World Kurultai: the Kazakhs have someting to discuss

In the end of May in the capital of Kazakhstan Astana the World Kurultai of the Kazakhs will pass, who becomes already the fourth on account from the moment of acquisition of republic independence.

Kurultai is the form of national representation of nomads of the Central Asia. It is precisely not known, when there was an idea to hold the similar meetings. But the historians are inclined to consider that they originated from national meetings of the period of so-called military democracy of a bronze age. At a modern stage, Kurultai is the tool of maintenance and development of contacts to the compatriots abroad and patriotism growth becomes its most important value.

Today about five million Kazakhs live in 40 countries of the world, who immigrated at various times and settled abroad. More than one million of them live in Russia and in one and a half million live in Uzbekistan and China. The solid diaspora is in Mongolia, Iran, Afghanistan.

The first wave of massive migration from Kazakhstan had fallen on the years of collectivization when hunger and poverty compelled the Kazakhs to search a better lot on foreign land. The second wave has come in the first years of independence when the country had a difficult economic and social situation. Many people haven't been assured that Kazakhstan can leave this condition. The inverse process during the present period, namely the repatriation, returning to the historical native land is observed. It is caused first of all by a positive social and economic climate in the country and competent information and propaganda work of the state.

The territory of Kazakhstan contains five France and the population doesn't correspond to these scales. Therefore the republic puts a problem to increase the population at the expense of the ethnic Kazakhs, returning home ancestors. According to official figures, more than one million Kazakhs have moved to Kazakhstan for last 20 years. This step has increased not only the population in republic but also has expanded the environment of the reference of the Kazakh language.

The estimation of achievements of republic for 20 years of independence becomes the main theme of coming Kurultai. The questions of adaptation of repatriates in the homeland, development of a cultural contact between the Republic of Kazakhstan and foreign diasporas, problems of training of the Kazakh foreign youth in the Kazakhstan high schools and other vital topics will be discussed there. Dialogue platforms and meetings with representatives of various state structures which will answer questions interesting delegates will be organized.

Many participants of the fourth World Kurultai of the Kazakhs will visit the historical native land for the first time, therefore the foreign Kazakhs strenuously prepare for this important event. For example, the third Congress of the Kazakhs of Zauralie has recently passed in Kurgan which has summed up five years' activity of a national-cultural autonomy of the Kazakhs of the Kurgan region. The Kazakh public organizations of 20 cities and areas have held the meeting in district center Krasny Yar of the Samara region under the aegis of the Federal national-cultural autonomy of the Kazakhs. At this meeting the Vologda Kazakhs have been presented for the first time who have created the cultural center.

Besides, the Kazakhs from ten European States annually gather on Small Kurultai of the Kazakhs of Europe. And Kurultai of the Kazakhs of the Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iran is organized in this region for the first time.

It is necessary to notice that the majority of the Kazakhs live in the frontier countries. They meet difficulties in the course of repatriation in some of them.

For example, China develops high paces for the last years. The Chinese party officially doesn't interfere with departure of ethnic Kazakhs from the country but at the same time there are various obstacles... So, the countrymen in the Peoples Republic of China have no passports and to receive the foreign passport for them is the great problem. The Republic of Kazakhstan and the Peoples Republic of China have no the general law of migration. If earlier it was declared that in places of compact residing of the Kazakhs there are schools, broadcast TV and radio, newspapers in a native language are published, so the expansion of the Chinese language is now observed. Yes, to live in China and not to know the Chinese language is a nonsense and today at all national schools have bilinguqlism. But in this situation the Kazakh language loses the positions.

Absolutely another way has the Kazakhs in Russia. Today there are 33 national-cultural centers in our country - from Kaliningrad to Yakutia. But the basic part of the Kazakhs live, certainly, in frontier areas - in the Astrakhan, Orenburg, Samara, Volgograd, Omsk regions. The Kazakhs live at enough high level in the economic respect. The Kazakhs of Russia never had problems for dialogue with the relatives in Kazakhstan. The possibilities for dialogue will even more become simpler with the creation of the Customs Union. Today the mass moving from Russia is not observed but 3-3,5 % of lump of immigrants are the natives of Russia.

As the organizers of the event mark, each spent World Kurultai of the Kazakhs gives an impulse to the further development of their diasporas abroad and testifies to direct participation of Kazakhstan in life of the compatriots. It means that the present forum of the Kazakhs will bear fruitful yield in this direction.