I've gone into
the archives of the tz mailing list to gather what
information there is on
this question. A flurry of messages went out on the
tz mailing list in
May and June, 2005 on the subject of Kazakhstan's time
zones, when the
country announced the end of DST.
In 1996, according to a technical
publication of the International Air
Transport Association, Kazakhstan split
into three time zones. Before that
time, it had been all UTC+6 with
DST. Afterward, Aktau, Atyrau, and Uralsk
oblasts (aka Mangghystau,
Atyrau, and West Kazakhstan) went to UTC+4, and
Aktyubinsk (aka Aqtöbe) went
to UTC+5. In 2005, according to a
correspondent in Kazakhstan, those
four oblasts united on UTC+5, as the
entire country was dropping its
observance of DST.
So I think the answer is that Atyrau was in Asia/Aqtau
from 1996 to 2005.
(I tried to
send this message two days ago, but it didn't get
through.)
-- Gwillim Law
----- Original Message
-----
From: "Jesper Norgaard Welen" <jnorgard@prodigy.net.mx>
> # The zone closer to UTC is the former Western zone
(probably still called
> the
> # same), encompassing four provinces
in the west: Aqtobe, Atyrau,
> # Mangghystau, and West Kazakhstan.
The other zone encompasses
> # everything else.... I guess that
would make Kazakhstan time zones
> # de jure UTC+5 and UTC+6
respectively.
>
> Atyrau lies betwen the Aqtobe and Mangghystau
(Aqtau) regions. Do we know
if
> it followed Asia/Aqtobe or Asia/Aqtau
in the past?