Nursultan Nazarbayev

First president and dictator of Kazakhstan .

He was a dictator who served a whopping six terms and was in power for over 29 years from 1990 , just before the dissolution of the Soviet Union , to 2019 . Then in 2019 On March 20, he announced that he would resign from the presidency due to old age and other reasons, and even performed a performance of signing an official document on the spot. Since then, he has maintained his position as chairman of Kazakhstan's NSC Security Committee and representative of the ruling party, remaining as the supreme leader above the president. Although he was clearly not the president, he was given the title of Kazakh national leader and held summit meetings with foreign leaders under various titles. To put it simply, he only stepped down from his position as president, but in reality, he continued to maintain control of power. However, apart from that, Kazakhstan is gradually becoming democratized after Nazarbayev's retirement .

Although he is an authoritarian dictator, there are numerous evil dictators in most Central Asian countries who easily surpass Nazarbayev.[4] The notoriety is low compared to the evil deeds.

1940 July 6th Born in Şamalgan (Шамалған / Şamalğan), Kazakh SSR .[5] After graduating from a college specializing in steel engineering in 1960, he worked as a steelworker, processing metal and casting, and from 1965 he worked as an executive.



Nazarbayev at the 28th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1990

Political activities began in 1962 He started by joining the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and became chairman of the Kazakh Ministerial Council in 1984 . At the time, Mikhail Gorbachev overthrew Dınmūhamed Ahmetūly Qonaev (1912–1993) , a Kazakh who had been in power for 24 years as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan , and replaced Gennady Kolvin (Геннадий Васильевич), a Russian . Колбин, 1927–1998) was appointed to the position of Secretary-General, which caused opposition from Kazakhs who had received much preferential treatment during Konaev's tenure. Therefore, Colvin stepped down within a few years and Nazarbayev took over, becoming First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan in June 1989 , and was elected President of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic by the Supreme Soviet of Kazakhstan in 1990 .



Nazarbayev taking the oath of office in 1991

After Kazakhstan's independence in 1991, Nazarbayev ran as a sole candidate in the presidential election and was elected president again. He extended his term through a referendum in 1995 , and was re-elected in 1999 with an overwhelming approval rating of 81% in an election marred by corruption . In the 2005 election, he was re-elected with a 91.1% approval rating and was criticized by the international community and the opposition party for being a fraudulent election. In the 2007 general election, the ruling party, Nur Otan, showed its grandeur by winning 88.0% of the votes, taking 98 out of 98 seats in the National Assembly. He was re-elected with 95.5% approval rating in the 2011 presidential election, and in the 2012 general election, the Noor-Otan party still received a suspiciously high 80% of the vote, but this time the opposition party won 15 seats. Of course, he ran in the 2015 election and was elected with 97.8% of the vote.

Diplomatically, it basically took a pro-Russian and pro-China stance. In fact, Kazakhstan's diplomacy itself is right next to China and Russia, so it's natural to get along well with these countries in a way. Also, it was natural for Kazakhstan to get along well with Russia because at the time of independence, the population ratio of Kazakhs was only around 40%, and the ratio of Russians far exceeded 1/3 of the total population. However, it is not unilaterally inclined only to China and Russia, and it has also paid attention to relations with the West.

This is because Russia is undoubtedly the most solid military, political and economic alliance, but it is concerned that Kazakhstan's sovereignty will be infringed upon by Russia's unique imperialism , and China distanced itself for fear of encroaching on them with its economic influence. because. In particular, the regime deserves to be called pro-China, but among ordinary Kazakhs, it is said that there is still a great anti- China sentiment among the Uyghurs , whether China is gulp them too . This is a tension that has been going on since the Qing Dynasty. Historically, the Kazakhstan region, unlike the region south of the Tian Shan Mountains (Tangri Tog), had to suffer from the invasion of the Han Chinese from the Tang Dynasty . It is because the Taobao , a force capable of holding the Tang Dynasty in check , did not pay attention to the north of the Tianshan Mountains. It is said that this is the reason why the Kazakhs chose the Soviet Union instead of China. Of course, Russia is also sensitive about the issue of sovereignty.

