ROC Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan has addressed the national media on Monday, the day when the country mourned for those killed in clashes between security forces and protesters.
This was reported by Interfax-Religion.
“The Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan fully supports the wise and timely decision of the head of state to call on the CSTO peacekeeping forces to help the Republic. We are already seeing good results in restoring security and constitutional order in Kazakhstan, which proves that the president’s stance on resolving these issues is correct and relevant. The healthy civic forces must rally around the head of state, Kassym-Jomart Kemelevich Tokayev, in order to overcome crisis and ensure the country’s integrity,” the metropolitan said in a statement, released on the website of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The head of the metropolitan district notes that “extremists used the most brutal means to intimidate people, force them to carry out their vicious will, destroy the principles of good neighborliness and tolerance, destroy state sovereignty.”
It should be recalled that mass protests erupted in Kazakhstan on January 2 over the price of liquefied gas, which has doubled since year-start.
On January 5, following an address by Kazakh President Tokayev, the CSTO Council ruled to deploy in Kazakhstan a joint peacekeeping force.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev later said he had ordered that protesters be shot without notice, and thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for “helping in eliminating the riots.”
On January 10, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan said 7,939 people had been detained amid the unrest.
