In this issue:
Kazakhstan's Muslims Call for Harmony and Dialogue Amid Cries for Jihad
Kazakhstan, ExxonMobil to Develop Strategic Natural Gas Plan for Country
Global AIDS Fund to Provide $22 million to Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan Sets Up Copyright Protection Association
Ancient Turkic Game Resembling Chess, Yet More Complex, Sees New Life
Kazakhstan's Muslims Call for Harmony and Dialogue Amid Cries for Jihad
International Conference takes place in Almaty Feb. 13
As Muslims from throughout the world converged on Mecca for the final days of hajj pilgrimage amid concerns with the possible war in Iraq and increasingly belligerent voices of some against "infidels", the Muslims in Kazakhstan celebrated the beginning of Kurban Ait (Eid Al-Adhha) Feb. 11 and added their voice to those in Islam who preach peace and harmony among religions.
The country's religious and secular leaders said Ait is the time to embrace and promote tolerance and good relations with the followers of other religions not only in Kazakhstan, but, more importantly, in a wider world.
"We respect other people who follow different religions and speak different languages," said Abdsattar Hajji Derbisali, the Supreme Mufti of Kazakhstan's Muslims. "The Quran calls upon people to be worthy of the great name of a human being irrespective of any differences, to embrace each other remembering our common origins and to not entertain ideas about superiority of anyone's religion."
Visiting the mosque in Almaty,
President Nursultan Nazarbayev
said Ait was "a very bright and
important holiday, when all the
Muslims must ask Allah for
forgiveness" and "when all the
people must address each other
with friendship and trust".
Ethnic Kazakhs, Uzbeks,
Uighurs, Tartars, Turks, and
Chechens, and people of other
ethnic groups, making up the
two-thirds Muslim majority of
Kazakhstan's 15 million population, President Nazarbayev (right) and Supreme Mufti
marked the day with prayers and Abdsatar Hajji (left) address the reporters at
calls for peace with people of other the Almaty mosque on Feb. 11, as Almaty Mayor
religions. Viktor Khrapunov (center) looks on.
Kazakhstan has seen an unprecedented revival of religious freedoms since 1991 coupled with notable tolerance amongst followers of various religions. Since the country's independence, more than 3,000 religious associations appeared in the country, with 1,500 new mosques, 170 Russian Orthodox churches and more than 30 cathedrals built in the republic. Recently, news reports also said more than a dozen of new synagogues were constructed. "This means that while Kazakhstan is a Muslim-majority nation, it respects other religions," Nazarbayev said. Kazakhstan's experience of peaceful coexistence of various religions will be highlighted during the upcoming international conference on peace and harmony in Almaty. Leaders of several Muslim-populated nations and major international Jewish organizations, from the U.S. and Israel, will discuss ways to promote good relations and dialogue among civilizations at a forum that takes place Feb. 13.
Kazakhstan, ExxonMobil to Develop Strategic Natural Gas Plan for Country
The Ministry of Energy, KazMunaiGas national oil and gas company, and ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Gas Ventures Ltd., a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corporation, agreed on Feb. 7 to conduct a joint study that will result in a long-term plan for developing Kazakhstan's uncommitted natural gas resources, Interfax, Dow Jones and other news wires reported. Uncommitted resources mean those, with respect to which no supply obligations exist.
The study team will provide an independent assessment of supply, demand, infrastructure, economics, regulations and funding considerations, the Energy Ministry press release said. The study will allow conducting a preliminary analysis of projects for gas utilization in the Republic of Kazakhstan and classifying them based upon the degree of their prospects and priorities.
The study's results are expected to be used in a gas sector development program for 2003-2010, which is being worked out by the Energy Ministry. This program is to be submitted to the Government by the third quarter of 2003.
According to earlier reports, in January 2002, the government approved a concept for gas sector development up to 2005. Kazakhstan produced 13.14 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2002, compared to 11.57 billion cubic meters in 2001. Projected natural gas output is to reach 20.5 billion cubic meters in 2005, 35 billion cubic meters in 2010, and 45-50 billion cubic meters by 2015.
Global AIDS Fund to Provide $22 million to Kazakhstan
U.S. Assumes Fund's Chair; Disease Becomes a Growing Problem, Concern in Kazakhstan
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is to provide $22.3 million to Kazakhstan in support of its efforts to fight AIDS, the country's Foreign Ministry said in a statement last week. The resources of the Fund, created by the UN General Assembly Special session on AIDS/HIV in July 2001, will be used to prop up the activities of several medical institutions and NGOs in Kazakhstan that work on preventing and treating people infected with AIDS/HIV.
