Where ethnic diversity doesn't divide

The notion of majority or minority is practically absent among the people of Kazakhstan, which has one of the world's richest diversity of ethnicities, said the country's parliament members.

In fact throughout its 25 year history, since its secession from the former Soviet Russia in 1991, no major racial or ethnic conflict occurred in the central Asian country.

Kazakhstan has more than 100 ethnic communities.

In a bilateral meeting with Bangladeshi delegates, members of Kazakhstan's parliament shared their country's ethnic policies and parliamentary system, which promote and ensure cultural harmony.

The meeting took place, following Bangladesh's participation in a forum in Kazakhstan's capital Astana on July 1-3, on the theme "Culture of Peace and Harmony in the CICA Area", organised by the Republic State Institute "Kogamdyk Kelisim (Public Consent)" under the President of Republic Kazakhstan (RSI "Kogamdyk Kelisim").

Bangladesh became its fulltime member last year and participated in the forum along with 25 other national and cultural centres of CICA (Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia) member countries.

However, the three-member Bangladeshi delegation led by Member of Parliament (MP) Fazle Hossain Badsha received special preference from the Kazakhstani government, which resulted in three bilateral meetings, concerning tourism and ethnic issues.

Yeraly Tugzhanov, deputy head of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan (APK) and head of the secretariat of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan, talked about the model implemented by the country's President Nursultan Nazarbayev to enhance social cohesion. 

In Kazakhstan, assembly members are elected from representatives of more than 100 ethnicities, and nine deputies of the assembly are designated to look after equality between the ethnicities, which include Kazakhs, Russians, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Uighurs, Tatars, Koreans and Germans, to name a few. 

"We don't treat any of Kazakhstan's citizens as majority or minority. Everyone belongs to Kazakhstan and we don't discriminate against anyone because of their ethnicity," he said.

At the meeting at the National Academic Library of Astana, Badsha urged them to open an embassy of Kazakhstan in Bangladesh to enhance bilateral tourism and cultural exchange.

He also elaborated on the rights of the religious minorities, tribal and indigenous people as stated in the Bangladeshi constitution and the workings of the parliamentary caucus on indigenous communities.

At another meeting at the parliament house of Kazakhstan, Sayapova Zuhra Aleutdinova, one of the nine deputies, said that though there were no reserved seats for women in the country's parliament, women representatives were naturally elected from all ethnic communities.

The meeting was followed by the participants' visit to the lower house of parliament, "Mazhilis".

In the plenary session of the forum about the stability and prosperity of CICA, Vice Chancellor of ASA University in Bangladesh Dr Dalem Chandra Barman said, "The culture of peace doesn't believe in any kind of exclusion.”

"Peace cannot be established in society if there is no political, economic and cultural equality," he said.

The conference ended with a firm commitment to strengthen inter-cultural cooperation of solidarity, friendship and mutual trust of the peoples of CICA countries and included urgent issues about cooperation in Asia towards promoting peace, security and stability.

The forum also emphasised multilateral cooperation in inter-ethnic relations through meetings, consultations, exchange of successful practices of ethnic policies in CICA countries, strengthening scientific and expertise support activities in the framework of CICA, ensuring strong participation of civil society institutions, particularly ethnic and cultural associations and youth organisations. 

The participants congratulated the people of Kazakhstan and its president on "Capital City Day" in Astana on July 6 and the 20th anniversary of the Assembly of the Nation of Kazakhstan.

The participants visited ethno-memorial complex "Atameken", the largest mosque in Kazakhstan and Central Asia "Hazrat Sultan", and the national museum of Kazakhstan. They were entertained with traditional food and cultural show.

Yeraly Tugzhanov, deputy head of the APK, presented Badhsa with "Shanyrak", a symbol of freedom and peace and also the traditional portable home of pastoral nomadic peoples of Kazakhstan, and Dalem Barman with "Kobyz", an ancient musical string instrument, containing two strings made of horsehair.