and Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observers was recalled March 24 as Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) Kuandyk Turgankulov met with the head of the Election Observation Mission (EOM) from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Cornelia Jonker.…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s ruling Nur Otan party nominated President Nursultan Nazarbayev as its candidate for the early presidential election at the party’s congress in Astana on March 11. The incumbent accepted the nomination and is expected to mount a campaign for the election that is due in less than two months. “We must, as a party,…

ASTANA – In a televised address to the nation, President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced his decision to call an early presidential election in Kazakhstan on April 26. “In the interests of [our] people … and to fulfil the demands of the law, I took a decision and, in line with paragraph 3.1 of the national Constitution’s…

ASTANA – In early March, a delegation of the Association of Sports Press of Kazakhstan (ASPK) is scheduled to participate in the 79th Annual Congress of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS). The Astana Times sat down with President of ASPK Ilyas Omarov to gain his insight on the expectations of the Kazakh sports press…

They say South Kazakhstan is a place where antiquity meets modernity. The region’s ancient culture, dating back thousands of years, ravishes with its unique complexes of archaeological sites and medieval architecture. A multifaceted region, it brings together a historical heritage of two very different civilisations, the settled urban one and the nomadic one of the…

ASTANA – According to the Astana Office of Tourism, Physical Culture and Sports, on Feb. 28, the capital will host the main public ski event of the year, Burkasyn 2015. The mass sports festival, which has already become traditional, will be held for the 13th time this year. The ski race starts at the banks…