Current president designated as successor
Ex-government officials removed for protests
The chaos in Kazakhstan, in which more than 100 people were killed and more than 5,000 people were arrested in large-scale anti-government protests on the 2nd, has entered a lull. On the 9th, Bloomberg reported that the Kazakh government had seized key infrastructure with the help of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) peacekeepers. He added that President Kassimzomart Tokayev declared victory in the bloody clash with the protesters.
Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Health announced on the same day that a total of 164 people were killed following the protests, 103 in Almaty, two of them children. The Interior Ministry said 5,135 protesters had been arrested so far. President Tokayev declared the 10th a ‘National Day of Mourning’ to commemorate the casualties.
The Washington Post (WP) analyzed that the clash was a power struggle between President Tokaev and his predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who ruled Kazakhstan as a dictator for 29 years. The New York Times (NYT) reported that the protests, which began peacefully, suddenly turned into a “violent” crowd, including Arman Zumagaldiev, a prominent Kazakh criminal leader among the protesters arrested.
There are also speculations that President Tokayev used the protests to remove pro-Nazarbayev and seize power completely. Authorities said on the 8th that they had arrested former National Security Council (NSC) chairman Karim Masimov, who served as prime minister twice during Nazarbayev’s reign, on charges of treason on the 6th.
Aidos Ukibai, a spokesman for the former president of Nazarbaev, said on the same day that “the current situation is serious and the former president has decided to hand over the chair of the National Security Council to President Tokaev,” Sputnik news agency reported.
Regarding this development, the New York Times diagnosed that the ‘strongman’s dilemma’, in which the successor government is divided following the dictator has resigned, has been replayed in Kazakhstan. Although he exerted influence behind the scenes following his retirement, former President Nazarbayev also failed to establish a succession system during his 29-year reign. The British daily The Guardian reported that Nazarbayev’s family and close aides, centered on the purchase of British real estate worth regarding 530 million pounds (regarding 848 billion won) between 1998 and 2002, are causing outrage.
The Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on the 9th that it is requesting the Kazakhstan government so that Korean passengers and crew members of Asiana Airlines, who were stranded following arriving at Almaty Airport in Kazakhstan on the 5th, can leave the country as soon as possible. The airport, once seized by protesters, remains closed and is expected to reopen on the 10th, the Associated Press reported.
Reporter Kim Soo-hyun [email protected]