Population: 14.8 million
Ethnic Composition: 53.4% Kazakh, 30% Russian, 3.7% Ukrainian, 2.5% Uzbek, 2.4% German, 1.4% Uighur, 6.6% other (Chechen, Polish, Belarusian, Korean)
Religion: 47% Muslim (mostly Sunni), 44% Russian Orthodox Christian, 2% Protestant, 7% other
Jewish population: 15,000-20,000
2002 Aliyah
(emigration to Israel): 654
2002 Emigration
to United States: 58
Size: 2,717,300 sq km
Capital: Astana
Major cities: Almaty, Karaganda, Chimkent
Freedom House Rating:
Not Free
Currency: 148.45 tenge = $1 (October 3, 2003)
GDP: $22.3 billion (2001)
GDP per capita: $1,508 (2002)
GDP Growth: 9.5% (2002)
Head of State: President Nursultan A. Nazarbayev
Head of Government:
Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov
Foreign Minister:
Kassymzhomart TokaevAmbassador to United States:
Kanat Saudabayev
U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan:
John M. Ordway
Chronology of all U.S. envoys to Kazakhstan
SUMMARY
Kazakhstan’s experience as part of the Soviet Union dramatically shaped its current demographic and political state. Mass deportations under Stalin resulted in a large influx of ethnic Russians and an erosion of Kazakh national identity. Kazakhstan’s economy suffered from the breakup of the Soviet Union, and now pins its hopes upon the further development of oil and natural gas reserves. Kazakhstan is enlisting substantial international aid to promote economic growth.
Due to its size, Kazakhstan holds substantial leverage over the other Central Asian states. Relations with Russia have been relatively good despite some tensions. The United States and other Western powers have criticized undemocratic policies of the Kazakh government. Kazakhstan has played a vital role in U.S.-led efforts to combat international terrorism.
The Jewish community of Kazakhstan is composed of Bukharan Jews and European immigrants from the 19th and 20th centuries. The community is well organized and cooperates with U.S. and Israeli organizations. Relations with the Kazakh government are good, and there have been no recent reports of anti-Semitism. Kazakhstan maintains cordial relations with Israel.
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KAZAKHSTAN
INTRODUCTION
POLITICAL SITUATION
Foreign Policy
Israel
ECONOMIC SITUATION
JEWISH COMMUNAL LIFE
U.S. POLICYKazakhstan is the second-largest successor state, after Russia, occupying 12 percent of the former Soviet Union. It is nearly four-times the size of Texas and borders Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and the Caspian Sea. Long dominated by the Mongols, the lands comprising Kazakhstan were annexed by Russia in the 18th century; in 1920, the area was incorporated into the Soviet Union. At independence in 1991, Kazakhstan had an equal population of ethnic Kazakhs and ethnic Russians – a legacy of Stalin’s policies of deportation and collectivization along with later Soviet population resettlement. Since independence, many ethnic Russians have returned to Russia, and many Kazakhs have repatriated from other regions of the former Soviet Union and beyond, giving ethnic Kazakhs a majority. Thousands of Chechens deported to Kazakhstan in the 1940s remained in the country, and thousands more arrived in the mid- to late-1990s, fleeing their war-torn homeland.
The Kazakh constitution establishes a bicameral 114-member parliament, a judiciary, and an executive branch headed by a popularly elected President. The constitution and subsequent presidential decrees concentrate power in the President, and virtually no power is granted to the legislature, the judiciary, or local governments. The last legislative elections were held in October 1999; according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the elections – while showing improvement – were deeply flawed. The lack of an independent judiciary has made it extremely difficult to deal with pervasive official corruption.
Kazakhstan’s mix of ethnic groups shares no unifying national identity. Ethnic Kazakhs form the majority in the agricultural south, while Russians are concentrated in the northern industrial areas. After independence, ethnic tensions in Kazakhstan – over the native population’s feelings of subjugation by Russians and other “foreigners” – erupted into violent clashes, as in other Central Asian states. In Soviet-era Kazakhstan, the large Russian population had enjoyed more favorable treatment than the ethnic Kazakhs, but since independence the situation has reversed, with the government often discriminating in favor of ethnic Kazakhs – granting automatic citizenship to repatriated Kazakhs and requiring Kazakh language proficiency for government jobs.
