KZBlog

Among the amendments and laws discussed in Parliament this week [RU], the most interesting and entertaining was a proposal by member of Parliament Sat Tokpakbayev to rename the capital city to Nursultan in honor of the President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and his role in not only running the nation but also building the city of Astana and promoting it to the world. 70% of members of Parliament apparently supported the idea.

However the President is against the change, or any renaming of the capital in his lifetime. He personally chose the name “Astana” as legend has it because it is easy to say in any language. “Astana” means ‘capital’ in Kazakh. According to the AFP, however Nazarbayev was not necessarily against a future name change. “The decision to change the name will be made by another generation,” he said in an interview on Friday.

This is not the first time someone has suggested renaming the capital in honor of the President and one does not an awful lot of buildings and organizations with the prefix “Nur”, which means ‘sunbeams’ in Kazakh.

Some of the comments on the proposal from nomad.su [RU] are worth noting. One commentator points out that it will be unbelievably expensive to change every document, map and sign that has the word Astana on it. Another woman notes that she is tired of living in a country where names constantly change and is ashamed that her Parliament seems to do nothing but rename things. Finally one commentator proposes renaming a resort on Lake Kapshagai Sat, in honor of the Parliament member who made the proposal.