Almaty. Photo: Valery Sharifulin/TASS
One of the long-term effects of the most massive protests in the history of Kazakhstan, after which riots and a military operation with hundreds of victims began, was the establishment of full control by the authorities of the republic over information about past events. While the state of emergency was in effect throughout the country, the authorities could totally block the Internet and, in fact, paralyzed the work of most non-state media. Those who managed to at least partially release their news on social networks (primarily the Orda.kz portal) became perhaps the only alternative to state propaganda.
And propaganda worked to its fullest — especially in terms of terminology in relation to the participants in the events on the streets of Kazakhstan. As soon as the country's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev uttered the word «terrorists» in his public statements, official sources of information and speakers quickly tuned in to a new wave. The rhetoric was later adjusted and the peaceful protesters were at least partly divided with «bandits» and «terrorists». But even earlier, Tokayev allowed the use of weapons to kill on the streets of the republic — and it seems that this only increased the number of civilian victims.
For more than 10 days, the official authorities did not publish full information about those killed in the events of early January — and this despite the fact that the Internet was turned on, and social networks were filled with stories about the dead civilians, some of whom did not even participate in the protests. At the end of last week, the security forces nevertheless decided on the official data (and even after the president shouted on his Twitter):
According to their calculations, in total, 225 people died in Kazakhstan in the events of the last two weeks. There were 149 dead in Almaty, but this figure seems to be somewhat underestimated —
judging by the crumbs of information collected by journalists. And although the security forces acknowledged the casualties among civilians, their position is still absolutely impregnable: they were killed by the same “terrorists”, who at first were “20 thousand” (later President Tokayev erased a tweet about this) and who then disappeared, taking with them, according to the official information, 41 bodies of accomplices from Kazakh morgues. In addition, the names of the dead were not announced (with the exception of the names of the dead security officials).
Public activists, civil activists and journalists who do not agree with the suppression of information began to act. The Internet publication Vlast.kz published the stories of those dead who have already been identified, and the guilt of the “bandits” in their death is at least not obvious. Here are just a few examples:
- On January 8, a family of three was shot in Taldykorgan. Spouses Nurbolat Seitkulov and Altynai Etaeva and their 15-year-old daughter Nurai were returning home from guests in their car. They were fired upon to kill due to the fact that the curfew in the city began an hour earlier, but they did not seem to know this;
Nurbolat Seitkulov, Altynai Etaeva and their 15-year-old daughter Nurai. Photo: Express K newspaper
- On January 6, near Republic Square in Almaty, where the main bloody events took place, archaeologist Yerlan Zhagiparov disappeared. Six days later, his body was found in the morgue: the man was handcuffed, brutally beaten and shot in the heart; jpg» class=»SingleImage_image__3qIDn» alt=»» />
Erlan Zhagiparov. Photos from social networks
- On January 7, a 21-year-old serviceman of the National Guard Babakhan Zholbaryskhanuly was killed in Almaty. He left the house to take out the trash when three police cars pulled up next to him. The father of the deceased claims that several people dressed in military uniforms got out of the car and opened fire. Babakhan was wounded in the heart, while the guy was refused hospitalization in several clinics. Babakhan died a few hours later;
- On January 5, 12-year-old Almaty resident Sultan Kamshybek went to the grocery store with his family. When the shooting started, the boy thought that someone was launching fireworks and started filming them. At that moment, unknown persons shot the Sultan in the back of the head. The boy could not be saved. At the same time, it was initially stated that the shot was fired from a weapon that is usually used by the military.
There are dozens of such public stories, and in addition, journalists began to collect evidence of torture in police departments in different regions. And this is cooler than Akrestsin in Belarus: people were not only beaten with butts of machine guns on the head; they were taken away from home, maimed in front of their children; they were taken from hospitals after severe operations and injuries (which were inflicted by the security forces themselves) and taken to the isolation ward, where traces of tortured people are lost. Here are two quotes from Vlast.kz, which, even against the background of everything that is happening, seem to be some kind of medieval savagery. «SingleImage_image__3qIDn» alt=»» />
Sayat Adilbekuly with his family. Photos from social networks
“30-year-old photographer Sayat Adilbekuly was looking for an open pharmacy in Almaty on the afternoon of January 5 to buy medicine for his sick daughter. He returned home in blood, after which he was taken to the hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery. The man was in serious condition in intensive care, when on January 8 the Arlan special forces took him from the hospital, his things were returned to his relatives. From that day on, there was no communication with Sayat”
“On January 5, 27-year-old Yerkin Zhenisnura left the house and 30 minutes later came under fire. After some time, one of his relatives found him. He called an ambulance, and the man was taken in serious condition to the Almaty regional hospital in the Duman microdistrict. Within three hours, he underwent surgery — a kidney was removed. Until 10 am on January 6, he lay unconscious in intensive care. The next day his wife came to visit him, but Zhenisnur was not there. The nurses told her that the armed men disconnected him from the medical hoses and pipes, twisted his arms and took him with them. The woman's attempts to find a spouse in the district and city police departments have not yet yielded results. He was also not found in the central morgue.”
