The decision to rename Astana was made by the interim president Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev. An online petition against the change has exceeded 42,000 signatures.
Kazakhstan has renamed its capital city Astana as Nur-Sultan in honour of veteran leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has resigned after almost 30 years in power.
But not everyone is happy.
It is the fourth time the city’s name has been changed within six decades. It was previously called Akmolinsk, Tselinograd and Akmola before becoming Astana, meaning “capital”, after Nazarbayev moved the nation’s capital there from Almaty in 1997.
Since then, Astana has developed economically into one of the most modern cities in Central Asia.
The decision to rename Astana was made by the interim president Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev. An online petition against the change has exceeded 42,000 signatures.
Authorities have told Reuters the many public buildings, events and companies with Astana in their titles will retain their names.
A spokesman for Air Astana said the airline “definitely has no plans to change the name of Air Astana or new low-cost offshoot, FlyArystan.”
Nazarbayev, who had ruled the oil and gas-rich Central Asian nation since 1989, when it was still part of the Soviet Union, will remain the head of the security council and the ruling Nur Otan party.
Opposition politician Mukhtar Ablyazov has accused him of planning a dynastic succession that would see his daughter Dariga, who has been appointed Speaker of Parliament, to succeed him.
The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is set to hold PATA Travel Mart 2019 in Astana/Nur-Sultan in September.