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Activists, Not Terrorists, Convicted For January 2022 Almaty Airport Seizure
Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File
Central Asia

Activists, Not Terrorists, Convicted For January 2022 Almaty Airport Seizure

Of 20,000 alleged bandits, Kazakh authorities instead recently convicted a handful of journalists and activists in relation to the unrest at Almaty Airport in January 2022.

By Catherine Putz

One of the more ostentatious claims made by Kazakh authorities during the dramatic events of January 2022 was President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s statement that Almaty – Kazakhstan’s largest city and the site of the most violence – had been attacked by “20,000 bandits.” In a January 7 televised addressed he justified the state’s heavy-handed response: “We had to deal with armed and well-prepared bandits, local as well as foreign. More precisely, with terrorists. So we have to destroy them, this will be done soon.”

That was wishful thinking. While the violence of early January 2022, now known as Qandy Qantar – “Bloody January” in Kazakh – ended within a few days, the implications of the events on Kazakhstan's polity continue to play out.

On July 11, Aigerim Tleuzhanova, a journalist, and four activists were sentenced to prison terms of four to eight years for what the state alleged was their involvement in the violent seizure of Almaty Airport on January 5, 2022.

January 5 was the same day Tokayev formally requested assistance from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), framing his ask as a response to what he called a “terrorist threat.”

Precisely what happened at Almaty Airport is difficult to ascertain. The Kazkah government restricted internet access, making real-time reporting difficult. Our understanding now is based on two sources: the voices of those who were there and the government. The former say that for some unknown reason the airport’s security forces abandoned their posts; many speak of gangs of masked individuals wreaking havoc in the night. The government, meanwhile, takes the position that trained rioters took over the airport by force.

Until October 2022, as Eurasianet reported, Tleuzhanova was being questioned only as a witness to what happened at the Almaty Airport. But when she was finally indicted prosecutors framed Tleuzhanova as directly responsible for “supervising rioters, determining their movements, making demands of airport workers, forcing the suspension of their activities, with the goal of preventing the arrival and departure of aircraft, including an aircraft carrying [CSTO] troops.”

Tleuzhanova told Eurasianet last year that she went to the airport “to find out whether the information about the arrival of Russian troops was reliable, and, if there were any provocations, to somehow try to prevent trouble… I now understand that this was unrealistic. I was there for about half an hour and then left.”

Kalas Nurpeisov, a former history teacher and activist, told his wife before going to the airport, “This is a historical moment, let’s at least see what will happen.” She told Eurasianet that Nurpeisov “said he assumed there might be looting going on. He said: ‘Let’s try and stop that. Perhaps they will listen to me.’”

Nurpeisov was sentenced to eight years in prison, along with Nurlan Dalibaev, Yermukhamet Shilibaev and Zhan-Aidar Karmenov. Tleuzhanova was sentenced to four years.

Before sentencing, Tleuzhanova told reporters, “All 40 witnesses confirmed that we had no weapons in our hands. We didn’t have any firearms or even any crude weapons, we didn’t even have a knife or a stick in our hands. We were not wearing masks, we didn’t hide our faces, we didn’t threaten anyone.”

After the verdict was read, Tleuzhanova remained defiant: “There is no ‘new’ Kazakhstan. What they are doing is unfair! But, no matter how many years they shut me up, as I said, I will not bow my head, I will not bend my knees!”

In the court, supporters chanted “shame.”

A journalist and four political activists are a far cry from the 20,000 bandits Tokayev claimed had set upon Almaty. In the Kazakh government’s narrative of the events, outlined in January 2023 before parliament by Prosecutor General Berik Asylov, there was a grand conspiracy masterminded by then-National Security Committee (NSC) chief Karim Massimov to stage a coup and it was been “secretly prepared for the whole of 2021.”

“Organized criminal groups were among the perpetrators,” Asylov said. “Some of them underwent radical training. They recruited people, garnered weapons, bought walkie-talkies and cars. The investigation established that some individuals working in law enforcement were in charge of this subversive work.”

Massimov was sentenced to 18 years after a classified trial in April 2023.

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The Authors

Catherine Putz is Managing Editor of The Diplomat.
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