.tatar Pre-Register Domain - .tatar Domain Information

.TATAR pursues an ambitious goal to add to the current linguistic diversity and ethnic representation on the global Internet by creating a domain space projecting throughout the Internet a rich culture, unique history and traditions shared by a huge vibrant Tatars community both in Russia and the CIS, and elsewhere and offering a greater choice to users worldwide.

To this end, the Applicant is committed to represent the community and define its strategy in a manner which would prevent any stakeholder or its special interest to prevail in the long run.

.TATAR therefore focuses on the following target audiences:
- Residents of the Republic of Tatarstan;
- Tatars residing elsewhere in Russia and across the CIS;
- Tatar overseas residents;
- Expert, academia, students and other corporate and individual users who are interested in the Tatar language, history, etc.
- Businesses which produce goods and services specifically to satisfy the Tatars' needs.

.TATAR is intended for the Tatar-language and cultural community in the first place. In total, there are a. 8m Tatars worldwide. It is common knowledge that 5.5m of them form the second biggest ethnic-linguistic group in Russia (after the Russians), while their relatively big numbers are dispersed across Eurasia - from Romania and the Baltics to Middle Asia and China.

The Tatar language belongs in the Turkish linguistic group. The Tatars in the Russian Federation use a Cyrillic version of the Tatar script (which differs from the traditional Russian Cyrillic alphabet by extra 6 symbols), while Tatars overseas prefer the Latin script as the most widespread one. Whilst scattered throughout probably the vastest territory worldwide vis-à-vis other ethnic groups, Tatars have managed to retain their linguistic identity and unity, nonetheless.

.TATAR will help the community to better identify themselves in a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual global Internet environment.

The unique feature of the Tatars in the Russian Federation is that they reside in a compact region enjoying all the powers and benefits granted by the RF Constitution, namely, the Republic of Tatarstan.
Tatarstan has its own Constitution, elected President, Parliament, Cabinet of Ministers, etc.

Located in the central part of the Russian Federation on the East-European plain at the confluence of two major European rivers - the Volga and the Kama - Tatarstan is one of Russia's major economic, educational and innovation powerhouses. Most importantly, the socio-economic environment in Tatarstan is very conducive to Hi-Tech and ICT sector. More specifically, Internet- wise, the level of broadband access in the Republic is in the region of 64.5%, which is 2.5 times higher than the national averages. Tatarstan has 779,000 broadband Internet users.

Today, Tatarstan is busy constructing its local analogue to Silicon Valley, which will be home to a rapidly growing telecoms sector.

. TATAR should bolster the community's ability to better position and represent the Republic of Tatarstan on the global Internet map and communicate to the world its image, uniqueness and strengths.

Tatars take a great pride in their long and glorious history, with historic figures, prominent men of arts, science, literature and sports being of Tatar descent, such as Rakhmaninov and Bulgakov , Mendeleev and Pavlov, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, tennis star Marat Safin and NHL player Nikolai Khabibulin, and the "Flying Tatar" Rudolf Nureyev.

.TATAR will form a platform to foster, display and promote the uniqueness and richness of the Tatar background, culture, values and lifestyle.

The Applicant considers .TATAR to be largely community-based, albeit business project.

A venue for dialogue and creative engagement of all the parties concerned, .TATAR will serve as an on-line platform to represent the Tatars on the Internet as an ethnic group, with its background, language, historic and cultural riches.

For academic and experts, and other parties concerned, both in Tatarstan and overseas, .TATAR provides an ultimate pool of information and data best practices, whether for academic research, or every day, eg. culinary, artisan, etc., experiences.

For public associations and profile governmental organizations .TATAR grants access to a broad, diverse audience and forms an efficient way to mobilize and engage local residents, the civil society groups, and overseas stakeholders in various kinds of activities associated with the Tatars.
For businesses .TATAR provides a unique chance to most effectively reach out to, and market their products and services among a huge target audience and in so doing, establish their presence and promote their brands and values with a very broad circle of consumers.

The overarching purpose of .TATAR is to bolster the target audiences - and in the first place ethnic Tatars' - trust in the Internet per se and its opportunities and benefits for an ethnic group's advancement. By indoctrinating certain groups to the Internet's positive effects, .TATAR helps its expansion nationwide.

That the project on launching a new gTLD for the Tatars is indeed central to the Republic's strive for promotion of ethnic and cultural diversity is proved by the support and endorsement from a number of leading local institutions.

.TATAR forms a specialized environment which consolidates a high-quality and rapidly increasing educational, historic, ethnic, cultural, etc. content whose safety rests upon rigorous administrative procedures and robust technical solutions.

Once delegated, .TATAR should promote integration of educational, information projects and programs, games and contests, including interactive ones, etc. with a due account of the target audiences' needs and interests.

.TATAR constitutes a genuinely multistakeholder undertaking, which engages civil society, business, academia, educational, government and technical community, thus qualifying as an exemplary self-regulated, open, voluntary and all-inclusive initiative in a region where such things are still nascent, thus paving the way for new initiatives of this sort.

.TATAR gives impulse to the rise of new Internet resources for specific agents, thus encouraging software developers to embark on new, software development projects, thus boosting competition and creativity in the respective area.

.TATAR focuses primarily on Tatar communities residing both in Russia and overseas; however, it may become a model project for different ethnic groups, should they take on similar efforts, which would add to diversity of the global Internet.

