Almaty (Kazakhstan), January 10, LETA – DPA / RF / RL. Kazakhstan has returned to constitutional order after last week’s unprecedented protests, which sometimes escalated into riots and violence, Kazakh President Kasim Zhomart Tokayev said on Monday of a dramatic event in the country called a “coup attempt”.
“The constitutional order in Kazakhstan has now been restored. Dangerous threats to our country’s security have been eliminated,” the president said at a video summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (ODKB), adding that the “counterterrorism operation”
Tokayev said a “coup attempt” to seize power had taken place, but the leader did not provide any further details.
Coordinated attacks have taken place on regional authorities, law enforcement buildings and prisons, Tokayev said.
People from abroad took part in the riots, the president said, although the countries were not mentioned.
Tokayev said that the authorities had complied with the demands of the peaceful protests, including the reduction of fuel prices, and called for the peaceful actions not to be confused with the riots that followed.
He also stated that the army would never shoot at peaceful protesters.
Earlier, Tokayev’s words that security forces could shoot without warning were criticized by both human rights defenders and Westerners, including the US Secretary of State.
Protests against the sharp rise in liquefied gas prices reportedly began a week ago in Zhanaozen, in the southwest of the country.
In the following days, however, protests took over the whole of Kazakhstan, and political demands began to emerge alongside economic ones. The protesters demanded, among other things, the complete departure of former President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his clan from the leadership of the state.
Peaceful protests soon escalated into clashes with security services. Along with the capture of government buildings, attacks on police stations and the looting of shops began.
Dozens of people have been killed in the violence, but the Interior Ministry has said almost 8,000 people have been detained by security forces.
Tokajev requested the deployment of an ODKB contingent on the evening of January 5, when government forces had effectively lost control of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city.
Robbery and marauderism with the participation of armed people began in the city. It is not clear exactly how the riots started and who the armed people were, Radio Freedom said.
Kazakh authorities have officially declared terrorists trained abroad.
At the same time, Karim Masimov, the chairman of the former National Security Committee, has been detained, several officials close to Nazarbayev have been removed from office, and Nazarbayev himself, according to his representative, has voluntarily resigned as head of the Security Council. Tokajev has now taken up this position.
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