KAZAKHSTAN POLITICAL HISTORY 1920- The area of Kazakhstan became part of the Kirgiz Autonomous Republic formed by Soviet

Authorities. 1925- Later it became the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. 1939- The Soviet Union then made its name to Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. 1986- Jeltoqsan: riots that took place in Almaty in response to Gorbachevs act in removing Dinmukhamed Konayev as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan who was an ethnic Kazakh. He was then replaced by Gennady Kolbin, a complete outsider from the Russian SFSR 1989- Nursultan Nazarbayev became the Head of the Kazakh Communist Party. October 1990- Kazakhstan declared its sovereignty as a republic within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) -the Supreme Soviet of Kazakhstan elected Nazarbayev president of the republic. December 16, 1991- Kazakhstan declared its independence after the dissolution of the USSR December 21, 1991- Kazakhstan proclaimed its membership in the Commonwealth of States 1991-1995- the political system and constitutional legislation was on its way in Kazakhstan January 1993- First sovereign Constitution of Kazakhstan adopted 1995- Nazarbayev called for a referendum that would expand his presidential powers resulting to adopting a new Constitution 1999 and 2005- Years of re-election of Nazarbayev 2007- Through a Constitutional amendment, the Parliament voted to do away with term limits that rendered Nazarbayev personally exempt from the two-term limit of the presidency thus allowing him to remain in office indefinitely. Mid-2010- the Kazakh parliament gave Nazarbayev the title Leader of the Nation December 2010- Kazakh parliament voted to approve plans for a national referendum to cancel the next two presidential elections, effectively extending Nazarbayevs presidency until at least 2020. January 2011- Kazakhs constitutional court rejected the planned referendum. Nazarbayev accepted the ruling and then called for early elections. April 2011- Nazarbayev was again elected to another term with more than 95% of votes. This has been criticized by internationals standards.

Current Events 1. Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev is in Germany after surgery for his prostate. It has been reported that he had a surgical operation regarding his prostate in University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany and is resting in a luzury hotel. Back in Kazakhstan, this resulted to a political insatiability as the only information that people knew was that Mr. Nazarbayev is on a short term leave. This affected those Western companies who invest much in the oil of Kazakhstan. 2. Critics have observed various flaws in the recent Kazakh elections where Nazarbayev reportedly won again. This year, his three challengers were so weak that he ran virtually unopposed, but nearly 90 percent of eligible voters showed up at the polls anyway. He won 95.5 percent of the vote, according to preliminary data from the Central Election Commission. Observers described seeing clumps and stacks of ballots inside 27 ballot boxes, suggesting they were stuffed, and 219 cases in which identical signatures appeared beside a series of voter names. 3. The United States Defense Department is guarding the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kurchatov, Kazakhstan. This area has been a Test Site of the former Soviet Union for Fissile materials and fission products. The United States Defense Department has paid for aerial drones to spot intruders, and for motion detectors that signal when a person, or a horse or a car, crosses into restricted territory. The classified project aims to keep terrorists away from what the Soviets left behind in patches of earth and a warren of tunnels that they used for atomic testing: among other things, plutonium and highly enriched uranium that Western scientists fear could be used to build an improvised nuclear device. The main goal of such act is to clear up the left behind nuclear materials so that the future generation might not think of doing something using such material.

References
Barry, E. (2011, April 4). Monitors Fault Voting in Kazakh Election. Retrieved July 24, 2011, from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/world/asia/05kazakhstan.html?ref=kazakhstan Barry, E. (2011, May 21). Old Soviet Nuclear Site in Asia Has Unlikely Sentinel: The U.S. Retrieved July 2011, 24, from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/world/asia/22kazakhstan.html?pagewanted=1&ref=kaza khstan Kazakhstan. (n.d.). Retrieved July 24, 2011, from Infoplease: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107674.html Kramer, A. E. (2011, July 20). Kazakh Chief is Said to Be in Germany After Surgery. Retrieved July 24, 2011, from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/world/asia/21kazakhstan.html?ref=kazakhstan

Political and Economic History of Kazakhstan. (n.d.). Retrieved July 24, 2011, from Business Consulting Kazakhstan: http://www.businessconsulting.kz/eng/history1 The History of Kazakhstan. (n.d.). Retrieved July 24, 2011, from http://www.unesco.kz/heritagenet/kz/hn-english/history_en.htm