After 8-months crisis, the Czech Republic has finally formed its new government with center-right majority. Four sits are taken by the Green Party – for the first time in the history of the party. One of the “Green” ministers is Dzhamila Stehlikova, an ethnic Kazakh born in Almaty. Dzhamila has medical education, she first worked as a doctor and came to politics through activism in environmental protection in coal-mining regions of the Czech Republic. Appointed as a minister without portfolio, pani Stehlikova is responsible for the policies in the sphere of ethnic minorities and human rights.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Tatar-Bashkir services) interviewed the new minister, the only Kazakh in the Parliament. When she was young, Stehlikova studied in Moscow, where she met a Czech student, married him and moved to the Czech Republic in 1988 at the age of 26. She has a Czech surname and Czech citizenship – foreigners still cannot be members of local parties in the Czech Republic.

Stehlikova told RFE/RL correspondents about her childhood memories from Kazakhstan:

“For me, it was very important every year to visit a small village, Karakorum, which is in the border area of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. My grandfather - the father of my father — was born there. My roots are there. I was born in Alma-ata, but I remember my friends [in Karakorum], riding on horseback, and playing childhood games there. So if we speak about where the path of my life began, it was at this village on the border of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.”

“My journey into politics was very down-to-earth,” Stehlikova says. “I traveled to [Bohemia] from Moscow, where I had studied and started working. I arrived in a small town in northern [Bohemia.]; I was surprised how people in that region treat nature and cultural heritage. In north [Bohemia], there are coal mines, and the coal is exploited in open strip mines. So whole villages and towns with historical monuments are simply destroyed. For me, it was such a shock that I spontaneously decided to fight against it. We organized several demonstrations, but I understood that they had no effect. Even after the Velvet Revolution [in 1989], the villages were still being destroyed. Churches and houses were destroyed. People were moved to other towns. Then I understood that if I wanted to influence what happened around me, it was necessary to go into politics.”

At her new position, the new minister wants to develop the Czech anti-discrimination law similar to that of the most other EU countries. She also plans to create an agency, which will deal with the social problems of Czech minorities, particularly, Roma people. She also plans to build a memorial to the Romany victims of the Holocaust. And finally, Stehlikova plans to improve the access to public buildings and transport for people with disabilities.