The AIDS/HIV is quickly becoming a cause for major concern in Kazakhstan, as the number of infected has been growing in recent years, particularly among intravenous drug users and other high-risk groups. Some reports said the Government estimated the number of infected at 25,000. In September 2002, one of the local TV stations said, "the number of HIV sufferers increased by 238 % last year alone."
The authorities treat the AIDS disease as a society-wide threat, and take steps to prevent its spread. "The problem goes beyond the framework of the healthcare system, since the spread of AIDS might lead to a fall in the birth rate, the aging of society, and the loss of able-bodied people," Deputy Health Minister Anatoliy Belonog wrote in a 2002 article in Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper. "Therefore, it is our duty to prevent the spread of this horrible disease."
The country plans to open two methadone clinics by the end of March, which would help heroin addicts stop using needles that can transmit the disease. President Nazarbayev has initiated a plan to examine easing penalties for drug-related offenses, making it easier for intravenous drug users to come forward for testing and treatment.
On January 31, the Global Fund, an independent organization supported by donations from donor states, NGOs and private contributors, announced it was allocating US$866 million over two years to help 60 countries rapidly scale up programs to stop AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The same day the United States assumed rotating leadership of the Fund, with US Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson elected as its chair of the Board. According to the financial statements by the Global Fund, it is clear it lacks the resources to approve the next round of grants in October 2003. At least US$ 6.3 billion in additional total contributions are needed over the next two years.
Kazakhstan Sets Up Copyright Protection Association
Kazakhstan has set up an association for the protection of copyright that unites key players on the local audiovisual market, Interfax reported on Feb. 11.
"Organizations entering the association are strictly bound to reject piracy. To this end, association members sign a special document, the statute of membership," the association's President Temirlan Tulegenov told a news conference in Almaty on Tuesday.
He said the association would work with the Intellectual Property Committee of the Ministry of Justice, law enforcement agencies and customs officials. Its primary will be focused on the audiovisual market.
Nurgaisha Sakhipova, chairperson of the Intellectual Property Committee, told the news conference that 48-million tenge worth of counterfeit goods were confiscated in Kazakhstan in 2002. This is two to three times more than average in previous years. The exchange rate on Feb. 11 was 154.5 tenge/$1.
Ancient Turkic Game Resembling Chess, Yet More Complex, Sees New Life
Unearthed "Oi Kures" (Mind Struggle) Brought to Life Thanks to Enthusiast
The Kazakh ancestors of Turkic origin played a game that resembled chess, but was more complicated in nature, Kazakh archeologists concluded recently after they completed studying what they found after unearthing a cite of ancient settlement close to Almaty, Vremya newspaper reported last month. Then, in a peculiar confluence of scientific research and business interests, a young local businessman has fallen in love with the game and now seeks to promote his ancestors' heritage.
The game, Oi Kures (meaning Mind Struggle), was found in the Talgar settlement, called Talkhir in the Middle Ages, only few miles away from modern Almaty. Professor of archaeology Ivan Kopylov studied it and concluded that the Kazakh ancestors indeed played this game several centuries ago.
Just like ordinary chess, Oi Kures has a 64-square black and white board, and black and white figures of kings, queens, rooks, bishops, and knights, and it has the same idea of defeating an opposing side.
Yet, the difference and complexity lie in the fact that pawns in Oi Kures are no ordinary pawns. Instead, they have their own hierarchy, and, as such, are not treated simply as cannon fodder.
Marat Urtashev, an Almaty entrepreneur, produced the first 1,000 sets of Oi Kures and is actively seeking to promote the game whose rules are currently known to no more than 100 people.
He says he doesn't seek to rewrite history and to claim Kazakhstan was the birthplace of chess.
"Rather, we are just proposing a new game that was unearthed at Talgar", Mr. Urtashev said in a newspaper interview. "Oi Kures can move beyond our borders. When I showed the game to Turks they said that while classic chess is politics, Oi Kures amounts to a battle."
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News Bulletin of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the USA and Canada
(Compiled from own sources and various agencies' reports)
Contact persons: Roman Vassilenko, Aibek Nurbalin
Tel.: (202) 232- 5488 ext. 104, 115, Fax: (202) 232- 5845
