The oil workers held a similar protest in the capital, Astana, earlier this week before they were dispersed by police and sent back to Zhanaozen.
April 14, 2023
By RFE/RL's Kazakh Service
ZHANAOZEN, Kazakhstan -- About 100 oil workers have resumed protests in Kazakhstan's volatile town of Zhanaozen to demand jobs after a similar protest they held in Astana was forcibly dispersed earlier this week and the demonstrators were sent home.
The workers gathered on April 14 in front of the offices of OzenMunaiGaz, a subsidiary of the oil-rich nation's energy giant KazMunaiGaz, demanding jobs after they lost their positions because their former employer, BerAli Manghystau Company, recently lost a tender.
The protesters said they will stay at the site until all their demands are met.
Officials at OzenMunaiGaz have said there are no vacancies at the company.
On April 11, at least 80 former workers of BerAli Manghystau Company were detained in Astana after they spent a night in front of the Energy Ministry building demanding jobs at OzenMunaiGaz.
They were released late in the night and the majority of them were forced to leave Astana for Zhanaozen by train early in the morning on April 12. Less than a dozen of the workers remains in the capital.
On April 12, a court in Astana sentenced opposition politician Nurzhan Altaev to 15 days in jail over his support for the workers. The court found the politician guilty of violating regulations on holding public gatherings.
Zhanaozen, located in Kazakhstan's southwest, was the scene of mass anti-government rallies in 2011 staged by oil workers that resulted in the deaths of at least 16 people when police opened fire on unarmed protesters.
In early January last year, other protests in the restive town over abrupt energy price hikes quickly spread across the tightly controlled former Soviet republic and led to violent clashes in the country's largest city, Almaty, and elsewhere that left at least 238 people, including 19 law enforcement officers, dead.
President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev then moved to deprive influential former President Nursultan Nazarbaev of his lifetime post atop the Kazakh Security Council, taking the post himself.
The crisis prompted Toqaev to seek help from troops from the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to quell the unrest.
Toqaev's moves since then appear aimed at weakening Nazarbaev, his relatives and close allies.
April 14, 2023
By RFE/RL's Kazakh Service
ZHANAOZEN, Kazakhstan -- About 100 oil workers have resumed protests in Kazakhstan's volatile town of Zhanaozen to demand jobs after a similar protest they held in Astana was forcibly dispersed earlier this week and the demonstrators were sent home.
The workers gathered on April 14 in front of the offices of OzenMunaiGaz, a subsidiary of the oil-rich nation's energy giant KazMunaiGaz, demanding jobs after they lost their positions because their former employer, BerAli Manghystau Company, recently lost a tender.
The protesters said they will stay at the site until all their demands are met.
Officials at OzenMunaiGaz have said there are no vacancies at the company.
On April 11, at least 80 former workers of BerAli Manghystau Company were detained in Astana after they spent a night in front of the Energy Ministry building demanding jobs at OzenMunaiGaz.
They were released late in the night and the majority of them were forced to leave Astana for Zhanaozen by train early in the morning on April 12. Less than a dozen of the workers remains in the capital.
On April 12, a court in Astana sentenced opposition politician Nurzhan Altaev to 15 days in jail over his support for the workers. The court found the politician guilty of violating regulations on holding public gatherings.
Zhanaozen, located in Kazakhstan's southwest, was the scene of mass anti-government rallies in 2011 staged by oil workers that resulted in the deaths of at least 16 people when police opened fire on unarmed protesters.
In early January last year, other protests in the restive town over abrupt energy price hikes quickly spread across the tightly controlled former Soviet republic and led to violent clashes in the country's largest city, Almaty, and elsewhere that left at least 238 people, including 19 law enforcement officers, dead.
President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev then moved to deprive influential former President Nursultan Nazarbaev of his lifetime post atop the Kazakh Security Council, taking the post himself.
The crisis prompted Toqaev to seek help from troops from the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to quell the unrest.
Toqaev's moves since then appear aimed at weakening Nazarbaev, his relatives and close allies.
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