On March 19, 2019, he announced his intention to step down as President of Kazakhstan. Therefore, the President of the National Assembly, Qasym -Jomart Kemelūly Toqaev, will assume the presidency until the next president is elected . #(Russian)

News came out that he was infected with Corona 19 , but his aide said that he was not in serious condition and was self-isolating and working remotely.

On January 5, 2022, due to the aftermath of the 2022 Kazakhstan protests, he will step down from all public positions.

As you can see above, Nilsul Nazarbayv is a typical dictator . He says that the Western nations are trying to inject Western values ​​into other countries , the economy retreats when a revolution takes place.[6] In the Islamic state , the revolution argued that the government is leaning on Sharia .[7]

The level of trickery and corruption that Nursultan Nazarbayev engages in in Kazakhstan politics to stay in power for a long time is enormous. Some voters claimed that they were pressured by their employers and others to vote for Nursultan Nazarbayev, and in 2010, the ruling party proposed a referendum to eliminate the next presidential election and guarantee Nursultan Nazarbayev's term in office until 2020, leading to Western opposition. It also brought about strong opposition. # In the 2015 presidential election, it was said that all candidates were guaranteed to explain their pledges through broadcasts and print, but in reality, only Nursultan Nazarbayev's voice was heard locally. It is said that many voters did not even know the names of other candidates.

In addition, the suppression of the opposition party and control of the media continued. After Nursultan Nazarbayev became the first president, he outlawed criticism of the opposition party and the media in order to monitor his political opponents, and implemented a mandatory registration system for all social organizations. He continued to arrest and imprison anti-government figures, and there were revelations that Kazakhstan's intelligence agency and Czech law enforcement authorities used hacking programs to monitor citizens' personal smartphone conversations. There are also claims that the president and his relatives received large sums of bribes due to this dictatorial power.

In fact, Rahat Aliyev, who was once a close associate of Nursultan Nazarbayev, exposed corruption in Kazakhstan. Rahat Aliyev was vice-chairman of Kazakhstan's National Security Committee , a senior official in Kazakhstan's tax authorities, and ambassador to Austria. Of course, most importantly, Rahat Aliyev was the son-in-law of Nursultan Nazarbayev. Eventually, in 2007, Rahat Aliyev and his family fell out of Nur-Sultan's favor and were tried in absentia for kidnapping and overthrowing the government, sentenced to 40 years in prison, and charged with murder, torture and money laundering, before prosecutors in Austria and Germany. were investigated by the However, Rahat Aliyev not only denied the charges, but also accused the president, saying some of his charges were the president's doing. According to Rahat Aliyev, Nursultan Nazarbayev is said to be committing torture and murder against opposition forces, and hiding trillions of dollars in secret accounts overseas. In fact, according to Russian data, the assets of Nursultan Nazarbayev's family amount to $700 million (about 919.6 billion won).

One of the bad deeds of Nursultan Nazarbayev was the suppression of protesters and killing some of them in the elderly. On December 17, 2011, Neur Sultan Nazarbayev declared an emergency to Janga Olden, a western oil industry close to the Caspy Sea. Nurseul Nazarbayev strongly suppressed the protests, saying, "I will not tolerate peace and tranquility and tolerate attempts to ruin the things we have achieved through independence." Janaozen's petroleum workers went on strike in May because of the lack of danger allowances, and the state -owned oil company fired 989 of them, and when the workers were repulsed, the police fired a demonstrators and ruthlessly arrested the protesters. It is an incident. A local resident of Janaozen testified that three protesters were killed, and later, they even cut off the internet connection to the owner of the Jang -San at the Kazakhstan government level to prevent it from spreading. article

However, it was revealed that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair received a large sum of money from Kazakhstan in connection with the 2011 Zanaozen crisis and advised President Nazarbayev on how to respond. In response to the article , Hugh Williamson, director of Europe and Central Asia at Human Rights Watch, an international human rights group, criticized Prime Minister Tony Blair, who wrote a manuscript for the dictator and received millions of pounds while ignoring human rights issues in Kazakhstan, saying it was disgraceful.

