Under New Constitution, Kazakhstan will Break Free of Soviet Russian Past and Become Kazakh Eli

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Feb. 18 – For some time, activists and commentators in Central Asian countries have wanted to change the names of their countries now ending in “stan” because they see it as the imposition of a Soviet Russian definition of their states and one that leads many outsider to dismissively think about “the stans” as something exotic and filled with conflict.

            Now Kazakhstan is on the way to being the first of the five countries in Central Asia to make this change. Its draft constitution set to be approved next month identifies that country not as Kazakhstan but as Kazak ili, “the land of the Kazakhs” (altyn-orda.kz/ot-kazahstana-k-kazak-eli-simvolicheskij-razryv-s-epohoj-sovka/).

In a commentary welcoming this change the Altyn Orda portal says that “the name ‘Kazakhstan’ appeared in the Soviet system of coordinates,” designating a territory but not reflecting “the death of historical traditions. ‘Kazakh eli sounds different: it isn’t an administrative formula but is a name arising from the people and its history.”

“Translated,” the portal continues, “’Kazakh eli’ means ‘the State of the Kazakhs” and represents “a return to its own name without the Soviet superstructure and without the ideological links of the past.” As such, this move is “a symbolic break with the era of things Soviet; it is not a denial of history but a completion of the post-Soviet period.”

It is already the case, Altyn Orda says, that “the young generation does not think of itself in terms of ‘the post-Soviet space.’ Rather it thinks of itself in global terms, mobile and confident. Thus, the adoption of this new name is not some radical step but a logical continuation of ongoing processes.”

Importantly, the portal says, the term is not about exclusion but about the basis of the state. “The historic nucleus of statehood has been formed by the Kazakh people, but the present-day state remains a hope for all its citizens. The name fixes the cultural foundation but it is not about any limiting of rights.”

            There are at least two countries that are likely to be unhappy with this change: Russia, which will view it as yet another sign of Kazakhstan’s divorce from Moscow and the former Soviet space; and Turkey, which has become calling all of Central Asia Turkestan and thus may see the new name as distancing Kazakhstan from Ankara in some way.