.TATAR contributes to socialization of the environment and promotion of the civil-society values. With the rise of new exciting resources and convenient tools, new population groups go online. The more comprehensive those resources and tools are, the more Tatars, the elderly and the young alike, will be keen to master and explore the Internet, thus bolstering both their respective skills and the Internet's expansion in the Republic and in Russia as a whole, thus narrowing digital divide in the Republic and in Russia.

.TATAR offers ample marketing opportunities for a broad array of businesses. Not only will the new gTLD become home to corporate websites of local multi-billion undertakings, but its profile will enable businesses to narrow down their marketing strategies, more effectively establish and promote their brands and respective values, target very concrete audiences and reap additional benefits vis-à-vis potential rivals, as .TATAR will minimize search efforts for a potential multimillion community and maximize businesses' on-line identity. The Applicant believes business initiatives will account for a relatively significant fraction within the gTLD, while another important one should become public agencies and municipal bodies and respective institutions. Their presence in .TATAR will help domestic communities and individuals to more closely and effectively monitor and evaluate their performance and make them more transparent and accountable, thus ensuring a greater efficacy of public service and the Republic's fast progress on the path towards e-government.

.TATAR offers the possibility for a transparent and easy-to-implement control over community-specific resources adhering to the Tatar's fundamentals and long-standing traditions, meaning abiding by certain moral principles and zero tolerance towards hatred, including racial, ethnic, etc. one, opprobriousness, violence.

Thus, the use of the addressing within the gTLD ensures certain control (with the use of technical means and thanks, inter alia, to the societal and centralized expert control), while not precluding the possibility for users to pick a certain resource and safely surf across .TATAR.

.TATAR thus becomes a unique identifier attributing a given Internet resource to a specific ethnic and cultural community, the mark of its safety and security and observance with certain moral traditions and policies.

As .TATAR suggests unique content focused primarily on Tatar speakers, the gTLD is set to satisfy the needs of Tatars of all ages, walks of life, and countries of residence. Using Tatar as their native language, the users find it easy to key in the name of their favorite resource in the browser window using the Latin script, which is not foreign both to "Russian" Tatars, who used to practice the Latin version of the native alphabet and - even more so- to a broad audience across Newly Independent States, and overseas.
So, all that will propel increase in the number of Internet users across Russia and helps them diversify their user skills and experiences worldwide.

The Applicant understands that the registration policies in the applied-for gTLD are to be in compliance with the standards, requirements and limitations outlined in the Registry Agreement, the Registry-Registrar Agreement (RRA), Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), as well as other general policies, standards and procedures established by ICANN.

In addition, the Applicant intends to establish in the applied-for gTLD supplementary policies, rules, procedures, requirements and limitations according to its mission and purposes. These regulations and rules shall be developed by the Applicant basing both on law of the Russian Federation, the ones of the Republic of Tatarstan, information presented in this Application, and the existing best practices.
The Applicant reserves the right to introduce certain supplementary policies in gTLD .TATAR in the future which shall not contradict standards, procedures, requirements and policies set by the ICANN and the Registry-Registrar Agreement.

Hereinafter Registrar refers to the ICANN-accredited registrar that has entered in Registry-Registrar Agreement with the Registry Operator of applied-for gTLD.

The Registry Operator, Registrars and domain name holders are bound to comply with the conditions stipulated in the aforementioned documents. Registrars are also obligated to include necessary terms and conditions into their agreements with registrants (hereinafter - registration agreements), and must require one's mandatory familiarization with and acceptance of these terms.

In pursuit of the mission of the new IDN gTLD, the Applicant plans to establish therein the following policies and basic principles:

1) Registration policies

a) The second-level domain names should be registered through ICANN-accredited registrars only. The Registry Operator enters into a Registry-Registrar Agreement with an ICANN-accredited registrar provided the latter fully shares and supports the mission, purpose and philosophy of gTLD .TATAR.

b) Any corporation or individual has the right to register a second-level domain in .TATAR, provided the prospective registrant fully shares and supports the mission, purposes and philosophy of .TATAR.

c) There is no restriction on the number of domain names that may be registered by a registrant during the Landrush and Live periods.

d) A registrant may not register a domain name for the sole purpose of resale or transfer to another entity.

e) It is possible to register domain names that comply with the following conditions:
- being from 3 up to 63 characters long;
- containing only letters of the Latin alphabet (a-z), numbers (0-9) and hyphens (-), or a combination of these;
- starting and ending with a number or a letter, not a hyphen; and
- not containing hyphens in the third and fourth position (eg. ab--cd.TATAR).

f) Registration of domain names is possible for a term between 1 and 10 years, where "year" refers to a full calendar year. Domain name registration may be renewed for any term between 1 and 10 years.

g) A clear and unequivocal identification of domain name registrants will be mandatory in .TATAR, with no possibility for any domain name registrant to retain complete anonymity. While submitting an application for domain name registration, the prospective registrant shall produce a set of data and/or documents per the respective list established by the Registry Operator, including commitment on the purpose of the domain registration and 2 recommendations by existing registrants in .TATAR. Where a registrant has made a false warranty or otherwise acted in bad faith in order to register a domain name, the Registry Operator reserves the right to cancel the domain name registration.

h) The Registrars comply with the obligation to collect information about domain name registrants and verify its authenticity, and have the right to request respective documents to prove authenticity of the information given by registrant. Special incentives are planned for Registrars to improve WHOIS data accuracy, including marketing benefits for Registrars being most active in this regard, with all the Registrars being on equal footing in this respect.

i) The Applicant will introduce the Reserved List containing words and symbol combinations that may not be registered.

