Tokayev Declares State of Emergency Amid Kazakh Unrest (January 5, 2022)
On January 5, 2022, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev dismissed Prime Minister Asqar Mamin's government and declared a nationwide state of emergency as protests over fuel prices exploded into the deadliest unrest in Kazakhstan's post-Soviet history. The crisis, which began in the western oil town of Zhanaozen days earlier and spread to Almaty and other cities, marked a pivotal test of Tokayev's presidency and reshaped the country's political power structure.
From Fuel Protests to National Crisis
The unrest began on January 2, 2022, when residents of Zhanaozen, a town in western Kazakhstan's Mangystau Region, took to the streets after the price of liquefied petroleum gas—widely used to fuel vehicles—more than doubled overnight following the lifting of a government price cap. Protests quickly spread across the country, reaching the commercial capital Almaty within days. What started as economic grievances broadened into demands for political change, including calls for the resignation of long-serving officials tied to former President Nursultan Nazarbayev's era. By January 4 and 5, demonstrations in Almaty turned violent, with protesters clashing with police, storming government buildings, and setting fire to the mayor's office and other structures. Kazakh authorities reported that armed groups had seized weapons and attacked security forces, though independent verification of these claims proved difficult amid an internet blackout imposed by the government. As the situation deteriorated, President Tokayev moved decisively on January 5, dismissing Prime Minister Asqar Mamin's entire cabinet and declaring a state of emergency across Almaty and the Mangystau Region before extending it nationwide. He also removed Nazarbayev from his post as chairman of the Security Council, a symbolic break from the influence the 81-year-old former leader had retained since stepping down from the presidency in 2019.
Did You Know?
The CSTO's deployment to Kazakhstan in January 2022 was the first time in the alliance's history that it sent troops into a member state to quell domestic unrest, despite the organization's founding treaty being modeled on collective self-defense against external threats.
A Controversial Response
In the days following his emergency declaration, Tokayev took further dramatic steps to reassert control. He appointed Alikhan Smailov as acting Prime Minister and, on January 6, requested military assistance from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russia-led alliance of former Soviet states. The CSTO swiftly deployed roughly 2,500 peacekeeping troops, marking the first such intervention in the organization's history. Tokayev justified the request by describing the unrest as a coordinated terrorist assault by "20,000 bandits," a characterization that drew skepticism from independent observers and human rights groups. On January 7, he issued a controversial "shoot to kill without warning" order to security forces confronting what he termed terrorists, a directive that alarmed international human rights organizations. The crackdown that followed was severe: Kazakh officials later confirmed that at least 225 people died during the unrest, with thousands more injured and over 12,000 detained. Almaty bore the brunt of the violence, with its airport briefly seized by protesters before being retaken by security forces. Critics accused authorities of using excessive force and of exploiting the chaos to settle internal political scores, particularly against figures associated with Nazarbayev's network.
Aftermath and Political Realignment
The January 2022 unrest, often referred to in Kazakhstan as "Bloody January" or Qandy Qantar, fundamentally altered the balance of power in the country. Tokayev used the crisis to consolidate authority, sidelining Nazarbayev's remaining allies and formally ending the informal power-sharing arrangement that had persisted since Nazarbayev's 2019 resignation. In the following months, Tokayev pursued constitutional reforms, stripped Nazarbayev of his lifetime title as "Elbasy" (Leader of the Nation), and oversaw the renaming of the capital from Nur-Sultan back to Astana. CSTO troops withdrew by mid-January 2022, their mission declared complete after just over a week. Investigations into the causes and conduct of the crackdown continued for years afterward, with human rights organizations and opposition figures calling for accountability over the deaths and reports of torture in detention. Tokayev, who had served as Kazakhstan's Prime Minister from 1999 to 2002 and later as Chairman of the Senate, emerged from the crisis as the country's unchallenged leader, winning a snap presidential election in November 2022 with an expanded seven-year term. The events of early January 2022 remain a defining, and deeply contested, chapter in Kazakhstan's transition away from the Nazarbayev era.