The focus shifted to the development of a shared Kazakhstani identity and Kazakhstani patriotism as the primary purpose of the ANK, with the Kazakh language and culture now assigned a central and unifying role for all the country’s citizens.5 Just five years later, as part of the 2007 constitutional reform, the ANK was granted constitutional status and the right to send nine of its elected 2 The C. [...] Instead, the role of the Kazakhs in the state was described as central, with the other ethnic groups to be clustered around the Kazakhs.6 In summer 2015, Nazarbaev then announced the end point, as it were, of the development. [...] As a result of emigration, not only of Russians but also of Germans and various other ethnic groups, the proportion of non-Kazakhs steadily declined in the 1990s, while the number of Kazakhs increased in absolute terms due to their higher birth rate and the state-sponsored “return” of the Kazakh diaspora. [...] Demographic changes The majority of non-Kazakhs have presumably come to terms with the ad- shifted the centre of vance of Kazakh at the expense of Russian, and even the Russians are said to gravity in favour of the be showing more willingness to learn Kazakh. [...] Some Western academics, for example, underline the difficulties faced by the leadership in the early days and view the ambiguity of the two identities positively on the grounds that it placates Kazakh and Russian nationalists and ultimately preserves a balance of in- terests.14 However, like the author cited at the start of this paper, most aca- demic studies of the development of national identit.
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