j) It is prohibited to register domain names which include words contradicting public interests, the principles of humanity or morality, in particular, words of obscene content, slogans of antihuman character, which insult human dignity or religious feelings. Where Registry Operator has detected or got complain regarding such a domain name registered, Registry Operator reserves the right to cancel registration of the domain name. The Applicant will develop a detailed description of procedures and modus operandi for such situations. Measures on identification and prevention of an abusive registration of domain names are considered in a greater detail in the response to Evaluation Question #28 (Abuse prevention and mitigation).

k) The Applicant does not plan to implement any second-level domain names of special type to register third-level domain names. The registrant of a second-level domain name may carry out registration of a third-level domain in the registrant's domain. The said registrant determines his own terms and procedures for the third-level domain name registration, provided they conform with the overarching registration and usage procedures and policies established for and in the TLD.

l) It is envisaged that first there will be launched a Sunrise period intended for owners of exclusive rights to a trade mark, public agencies, registered mass media, and public associations, followed by the Landrush period during which domain names will be made available for any applicant at a premium price. Where more than one application for a certain second-level domain has been submitted during the Sunrise stage or the Landrush stage, then that domain name shall be set for an auction. Subsequently, registration will be carried out on the First Come First Served principle.

2) Domain name use policy

The Registry Operator is determined to control the use of domain names in accordance with the mission and purposes of the gTLD and with the registrant's intended purpose as established in the registrant's registration application. A set of strict measures will be adopted with regard to misuse of domain names aiming to prevent or minimize the phishing, spamming, malware distributing as well as bearing any content contradicting moral and public order, law, and/or mission and purpose of .TATAR.

a) Registrant is considered to be fully responsible for misuse (both in terms of malicious conduct or content placement) of the domain name and assumes the responsibility for any possible consequences for the actions, where a registrant allows third parties to post content on resources addressed in Internet with the use of the respective domain name.

b) Where the Registry Operator detects abuse or receives an abuse complaint, then the Registry Operator reserves the right to take any immediate action to stop the abuse within a shortest possible time after such an abuse was exposed, including, but not limited to, cancelling the domain registration. Where it has been found out that the genuine purpose of a registered domain name is not in compliance with the mission and purpose of the .TATAR project, to terminate the abuse the Registry Operator reserves the right to impose on the domain name registrant sanctions to the extent of cancelation domain name registration.

Measures on identification and prevention of an abusive registration of domain names are considered in a greater detail in the response to Evaluation Question #28 Abuse prevention and mitigation.

The Applicant is a legal entity incorporated in the Russian Federation and shall abide by the Russian law. In accordance with the Federal Act of Russian Federation #152-FZ "On personal data", the Registry Operator exercises a set of measures to protect registrants' personal data. The Applicant will introduce policies and procedures regarding personal data processing including keeping, transferring and using such data while rendering domain name registration services, transferring the data to the registry, depositing, etc.

Specifically, when a domain name registrant is a private individual, his/her written consent is required to display his/her data in WHOIS results. The Registry Operator requires from the Registrars to obtain such a written consent from domain name holders. Where a written consent to publish personal data in WHOIS is not granted, such data will be depersonalized.

According to the above mentioned Federal Act, the Registry Operator may not disclose any personal data of individual domain name registrants, but Registrar may disclose the personal data of individuals only upon an official request by a government agency authorized for that in compliance with Russian and international law (law enforcement agencies, courts etc).

The Applicant understands that regular awareness raising and communication with various stakeholders are critical to expansion of .TATAR, as well as to building its identity among other top-level domains both in Russia and overseas. To this effect, the Applicant is committed to reaching out to various stakeholders, including both the primary audience and other audiences concerned, be those academic, social, educational institutions, public associations, public agencies and businesses, with a series of bold and explicit messages packaged in an integrated marketing strategy. The strategy is to ensure a synergy effect from the Registry Operator's various PR and marketing activities tailored to promote the new gTLD and centering largely on Russian Federation and CIS countries wherein most Tatar-speaking Internet users reside. Meanwhile, special messages and communication channels should be designed to ensure a greater, Europe-wide and global outreach to and engagement of international audiences, including ethnic Tatars and other non-Tatar parties concerned.

At this point, it should be noted that .TATAR is a commercial project whose potential audiences are local (Tatarstan) and nationwide (Russia as a whole) and international (both Tatar and non-Tatar, but sharing the same identity and culture) audiences representing all the above stakeholder groups. Thus, communication campaigns for .TATAR should be multi-faceted and cater to raising awareness among the said communities, key stakeholders and decision makers in the first place, as well as to their encouragement to use the Internet to their own advantage and promote their initiatives online.