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POLITICAL SITUATION
President Nursultan Nazarbayev was originally elected in December 1991, but since December 1995 the President and Cabinet of Ministers have governed the country by decree. A referendum allowed Nazarbayev to bypass elections in 1996, and in January 1999 he won 80 percent of the vote in a hastily rescheduled election that the OSCE declared non-democratic and below international standards. The next presidential election is scheduled for 2006.
In December 1997, the capital of Kazakhstan was transferred north from Almaty to Astana, a move apparently intended to strengthen Kazakh control of the Russian-populated north and to distance the capital from the Chinese border.
The Kazakh government discourages independent political activity, and freedom of association and assembly is hindered by state regulations. Freedom of the press, in theory assured by the constitution, is not protected, and security services such as the KNB (Committee for National Security) routinely commit human rights abuses. The government permits some peaceful demonstration, but opposition leaders have been frequently harassed and imprisoned. The Kazakh government’s recent crackdown on independent media outlets has reinforced these claims.
For the most part, religious activity is not restricted, and the government often invites the national leaders of the two largest Kazakh religions – Islam and Russian Orthodoxy – to participate jointly in state events. On occasion, the government has acted against Islamic and Christian groups it claims are extremist.
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Foreign Policy
Kazakhstan is on reasonably good terms with its neighbors, though its past relationship with Russia has been rocked by disputes ranging from the treatment of Kazakhstan’s ethnic Russians, to Russian rental of the Baykonur Cosmodrome for rocket launches, to pipeline routes for Kazakh oil. Border disputes with neighboring Uzbekistan have been peacefully resolved. Drought has triggered disputes over water rights among all the Central Asian nations. Kazakhstan is a member of NATO’s Partnership for Peace.
In September 2001, the Shanghai Cooperation group (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) signed a memorandum on increasing cooperation in economic policy, foreign trade and investment, and made a joint statement pledging cooperation in the war against terror.
In June 2002, 15 countries established the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Almaty. President Nazarbayev had lobbied strongly for the creation of CICA as a forum, similar to the OSCE, to defuse tensions and resolve conflicts. The CICA founding document is the Almaty Act. The CICA “Declaration on Eliminating Terrorism and Promoting Dialogue Among Civilizations” commits member states to cooperation in the war on terror.
In February 2003, the Kazakh government hosted the International Conference on Peace and Harmony, which brought together Central Asian and Caspian leadership, and representatives of Jewish and Muslim groups from many nations, to promote interfaith tolerance and condemn terrorism and extremism. A follow-up conference in September 2003 brought political and religious delegations from all regions of the world, including the United States.
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Israel
Kazakhstan enjoys good relations with Israel. Diplomatic ties were established in 1992, and both countries have reciprocal embassies. Israel’s Center for International Cooperation, MASHAV, has partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to develop Kazakh agriculture and microenterprise. The current MASHAV/USAID five-year Aral Sea project supplements MASHAV’s three agribusiness training centers in Kazakhstan. in Kazakhstan.
President Nazarbayev and Jewish
leaders visiting Israel
In April 2000, President Nazarbayev led a Kazakh delegation on his second official visit to Israel. Focusing on bilateral economic ties, the two countries agreed to establish a joint committee to promote cooperation, including a customs agreement. 3,000 trees were planted in the Jerusalem vicinity in honor of President Nazarbayev’s visit.
Numerous Israeli companies are involved in projects in Kazakhstan, and by early 2001 Israeli investments exceeded $270 million. Israel has participated in CICA, including the 2002 Summit where it signed the Almaty Act. The Israel-Kazakhstan Parliamentary Friendship League had 20 parliamentary members in 1999. Kazakhstan was among those countries interceding on behalf of 13 Jews who were put on trial in Iran in 2001.
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ECONOMIC SITUATION
Kazakhstan has major reserves of copper, chromium, magnesium, titanium, zinc, and massive hydrocarbon reserves. It was a major exporter of raw materials and industrial goods during the Soviet era and these continue to be a major source of revenue. The breakup of the Soviet Union and elimination of demand for Kazakh products led to an economic collapse that persisted until 1997. Accelerated privatization and economic reform in 1995-97, supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, halted the slide and the Kazakh economy is now growing. In June 2003, Kazakhstan passed legislation allowing private ownership of land.
