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One yr in the past, state media largely ignored the most important outbreak of civil unrest in Kazakhstan’s historical past. The job of informing the general public objectively in regards to the widespread protests fell on unbiased reporters and some so-called citizen journalists and bloggers who did their jobs at nice private threat. These journalists had been attacked by protestors, assailed and tear-gassed by police, shot with rubber bullets, detained, and in some circumstances arrested, crushed, and imprisoned.
When the air, so lately stuffed with smoke from grenades and bullets, each rubber and actual, cleared, reporters had been those urgent the federal government for a full accounting of the 238 folks killed, greater than 4,500 injured, round 10,000 detained, and a number of other hundred reportedly tortured.
That is the story of the Qandy Qantar — “Bloody January” — rebellion via the eyes of those that coated it, starting in Zhanaozen and ending in Almaty.
You may learn this collection in English at The Diplomat and in Russian and Kazakh at Orda.kz.
ZHANAOZEN, Kazakhstan: Azattyq reporter Saniya Toiken was celebrating New 12 months’s Eve along with her household at her village dwelling exterior the capital metropolis of Astana when she started receiving texts from folks in Zhanaozen a few deliberate protest over rising gasoline costs.
“It was the vacations,” Saniya remembered. “I knew one thing was going to occur. There had been unhappiness there for fairly some time.”
Saniya started monitoring social media and noticed movies of disgruntled folks milling exterior the mayor’s workplace on New 12 months’s Day, complaining that gasoline costs had gone from 60 tenge to 120 tenge a liter. As an alternative of filling up their automobiles for the equal of $5.85, residents had been now paying $11.25.
By January 2, Saniya’s cellphone and social media feeds had been flooded with pictures of a giant crowd gathered on the metropolis’s fundamental roundabout. Typical protests in Zhanaozen contain a dozen or so common activists who’re shortly picked up by police. However this time, it was regular residents, these straight hit by the rising gasoline costs — taxi and truck drivers, individuals who owned automobiles — who had been flooding the streets and blocking site visitors. And the police simply watched.
“I wrote to my editor and mentioned that we have to go as a result of this protest could be lengthy and robust,” Saniya mentioned.
Since 2008, Saniya has coated oil and gasoline employee strikes within the Mangystau area which incorporates the oil city of Zhanaozen. She additionally coated the 2011 Zhanaozen Bloodbath when, in response to official authorities studies, not less than 15 folks had been killed after police began capturing throughout an oil employee strike. Now based mostly in Astana, Saniya nonetheless maintains her contacts in western Kazakhstan.
A kind of sources is Alma Bekes, an activist and citizen journalist, who despatched updates to Saniya and livestreamed to Fb.
“I used to be so excited and completely happy that the ‘sleeping folks’ confirmed up,” Alma mentioned, carrying signature outsized glasses that emphasize her massive, inquisitive eyes. “‘Sleeping folks’ are those that by no means come to the protests and who don’t appear to pay attention to what is going on our nation.”
Calling herself “Zhanaozen On-line,” Alma usually posts information about her hometown on social media. As a result of state-funded media typically doesn’t cowl unlawful protests — and there are few unbiased media retailers — citizen journalists like Alma stuffed a essential hole informing the nation about what was occurring in the course of the early January 2022 protests.
Nurbek Nurgaliyev, a longtime activist, additionally was surprised that the “assembly” — the English phrase Kazakhstanis use for protest — was deliberate by “common guys,” a lot of which had by no means participated in a protest earlier than. Nurbek speaks with an unnaturally deep voice, the results of getting shot within the neck in the course of the 2011 bloodbath. His protesting about gasoline costs has landed him in jail thrice. He as soon as advised the regional mayor in Aktau that gasoline costs shouldn’t be greater than 50 tenge per liter “as a result of we are actually sitting on it,” he mentioned, referring to the oil and gasoline that has enriched the Kazakh state however not essentially the areas the place it comes from.
Activist Nurbek Nurgaliyev was surprised that the protests had been deliberate by individuals who had by no means participated in protests earlier than. Picture credit score: Cheryl L. Reed
Zhanaozen is a dusty, desert city of about 80,000 in western Kazakhstan’s Mangystau area. It’s identified for its wealthy oil fields and the lethal 2011 strike and bloodbath, which, in response to activists, resulted in 100 deaths and the police torture of 37 extra, far surpassing official state accounts. The legacy of the 2011 bloodbath is commonly cited as the rationale protests unfold so shortly in early 2022. Folks wished to point out assist for Zhanaozen as a result of they felt an nearly collective guilt for not having completed so prior to now.