The integrated marketing strategy will rest upon four pillars:

a) positioning of .TATAR as a global domain Embassy for both the Tatar-speaking and multilingual audience;
- .TATAR's positioning is to exhibit its unique qualities and highlight its identity among other gTLDs. That should help reap competitive benefits from .TATAR having a unique, long-lasting presence in the Internet, which appears attractive and consonant with its target audience's natural drive for ethnic-wise self-identification;
- .TATAR aims at winning the Internet users' confidence that registration of both profit-making and non-for-profit, social projects in the gTLD should become a common practice for all the parties concerned. Registrations are set to be run perpetually, as .TATAR is going to be a universal, rather than mono-ethnic TLD.

b) Marketing program to back distribution channels and engage registrars (and their resellers) in promotion of .TATAR
The fundamental components of this program are:
- marketing research to improve the Applicant's knowledge of the target audiences' needs and ensure a credible feedback from them;
- a program to raise the audiences' awareness and encourage domain name registrations by cooperating with key players and associations: e.g. using a site as an advertising and sales channel; and .TATAR's participation in major fairs and exhibitions.
- Dissemination of marketing materials, which allows direct communication with prospective domain name administrators.
- Maintaining a distribution system to engage registrars in support to, and promotion of .TATAR.

c) Awareness raising campaign focusing on a broad audience of Internet users (on the primary market in the first place), which includes the following activities:
- Highlighting benefits and advantages of owning and operating a domain in .TATAR;
- Showcasing individual success stories built on TATAR's identity and opportunities it offers

d) Educational activities
- Engagement of nonprofit media, including social ones, to diffuse key messages to the audiences concerned;
- Holding workshops and seminars to educate customers about terms and conditions of domains registration of in .TATAR

e) Building a set of incentives to bolster distribution channels for .TATAR's services. To that end, certain messages will propagate extra benefits from being in and with .TATAR, such as subsidies, membership and organizational bonuses, etc.
Integrated efforts to promote the project through engagement of all the stakeholders concerned and by versatile means will help communicate to the broad audience fundamental principles underpinning the .TATAR project, encourage emerging academic, societal, non-for-profit and business projects and materialize creative ideas of using the new gTLD for the benefit of the Tatar community and beyond.

The Registry Operator recognizes that launching the new gTLD is a very challenging process that can cause potential inconveniences for Internet users. This is why the Registry Operator plans to implement the operating rules to regulate terms and conditions of registering and/or using second-level domain names in .TATAR to facilitate its successful expansion:

Sunrise. The following groups of applicants will be granted an opportunity to register second-level domain names provided the intended purpose of use of the domain is directly consistent with/related to the mission, purpose and values of .TATAR. Each sub-stage will have a limited application window.

1) The legislative, executive and judicial bodies of the Republic of Tatarstan;
2) owners of exclusive rights to a trade mark;
3) regional mass media of the Republic of Tatarstan;
4) Tatar public associations (eg. the Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Tatarstan, the World Congress of the Tatars, etc.).

Where more than one application for a certain second-level domain has been submitted during any Sunrise sub-stage, then that domain name shall be set for an auction.

Landrush. Premium domain names will be made available for any applicant, provided their consistency with the mission and purpose of .TATAR. Registration costs will be higher during Landrush. To partake in the Landrush, one must present two recommendations from existing registrants in .TATAR. Where more than one application for a certain second-level domain has been submitted during the Landrush stage, then that domain name shall be set for an auction.

Live. Domain names are registered on the First Come First Served basis, but two recommendations from existing registrants in .TATAR are to be presented nonetheless.

The Applicant positions .TATAR as a commercial project. At the same time, the Registry Operator does not determine a pricing policy in the Registry-Registrar Agreement; so, final prices are left for Registrars' discretion. The Applicant does not plan to enter into any direct agreements with domain name registrants.

The Applicant plans to run certain marketing activities with a possible lowering of registration fees for Registrars, or carrying out joint marketing campaigns with Registrars.

It is up to Registrars to offer directly to end-users various marketing activities and tariff reductions in the event of a mass domain name registrations

The Registry Operator grants equal rights and conditions to all ICANN-accredited registrars who have entered into Registry-Registrar Agreement for .TATAR.

The initial domain names registration in .TATAR is envisaged for the term between 1 and 10 years, but for no more than 10 years. Domain name renewal is envisaged for the term of between 1 and 10 years, but for no more than 10 years. This condition is included in the RRA agreement.

The Applicant does not plan to raise Registrar's fees over the initial three years. Where the registration and/or domain name renewal fees are raised (including, inter alia, resulting of termination of any refunds, discounts, promotional sales and other price deduction activities), the Registry Operator will notify thereof the Registrars in accordance with paragraph 2.10 of the Registry Agreement. The time restrictions for such notifications will be specified in the RRA and they will not contradict the terms of the Registry Agreement (they may be longer, but not less than the ones stipulated in the Registry Agreement).

As noted above, the Applicant does not plan to enter into any direct agreements with domain name holders. It is Registrars that will be engaged in dealing with registrants. The RRA will also foresee the Registrar's obligation to notify domain name holders of price increases in advance and to incorporate in their registration agreement clauses on notifying end-users of price increases in advance.

