Europeans should know more about Kazakhstan –modern and dynamic country
Why have you been interested in participating in the Forum? Tell us please, about your organization.
First of all, I would like to thank Kazakh Ministry of Culture and Information for inviting my association the Fourth Civil Forum and the Embassy of Republic of Kazakhstan in France for their kind support ahead of my trip. Of course, the Eurokaz Association which I represent considers our participation to be very important. The very fact of conducting such an event is really a big example of openness of Kazakhstan to the civil society and to the development of democratization in the country. As you may know, the origin of the word "democracy" comes from the Greek words demos and kratos. The first word means "people" and the second one "authorities", the state. Civil society is an expression of the people. So the relation between the civil society and the state refers to democratization processing. Improving the civil society contribute to the democratization of Kazakhstan, which is important for its future development.
Speaking about our organization, I must say that Eurokaz promotes Kazakhstan in Europe. We are involved in many activities, such as our internet site which is a portal, focusing on Kazakhstan. We try to concentrate all information about Kazakhstan. The main idea is to give an easy access to all European to what is going on in Kazakhstan. Eurokaz is also organizing a lot of other interesting events, such like Nauryz festivities. For example, we hope to make first Nauryz in Europe, in Paris next year and are looking for partnerships with French and Kazakh companies to realize it.
How do you appreciate activities of NGOs in the light of forthcoming OSCE chairmanship of Kazakhstan?
During the 4th Civil Forum I have learnt many things about the NGO's dealing with social issues. I have talked to people ready to make anything is necessary to help people around them. They spend the most part of their time and energy for it. There are numerous NGO's to help children, women and disabled people.
The development of the civil society is an internal issue initiated by the Kazakhstanis authorities. It is not requested by the OSCE. Nevertheless, it joins the European standards and shows the potential of Kazakhstan to go forward to democratization.
As far as Kazakhstan's forthcoming chairmanship in the OSCE in 2010 concerned, I consider it as a great chance for Kazakhstan to show its real achievements as well as to further promote OSCE missions in CIS and other regions.
Also, Eurokaz will promote the direct contact existing between the State of Kazakhstan and its civil society given by this Civil Forum. For our organization it will be a great opportunity to show Kazakhstan by its modern side.
We want to present Kazakhstan as a modern, dynamic, quickly progressing country and that it is going in the right way to comply with the OSCE standards. We hope that next year will open a new prospect for Kazakhstan NGOs to make a meaningful contribution. Again, we are grateful to Kazakh authorities for invitation to this Civil Forum and when we will come back to Europe of course we will talk about what we've seen here and what we've heard here.
What is your opinion why an international community succeeded so little on issue to fight poverty in the last decades? Did you see anything special about the agenda of NGOs of Kazakhstan and Central Asia as a whole?
There is poverty everywhere in the world existing on different levels. Even in Europe you can find some spaces of poverty. Kazakhstan still have a big potential to lower the poverty on its territory, but it will takes a long time to reach good standards, moreover in a global crisis situation.
What is also important for me is that the authorities of Kazakhstan have said that they have been busy first with economy and directly after with social problems. Hearing the 4th Civil Forum, it seems that this last step is coming. That's surely a good opportunity for the NGO's to find good partnerships with the state to fight against poverty.
In France, there are some very interesting NGOs and other associations dealing with the problem of poverty too. This is not only the problem of the administration. Civil society can play a very important role to help people in the country.
It was said today that the partnership between the administration and the civil society is important. It is true that it works. By working both on the same issues the country can go forward and be successful.
There is growing interest in Kazakhstan as one of the fastest developing countries in the region, at a crossroads between Europe and Asia. What is your impression of the country? How do you appreciate our traditions, human values and inter-ethnic relations among the peoples?
It is true that Kazakhstan is growing up very quickly. When you look at Astana for example it is so amazing to see so many buildings growing up and with so beautiful architecture. Some of the buildings were designed by very famous architects. It gives a very good image of Kazakhstan abroad. It's true that for me and my Association, Kazakhstan represents big potential for progressing to reach all the standards it wanted to reach. I often hear people saying they want to reach European standards in Kazakhstan. When I am crossing the streets in Astana I already feel like if I would have been in Europe. So you are very successful in this way.
We also appreciate very much Kazakh traditions. In every meeting in France and in Europe we speak about your tolerance and hospitality. These are very important values. What is very important too is the inter-ethnic and inter-faith model developed by Kazakhstan. The 130 ethnic groups of the country are living together on the same territory with different kinds of traditions and different ways of living which are different. That's so much interesting the way it works! For many observers in the world, Kazakhstan is taken as a kind of laboratory of social science. It is a very good example around the world to look at it.
Among the many interesting events for the world, is the Congress of the World and Traditional Religions Leaders. It is a unique forum for Kazakhstan and for the world too, I think. It is a very important initiative given to the human kind and every three years now people are waiting for development of this event.
There are some progresses in making Kazakhstan better known in Europe. Eurokaz will keep on promote Kazakhstan in Europe to make Kazakhstan more famous to the eyes of Europeans.
Thank you for interview