The primary metropolis to comply with was Aktau, about 90 miles from Zhanaozen and residential of the regional mayor.
On January 2, videographer Issa Tazhenbayev was having a late dinner when he discovered that individuals had been gathering at Yntymak Sq. throughout from the mayor’s workplace in Aktau. He instantly drove to the middle of city the place he noticed a crowd of a number of hundred.
A protestor in Aktau holds an indication calling on the federal government to decrease bread and gasoline costs. Picture credit score: Adelaida Auespekova
“I understood that this was one thing extraordinary. And I knew folks in Aktau had been going to assist Zhanaozen as a result of we didn’t assist them in 2011,” mentioned Issa.
Issa, a videographer, principally shoots movies of Mangystau’s canyons. However in January 2022 the protests compelled him to go to streets. Picture courtesy of Issa Tazhenvayev.
The subsequent morning, Issa obtained a WhatsApp message that hundreds of protesters had blocked the road in entrance of the mayor’s workplace.
He grabbed his digital camera and headed out. “I used to be scared as a result of our nation is in opposition to public protests. I knew I may very well be arrested.”
Issa, a videographer for Expedition +362 in Aktau, principally shoots movies of Mangystau’s canyons. However the protests compelled Issa, then 30, to borrow a press jacket and put on it underneath his coat simply in case the police stopped him.
“I didn’t see any journalists there,” he mentioned. “However everybody had their telephones out and had been filming. Nobody [else] had an expert digital camera.”
Issa’s images had been among the many first the world noticed of the Aktau protest. He offered movies and images to the Russian information company, Tass, The Guardian, and a number of other European media retailers.
His images present police carrying black helmets, black balaclavas and carrying black riot shields. Issa thought they regarded like black-clad stormtroopers from “Star Wars.”
Issa documented police guarding the mayor’s workplace and standing on prime of buildings overlooking the principle sq.. His pictures present curious residents peering over balconies at demonstrators. Different images present how organized the protest was: a command middle in a yurt that spanned three lanes of site visitors, tents the place folks offered tea, bread, water and dumplings, and a line of porta-potties.
In his movies, protesters maintain indicators that learn “Outdated man out” as they chant and thrust their fists within the air — a reference to former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who at 82 nonetheless had a grip on the federal government regardless of resigning from the presidency in March 2019.
Protesters collect in Aktau. Picture credit score: Issa Tazhenbayev.
“I felt like I used to be within the stadium, and everybody was shouting for a similar group,” Issa mentioned.
Protesters erected a yurt in Aktau, spanning three lanes of site visitors. Picture credit score: Issa Tazhenbayev.
In the meantime, Saniya advised her son, his spouse, and her sister who had been visiting for the vacations that she needed to return to Astana to cowl a narrative. By midday on January 3, Saniya had reached Zhanaozen, the place she noticed hundreds of individuals gathered round a makeshift stage close to the city’s statue of a snow leopard. Behind the group on a constructing was a three-foot excessive mural of the well-known Kazakhstan poet Abai Qunanbaiuly with one among his quotes: “Preserve your intelligence, braveness and coronary heart collectively. Then you definately’ll be totally different than the group.”
The group that day had been braced for the chilly, wintry wind. Folks huddled collectively in heavy coats and thick hats as they listened to speeches.
“Zhanaozen persons are very particular and strange,” defined Saniya. “They’ve sizzling tempers and are capable of say no. They can cease issues they don’t like. It’s very straightforward for folks to go for a protest in Zhanaozen. When others study they collect to point out solidarity. The federal government is feeling responsible for what it did to the folks of Zhanaozen in 2011. And the folks in Zhanaozen are conscious of that.”
Saniya is aware of Zhanaozen properly. She started reporting on oil and gasoline employee strikes in 2008. Her protection drew consideration from police and the federal government’s safety companies, KNB, who steadily detained, questioned and adopted her, she mentioned.
Protesters collect in Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan in early January 2022. Picture credit score: Kultegin Aspanuly.
In Almaty, Kazakhstan’s outdated capital and largest metropolis, Orda.kz editors had been asking reporter Assan Anarbay, then 26, to fly three hours to cowl the rallies in western Kazakhstan.
Assan, who goes by Kultegin Aspanuly on-line, advised his household he was going to Turkey. When he arrived on the Aktau airport on the night of January 3, he found the highway to the town was blocked. However when protesters discovered he was a journalist, they escorted him to the central stadium.
