After being called Nur-Sultan for only three years, the capital of Kazakhstan takes back its old name Astana. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev decided to cancel the name change, which was to pay tribute to former president Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The relationship between Tokayev and Nazarbayev has cooled over the past three years. Since last June, the former president has no longer been allowed to call himself ‘Leader of the Nation’, a title created especially for him.
Nazarbayev led Kazakhstan as a dictatorship between 1991 and 2019. Subsequently, Tokayev took his place. The current president was a follower of his predecessor, but has drifted further and further away from him in recent months.
Nazarbayev made Astana the capital of Kazakhstan in 1997, instead of the larger Almaty. He quickly initiated major construction projects to transform the city into a modern metropolis. About one million people currently live in the city.
Astana in Kazakh stands for ‘capital’.
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