The town of Zhanaozen was founded in 1964, after the opening of an oil field in Uzen. On 21 October 1968 Novy Uzen took the status of a settlement of town type, and since 20 March 1973 the status of a city of regional significance. In June 1989, riots broke out in the town targeting its
Armenian,
Azerbaijani, and
Lezgin communities, culminating in 7,000 people demanding that they be sent back to the Caucuses. Soviet reports stated that 3 people were killed in the riots, another 53 were injured, and hundreds were briefly evacuated from the town. Some of the sacked workers then occupied the town square in protest. On 16 December 2011 police were accused of firing on them. Fifteen people (workers and police officers) were killed according to government officials, though opposition sources put the death toll in the dozens. In disturbances that day local government offices, a hotel and an office of the state oil company were set on fire, according to General Prosecutor
Askhat Daulbayev. Eighty-six people were injured in the clashes – according to the authorities – and due to shortage of hospital beds in Zhanaozen, many were taken to be treated in the regional capital
Aktau, about 150 km away.
2022 protests The
2022 Kazakh protests began in Zhanaozen after a sharp increase in gas prices (the Kazakh government claiming this was due to high demand and
price fixes), corruption, authoritarianism, human rights violations, and police brutality. The protest soon spread to other regions of Kazakhstan, and as of Jan 8, 2022, the government has resigned and the new government has promised to change the gas prices to 50
Kazakhstani tenge for the next 6 months. == Demographics ==