The applied-for TLD .TATAR is designated for a specific ethnic and language community Tatars (Tatar: Tatarlar / Татарлар, sometimes spelled Tartars). Tatars are Turkic-speaking people numbering roughly 8m worldwide. Most Tatars (around 5.5m) reside in Russian Federation, of whom over 2m are residents of the Republic of Tatarstan. Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Poland, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, China and USA. The Tatar language together with the Bashkir language forms the Kypchak-Bolgar (also ʺUralo-Caspianʺ) group within the Kypchak languages (Northwestern Turkic). While Tatars formed different groups by regions of residence, they speak the same language, with just minor local differences, which gave rise to a number of dialects. There are three Tatar dialects: Eastern, Central, and Western ones. The Central (Volga) Tatar is the base of literary Tatar. As concerns the alphabet, Tatar is a Russian Cyrillic-based language, with 6 additional letters therein. By the Russian Federation Constitution, Tatars exercise the right to use the native language as the second official language, together with Russian, of the Republic of Tatarstan. The name "Tatar" is likely to have originated from the nomadic Tatar confederation of northeastern Mongolia in the region around Lake Baikal in the beginning of the 5th century. The Chinese term is Dadan (韃靼), which a comparatively specific term to label nomads to the north that had emerged in the late Tang. Other names were Dadan and Tatan. The name ʺTatarsʺ was used an alternative term for the Shiwei, a nomadic confederation to which those Tatar people belonged. As various of these nomadic groups became part of Genghis Khanʹs army in the early 13th century, a fusion of Mongol and Turkic elements took place, and the invaders of Rus and the Pannonian Basin became known to Europeans as Tatars or Tartars. After the breakup of the Mongol Empire, the Tatars became especially identified with the western part of the empire, known as the Golden Horde. Since the 15th century, Tatars became subjects of the Russian tzar and, subsequently, the Russian Empire, the USSR and, since 1991, of the Russian Federation and formed the Republic of Tatarstan (in the Soviet time known as the Tatar Autonomous Republic). Since 1991, Tatarstan is one of a few Russia's constitutional Subjects to have its own Constitution (last amended in 2002), elect the President and the Parliament. The Republic of Tatarstan sits on 67,836.2 sq. km. in the central part of the Russian Federation on the East-European plain at the confluence of two major European rivers - the Volga and the Kama. The Republic's capital city is Kazan. The city of Kazan is located at 797 km to the East of Moscow. The population of Tatarstan is a. 3.8 m., with representatives of over 70 ethnic groups residing in the Republic. The most numerous ethnic groups are the Tatars and the Russians. Official languages in Tatarstan are Tatar and Russian. From the economic perspective, Tatarstan is one of the most advanced Russian regions. The Republic is located in the middle of a vast industrial region of the Russian Federation at the crossroads of crucial arteries linking the East with the West, the North and the South. The Republic of Tatarstan boasts vast natural resources, powerful and diversified industry, and high-quality human capital. The Republic's major industries are fuel and petrochemical sectors (oil extraction, manufacture of chemical rubber, tiers, polyethylene, and wide range of oil refining products), large machine building enterprises which return rival product (heavy trucks, helicopters, aircraft and aircraft engines, compressors and oil and gas pump equipment, river and sea vessels, a range of motor cars) as well as advanced electric- and radio- instrument-making. The 2011 gross regional product (GRP) was Rb 1,250bn (USD 40bn-plus). Manufacturing output value for January-December 2011 hit Rb 1,294.5bn. Trade and economic relations with Near- and Far-Abroad countries are paramount for the Republic's economy: presently, over 120 foreign countries trade with the Republic of Tatarstan, whose foreign trade turnover by late 2011 stood at USD 25.2bn, up by 128.8% to the prior year.

The Coordination Center for the Regional Domain for the Republic of Tatarstan, LLC (hereinafter referred to as the Applicant) is a newly established legal entity to operate the applied-for gTLD. Its mission and objectives have earned support from leading civil society organizations in the Republic of Tatarstan and ethnic cultural associations beyond the Republic's borders. More specifically, the concept of the new gTLD for the Tatar people was endorsed by a number of local organizations and a profile public agency, as follows: The Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Tatarstan: a non-for -profit public association uniting over 1,200 local corporations and having branches throughout the Republic. While its mission is, "To form an independent and competent voice of businessmen of the Republic of Tatarstan", its objectives, comprise, inter alia: -Expressing and protecting interests of its members before government and local self-government; -Spread civilized principles of doing business; and -Pursue a policy of social responsibility of businesses. The Chamber of Commerce thus forms a major platform for consolidation, collaboration and representation of a broad and vibrant business community of the Republic of Tatarstan. The World Congress of the Tatars is a non-profit NGO whose major mission is to unite Tatars scattered across the world and engage them in an active dialogue and interaction for the benefit of the Tatar people, culture, language and cement and promote the Tatar identity in Russia and overseas. To this end, the Congress supports sports and culture activities, language, ethnic, etc. academic research, and public initiatives concerning Tatars. The Congress pays a specific attention to preservation of the Tatar ethos whose embodiment is the cohort of the Tatars who have become known in the world thanks to their outstanding achievements. The Congress's leadership is formed by prominent scions of the Tatar people, and it enjoys a great grassroot- level support both in the Republic of Tatarstan, across Russia, and overseas. The Tatarstan Academy of Sciences specifies the canons of scientific creativity, promotes integrity, openness, continuity, and rigorous standards of academic research. An non-for-profit NGO incorporated as public association, the Academy has become the leader of the scientific community of the Republic and its operation is aimed at bolstering and efficient use of the Republic's scientific and technological capacities in order to effectively tackle urgent challenges in the sphere of economy, science, education, culture and create favorable conditions for the harmonious development of all the residents of the Republic. The Ministry of Informatization and Communications of the Republic of Tatarstan is an executive government agency which pursues the public informatization and communications policies, interacts, within the limits of its mandate, with corporations, institutions and organizations, regardless of their legal form and departmental attribution, engaged in the profile activities. The Ministry has long found itself in the forefront of the RT Government's strive for excellence in IT, e-government, expansion of the private sector, and giving boost to the residents' living standards. The Ministry has launched a number of public initiatives in the respective sphere, including creation of an IT park, the Center for Information Technologies, a string of training programs for its staff both in Russia and overseas. As a local regulator, the Ministry's major task is to promote deployment in the Republic cutting-edge communications solutions and the most advanced standards and ensure conditions most conducive to advancement of competition, on an equal basis, between all telecom operators and ISP operating in the Republic. In pursuit of its specific mission, no wonder the Applicant's founders became the leading local corporations in the ICT and Internet sector: the IT Park and the state unitary enterprise of the Republic of Tatarstan "Centre of information technologies of the Republic of Tatarstan". The IT-park is one of the Republic's leading Hi-Tech centers, home to a cutting-edge regional data center, business incubator for ICT start-ups and 31 resident ICT companies. The IT-park's operations are closely integrated with the Republic's university cluster, thus forming a robust R&D and commercialization nexus. The public corporation "Centre of information technologies of the Republic of Tatarstan" is a solution provider in the context of implementation of large-scale public ICT projects for the benefit of the regional agencies and municipal self-government bodies. The interplay of civil -society, business and government actors has resulted in the Applicant being a plexus of a coordinated initiative aiming at a consistent, sustained advancement of the Internet in the Republic, encouragement of the rise of new users and bolstering their Internet related skills and competencies by promoting the use of the applied-for gTLD as a major means of IP addressing in the Tatar language. The above stakeholders believe that the Applicant will strive to operate in a manner which ensures maximum transparency and accountability before themselves. To this end, it is envisaged to establish an Advisory Council to oversee the Applicant's performance and enforce a due level of accountability, with operational results being made available both to the Founders, the Government and the people of the Republic of Tatarstan. As well, the Advisory Council will be mandated to produce policy advice and recommendations to ensure a proper operation of the new gTLD for the benefit of the Tatar community worldwide and further enrichment and diversification of the global Internet.

