During the communist period, many Kazakhs, or ‘free warriors’, fled Kazakhstan to neighbouring countries. This diaspora now forms large communities in China, Iran and Mongolia. The Kazakhs are the largest ethnic minority group in Mongolia. Almost 90 percent of them live in the north-western part of the country, Bayan-Ölgii. The Mongolian Kazakhs travelled through Russia to the Mongolian Altai Mountains living as semi-nomads,