Former President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. File photoNUR-SULTAN, May 30.The first president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is confident that the decisive actions of the head of state, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, prevented the worst-case scenario for the January events. . Later, the protests spread to other cities, including Alma-Ata, the old capital and the largest city of the republic: looting began there, militants attacked state institutions, took away weapons, and seized the airport. In response, the authorities declared a state of emergency throughout the country until January 19 and launched a counter-terrorism operation. According to the country's Prosecutor General's Office, 230 people died as a result of the riots, including 19 security officials.
"At that time, it was important for me to give full support to our president, and not to react to various rumors and conjectures. I gave him the powers of the Chairman of the Security Council of the country. It was the decisive actions of the president that prevented the worst-case scenario", Nazarbayev said in an interview with the well-known Kazakh political scientist Daniyar Ashimbayev, who published the text on his Telegram channel.
According to Nazarbayev, the January events shocked the whole of Kazakhstan. «As I noted earlier, the purpose of these organized riots and attacks on Kazakhstan was to sow chaos in the country and destroy the integrity of the state. The tragedy that occurred was a lesson for all of us,» he said. The first president considers it important to find out who was behind the organization of all these pogroms and murders. He expressed confidence that the investigation will give an answer to this question. «It is necessary to understand why the relevant law enforcement agencies did not know or did not want to know about the unrest that was being prepared throughout the country,» Nazarbayev added. that his relatives need to answer before the law in case of guilt