In the draft of the new Constitution of Kazakhstan, one word was changed in the article about languages. At a meeting of the Constitutional Commission, Nurmukhanov reported that the word "тең" (equal) was replaced with "қатар" (alongside). This change pertains to Article 9, which was presented in early February.
Article 9 of the proposed Constitution states that the Kazakh language is the state language, while the Russian language is used in state institutions and local self-government bodies alongside Kazakh. This provision completely repeated the wording from the current Constitution, where the language issue is addressed in Article 7. Now, however, a decision has been made to amend this text.
The initiator of the constitutional changes in Kazakhstan is President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who plans to update the content of the fundamental law by more than 80%.
