Order of obtaining citizenship by repatriates proposed to be simplified

"We must increase the number of those repatriates who are capable of moving to Kazakhstan at their own expense. One of the best options is to simplify the order of obtaining the Kazakhstani citizenship," - Nursultan Nazarbayev, president of Kazakhstan, observed speaking yesterday, September 29, at the III World Assembly of Kazakhs, KZ-today correspondent reports.

The president has stressed that "the appropriate authorities must think and propose how to simplify the legislative order and help the repatriates, who express a wich to move at their own expense."

N. Nazarbayev said that nowadays there were 1 million Kazakhs in Russia, 1.7 million in China, 100 thousand in Turkmenistan, 80 thousand in Mongolia, 45 thousand in Kyrgyzstan. "Each third Kazakh lives abroad. I must openly declare that we cannot move them all here," - he said.

At the same time he observed that "among the CIS states Kazakhstan is the only state that carries out a systematic repatriation of its foreign compatriots and spends significant budget funds for it."

"I believe that returning to one's historical Motherland it is better to think not about "what my Kazakhstan will give me," but about "what I can give to my Kazakhstan," - he stressed.

Besides, the president proposed to review the Kazakh alphabet problem. "When we speak about aid to foreign compatriots, the alphabet problem is at the first place. Now there are three Kazakh alphabets in the world, It is Cyrillic in Kazakhstan, Russia, and a number of CIS member states, Latin in Turkey and Western Europe, and Chinese Kazakhs use Arabic graphics. To resolve this problem we must be based on expert opinions of our scientists. It is a case when one has to look before one leaps," - he observed.

N. Nazarbayev said that "111 thousand repatriate families returned to Kazakhstan from 1991 to July 1, 2005, so that the population grew by half million."

The president of Kazakhstan was univocally elected chairman of the presidium of the World Assembly of Kazakhs yesterday.