President: Kazakhstanis to lose citizenship for joining ISIS

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Kazakhstanis will be deprived of citizenship for joining the ISIS, President Nursultan Nazarbayev revealed in an exclusive interview with MIR TV Channel, Kazinform reports.

"According to the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, those who join extremist organizations are deprived of Kazakhstani citizenship automatically. There are 500-600 Kazakhstanis who were recruited by the ISIS and up to 5,000 people from the countries of former Soviet Union," President Nazarbayev said.

The Kazakh leader believes such drastic measures should be taken to prevent people from joining terrorist groups.

"We tried to work with those who returned from the IS, however, it had no effect. That is why we made the decision to deprive them of citizenship," the Head of State added.