Since independence from Soviet rule, Kazakhstan has received approximately $13 billion in foreign investment in its oil and natural gas industries. The oil industry currently accounts for approximately 30 percent of Kazakhstan's government budget, and oil accounts for half of Kazakhstan's exports. Kazakhstan’s proven petroleum reserves are estimated at 5.4 billion barrels of oil, and its potential reserves at 30-50 billion barrels. According to Kazakh officials, the offshore Kashagan field alone may contain up to 50 billion barrels of oil. Kazakhstan also has proven reserves of 65 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Relations with Russia are especially close. Kazakhstan is dependent on the use of Russian pipelines to export oil, and Russia is Kazakhstan’s largest trading partner. In March 2001, Kazakhstan opened a new pipeline that leads from the Tenghiz oil field through Russian territory to the Black Sea port of Novorossisk. This is the first pipeline to connect Caspian oil reserves to international markets, and is expected to generate substantial revenue for Kazakhstan.In January 2004, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Kazakhstan, signing an agreement to extend the rental of the Baikonur Cosmodrome until 2050, at a rate of $115 million per year. Baikonur is the site for 70 percent of Russian space launches.
NASA1975 Soyuz lift-off: Russia continues to launch space flights from Kazakhstan's Baykonur Cosmodrome.
As one of the Caspian Sea's five littoral states (along with Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia, and Turkmenistan) Kazakhstan has been involved in longstanding disputes over control of potential Caspian Sea oil reserves. In May 2002, Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement dividing several northern Caspian oil fields on an equal basis. Despite many similar bilateral and tri-lateral accords, many questions of ownership among the five nations remain unresolved.
Kazakhstan joined Belarus, Russia and Ukraine in February 2002 in a tentative agreement to create a common economic space. Russia hopes to achieve consensus on the final framework by late-2003.
While Kazakhstan has enacted significant economic reforms, restructuring remains to be done. In December 1999, the IMF approved a three-year, $453 million loan to Kazakhstan to assist in macroeconomic stabilization, and in August 2003 the IMF closed its offices in Almaty, citing Kazakhstan’s economic progress, and urging government assistance for health care, education, and other social programs. The World Bank has approved over $1.8 billion in loans and aid for various economic projects since 1993. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has contributed over $449 million in aid during the last decade. The Asian Development Bank and other non-governmental organizations are active in economic and political projects as well. In December 2001, Kazakhstan’s largest bank, Kazcommertsbank, secured a $100 million loan, the largest in the country’s history. Kazakhstan’s success in obtaining the loan, arranged by Deutsche Bank AG London and backed by 22 investors, is seen by some as an encouraging sign of confidence in Kazakhstan’s suitability for foreign investment.
Despite economic progress, ecological devastation in Kazakhstan is widespread and a serious threat to further national development. The Kazakh government faces the prospect of a massive environmental cleanup to deal with disasters left over from Soviet-era nuclear weapons tests, unsuccessful agricultural projects, and almost-nonexistent industrial pollution controls. The Aral Sea, a principal source of irrigation and drinking water, has shrunk dramatically, posing serious environmental and health hazards.
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JEWISH COMMUNAL LIFE
Most Jews in Kazakhstan today are Ashkenazi. Many Kazakh Jews are descended from Russian army conscripts sent to Kazakhstan from the Pale of Settlement in the 17th century. The Jewish population grew during the Soviet period as a result of deportations to collective farms, and voluntary migration by Jews escaping pervasive anti-Semitism. Thousands of Jews were evacuated to Kazakhstan from Soviet Europe during World War II to escape the German occupation. Bukharan Jews have also lived there for almost 2,000 years, but most have emigrated. Today between 15,000 and 20,000 Jews reside in Kazakhstan; 11,000 of them live in Almaty city. Smaller communities exist in other big cities, including Karaganda, Chimkent, Astana, Semipalatinsk and Kokchetav.
The Kazakh Jewish community enjoys a stable environment, and Jewish religious and cultural life is well organized. Established in 1992, Mitzvah, the Association of Jewish National Organizations of Kazakhstan, coordinates the social services and cultural and religious work of 15 Jewish cultural associations, 12 Hesed (welfare) organizations, and 12 Jewish community centers. The Hesed organizations, funded by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC/ “Joint”) help 10,000 Jews in more than 90 cities and towns through programs including soup kitchens, home care for the elderly, medical services, and summer camps.
The Jewish Congress of Kazakhstan was created in December 1999, and businessman and philanthropist Alexander Mashkevich was named its president. In March 2002, Mashkevich also assumed the presidency of the new region-wide Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.
