Qasym-Jomart Toqayev tweeted several messages on January 7 in which he spoke about the mass protests in the country.
In particular, the politician reported that there were six attacks in Almaty, allegedly carried out by 20,000 terrorists. He also stated about “bandits” who were operating in the city. Toqayev added that he was not negotiating with the terrorists and specified, “We have to kill them.”
However, those tweets later disappeared from the networks. However, there are still other messages that Toqayev wrote on that day.
In addition, on January 7, Toqayev made an address, in which he stated about “terrorists and murderers” operating in the country, who must be destroyed.
Protests in Kazakhstan
On January 3, people took to the streets of several cities in Kazakhstan to protest. They demanded lower prices for liquefied gas. The authorities met their demands, but the protesters continued their actions. That is, the price of gas was only a reason for the protests, while the real reason for them is primarily political.
The situation escalated significantly on January 5. Then the protests covered 15 cities in the country. Because of this, a state of emergency was declared throughout Kazakhstan.
Tokayev called on the Collective Security Treaty Organization to deploy troops. Hours later, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the organization supported his request. Russia was the first country to deploy its contingent. It airlifted military and special equipment to Kazakhstan.