On Friday, Kazakhstan’s President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev has delivered another address to the nation amid the protests in the country.
In his speech, he noted that any peaceful settlement became impossible and ordered to use deadly force against ‘terrorists’ without warning. According to the politician, about 20,000 ‘thugs’ attacked Almaty. He also thanked CSTO allies for sending ‘peacekeeping forces’ to Kazakhstan.
“We had to deal with armed and trained bandits, both local and foreign ones. They are nothing but bandits and terrorists. Therefore, they must be destroyed. And it will be done soon,” Tokayev stressed.
A special interdepartmental group had been set up to search for and detain those bandits and terrorists, he said. In accordance with the authorities’ version, Kazakhstan had to deal with ‘thugs from abroad’ as well; Tokayev accused independent media and foreign public figures of providing assistance in abetting law and order in Kazakhstan.
The state of emergency is expected to be lifted in the parts of the country where the situation is getting better. Tokayev also made mention of his decision to gradually turn on the Internet in a number of regions for some time.
“Free access to the Internet does not mean free publishing of bogus narratives, false accusation, inciting messages,” he added.
On the night of January 6, Armenia’s Prime Minister and Chairman of the CSTO Collective Security Council Nikol Pashinyan announced that the Collective Security Treaty Organisation decided to send ‘peacekeeping forces’ to Kazakhstan for ‘a limited period of time’ on the back of the appeal of Kazakh President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev. Pro-Lukashenka government confirmed the involvement of the Belarusian troops.
