The city of Almaty began in the 1800’s as the Russian fort town of Verney. It was renamed Alma Ata around the turn of the century and was the capitol of the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. Since the late 1990’s Astana in the north has been given the role of capital.

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Kazakhstan is the size of most of Western Europe, with 16 million inhabitants. Of those, 9 million traditionally share the religion of folk Islam. Whereas there were hardly any Kazak believers in 1990, they are estimated to number over 10,000 today!

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Centuries later the Balkar homeland was finally annexed to Russia. The Russians used the name of “Mountain Tartars” or “Mountain Turks” for all of the Turko-Tatar people groups of the Caucasus.

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About 50 Dungan believers are known in Central Asia. It seems that there is now a group of believers meeting in Azdine’s home village despite problems and difficulties. No other Dungan church or home fellowship group is known.

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“Dagestan” means “Mountain Country” and is the home to about 30 different people groups. The Avars live in the Western and the central part in the high mountains. There are about 60,000 Avars in the capital Makhachkala.

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Azerbaijan is a land of high mountain ranges and low river valleys, bordering Russia in the north and Iran in the south. The traditional religion of the Azeris is Shiite Islam, which has experienced a revival in recent years.

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