Scientists Urge Kazakh President To Stop Reorganizing Institutions

The scientists warned that Kazakh researchers are leaving the country because of the changes.

ALMATY -- Kazakh scientists are urging President Nursultan Nazarbaev to stop reorganizing the country's scientific institutions, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

Kazakh Academy of Sciences members have said that they made their wishes clear in an open letter addressed to the president.

The scientists say that the reorganization of the country's scientific institutions has led to many of them being closed.

The letter says that such stable institutions as the Statehood and Law Institute, the Oil and Mineral Salts Institute, the Space Research Institute, the Astrophysics Institute, the Mineral Resources Institute, and other scientific organizations have recently been shut down.

The Kazakh scientists say that constant reform efforts and privatization are bringing the science to a dead end and are squeezing Kazakh scientists out of the country, depriving future generations from a professional education.