Interethnic relations are no political game: Nazarbayev

Interethnic relations are not a field for political games, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev declared in his speech at the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan, Tengrinews reports.

"Interethnic relations, civil equality, language policies - none of these are fields for political games. These are human destinies,” Nazarbayev said. These issues can be "cynically exploited in a struggle for power" by political groups, he warned and called not to ignore such manifestations, because they are dangerous both for the country and for its every citizen".

“Everyone should understand that chauvinism and nationalism are separated from outright neo-fascism by a very thin line, which is easy to cross," Nazarbayev said.

He called upon the Kazakhstanis to always remember “the great sacrifices of our people and the peoples of the whole CIS [post-Soviet space] that they made in the Great Patriotic War in the name of Victory over the Brown Plague" [i.e. fascism], and stressed the importance of educating the younger generation about the priorities. “It is important that the memory of the victory over fascism never fades," he stressed.

Reporting by Altynai Zhumzhumina