Protests for reforms: 'Nursultan don't devour my homeland!'

Demonstrations in different cities: Nur-Sultan, in Almaty, Aktobe, Shimkent and Uralsk. The long-promised political reforms and the release of political prisoners are called for. Journalists detained, protesters beaten, arrests. Refugees from Xinjiang also took to the streets, accusing Turkey and Kazakhstan of being dominated by China and its repression.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - “Nursultan otanymdy jeme! (Nursultan don't devour my homeland!)”: This is the main slogan that dominated the protests in various cities of Kazakhstan on February 28 (photo 1). Thousands of people demonstrated in the capital Nur-Sultan, Almaty, Aktobe, Shimkent and Uralsk, calling for the long-discussed political reforms to be carried out, for political prisoners to be released and for the removal of the "eternal president" Nursultan Nazarbaev.

Kazakhstan, therefore, has joined the many ex-Soviet countries shaken by the winds of change, such as Belarus, Moldova and Russia itself, and other Central Asian countries.

In Almaty, the former capital, the crowd gathered in two parts of the city: at the palace of Baluan Sholak, the Kazakh hero of the 1800s, where the group that intends to found the Democratic Party gathered, the police arrested 20 people, surrounding them with kettling tactics (the "fence") and savagely beating them. Journalists were banned from entering the area, which was closed to traffic, even blocking the nearest subway station.

The supporters of the exiled politician Mukhtar Ablyazov gathered in the Central Park of Culture and Rest in Almaty. The park was closed at the entrance, where the police stopped the demonstrators with more arrests and mass crackdowns.

In Nur-Sultan too, demonstrators were surrounded by the city's main mosque, where they intended to commemorate the activist Dulat Agadil, who died a year ago in prison under mysterious circumstances. In other cities, the police also carried out preventive arrests, and violently blocked the protests (photo 3).

The first to launch the protest initiatives was the activist Maks Bokaev, released from prison on February 4, who gathered a group in the central square of Atyrau, the city where he was released. He was joined by other opposition groups in the various cities, such as the Democrats led by Janbolat Mamaev and the members of the "Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan", led from abroad by Ablyazov, which a Kazakh court declared an "extremist formation".

The city of Uralsk was unique in its authorities having agreed to the demonstration. Journalist Lukpan Akhmedyarov spoke on Manshuk Mametova Square on behalf of the organizers, calling for political changes and the definitive exit of the "dictator Nazarbaev, with his Nur-power", as well as the release of all those who are detained for political reasons. One of the reforms called for is the free election of mayors and governors (Akimy) at all levels of the administration.

The groups that took to the streets also included refugees from Xinjiang, who have escaped Chinese repression and fear changes in the policy of Turkey and Kazakhstan towards China, dictated by the fear of offending their powerful neighbour (photo 4). Last fall, the granting of political asylum to two refugees, Kayshe Akan and Murager Alimuly, was welcomed as a "happy surprise", as Eurasianet wrote, but was not followed up. Akan and Alimuly themselves were subjected to attacks on January 21, and the police justified themselves by stating that "they were trying to move to Switzerland".

• kazakhstan
• economy
• islam
• religious freedom
• political reforms
• nursultan nazerbaev
• xinjiang
• refugees
• china
• persecution