FYI, from the
CIA World Fact Book -- Government -- Capital
:
note 2: on 20 March 2019, Kazakhstan changed the name of its capital city from Astana to Nur-Sultan in honor of its long-serving, recently retired president, Nursultan NAZARBAYEV; this was not the first time the city had its name changed; founded in 1830 as Akmoly, it became Akmolinsk in 1832, Tselinograd in 1961, Akmola (Aqmola) in 1992, and Astana in 1998.
I read about that. But that doesn’t seem like a “forced” name change. Unless I’m missing something.
Of course 3D3N could be wrong about it being forced. But it would be odd to have posted such a thing out of the blue.