MY POSTBOX: KAZAKHSTAN - Қазақстан Республикасы

Friday, 3 July 2015

KAZAKHSTAN - Қазақстан Республикасы

Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country largely located in Central Asia with the most western parts of it being located in Eastern Europe. It is the world's largest landlocked country, and the ninth-largest country in the world, with an area of 2,724,900 square kilometres (1,052,100 sq mi). Kazakhstan is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, and also adjoins a large part of the Caspian Sea. It does not border Mongolia, although they are only 37 kilometers apart. The terrain of Kazakhstan includes flatlands, steppe, taiga, rock canyons, hills, deltas, snow-capped mountains, and deserts. Kazakhstan has an estimated 18.3 million people as of 2018. Its population density is among the lowest, at less than 6 people per square kilometre (15 people per sq mi). Since 1997 and independence, the capital is Nur-Sultan, formerly known as Astana. It was moved from Almaty, the country's largest city.

Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, and subsequent civil war, the territory of Kazakhstan was reorganised several times. In 1936, it was made the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the first president of Kazakhstan, was characterised as an authoritarian, and his government was accused of numerous human rights violations, including suppression of dissent and censorship of the media. Nazarbayev resigned in March 2019 but was made the Kazakh Security Council'schairman-for-life. He had the capital's name changed to his first name.The name "Kazakh" comes from the ancient Turkic word qaz, "to wander", reflecting the Kazakhs' nomadic culture. The term "Cossack" is of the same origin. The Persian suffix -stan means "land" or "place of", so Kazakhstan can be literally translated as "land of the wanderers".

There are ten nature reserves and ten national parks in Kazakhstan that provide safe haven for many rare and endangered plants and animals. Common plants are Astragalus, Gagea, Allium, Carex and Oxytropis; endangered plant species include native wild apple (Malus sieversii), wild grape (Vitis vinifera) and several wild tulip species (e.g. Tulipa greigii) and rare onion species Allium karataviense, also Iris willmottiana and Tulipa kaufmanniana. Common mammals include the wolf, red fox, corsac fox, moose, argali (the largest species of sheep), Eurasian lynx, Pallas's cat, and snow leopards, several of which are protected. Kazakhstan's Red Book of Protected Species lists 125 vertebrates including many birds and mammals, and 404 plants including fungi, algae and lichen.

Under the Soviet Union, the Kazakh SSR postal service was an integral part of the Soviet system. The republic was periodically recognized in sets of stamps honoring the different parts of the USSR. Kazakhstan became independent in December 1991, and organized its own post. Its first stamp, depicting a warrior's suit found at the Issyk mound in 1969, was issued 23 March 1992. Overprinted stamps of the USSR are also known from this early period, but the Philatelic Club of Almaty has concluded that their official status is uncertain; although some saw postal usage, they were not generally available in post offices, nor do their values reflect actual postal rates in effect. The first definitive stamps were a set of five issued on 24 January 1993, four of which were a stylized design consisting of a yurt and spaceship (alluding to the country's Baikonur Cosmodrome), along with the higher value of 50 rubles depicting the flag of Kazakhstan.

The currency changed to tijn and tenge around the end of 1993. Existing stamps, all denominated in rubles and kopecks, were then sold as if they were in the new currencies. New stamps issued in the first half of 1994 were initially sold as denominated in tijn, then later in tenge. The yurt-and-spaceship design was re-issued in the new currency beginning in July 1994. Kazakhstan has since followed a moderate pattern of issues, averaging 30 to 40 types per year. The space theme is frequent.