In Kazakhstan, protests have been forming in the roads and around the country to make attention for their request of a better democracy. The president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has been firing and hiring people into new power strong positions. Tokayev “sacked” his deputy chief of staff with no reason being stated and replaced him with a previous aide. Tokayev also removed Kazakhs ambassador to Russia, Imangali Tasmagambetov, stating that he is reaching retirement age at 63 years-old, while Tokayev himself is 66. Within the protests, some have been calling of the removal of former Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who some believe still have power of the country, even though he officially retired from office in March. 40 protestors have been arrested in multiple countries following the protests. It is supposedly a new “police tactic” since the country has frequently been criticized for its human rights abuses. The leader of an unregistered opposition movement states that the country doesn’t have real democracy. They have been trying to register a political party in elections but all their “workers and sympathisers are being detained”. With them being able to register a political party, it grows harder to try and reform the government and grow more towards democracy. The protestors that were arrested were said to have participated in a rally called DCK, Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, which has been labeled as an extremist movement by the court last year. I’m still confused as to why president Tokayev removed and hired new people into important spots out of nowhere with either no reasons or reasons that were hypocritical or not valid. However, it seems as if the position changes are because of the protests for democracy as they happened following the beginning of them. I think it will be interesting for the weeks to follow to see if more protests will arise and if Tokayev will appoint new people in replace of others.
