Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced on March 19 that he is resigning, thereby bringing a close to his almost three decade-long rule over the Central Asian nation. Eurasianet reports.
Nazarbayev made the shock announcement in a televised statement to the nation. He also said that the speaker of the Senate, Kassym Jomart-Tokayev, will take over as head of state until presidential elections take place.
“Tokayev is the very person that we can trust to rule Kazakhstan,” he said.
In his lengthy resignation speech, Nazarbayev took stock of what he said were the achievements of his years running Kazakhstan.
“We put Kazakhstan on the map where there was never such a country,” he said.
