Kazakh migrants protest violence in their homeland
By the time Madina Intykbayeva turned 18, she had seen enough of the corruption and inequity in her native Kazakhstan to understand that as a member of the working class, she would have to search for opportunity elsewhere if she wanted the education and career she had in mind for herself.
Like many who leave Kazakhstan, a major oil producer and exporter, Intykbayeva, 28, set her sights on the Lone Star State, getting a scholarship at Texas Tech University to study engineering before moving to Houston to work in the oil and gas capital of the world.
On Saturday though, Intykbayeva’s focus was on her homeland. The same factors that drove her to leave Kazakhstan have stirred up unrest in the former Soviet country.
What began as protests against surging gas prices and inflation last week led to broader showings of discontentment against decades of autocratic rule, including riots in Almaty, the nation’s largest city. In response, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has directed security forces to “kill without warning.”
While protests in other parts of the country have remained peaceful, some suspect that the rioting in Almaty is the result of infighting between factions of the political elite, and the conflict has already left dozens dead and hundreds more injured. Tokayev has turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Collective Security Treaty Organization — an alliance of mostly post-Soviet nations — for support, and Putin has responded by sending military forces into Kazakhstan to quell the uprising.
For Kazakhs in Houston, such as Intykbayeva, Tokayev’s actions amount to treason.
“He betrayed our nation,” Intykbayeva said. “It is our basic human right to protest. Kazakhstan names itself a democratic country, but it’s not a democracy if you go to protest and you get killed.”
As the protests in Kazakhstan grew increasingly volatile over the course of the week, Intykbayeva reached out to other Kazakh immigrants in the area to organize a protest. While their population is small compared with those of other Asian countries such as Vietnam and China, Intykbayeva estimates that Kazakh immigrants in the greater Houston area number in the thousands.
As of 2015, over 400 Kazakh immigrants lived in the Houston city limits alone.
Over a dozen Kazakh immigrants came with their families to Hermann Square on Saturday to protest the crackdown on demonstrators in their homeland and to demand the removal of CSTO forces from Kazakhstan.
One man filmed for social media as the demonstrators lined up in the pouring rain, bearing signs and chanting “Free Kazakhstan” in English, Russian and Kazakh.
“We need to bring attention to this problem because it’s just basic human rights. You just cannot kill your own people, you cannot kill women and young men, and like in any post-Soviet country, they won’t tell you how many people they’ve killed,” Intykbayeva said.
Communication between Kazakh immigrants in Houston and their families back home has been extremely limited since the protests broke out last Sunday. Authorities in Kazakhstan have restricted access to WiFi, leaving residents to rely on state-run media for information and expats unsure of their loved ones’ safety.
Aray Tuganbayeva, a 28-yearold doctor in Houston, has been putting money into an app called Yolla so she can call her family in Almaty and keep them posted on the developments in the city. They have been unable to leave their home for fear of the riots.
“I want freedom for my people to be able to go outside to say what they want to say and not have a chance of getting killed,” Tuganbayeva said. “We just want freedom for our people.”