.TATAR is intended primarily for the Tatar-language and cultural Community. There are a. 8m Tatars worldwide, with 5.5m of them being 2nd to Russians biggest ethnic group in Russia. Tatars reside across Eurasia - from Romania and the Baltics to Middle Asia and China. The Tatar language belongs in the Turkish linguistic group. Tatars in Russian Federation use a Cyrillic version of the Tatar script, Tatars overseas prefer the Latin script, but Tatars have managed to retain their linguistic identity and unity. .TATAR will help the community to better identify themselves in a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual global Internet environment. Tatars in Russia reside in a compact region, namely the Republic of Tatarstan. Tatarstan has its own Constitution, elected President, the Parliament, Cabinet of Ministers, etc. Located in the heart of Russia, on the East-European plain at the confluence of huge rivers - the Volga and the Kama - Tatarstan is one of Russia's major economic, educational and innovation powerhouses. The socio-economic environment in Tatarstan is very conducive to Hi-Tech and ICT sector. Internet- wise, the level of broadband access in the Republic is 64.5%, or 2.5 times higher than the national averages. Today, Tatarstan develops a local analogue to Silicon Valley, a future home to a rapidly growing telecoms sector. . TATAR should bolster the community's ability to better position and represent the Republic of Tatarstan on the global Internet map and communicate to the world its image, uniqueness and strengths. Tatars take a great pride in their long and glorious history, with historic figures, prominent men of arts, science, literature and sports being of Tatar descent, such as Rakhmaninov and Bulgakov , Mendeleev and Pavlov, tennis star Marat Safin and NHL goalee Nikolai Khabibulin, and the "Flying Tatar" Rudolf Nureyev. .TATAR will form a platform to foster, display and promote the uniqueness and richness of the Tatar background, culture, values and lifestyle. The Applicant considers .TATAR to be largely a community-based, albeit business project. The intended registrants will be individuals and corporations supporting the mission, sharing the philosophy, objectives and values of .TATAR and committed to its success and expansion within the community and on a global scale. The intended users are representatives of the Tatar people, the Tatar-speaking community, as well as those who are interested in the history, culture, economy, etc. of Tatars; and users of mail systems and other services to be created with the use of future domain names in .TATAR, as they will identify themselves as the Tatars or with them. Hence, the applied-for gTLD is intended for use by a broad audience, including: Residents of the Republic of Tatarstan; Tatars residing elsewhere in Russia and across the CIS; Tatar overseas residents; Expert, academia, students and other corporate and individual users who are interested in the Tatar language, history, etc. Businesses which produce goods and services specifically to satisfy the Tatars' needs. The above audiences should form both the registrant community and, partly, the end-user one, with most of the latter formed by ethnic Tatars and Tatar-speaking community. The applied-for gTLD also pursues an ambitious goal of reaching out to non-Tatar communities keen to have them explore the Republic, its social, ethnic, historic, etc. background and business, cultural and linguistic opportunities, thus making the global audience its prospective end-users, too. The Applicant understands that regular awareness raising and communication campaigns focusing on various stakeholders are critical to expansion and advancement of .TATAR, as well as to building its identity among other top-level domains both in Russia and overseas. To this the communication strategy provides for a synergy effect from the Registry Operator's various PR and marketing activities centering mostly on the Russian Federation and CIS countries, which are home to most Tatar-speaking Internet users. Special messages and communication channels will ensure a Europe-wide and global outreach to international audiences, including ethnic Tatars. At this point, it should be noted that .TATAR is a commercial project whose potential audiences are local (Tatarstan) and nation-wide (Russia as a whole), and international (Tatar and non-Tatar speaking) audiences representing all the above stakeholder groups. Diverse and multilingual communication campaigns for .TATAR should be multi-faceted to raise awareness among the said communities, key stakeholders and decision makers and to encourage them to use the Internet to their own advantage and promote their initiatives online. The positioning of .TATAR as a global domain Embassy both for the Tatar-speaking and multilingual audiences will focus on unique qualities and identity of .TATAR and should help reap competitive benefits from .TATAR's unique, long-lasting presence on the Internet, which appears attractive and consonant with its target audience's natural drive for ethnic-wise self-identification. TATAR aims at winning the Internet users' confidence that registration of both profit-making and non-profit projects in the gTLD should become a common practice for all the parties concerned. Registrations are to be run perpetually, as .TATAR is going to be a universal, rather than mono-ethnic TLD. Marketing program to back distribution channels and engage registrars (and their resellers) in promotion of .TATAR will include marketing research to improve the Applicant's knowledge of the target audiences' needs, as well as support and promotion of specific projects to raise the audiences' awareness and encourage domain name registrations and dissemination of marketing materials among prospective domain name registrants. Awareness raising campaign will focus on a broad audience of Internet users (on the primary market in the first place to highlight benefits and advantages of owning and operating a domain in .TATAR and showcase individual success stories built on the TATAR's identity and opportunities it offers). Educational activities will include workshops and seminars to educate customers about registration of domains in .TATAR Integrated efforts will be undertaken to promote .TATAR by engaging all the stakeholders concerned and communicating to the broad audience fundamental principles of the .TATAR gTLD, encouraging academic, non-for-profit and business projects and creative ideas of using the new gTLD for the benefit of the Tatar and global communities. The Tatars have a long and glorious past, a vibrant and sustained presence, and, sharing the Russian Federation's dependency path, an exciting future. The Republic of Tatarstan is keen to consistently and increasingly open itself for the world and to explore the world for decades and centuries to come, and the applied-for gTLD should become a long-standing universal tool to ensure these processes run concurrently and harmoniously to promote Tatars' values, culture, language and ethnic identity on the global Internet.