Also, in 2010, the Kazakhstan parliament enacted the National Leadership Act, which allows President Nursultan Nazarbayev to indirectly participate in state affairs even after leaving office and prevents him from being held civilly or criminally responsible for anything that occurred during his term in office. did. In addition, it permanently guaranteed the property rights of President Nur-Sultan Nazarbayev and his family, drawing criticism from the international community that it was essentially granting them the power of a president for life. article

In April 2014, the government's policy to control not only Twitter but also mobile phones became controversial. Of course, there is opposition from some citizens, but since Congress, which is merely the government's arm, has already approved all of the revised bills and is waiting for the president's signature, it is expected to be implemented as is. According to this law, in the future, the Kazakh prosecutor's office can request Internet and telecommunications operators to block access when it is judged to be harmful to the country or society, and the relevant operators must block the user's access within one hour of receiving notification. If this is violated, the relevant organizations and businesses will be held legally responsible. In addition, the law strengthens the punishment for those who spread false information to 12 years in prison, and the government also decided to censor media reports in advance during national emergencies. # . However, in the global Internet censorship situation, Kazakhstan appears to be subject to selective surveillance/censorship.[8] Internet censorship does not seem to be very severe.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan is a country that does not treat Christianity other than the Orthodox Church very well, and has been steadily cracking down on services held at home and churches operating without state permission for a long time. For example, Baptist pastor Andrey Panafydin (Андрей Петрович Панафидин) was arrested on March 4, 2011 in Taraz for running an illegal, unregistered church and was sentenced to a huge fine equivalent to 100 months of Kazakhstan's average wage . This is not the first time this person has been sentenced to such a heavy fine; he has already been fined seven times in the past.

The Kazakh government maintains the position that unregistered churches are obviously violating the law, and many cases of this type of crackdown have been confirmed, including Pastor Andrei Panapydin. In Kazakhstan's Jambyl region, there was a crackdown on underground churches, and in Shymkent, the New Life Pentecostal Church was cracked down while holding services at home. Although most churches want to register to avoid crackdowns, they complain that registration is difficult because the authorities rarely accept it. However, some hard-line denominations do not recognize the registration system itself and even refuse to submit registration documents. This part is not unrelated to Korea, because the majority of Koryo people in Kazakhstan believe in the Orthodox Church . We cannot ignore the fact that the rights of Koryo people will be violated under the pretext of suppressing Christianity.

In April 2017, I signed the constitutional amendment that I led and passed the Congress, and the contents are encouraging. It is said that the separation of powers has become clearer, such as drastically reducing the powers of the president and making it impossible to reject the decisions of the cabinet and parliament. He has already announced that he will step down from the highest position of power after the end of his current term, which is until 2020, and attention is being paid to whether it will be a signal of Kazakhstan's democratization and political reform. 2019 At a press conference in February , it was said that an early resignation could be considered in order to face a new era in 2020 if other legal amendments are accompanied by constitutional amendments . It is a bonus that he said he wanted to retire because he is old.

In 2019, a month after he said he could consider an early resignation. On March 20, he announced his sudden resignation. article . It was almost the first instance of the only dictator of the former Soviet Union who personally took the power into his own hands and made the decision to let the people elect a president. Of course, there are cases of transition to democracy at the end of the Cold War, such as Mongolia . However, in the case of Mongolia, the population is really small among the former communist countries.[9] Simple comparisons are difficult. Looking at the resignation letter, it seems that the former Soviet Union countries, which became independent due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, were in a chaotic situation due to many external influences and side effects in the process of growth, and that he had no choice but to act as a dictatorship .

However, around 2017, when Nursultan Nazarbayev announced that he would soon step down , the prevailing cynical reaction among Kazakhstanis was that Nursultan Nazarbayev was engaging in obvious media play like other dictators in the world. As of April 2019, Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir, who was eventually forcibly ousted by revolution, had long ago declared that he would step down soon, only to return to power several times through rigged elections . It is not uncommon for dictators to play the media in this way.

Then, when Nursultan Nazarbayev actually stepped down from power in March 2019, it is said that many Kazakh citizens accepted the fact that the dictator actually had an intention to step down with shock and fear before welcoming it . However, the prevailing analysis was that even if he stepped down from the presidency, he would still maintain his position as the leader of the ruling party or head of the intelligence agency, hand the presidency over to his close associates, and act as the king himself, and that was actually the case. Even though he was not president, he earned the title of national leader and held summit meetings with foreign leaders. Of course, considering the cases of overseas dictators who remained thorough dictators until the end but ended badly, it can be said that Nazarbayev made a wise decision.

