Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Saudi Arabia, Berik Aryn, has affirmed that Constitutional legitimacy is being restored in his country.
The authorities are ensuring that law and order are being restored through coordinated efforts, in accordance with the Constitution, he said.
“Currently, the police, the National Guard, and the Army are carrying out large-scale and well-coordinated efforts to restore law and order, in accordance with the Constitution. The implementation of the state of emergency is ensuring results. Constitutional legitimacy is being restored across the country,” he said in a statement released by the Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's (OIC) Union of News Agency.
Aryn, who is also Kazakhstan’s Permanent Representative to the OIC, said that his government hopes that the measures that are being taken will help stabilize the situation and create conditions “for the resumption of a broad constructive dialogue between state bodies and protesters."
The Kazakh government introduced a new system of wholesale gas sales through electronic trading platforms on January 1, 2022, which, in turn, caused a simultaneous, almost two-fold increase in the retail price of liquefied petroleum gas, he explained.
The public, especially some residents of Zhanaozen city of Mangystau region, considered the impact of the price rise on their household budgets as unacceptable and attended a protest in January 2022, he said.
“As a result of negotiations with representatives of protesting citizens on the afternoon of January 4, 2022, a decision was announced ensuring the price reduction to 50 tenge per one liter of gas. In addition, the protesters' demand for the release of persons detained for violations of law and order in the previous two days was met,” Aryn explained.
However, the protests had turned into mass riots in the cities of Aktau and Almaty on January 4, where there were attacks on civil servants and law enforcement officers, as well as on local executive bodies’ buildings, he said.
“There were organized attacks on administrative and military facilities, the seizure of the airport, and the attempted capture of foreign passenger and cargo planes in Almaty. This indicates a high level of training and coordination of the attackers’ actions,” he added.