“Police had been in all places, however they didn’t cease the protests,” Assan mentioned. He stayed in Aktau till 4 a.m. then headed to Zhanaozen.
“I wished to be within the epicenter of the protest,” he mentioned.
Assan was impressed by the hundreds he noticed amassed the place three streets converged. He was amazed at how organized the protest was, how folks carried in meals and drinks, how they’d erected half a dozen yurts and had drawn up schedules for who ought to keep on the website in the course of the evening.
He filmed protesters as they sang patriotic songs and took turns on the microphone discussing issues like excessive unemployment and lack of fresh ingesting water. Each evening younger males would present up and urge the group to commit violence — a typical report at different metropolis protests. Metropolis elders urged the group to stay peaceable.
When the regional and metropolis mayors and the director of the Kazakh gasoline processing plant confirmed up providing to decrease gasoline costs to 90 tenge, protesters chanted “Disgrace!”
On January 5, the key oil corporations suspended work and the crowds swelled.
By that night, the crowds in Aktau had grown to an estimated 20,000, and Saniya knew she needed to get there. When she arrived, she seen 15 younger males in black fits and beards standing as a barrier between leaders of the protest and the folks. They had been calling for assaults on the federal government.
Since 2008, Saniya has coated oil and gasoline employee strikes within the Mangystau area which incorporates the oil city of Zhanaozen. Picture courtesy of Saniya Toiken.
Saniya mentioned she confronted the lads and accused them of making an attempt to impress the group like provocateurs did in the course of the notorious 2011 oil strike. The boys ordered her to cease photographing. One man threatened to interrupt her cellphone and lunged at her. She mentioned she escaped by leaping on prime of a automotive close to the place the protest leaders had been making speeches.
Again in Zhanaozen, some influential locals urged protesters to proceed till all their calls for — together with the resignation of the native and regional mayors — had been met. Protests in lots of cities ended on January 6. Nurbek and three different activists met with the mayor, the area’s deputy prosecutor and an oil firm consultant making an attempt to finish the protest. The activists, he mentioned, insisted that nobody face prosecution for collaborating. The deputy prosecutor agreed.
On January 8, at about 2 p.m., the activists introduced the settlement and the group reluctantly dispersed. The peaceable protest in Zhanaozen had outlasted all of the others. Protests elsewhere in Kazakhstan had turned unruly and violent, however not in Zhanaozen. After President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev licensed safety forces to “shoot to kill” protesters with out warning, police and navy items responded with power, finally leading to an official tally of 238 lifeless, 4,500 injured, 10,000 detained and lots of reportedly tortured in custody.
Protesters gathered first in Zhanaozen in early January 2022. Picture credit score: Kultegin Aspanuly.
Assan filmed protesters dismantling yurts in Zhanaozen then flew to Shymkent, the place 20 folks had been killed in the course of the demonstrations. He interviewed these being handled on the hospital.
“Folks had their eyes shot out,” he mentioned. “They’d damaged arms. A number of had been shot in two or three locations.”
For months after, Assan and Saniya — and plenty of different journalists — coated court docket circumstances associated to the January occasions. Assan interviewed the family members of the lifeless and those that mentioned they had been tortured by police.
“It was very heavy on me emotionally,” he admitted. “There was no risk for psychological rehabilitation. I needed to take a break.”
Every witness to the unrest in January has processed it otherwise. Assan give up his job at Orda.kz and now provides Kazakh language classes. He says he’s making an attempt to make use of constructive psychology to heal from the tragedy he coated. Issa, in the meantime, desires of turning into a photojournalist after his expertise coving the protests. He mentioned, “I really feel like I might assist change one thing in my nation.”
Alma, the citizen journalist, continues to diligently put up dispatches on Fb and says she is proud that the January protests began in her hometown.
Nurbek, the activist, continues to protest however is annoyed with the shortage of progress. “Nothing adjustments,” he mentioned. “The place are the individuals who can defend our rights?”
Saniya continues to fastidiously monitor the discontent in Zhanaozen.
“At the same time as a reporter making a broadcast of the occasions, I needed to keep goal,” Saniya remembered. “However all the pieces was screaming inside me as a result of I used to be apprehensive in regards to the destiny of my nation. When folks go to a protest, they’ll defend their rights. I’m actually upset that individuals had been killed. It’s an try by the federal government to point out that if folks protest, they’ll be shot, they’ll be imprisoned, they’ll be tortured.
“I’m not afraid,” she added. “However they’re killing my hope.”
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Tomorrow, January 3, we’ll comply with the story of Kazakhstan’s Bloody January to Aktobe and Atyrau.
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