How do law enforcement agencies react to this? They ask not to compare them with Akrestsina, and they also published the telephone numbers of a hotline, by calling which you can talk about torture.
The confrontation between the security forces, behind whom the authorities stand, and ordinary people, far from all of whom even took part in peaceful protests (not to mention the riots), is a story that is little talked about outside the republic, but it is one of the main, if not the most basic. About how a new reality is being built in Kazakhstan, the cement of which is fear, a civil activist, a member of the Oyan, Kazakhstan! and journalist Asem Zhapisheva. Together with their comrade-in-arms Bella Orynbetova, they launched an online petition in which they demand that the authorities publish the names of those killed in the events of January in Kazakhstan. » class=»SingleImage_image__3qIDn» alt=»» />
Asem Zhapisheva. Photo from social networks
“At some point, everyone believed in the“ terrorists ”. They don’t think that way now.”
— There are official data: 225 dead in the country, 19 of them are security forces. For Almaty, the figure is 149 dead. What do you dislike about this data?
— I'm not satisfied with how long the authorities have been delaying the announcement of these figures — despite the fact that they have already calculated all the damage caused and the number of dead military personnel. What prevented the civil services from giving at least data on the number of people admitted to hospitals in the first days of the events? For them, this was not difficult. And before filing the petition, we announced something like an action on social networks, when every day they wrote “Today is such and such a day without the publication of data on the dead.” In addition, we wrote a huge number of requests to all instances — from the Ministry of Health to the commandant's office of Almaty — and I also asked journalists I knew to constantly kick the authorities. As a result, on the 12th day, the figures were announced, and rather late (in the evening. — Ed.).
The status of these dead is still not clear: who, how, when and where died. It is not clear how many of these 225 people are «terrorists», as Tokayev calls them, and how many are ordinary citizens. Therefore, it seems to us that it is necessary to publish a list of names of these dead. I would not like to draw analogies with the «heavenly hundred» in Ukraine, but in Kiev and Kyrgyzstan, except for the Osh events of 2010, there were no such number of deaths. In addition, Akim of Almaty Bakytzhan Sagintayev has already spoken out in favor of a memorial to the dead soldiers being erected on the central square, where the bloodiest part of the events took place. It seems to us that this is not entirely fair: each of the dead civilians deserves the same memory.
How close are the death tolls given by official statistics to reality?
— I would not want to go into the area of conspiracy theories. We are working with sources — including anonymous ones — who work as medical staff in hospitals and morgues. Of course, no one wants to officially confirm anything, but, according to them, the spread of numbers is very large.
Doctors from Almaty, with whom I spoke on condition of anonymity, speak of several hundred dead in the city alone. But without an evidence base, conspiracy theories are obtained.
That is why we as a society now need to get these name lists. Yes, of course, there is a moment that someone does not want to disclose the names of their loved ones. But we agree that in this case there should be a dash in the column “name-surname”, however, we will know for sure that there is a specific person behind this dash. These lists have yet to be compared with those lists that are now circulating on social networks, and with those stories of deaths that become known thanks to relatives. Only then will we understand how much official data differs from «popular sociology.»
— The Almaty authorities said that all the dead civilians were killed by «terrorists». How seriously can this be taken?
— I do not believe in this. Tokayev himself on the sixth announced that he had given the order to shoot without warning to kill. In addition, we get a lot of testimonies from frightened people — and people are frightened, because Kazakhstan is now in total police chaos — who were wounded, but survived, that they were shot at by people in uniform. But again, it is necessary to conduct an investigation: were these real security forces or those who stole their uniforms (there were such cases too)? We do not know this for certain, but I am very skeptical about the information that all the dead died at the hands of «terrorists».
Do you know what else is the problem? We, civil activists and journalists, are in a very delicate position and cannot take on much, because there is always a chance that all our words will be turned against us and a case will be opened under Article 274 (“Dissemination of deliberately false information”). Almost everyone is imprisoned on it. Therefore, if you look at the materials of colleagues from Kazakhstan, you will see that for the most part they try to write about past events very carefully.
Detention in Almaty. Photo: AP Photo/Vasily Krestyaninov
—How is communication between the authorities and journalists now generally arranged? How true is it that there is a concept “there are public sources and wrong ones”?
— Communication is absolutely one-way. We did not receive a response to any requests, except for one request from the Karaganda Oblast City Office on a small issue about writing “Astana” instead of “Nur-Sultan” on road signs. The rest of the concept is completely correct. Journalists are forced to use terminology that is convenient for the authorities themselves — all these «terrorists» and «cleansings». In general, there is some increased censorship.
— How do Almaty residents themselves relate to such a reality? After all, some of them suffered relatives during all the events, and here they are actually equated with terrorists and are not given the opportunity to explain themselves?
