Nursultan Nazarbayev

Kazakhs overwhelmingly voted for constitutional changes in a referendum after deadly unrest ended founding leader Nursultan Nazarbayev's three-decade grip on Central Asia's richest country, the election commission said Monday.

The name of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) has been changed to the Organization of Turkic States, according to a joint declaration of the Council's 8th Summit in Istanbul.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss Syria and Libya, an official statement said on Dec. 29.

According to the statement issued by Turkey's Directorate of Communications, the two leaders also addressed the bilateral relations and regional developments.

After that, Vucic will also talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yesterday he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

At a joint meeting of the two chambers, Kazakhstan's parliament passed a law renaming the state capital Astana to Nursultan in honor of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, TASS reported.

The members of the Magglias (Lower House) and Senate (upper) unanimously voted in favor of the proposal. The law is considered adopted and is now due to be signed by the president.

Kazakhstan's parliament on March 20 voted to rename the country's capital in honor of long-time ruler Nursultan Nazarbayev, a day after he resigned as president.

Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan, said yesterday that he was resigning as the oil-rich Central Asian nation's leader after three decades in power.

Right now, in modern circumstances where there are heightened tensions among the global players, for Kazakhstan, the biggest challenge we see is to contribute to the reduction of these tensions among these key-players, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Roman Vassilenko told AGERPRES in an interview.

On the eve of participating in an inter-religion conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, the Serbian president told reporters that the president of Kazakhstan is organizing this gathering for the sixth time in order to contribute to moving various traditional churches closer together.

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has started his holiday in southwestern Turkey with a long swimming session and a walk in the rain. Click through for the story in photos...