The Association of Jewish Communities of Kazakhstan, a Chabad Lubavitch organization, also plays an active role in Kazakhstan’s Jewish community and is a member of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS. Chabad Lubavitch operates a Jewish center called Beis Menachem (“the House of Menachem”) and conducts services at synagogues in Almaty, Astana, and Chimkent. Synagogues in Kzyl-Orda and Pavlodar hold services, and JDC-trained religious program coordinators also work with communities throughout Kazakhstan.
The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI/ “Sokhnut”) maintains an office in Almaty and actively participates in Jewish life throughout Kazakhstan, promoting Jewish identity while working with other Jewish organizations.
Jewish education and cultural activities have expanded steadily since independence. Fourteen Jewish supplementary schools operate in Kazakhstan, serving up to 600 students. Chabad’s Ohr Avner Gershuni Jewish Day School enrolls nearly 100 children. The community at Aktyubinsk operates a Hebrew school for its children. In early 2000, the Jews of Uralsk established a Jewish Culture Society and have since received offers of material and financial aid from the local government. Jewish Community Centers also play an important role in youth education. The community published four Jewish newspapers and one magazine.
Jewish leaders in Kazakhstan characterize their relationship with the government as positive. President Nazarbayev personally presented historical records on the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s father – who was exiled to Kazakhstan during the Soviet period and is buried in Almaty – to Lubavitch leaders in a December 1999 visit to New York (Rabbi Schneerson was the last Lubavitcher Rebbe). Many government officials, as well as the U.S. Ambassador, attended the founding session of the All-Kazakhstan Jewish Congress in December 1999.
At a Washington, D.C., ceremony in October 2003, Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee opened part of its archives to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The documents detail the prosecution of Nazi collaborators in Kazakhstan after World War II.
Anti-Semitism is not prevalent in Kazakhstan and rare incidents are reported in the press. None have been reported in the last two years.
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U.S. POLICY
Defense Department photo:
Helene C. StikkelNovember 2001: U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz (right) escorting Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov into the Pentagon
The United States opened diplomatic relations in 1991, and has commercial as well as strategic interests in Kazakhstan. U.S. foreign assistance to Kazakhstan has been growing, from $47.9 million in 2000 to a projected $90 million for 2002, in addition to funding administered under the Departments of Defense and Energy and the U.S. commitment to NATO’s Partnership for Peace.
Nearly $36 million of the 2003 U.S. aid budget for Kazakhstan funds is designated to enhance communications and political reform, education, health care, microenterprise, and community development; another $14 million supports market reforms. Peace Corps volunteers in Kazakhstan numbered 102 as of December 2002, and 36 more were expected in 2003.
Participating for the first time in international peacekeeping efforts, Kazakhstan contributed 27 soldiers and other personnel to the peacekeeping coalition in Iraq, in August 2003. In their first month in Iraq, Kazakh military engineers had destroyed 30,000 explosives.
With the advent of the international anti-terrorism coalition, the United States has pledged to expand democracy initiatives such as the Peace Corps while enhancing its commitments to security and law enforcement programming (budgeted at $41.6 million for 2003). Funding is allocated under the FREEDOM Support Act and Nonproliferation, Anti-Terrorism, Demining and Related Activities (NADR) to secure former Soviet nuclear, biological and chemical weapons facilities within Kazakhstan. Stockpiles have also been reduced through such programs as Cooperative Threat Reduction (“Nunn-Lugar”). This funding also supports the strengthening of border security, counterterrorism, and law enforcement. The Department of Defense administered nearly $6 million in additional funding for security and anti-terrorism programs in 2002.
During the Fall 2001 conflict in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan’s support for the U.S.-led mobilization included emergency landing and fly-over rights. The two countries have engaged in joint military exercises and training for several years. At a White House summit in December 2001, Presidents Nazarbayev and Bush issued a joint statement supporting Kazakh economic development and democratic reform, Kazakhstan’s entry into the World Trade Organization, and its “graduation” from the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. In March 2002, the U.S. granted Kazakhstan market-economy status. During U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s visit to Astana in April 2002, President Nazarbayev pledged to continue this cooperation.
Concerns about government corruption have caused created tension between the two countries. An ongoing U.S. federal grand jury probe has raised allegations that American oil companies, competing for Kazakh oil and gas production rights, have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to senior Kazakh government officials, including President Nazarbayev. President Nazarbayev’s appeals to President Bush to discontinue the investigation have been unsuccessful, while disputes between foreign and regional energy companies over market rights remain unresolved.
U.S. Department of DefenseU.S. Marines training Kazakh soldiers at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (June 1998)
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