President: Kazakhstanis to lose citizenship for joining ISIS

    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.
    Nursultan Nazarbayev commented on the situation with religious extremism in Kazakhstan, Kazpravda.kz reports.
    The journalist of the TV channel "MIR 24" raised this topic in conversation with the Kazakh leader. In particular, he recalled the terrorist attacks that occurred in summer 2016 in Aktau and Almaty and committed by "Islamic extremists".
    "From the very first days of our independence, we pursue a policy of equality for all in terms of ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural principles. All people know this, so the most important thing is to stay alert. Now we are facing this problem and it is coming to us: ideology, literature, emissaries are spreading from there, young people are recruited there, and then they return to Kazakhstan. The religious situation is normal now, it is controlled within the framework of Kazakhstan laws, but one must always be vigilant in these matters," - the Head of State noted.
    Nazarbayev also commented on the existence of the possibility of creating "sleeping" cells of the "Islamic state" (DAISH - banned in Russia and Kazakhstan) by those who are now fighting on the side of terrorists and intending to return from Iraq and Syria.
    "According to the Kazakh legislation, if a citizen of the country went there and participated in such terrorist organizations, he does not return back, he is deprived of citizenship, and this is the necessary measure. 500-600 Kazakhstanis are fighting in the ranks of the IS now, but from the countries of the former Soviet Union there are many more - up to 5 thousand, and maybe even more: they are Caucasians and people of the countries of Central Asia. We must take measures so that they do not go there," - stressed Nazarbayev.
    In the interview to the TV channel "MIR 24" the President of Kazakhstan listed the threats to the modern world, Kazpravda.kz reports.
    "Today, the biggest challenge is terrorism, as it is known, and no country can fight against terrorism alone, so when our countries and special services cooperate with each other within the framework of the CSTO, we have the opportunity to identify and find and give more information to each other in order to prevent any possible troubles," - Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
    The second is migration, and the third one is drug trafficking.
    "Over 4 million migrants pass through Kazakhstan. Almost 600,000 migrants are working in the republic. Drug trafficking goes through Afghanistan, through other countries, through Kazakhstan, and goes to Russia and even to Europe, and the CSTO conducts special exercises on how we can identify this drug trafficking route, the possibilities of transfer, the drug couriers. We know that 250 million people in the world use drugs, and, according to world experts, about 10 million die from drugs", – he went on.
    The listed challenges, Nazarbayev noted, are the most important. Therefore, the CSTO controls this, and other things, including "the desire of destructive forces to undermine states from within, to influence from outside."
    Reported by the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, Kazinform.