It remains unchanged that Nursultan Nazarbayev is a de facto dictator who is treated as a de facto sultan or khan in Kazakhstan. In the end, he also showed quite a bit of dictator- like behavior, such as the anti-government movement, the suppression of other religions (Christianity), the killing of a political Almaty mayor, and the accumulation of corruption by his family . However, he has a high approval rating in his own country, and although there are controversies over election fraud in all sorts of nasty ways , he was elected in a formal way anyway. In this respect, it is similar to Putin in Russia. Conversely, since they won overwhelmingly in the election, it can be seen that they did not bother to roll small things such as the indirect election system and pushed forward with the straight-line method.

In addition, after the end of the Cold War, Kazakhstan decided to voluntarily give up nuclear weapons despite public opinion about possessing nuclear weapons, and received international stabilization and economic support . Perhaps thanks to this, it was actually considered as a reference country for the Trump administration 's denuclearization negotiations with North Korea in 2018 . And thanks to this, in the 2000s, the per capita GDP grew from about $ 1,500 in 1992 to about $ 12,000 in 2012, starting with the natural resource industry spread over a wide territory. Of course, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and low oil prices, Kazakhstan's economy was stagnant, with oil prices falling to the $8,000 level in the mid-to-late 2010s. The ostensible reason for his resignation from the presidency in 2019 was this deteriorating economic performance. Of course, there are those who believe that, in the midst of economic stagnation, corruption scandals broke out, and in order to assuage public dissatisfaction, some people believe that he has put forward a successor who listens to his words while holding onto real power.

However, there are many aspects similar to Russia in that although it is formal, it still has an election system and although it suffered an economic downturn in the 2010s (blaming Western sanctions, etc.), it still maintains a one-party advantage. In fact, Kazakhstan, similar to Russia, has an economic system dependent on oil and natural gas . This point is criticized in many ways, but it is true that it has grown rapidly thanks to resources no matter what. However, there is a strong need to foster other industries. This is because the industry is too focused on natural resources. In fact, he tried to enter the financial industry, but failed due to the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008 .

In addition, in racial issues, they did not reject Kazakhin and other ethnic minorities. Instead, language is pushing Kazakh at the government, but Russian is still especially mainly in the city. In contrast to the former Soviet countries such as Ukraine , Uzbekistan , and Georgia , after independence from the Soviet Union , the civil war and disputes occurred by suppressing ethnic minorities .

Of course, this was not the case from the beginning , and when the country gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, many ethnic minorities and Russians lost their jobs instead of Kazakhs due to the rise of nationalism. Still, it was not as serious as in other countries.

Although he is a dictator, he has his own merits and many Kazakhstanis remember him as a good president. I mainly praise him for achieving high economic growth and amicably resolving ethnic conflicts during his tenure. However , after the Kazakhstan protests in 2022, the evaluation was lowered.

In fact, even if he was the head of another region, he would have been a person with more contrasting contrasts. However, most of the surrounding Central Asian countries are not very good.

In Uzbekistan , there was a more brutal dictator named Islam Karimov , but after that, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev- led reform policies are showing a little better than when Karimov came to power. Thanks to this, among the Central Asian immigrants entering Korea, the proportion of Uzbeks is lower than before and the proportion of Kazakhs is increasing.[10]

And Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan increased the country's own economic growth rate, but failed to foster industry and improve living standards, and Kyrgyzstan is almost the only country in Central Asia that succeeded in settling democracy , but its GDP per capita was 1,736 even as of 2023. It has failed in economic development as it is a poor country reaching $.

Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan succeeded in economic development and stabilization of people's livelihood, but he showed funny eccentricities that made his own people and people around the world feel ashamed.[11] Niyazov's successor, Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov, maintained an oppressive regime no better than Saparmurat Niyazov, suppressing the people and willingly handing over power to his son , Serdar Berdimuhammedov .

There are similar examples in the former communist bloc countries of Asia. Former President Suphanu Wong of Laos and former President Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam also made mistakes, such as dictatorship, political suppression , and suppression of protests by force . Because Zedong committed the worst massacre and tyranny , he was relatively highly regarded.