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Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia, with a small portion in Eastern Europe. [1] With an area of about 2,724,900 square kilometers (1,052,100 sq mi) Kazakhstan is more than twice the combined size of the other four Central Asian states and 60% larger than Alaska .
Kazakh is a state (official) language in Kazakhstan. It is also spoken in the Ili region of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China, where the Arabic script is used, and in western parts of Mongolia (Bayan-Ölgii and Khovd province), where Cyrillic script is in use. European Kazakhs use the Latin alphabet.
Kazakhstan, [d] officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, [e] is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a small portion situated in Eastern Europe. [f] It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbekistan to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southwest, with a coastline along the Caspian Sea.
Kazakhstan's dominant ethnic group, the Kazakhs, traces its origin to the 15th century, when after disintegration of Golden Horde, number of Turkic and Turco-Mongol tribes united to establish the Kazakh Khanate. With a cohesive culture and a national identity, they constituted an absolute majority on the land until Russian colonization.
The nations which make up Central Asia are five of the former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, which have a total population of about 76 million.
Kazakhstan has cultivated a strong interest in sports, physical education, and extracurricular activities. Kazakhstan has achieved some success in international competitions in weightlifting, ice hockey, and boxing. Kazakhstan won eight medals in the 2004 Summer Olympics, the largest tally for any nation in Central Asia.
Kazakhstan has rich coal deposits with 300 major deposits and 170.2 billion tons of reserves. Coking coal is primarily extracted from the Karaganda Basin. The Turgay, Balkhash and Maikuben depressions all hold small deposits of Mesozoic coal. The country has about eight billion tons of iron, nickel, cobalt and up to 300 tungsten deposits.
Kazakhstan declared itself an independent country on December 16, 1991, the last Soviet republic to do so. Its communist-era leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev , became the country's new president. Since independence, Kazakhstan has pursued a balanced foreign policy and worked to develop its economy , especially its hydrocarbon industry.