Kazakhstan, Astana, May 6 / Trend D.Mukhtarov /
Defender of the Fatherland Day is celebrated in Kazakhstan today.
In October, 2012, President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the Law 'On Amendments to the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan 'On Holidays in the Republic of Kazakhstan'' introducing a new national holiday, Defender of the Fatherland Day, to be celebrated on May 7. This year, for the first time this day is celebrated as a national holiday.
The purpose of the document is creating appropriate conditions for the moral education of the rising generation of the country and enhancing the continuity between the different generations of Kazakhs, improving the prestige and image of the Armed Forces of Kazakhstan within the country and abroad, as well as raising the status of a defender of the Fatherland.
Over than twenty years ago, on May 7, 1992, the first President of Kazakhstan signed a decree on the establishment of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Currently, a military reform is being conducted in the Army of Kazakhstan. Earlier, President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the Decree No. 1085 'On measures for the further improvement of the structure of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan'. The main purpose of the decree is reforming the Armed Forces by switching to a three-branch structure of the Army consisting of Land Forces, Air Defense Forces and Naval Forces. A new type of troops, Aeromobile Forces have been created in order to increase the efficiency of the use of mobile forces.
"In order to increase the combat efficiency of military alignments in different regions of the country military districts have been reorganized into regional commands: 'Astana', 'East', 'West' and 'South'. These changes should be resulted in qualitative improvement of command and control, coordination of their application considering the global experience in the field of militant organization," the Security Council of Kazakhstan noted.
The force level of the Armed Forces of Kazakhstan is more than 70,000 people, including officers, contractors, as wekk as soldiers and sergeants of conscription service. The latter category of servicemen (conscripts) constitutes 85 percent of the Armed Forces of Kazakhstan.
Defense expenditures comprise about 1 percent of the total GDP.