RFE/RL Armenian Report – 01/06/2022

                                        Thursday, January 6, 2022


Yerevan Silent On Armenian Troop Deployment To Kazakhstan

        • Astghik Bedevian

Kazakhstan - A burnt car is seen by the mayor’s office of Almaty set on fire by 
protesters, January 5, 2022.


Armenia’s government on Thursday declined to reveal the number of Armenian 
soldiers that will be deployed to unrest-hit Kazakhstan as part of a 
“peacekeeping” operation launched by the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty 
Organization (CSTO).

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev asked the military alliance for urgent 
intervention on Wednesday after three days of angry protests sparked by a surge 
in fuel prices. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, the current holder of the CSTO’s 
rotating presidency, announced hours later that Russia and four other ex-Soviet 
states making up the bloc will send troops to Kazakhstan to help “stabilize and 
normalize the situation” there.

In a statement released on Thursday morning, the CSTO said its Collective 
Peacekeeping Force will include about 3,600 servicemen from Russia, Armenia, 
Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It said Russian airborne troops have already 
arrived in Kazakhstan and “begun to fulfill the assigned tasks.”

The main tasks of the force will be “the protection of important state and 
military facilities, assistance to the forces of law and order of the Republic 
of Kazakhstan in stabilizing the situation and returning it to the legal field,” 
added the statement.


Russia -- Russian airborne troops board a military transport plane at Chkalovsky 
Airfield to join the CSTO's peacekeeping force in Kazakhstan, January 6, 2022.

Russia’s Sputnik news agency reported early in the afternoon that Armenia will 
contribute some 70 soldiers to the CSTO contingent. There was no official 
confirmation of the information in the following hours.

RFE/RL’s Armenian Service could not reach the Defense Ministry in Yerevan for 
comment throughout the day. Neither the ministry nor the government issued any 
statements on the Armenian military deployment as of 9 p.m. local time.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry expressed serious concern over the continuing 
unrest in Kazakhstan.

“We believe that steps must be taken to prevent further clashes and restore the 
atmosphere of tolerance necessary for peaceful political processes, including 
citizens’ right to hold peaceful gatherings and express themselves,” it said in 
a statement.


KAZAKHSTAN - Protesters take part in a rally over a hike in energy prices in 
Almaty on January 5, 2022.

Pashinian’s decision to join the Russian-led operation prompted strong criticism 
on social media. Pro-Western civic activists, who had helped him come to power 
through mass protests in 2018, were especially upset by the move, saying that 
Yerevan must stay away from the violent suppression of what they see as 
legitimate protests against Kazakhstan’s authoritarian regime.

Critics also argued that Kazakhstan and other CSTO member states failed to 
provide Armenia with military assistance requested by Pashinian after 
Azerbaijani troops crossed into Armenian territory in May. Kazakh leaders openly 
congratulated Azerbaijan on its victory in the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Maria Karapetian, a lawmaker from the ruling Civil Contract party, defended 
Pashinian’s decision. She said its critics simply want Armenia to leave the CSTO 
and “make a different geopolitical choice.”


KAZAKHSTAN - Troops are seen at the main square in Almaty where hundreds of 
people were protesting against the government, January 6, 2022.

“If we leave the CSTO, what [other organization] should we join? They must 
propose the next step,” Karapetian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

Meanwhile, violent clashes and gunfire continued to rock Kazakhstan's largest 
city, Almaty, on Thursday as security forces tried to quash the Central Asian 
nation's deadliest uprising in the three decades since it declared independence 
from the Soviet Union. RFE/RL journalists in Almaty said they opened fire on the 
demonstrators in Republican Square.

The Kazakh police said in the morning that they killed “dozens” of protesters 
and detained around 2,000 people over the past day.



Russian-Led Security Bloc To Send Troops To Unrest-Hit Kazakhstan


KAZAKHSTAN -- A view shows a burning police car in Almaty during a protest 
sparked by the Kazakh authorities' decision to lift price caps on liquefied 
petroleum gas, January 5, 2022.


Armenia announced early on Thursday that the Russian-led Collective Security 
Treaty Organization (CSTO) will send troops to Kazakhstan to help its government 
quell violent protests sparked by a fuel price hike.

Kazakhstan’s President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev declared a nationwide state of 
emergency on Wednesday as thousands of anti-government protesters clashed with 
police and stormed government buildings in the oil-rich Central Asian nation for 
the third consecutive day.

Angry demonstrators, some of whom were armed with rubber truncheons, sticks, and 
shields, set fire to a presidential residence and the mayor’s office in the 
country’s largest city, Almaty,

Police engaged in pitched battles with the protesters, using tear gas, stun 
grenades, and rubber bullets to try to disperse the crowds, but were largely 
unsuccessful. Kazakhstan’s Interior Ministry said eight police and National 
Guard troops have been killed and 317 people wounded during the unprecedented 
unrest.


Kazakhstan – Protesters storm the Almaty city hall, January 5, 2022

Toqaev said that he has appealed to the CSTO, a security bloc comprising Russia, 
Kazakhstan, Armenia and three other ex-Soviet states, to assist his government 
in responding to what he called a “terrorist threat.”

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, whose country is the current holder of 
the CSTO’s rotating presidency, spoke with Toqaev by phone and announced shortly 
after midnight that he will also hold “consultations” with the leaders of CSTO 
members.

In a statement issued about two hours later, Pashinian said they have decided to 
dispatch “collective peacekeeping forces” to Kazakhstan for the purpose of 
“stabilizing and normalizing the situation in that country.”


Demonstrators take part in a protest triggered by fuel price increase in Almaty, 
January 5, 2022.

He said that the unrest erupted as a result of unspecified “foreign 
intervention” and put Kazakhstan’s national security and sovereignty at serious 
risk.

Pashinian did not specify the number and composition of CSTO troops that will be 
deployed in Kazakhstan. Nor did he say whether Armenian soldiers will also join 
the contingent.

Russia did not immediately comment on the deployment.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS