2018 QDT leader
Mukhtar Ablyazov called for rallies to be held on 10 May 2018 to coincide with the visit to Kazakhstan of the official mission of the
European Parliament which was to assess how the country is fulfilling its obligations to respect human rights. Unauthorized protests took place that day in the cities of
Astana,
Almaty,
Oral,
Aktobe,
Atyrau,
Semey and
Shymkent where the participants demanded the release and an end of torture of political prisoners. According to observers and participants, the number of police officers in Almaty and Astana was comparable to the number of participants in the protests. An estimated of 50 people were detained in Almaty while the news agency Present Time put an estimate of 80. The
Ministry of Internal Affairs did not give the exact number of those detained. On the day of protests, dozens of people were detained in cities of
Almaty,
Astana, and
Shymkent of which none of them expressed any demands nor did not hold banners in their hands. On 16–17 December, detentions took place in
Kazakhstan such as in
Almaty where activists attempted to honor the memory of the victims of
Zhanaozen massacre and
Jeltoqsan in the
Republic Square. The police department of the Bostandyq District commented on situation saying that all detainees after 1 pm were all released.
2019 February protests On 4 February 2019, five sisters were killed by a house fire in Astana (later, Nur-Sultan) that broke out at night, while both their parents were working night shifts. The fire sparked a controversy on social media and led to some small-scale protests. Paul Stronski of the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace wrote: By 15 February, the outrage had led to protests reported as numbering in the hundreds. A protest in Nur-Sultan at a public event where Mayor
Bakhyt Sultanov was speaking resulted in him being shouted off the stage. On 21 February, President
Nursultan Nazarbayev issued a statement announcing he had dismissed the government led by Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev.
The Diplomat reported: "Many reports (such as those in RFE/RL and Eurasianet) regarding Nazarbayev's decision point squarely to recent protests as a triggering factor" for the government's dismissal. On 19 March, Nazarbayev unexpectedly resigned as president, leading to the appointment of
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the speaker of the upper house of parliament, as the new President of Kazakhstan. Nazarbayev retained his status in several powerful positions, such as being Chairman of the
Security Council and Chairman of the ruling party
Nur Otan 2019 presidential election Protests broke out in the cities of
Nur-Sultan and
Almaty on 9 June 2019. The protest itself was organized by a banned opposition group the
Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan which is led by a former, now-exiled Kazakh banker
Mukhtar Ablyazov. The
Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that in Nur-Sultan, the protesters used throwing stones, objects that came to hand, and used pepper spray, which caused three police officers to be injured. According to official reports, the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the police and the
National Guard took measures to ensure public safety and law and order, the squares and streets were cleared of protesters by dispersal and detentions. According to the statement of the First Deputy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Marat Kojaev, on 9 June, during the protests, about 500 people were detained among which were journalists. On 10 June, at an unauthorized protest, Rinat Zaitov, a Kazakh musician and poet who was a supporter of
Amirjan Qosanov, was detained in Almaty, where his speech was filmed by
Channel 31, who also recorded his arrest on video. Soon after the legal interview, Zaitov was allowed to go home. However, late in the evening, in front of the building of the police department, citizens gathered in search of Zaitov and demanded his release. After they were informed that Zaitov was at home, they did not want to leave. At the request of law enforcement agencies, Zaitov was taken from home at night to the gathering place of citizens, where he urged people not to violate the law by complying with the legal requirements of law enforcement officers. Zaitov asked the crowd to go home and not succumb to the provocations. The remaining protesters then held a march on
Töle Bi Street which was accompanied by drivers honking their horns, causing an overflow in traffic. In response to the situation, law enforcement including the riot police closed off the street and conducted arrests. A Tengrinews journalist Shoqan Alhabaev was knocked to the ground and hit several times by the officers. Other protesters, fleeing the pursuing police, hid in residential areas. According to the adviser of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Nurdilda Oraz, about 200 people were detained, in which 150 of them were brought to justice. President-elect
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called on the protesters to dialogue. By 18 June, there were reports of the detainees of about 4,000 people in all cities of Kazakhstan. The operator of the online news Vlast.kz Yekaterina Suvorova, the journalist of
Azattyq Pyotr Trotsenko and political scientist
Dimaş Äljanov, who worked at the NGO Center for Legal Policy Research, were arrested. British journalist Chris Rickleton, who worked for
Agence France-Presse, said on Twitter that he was also detained. Rickleton and his colleague spent two hours at the local police department before Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vasilenko intervened. He called the journalists and apologized, after which they were released. Protests took place in Nur-Sultan and Almaty on 9 November calling for "freedom for political prisoners, a parliamentary republic, and fair elections", coordinated by
Respublika and
Oyan, Qazaqstan. On 22 February, multiple protests were held across the country. Two of them were held in
Almaty. The first one was organized by the
Democratic Party of Kazakhstan (QDP), led by
Janbolat Mamai, who was detained by the police earlier on Friday night and faced 3 days of detention. Another one was held later that same day by the
Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (QDT). Around 200 protesters were detained.
Agadil's death On 25 February, a demonstration was held in front of the Interior Ministry building in Nur-Sultan over the death of Kazakh political activist
Dulat Agadil while he was held in a detention center. According to the Internal Affairs Minister
Erlan Turgymbaev, Agadil's death was caused by "heart problems". The protesters demanded a detailed information about his death as well as the officials to come out of the building to speak to them. After receiving no response, the activists then blocked a street which resulted in police violently detaining the protesters into the police buses. On 27 February, the day of Agadil's funeral, a protest was held in front of the Astana Concert Hall in Nur-Sultan, to demand the creation of an independent commission including the participation of civil society representatives to investigate Agadil's death. The police dispersed the rally, and loaded about 20 people into police buses. In Almaty, 80 people gathered in
Republic Square to mourn Agadil. President
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev made a public statement on Agadil's death in an interview to Informburo.kz on 29 February saying that "given the great public outcry, I carefully studied this case. I can say with confidence that, unfortunately, the Agadil activist died as a result of heart failure. To say otherwise is to go against the truth." Calls for protests to be held on 1 March 2020 were met with blocked access to main city squares and detainment dozens of people. In
Almaty, dozens of protesters reached the
Republic Square in front of the Äkimat building until being arrested by the police who every corner of the neighborhood around the building. Members of the
Oyan Qazaqstan were detained at a coffee shop, where around 30 of them, including three journalists, were whisked away into police vans. Other members of Oyan and as well as the opposition groups were reported to have been stopped at their doorsteps as they left their homes. According to the Internal Affairs Minister
Erlan Turgymbaev, around 80 citizens were detained of which only four were brought to justice while the rest were released. ==See also==