Turbulent Unrest in Kazakhstan January 2022 Outlined
Posted by HCN on Wednesday, February 2, 2022
Reports are most of the violence during the span from today through this past January involving protesting occurred in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
To summarize to get the facts on an outward level of what has occurred in about the last 30 days, as viewed by outsiders, terminology only used for the sake of brevity in time, is this:
On the political dimension, the current President of Kazakhstan, is said to have performed restructuring insofar other political figures angles of involvement in the power structure at large. There were officials that may have resigned.
Although the main story or aspects of it, such as dates of heightened events, might be borrowed from other news sources, at HCN we strive not to simply reiterate the common stories of their analysis or perspectives of what happened.
The reason why, is sometimes the backstory of where things are today, is not presented alongside the shocking and attention grabbing events that just happened, the events that can drive increased views to a website, increase revenue and so forth.
Some of the backstories, or perhaps background and history, might show that what happened in Almaty may have been a heightened level of unrest, but the inner unrest over certain issues has been around for years. Discomfort with oil prices and other oil related issues in Kazakhstan has existed for years, how many years back, softly, assessing comfort levels going back to when oil first started to take-off as a major industry in the region in the modern era, might be a good starting point.
Oil as a major resource in the region, recognized as wealth producing, for this conversation, was around the start of the 20th century. 1899, 1911.
A government building might have been set on fire earlier this January, however, there have been other incidents.
In December of 2011, there was the Zhanaozen incident. Oil field workers went on strike.
It seems every few years to decade, a large protest with oil in the subject, evolves.
Kazakhstan is currently ranked somewhere between the top 20 and top dozen oil producing countries. The amount of money involved at the number one through five spots is immense. A few tiers down is still a huge amount of financial complex.
Who does the oil fields belong to?, was a central topic in the late 1980s, early 1990s, as the days culminating with USSR becoming 'disunionized' started to materialize; the options essentially Russia or Kazakhstan.
In 1991, Kazakhstan declared independence from the USSR, (a historical assessment at a very basic level for illustration).
In about 1991, on the more politically open playing field, global companies involved and so forth, Kazakhstan started appearing as a major presence on the world oil production and trade stage.
Year 2000 thereabout saw the development of the National Fund of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
There have been ongoing privatization issues.
In today's modern era, general discomfort with the current government establishment or establishments in the past two decades thereabout, is a common phenomenon that is found in a number of regions near the 'East-West' threshold. So, when violent protests emerge, and become world news because of the number of physical fires involved, it may be a fusion, of some aspects of oil, some aspects of differences in culture, political views, and never to leave out the possibility of foreign elements penetrating into the region and inciting riots.
Who is 'in' (accepted by groups of people), who is 'out', insider, outsider, accepted, not accepted, regarding political groups, and of course, what comprises the people doing the complaining, can be more complicated than a quick review of the looting in an online media news story that has not run a story on Kazakhstan in ten years.
'Okay, we have oil, a gift from above, for our people', is a known position that can be taken by a number of countries gifted with oil; 'our people' and the baseline responsibilities thereunto such as for their health, is sometimes distinguished from the politics of a given time. Hence, through that way, and likely among other ways, is how the question came to be, which comes first, the economy (affected by oil), or politics?, which is popular in Kazakhstan.
Events of January 2022 also come at a time when concerns over the Ukraine Russia border have resurged, and consider that there is a border of several thousand miles between modern day Russia and Kazakhstan.
To summarize to get the facts on an outward level of what has occurred in about the last 30 days, as viewed by outsiders, terminology only used for the sake of brevity in time, is this:
- On or about January 5th, protesting emerged about rising oil prices.
- The protests turned increasingly violent, and even looting got involved.
- The protests were suppressed.
- Numerous persons were arrested in the process.
- By January's end it is said that at least 200 persons were fatalities.
- Complaints are surfacing now, about 3 weeks after the 'initial' protesting, that human rights abuses at a large enough scale to make headlines, occurred during the crackdown on protestors.
- About 3800 persons are estimated to be currently detained, as of the moment of this article.
On the political dimension, the current President of Kazakhstan, is said to have performed restructuring insofar other political figures angles of involvement in the power structure at large. There were officials that may have resigned.
Although the main story or aspects of it, such as dates of heightened events, might be borrowed from other news sources, at HCN we strive not to simply reiterate the common stories of their analysis or perspectives of what happened.
The reason why, is sometimes the backstory of where things are today, is not presented alongside the shocking and attention grabbing events that just happened, the events that can drive increased views to a website, increase revenue and so forth.
Some of the backstories, or perhaps background and history, might show that what happened in Almaty may have been a heightened level of unrest, but the inner unrest over certain issues has been around for years. Discomfort with oil prices and other oil related issues in Kazakhstan has existed for years, how many years back, softly, assessing comfort levels going back to when oil first started to take-off as a major industry in the region in the modern era, might be a good starting point.
Oil as a major resource in the region, recognized as wealth producing, for this conversation, was around the start of the 20th century. 1899, 1911.
A government building might have been set on fire earlier this January, however, there have been other incidents.
In December of 2011, there was the Zhanaozen incident. Oil field workers went on strike.
It seems every few years to decade, a large protest with oil in the subject, evolves.
Kazakhstan is currently ranked somewhere between the top 20 and top dozen oil producing countries. The amount of money involved at the number one through five spots is immense. A few tiers down is still a huge amount of financial complex.
Who does the oil fields belong to?, was a central topic in the late 1980s, early 1990s, as the days culminating with USSR becoming 'disunionized' started to materialize; the options essentially Russia or Kazakhstan.
In 1991, Kazakhstan declared independence from the USSR, (a historical assessment at a very basic level for illustration).
In about 1991, on the more politically open playing field, global companies involved and so forth, Kazakhstan started appearing as a major presence on the world oil production and trade stage.
Year 2000 thereabout saw the development of the National Fund of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
There have been ongoing privatization issues.
In today's modern era, general discomfort with the current government establishment or establishments in the past two decades thereabout, is a common phenomenon that is found in a number of regions near the 'East-West' threshold. So, when violent protests emerge, and become world news because of the number of physical fires involved, it may be a fusion, of some aspects of oil, some aspects of differences in culture, political views, and never to leave out the possibility of foreign elements penetrating into the region and inciting riots.
Who is 'in' (accepted by groups of people), who is 'out', insider, outsider, accepted, not accepted, regarding political groups, and of course, what comprises the people doing the complaining, can be more complicated than a quick review of the looting in an online media news story that has not run a story on Kazakhstan in ten years.
'Okay, we have oil, a gift from above, for our people', is a known position that can be taken by a number of countries gifted with oil; 'our people' and the baseline responsibilities thereunto such as for their health, is sometimes distinguished from the politics of a given time. Hence, through that way, and likely among other ways, is how the question came to be, which comes first, the economy (affected by oil), or politics?, which is popular in Kazakhstan.
Events of January 2022 also come at a time when concerns over the Ukraine Russia border have resurged, and consider that there is a border of several thousand miles between modern day Russia and Kazakhstan.
