Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi explained the order of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to shoot to kill without warning anyone who refuses to lay down their arms during the protests. He stated this after a meeting with his Austrian colleague Alexander Schallenberg, reports RIA News.
According to Tleuberdi, the president’s words “to open fire without warning” were pulled out of the speech and did not apply to the protesters.
“He definitely didn’t mean the demonstrators. This was a strong signal to the armed militants that if they did not stop, then our armed forces and law enforcement personnel would fight them with military weapons, ”he specified.
According to him, the order was given to open fire “only against armed militants.”
Earlier, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken criticized Tokayev’s order to open fire on protesters. Before that, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said that this order worries the world community.
On January 2, mass protests began in Kazakhstan due to a sharp increase in gas prices for cars. Soon economic demands were replaced by political ones, and the rallies turned into riots. Government buildings were set on fire in several cities. The army was sent to quell the riots. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called the protesters terrorists and turned to the Collective Security Treaty Organization for help. The peacekeepers took under the protection of large infrastructure facilities.
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