KZBlog

This was one I couldn’t pass by without commenting on even though it will probably come to nothing.

One citizen of Kazakhstan, Arman Turdaliyev, left a comment on Karim Massimov’s blog recently, saying that the only way to stop China from taking over Kazakhstan slowly was by preventing all foreign marriages.

Dear Karim Kazhimkanovich!
As a patriot of my country, I am concerned about her safety.
Citizens of other countries seek to enter Kazakhstan and become citizens by all means possible. The most popular method is to marry to a citizen of Kazakhstan. Many Kazakh women from Almaty (for financial reasons) do this almost automatically. In Almaty, thousands of Chinese have thus been granted citizenship like this
I propose to make the following law:
“If a citizen enters Kazakhstan married to a citizen of another country, he (the citizen of Kazakhstan) automatically loses their citizenship. Moreover, a citizen of another country, in this case, will not receive the citizenship of Kazakhstan.”
After the adoption of this law, China “quiet” expansion into Kazakhstan will be stopped as well as other disadvantaged countries (South-East Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Caucasus).
Only in ways we can survive in the neighborhood with such monsters.
Sincerely,
Arman

As Eurasianet points out, it’s hard to square such extremist views with Kazakhstan’s image as a country of tolerance and inter-ethnic peace. And as Express-K points out, Arman’s paranoia is quite unfounded as China is in 14th place by popularity of marriage (Kazakhstani most commonly marry Russian citizens, the only country that HAS attacked or invaded Kazakhstan in recent history. And the only country that ever conquered and ruled Kazakhstan). Only 5.7% of all marriages in Kazakhstan in 2010 were to a foreign citizen anyway. One also wonders if this law would work to prevent international marriages, or if it would simply lead to more Kazakhs giving up their citizenship.

But everyone has a right to their opinions, I suppose. And paranoid racist cranks appear everywhere. What is interesting is that Massimov did not respond to Arman by saying that such a law would violate human rights or be unenforceable or that it wouldn’t affect relations with China. Instead he sent it to the Ministry of the Interior for consideration. I can’t find it on Massimov’s blog, but here it is on the Min Interior’s blog:

Note that the Ministry of the Interior deals with law enforcement and policing matters. As opposed to the Ministry of Justice which deals with legal matters such as marriages and business registrations. So it’s a pretty serious step to send it to him.

Now, I have complete faith that nothing will come of this, but it is interesting that the PM couldn’t reject it outright and it went so far as to be noted in the Western, English-speaking press.