Tengrinews.kz - The Turkestan city will be given special status. The corresponding draft law was approved by the Mazhilis in the first reading on December 18.
As Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nurlan Baibazarov reported, the draft law "On the special status of the city of Turkestan" was developed in accordance with the instruction of the Head of State to give this city a special status as a spiritual and historical capital.
Turkestan was recognized as the spiritual capital of the Turkic world. This fact and the need to preserve the historical appearance of the city and the historical and cultural heritage sites located on its territory served as the basis for the development of the draft law.
"During the development of the draft law, the experience of England, Italy, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and other countries in preserving historical monuments was studied," Nurlan Baibazarov said at a plenary session of the Mazhilis.
The main principles of the draft law are the preservation and protection of historical and cultural heritage.
If the law is adopted, the following changes await Turkestan:
a reserve of archeological monuments will be created in the city;
part of the costs for masters in the field of national crafts will be reimbursed from the budget;
a restriction will be introduced on construction around the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi - in order to prevent extraneous elements of development and preserve its uniqueness.
"In particular, at a distance of one hundred meters from the boundary of the mausoleum's security zone, the construction of objects more than seven meters high, as well as incompatible with historical monuments in scale, color and building materials, is not allowed," explained Baibazarov.
In addition, the Local Government Administration (akimat) of Turkestan will be able to seize and grant to private developers the rights of temporary free land use for the construction of state social facilities.
In general, within the framework of the draft law, 34 additional competencies will be transferred to the akimat and Maslikhat of Turkestan. Among them are the approval of the architectural appearance of the city, the design code, the rules for conducting video surveillance monitoring, the procedure for using symbols on the territory of Turkestan and much more.
