MINSK, January 10. /TASS/. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that if lessons are not learned from the events in Kazakhstan, this could happen again, primarily in Uzbekistan.
"The lessons that have been talked a lot about here should be learned [by everyone], first of all, Uzbekistan. If these lessons are not learned, according to our information, their (the terrorists’ - TASS) sights have already been set on Uzbekistan," Lukashenko said on Monday at an extraordinary session of the CSTO Collective Security Council.
According to him, there are "too many people who want to undermine the situation" both in Kazakhstan and in other post-Soviet republics of Central Asia. "Afghanistan has been added to this list quite recently," Lukashenko noted.
He pointed out that, as the events have shown, many international terrorists have gathered on the borders of Kazakhstan. Lukashenko believes it necessary for the countries of the region to jointly solve the emerging problems. According to him, it is impossible "to overcome negative tendencies" "just within Kazakhstan." "I am absolutely convinced of this, the closest peoples - Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan - should team up and try to solve the difficult problems that have been inherited and created by us in the post-Soviet period," Lukashenko said.
Protests erupted in several Kazakh cities on January 2, escalating into mass riots with government buildings getting ransacked in several cities a few days later. The ensuing violence left multitudes of people injured, with fatalities also being reported. Subsequently, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev turned to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) requesting assistance from the Russia-led bloc. As a result, peacekeepers have already been deployed to Kazakhstan. Law and order, Kazakh authorities affirm, was restored to all of the country’s regions by the morning of January 7. Tokayev designated January 10 as a nationwide day of mourning.