As noted above, Tatar is both a self-acquired name of the people in question and the name under which it was known worldwide for centuries. Tatar clearly identifies the people, their native language and cannot be confused with any other object, substance and phenomenon, material or otherwise, in the world. Furthermore, the Latin variant of the name has long established its presence in a range of widely spoken languages, including English: "1. a member of a modern Turkic people living in the Tatar Autonomous Republic and adjacent regions of eastern European Russia and in widely scattered communities in western Siberia and central Asia. 2. the language of this people, including the literary language of the Tatar Autonomous Republic, the dialects of the Tatar Autonomous Republic and adjacent regions of the Volga basin (Volga Tatar)"; French: Tatar; German: "Tatar, Sprache der tatarischen Stämme"; Spansih: "s. Idioma de las tribus Tatáricas; adj. Perteneciente o relativo a los tártaros, de o en relación con la lengua de los tártaros" (www.dictionary.com), let alone Russian of course. For the Tatars themselves this is a critical denominator unmistakably perceived of as the self-name for the people and the language spoken: Сез татарча сөйләшәсезме? ("Do you speak Tatar?") Meanwhile, luckily enough, the word itself has escaped any negative connotations and can be traced in such commonly used (and pretty much enjoyed) internationally eponyms as: in France, a type of minced, raw meat came to have the name steak tartare, because of the association of raw meat dishes with legends of ʺTartersʺ softening horse meat by riding with it under their saddles. Quite logically, sauce tartare, or tarter sauce, seems to have obtained its name either from use on steak tartare, or because the perception of ʺTartersʺ as being ʺroughʺ caused their name to be an adjective for roughness, as with the texture of the sauce. Other than these, no connotations beyond the community have been found out.

Any corporation or individual has the right to register a second-level domain in .TATAR, provided the prospective registrant fully shares and supports .TATAR's mission, purposes and philosophy. During the Sunrise period, the following prospective registrants will become eligible for registrations of domain names: Legislative, executive and judicial bodies of the Republic of Tatarstan, which may register a domain name coinciding with the full or abbreviated official name of the body after being transliterated to Latin (with the respective list to be compiled by the Registry Operator upon consultations with the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan) Holders of trademarks registered in compliance with the Russian or international regulations may register the domain name coinciding with the trademark, its transliterated version or a graphic representation. Owners of registered regional mass media may register a domain name coinciding with the official name of the mass media source. Members of regional public associations may register any domain names, but no more than 5 for one registrant. During the Landrush and Live periods, domain name registration is open for any person, whether corporation or individual, resident of the Russian Federation or any other jurisdiction, which/who fully shares the mission, objectives and philosophy of .TATAR gTLD and agrees with all the Registry Operator's policies. Prior to submission of the application for registration of its/his/her first domain name, the registration aspirant is bound to produce for registrar two recommendations from effective registrants in .TATAR. Such recommendations can be produced in the form of an official letter to the registrar or in the form of an electronic confirmation, per procedures established in the gTLD. The Recommendations shall explicitly reference to the aspirant's name and its/his/her intention to register a second-level domain name in .TATAR. There is no restriction on the number of domain names that may be registered by one registrant. The registrant may not register a domain name for the sole purpose of resale or transfer to another entity. Any types of second-level domain names may be registered in the applied-for gTLD, provided they do not contradict the requirements to registered domain names, are consistent with registration procedures and rules and do not violate the moral and public order, law, and/or mission and purpose of .TATAR. Registrant may use the registered name in any way, provided it is consistent with the mission, purposes and philosophy of the .TATAR gTLD and does not contravene law of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tatarstan, moral foundations, traditions and customs of the Tatar community The Registry Operator will introduce a set of strict measures to counter the misuse of domain names, whether directly by the registrant or indirectly by third parties, both in the form of malicious conduct (phishing, spamming, malware distribution) and use of domain names bearing any content contradicting the moral and public order, law, and/or mission and purpose of .TATAR or facilitating addressing in this regard. Where the Registry Operator detects a misuse of the domain name, or receives an abuse complaint, or it has been found out that the genuine purpose of the registered domain name is not in compliance with the mission, purposes and philosophy of the .TATAR gTLD, then the Registry Operator reserves the right to impose on the domain name registrant sanctions to the extent of cancelation of the domain name registration. Where an abusive use of the domain name has been identified, one of the following enforcement measures may be employed: Suspension of the domain name delegation. In case of application of this measure, the domain may not be delegated until the moment the detected violations are remedied. (ii) Restrictions on the use of the domain name: In case of application of this measure, the domain name may not be transferred to another Registrar, updated, renewed, or deleted. (iii) Cancellation of the domain registration. Where the aforementioned measures have been enforced, the registrant is granted a certain period of time to remedy the abuse. Where the registrant has failed to do so within a given time period, the domain name registration is cancelled. All abuse complaints are subject to consideration and, where necessary - action, if the Anti-Abuse Team whose mandate includes a broad range of sanctions to the extent of cancellation of the domain name concerned. Registrant has the right to refer to the Anti-Abuse Team with clarifications, which are subject to evaluation, including, in particular by a panel of experts. Where the evaluation results in the conclusion to reverse the initial decision to suspend the domain name registration, or to impose restrictions on it, or cancel the domain name registration, it may be reactivated. For a detailed description of enforcement measures and procedures in the event of exposure of abusive use of domain names, refer to the answer to Evaluation Question #28. The Applicant will implement mandatory for any community-based gTLDs appeal mechanisms approved by ICANN such as Registry Restriction Dispute Resolution Procedure (RRDRP). The Registry Operator will agree to participate in the RRDRP and be bound by the resulting determinations. The mandatory administrative proceeding will commence when the Registry Operator does not comply with the registration restrictions set out in the Registry Agreement.