“Of course, those whose loved ones were involved in these events shout from the very first day that they cannot be called terrorists. But in the flow of state propaganda, these exclamations were drowned. As for those who did not suffer directly on the streets, a psychological effect worked here. At some point, we, being frightened, believed Tokayev's words about «terrorists» — simply because there was no other information at that moment. But now, when Tokayev rubbed his own tweets, when events around the KNB take place, when Nazarbayev’s relatives leave their posts, a significant part of society has the impression that we are talking about a redistribution of power and internal squabbles, which involved civilians, as well as criminal elements. who all began to rob and destroy.
— I noticed that after Tokayev's speech to parliament on January 11, Kazakhstan began to praise him very actively. Such a new elbasism.
“Leaderism is in our blood, it cannot be eradicated. These days, everyone lived in an atmosphere of total fear, and when Tokayev came out on the 11th and started saying some things that sounded new — about the oligarchs who got rich under Nazarbayev — people had a feeling of hope. It seems to me that these words were thought out in advance by Tokaev's team as a bribe to the protesters. When he first became president in 2019, his statements were even louder. Now I would like to hope that at least part of the promises will be fulfilled to the end.
«Some people came and stole the bodies»
You mentioned police brutality. What exactly is it now expressed in?
“There are a lot of complaints in Almaty that the police are grabbing a lot of young guys. Yesterday I received a complaint from a guy who was taken to the department, found on his phone a video of events on the streets of Almaty (and who doesn’t have them now?!), after which they beat him and forced him to watch porn for some reason. As a result, the beaten guy was simply released, but we receive messages about such cases everywhere. And this is in Almaty, where the police are trying to observe at least some decency, after all, a large city. In smaller towns, the situation is even worse. In fact, the police themselves indirectly acknowledge the fact of lawlessness by publishing the numbers of the hotline where you can complain about the police.
The feeling is that this is revenge by the police on civilians. At the beginning of the riots, there were almost no security forces, and they were not responsible for anything — for which they received a hat.
Now, with trebled zeal, they rushed to fulfill the “terrorist plan”. They go from house to house, they have already come to all the activists, and on the whole they behave very unceremoniously.
— Is this an incident of the performer? Or was the command given from above “do not hold back, guys”?
— Probably, there was a command to recruit the right number of people who can be shown in front of the cameras and say: look, they are guilty.
— Need to get to these same “20 thousand terrorists”?
— Yes, they will strive for this approximate figure. Tokayev deleted his tweets, but the security forces need to save their face. It is necessary to confirm that 50,000 people took part in the protests across the country, 20,000 people in Almaty, and look, we found everyone, cases were opened against everyone.
— What do they say about the phenomenal statement about forty-odd bodies of attackers stolen from morgues?
“Of course, this causes great skepticism. Surveillance cameras «Sergek» are installed throughout Almaty, in 2018-2019 very large sums were invested in the development of a video monitoring network. During the riots, not all of them were put out of action — and is it possible that nothing at all fell on them, not a single certificate of the removal of bodies? We are told all the time to believe that they just stole the bodies, that there were many terrorists, that many spoke Arabic. We are not presented with evidence for this.
— But somehow you still have to report on the result. At least some names need to be mentioned.
— Given the blunder of the security forces with the Kyrgyz jazzman Vikram Ruzakhunov (he was detained and, with the help of propaganda, they tried to pass him off as a bandit who had arrived from Kyrgyzstan. — Ed.) and given the lack of a culture of government response to public inquiry in the country, if at least 15-20 percent of the whole truth is revealed to us, it will be good. It is important to see how the National Security Committee will “package” the conspiracy now and how it will be linked to the “terrorist attack”. It is possible that they will simply say: there was a conspiracy, but there were marauders, who in the end will be blamed for all the murders that they cannot explain in any other way. However, right now, all information will be presented very carefully. I watch state channels, everything there is as abstract as possible: some people came, some stole the bodies. Undefined people.
Photo: AP Photo/Vasily Krestyaninov
“Now they will consult with Russia and Belarus in terms of persecution”
— Does the name Nazarbayev exist in the conversations of Kazakhstanis now?
— The only mention of him outside of state channels is an attempt to understand where he is after all. He has not been seen since December 27, since the summit in St. Petersburg. However, even if he is ready to perform now, he is unlikely to be released. Too much irritation among people about him and his family. The slogan «Shal, ket!» (“Old man, go away!” — Ed.) has been the main one not only during the last rallies, but also for the last fifteen years. Nazarbayev's real rating began to fall sharply after 2004-2005, after the events in Zhanaozen in 2011, everything generally became very bad.
— Did you feel better from the realization that the Nazarbayev clan is now out of work?
— (Thinking.) If you are asking me personally, then , probably not. Facadely, we see that his relatives are losing their positions, and Nazarbayev himself has only the title of Elbasy left. But, firstly, all the money that was taken out of Kazakhstan by the family and close associates outside the country remained outside the country. Secondly, people close to Nazarbayev are the beneficiaries of companies associated with the extraction of energy resources. And this is unlikely to change in the near future. In this situation, I feel only bitterness that a person who had so many chances chose only to “milk” Kazakhstan for the sake of his family.