1. PROTECTION OF GEOGRAPHIC NAMES

The Applicant will comply with requirements to geographic names protection stipulated in the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) Principles regarding New gTLDs presented on March 28, 2007, and in Specification 5 to the Registry Agreement. The Applicant is bound to implement all other policies and procedures which ICANN may develop and approve in the future in compliance with the terms of Registry Agreement and comply with them.

The Applicant will initially reserve geographic names to protect them in the applied-for gTLD and introduce procedures for release of such names as stated below. The Applicant understands that the said procedures for release of geographic names must be approved by ICANN under the Registry Agreement in an individual manner.

Hereinafter to protect means not register, delegate, use or otherwise make available such labels to any third party. The Registry Operator may register such labels on its own name in order to withhold them from delegation or use.

2. INITIAL RESERVATION OF GEOGRAPHIC NAMES

The Applicant plans to implement the GAC advice regarding new gTLDs, as well as requirements of Specification 5 to the Registry Agreement, in the following way:

The country and territory names contained in the following internationally recognized lists will be initially reserved at the second level within the applied-for TLD:

(i) The short form (in English) of all country and territory names contained in the ISO 3166- 1 list, as updated from time to time, including the European Union, which is exceptionally reserved on the ISO 3166-1 list, and its scope extended in August 1999 to any application needing to represent the name European Union (http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes/iso-3166-1_decoding_table.htm)

(ii) The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III Names of Countries of the World (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/UNGEGN/docs/ungegn-tech-ref-manual_M87_combined.pdf)

(iii) The list of United Nations member states in 6 official United Nations languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/ungegn/docs/9th-uncsgn-docs/econf/9th_UNCSGN_e-conf-98-89-add1.pdf)

3. RELEASE OF GEOGRAPHIC NAMES

The Registry Operator can release some country and territorial names from reservation upon consideration of a respective request by the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee and upon receipt of an approval from ICANN according to following procedure:

(i) The Government or public authority concerned informs the GAC Secretariat of their request to register the name, and the designated beneficiary.

(ii) The GAC Secretariat authenticates the request and transfers it to the ICANN staff and to the Registry Operator.

(iii) The Registry Operator verifies the availability of the name and issues an authentication code that is transmitted directly to the designated beneficiary in the country concerned.

(iv) The designated beneficiary (the prospective registrant) registers the name, with a Registrar entered into Registry Registrar Agreement with the Registry Operator, using the authentication code as their authority.

Having registered the released name, the registrant can renew the domain registration on standard terms and in accordance with the sponsoring registrar fees. However, should the released domain name be deleted, it will subsequently be reserved and become unavailable for registration again.

Where a conflict arises with regard to registration matters or reservation of geographic names in the applied-for gTLD, the Applicant shall undertake adequate efforts to resolve the conflict.

4. HANDLING OF RESERVED DOMAIN NAMES

Reserved names constitute a list retained in SRS database. One of checkups of availability of a domain name for registration implies examination of whether it is present in the list. Thus, while launching the applied-for TLD, the reserved domain names may not be available for registration.

Where a domain name is included in the list and an authentication code coinciding with that associated with the given name is indicated in EPP Domain Mapping «create» command in domain:pw field, the domain is registered.

Once the agreement has been reached on release of a domain name, the authentication code is generated and placed into the SRS database. The reserved name is not available for registration unless the authentication code is generated.

The response by WHOIS on a reserved domain name comprises information about the domain name not being available for registration and having been reserved.