NUR-SULTAN, January 29. /TASS/. The peacekeeping mission of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) forces in Kazakhstan was absolutely legal and the peacekeepers did not fire a single shot, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in a televised interview with the national channel Khabar-24, aired on Saturday.
"The involvement of the CSTO peacekeeping contingent was carried out in accordance with the treaty documents of that organization. Having arrived in Kazakhstan, the CSTO peacekeeping contingent did not fire a single shot. It was agreed from the outset that the contingent would perform support functions, that is the protection of strategic facilities, and that we would deal with the rest on our own. We needed [military] support," he said.
According to the president, the very news of the peacekeeping mission’s arrival in Kazakhstan played a significant psychological and frightening role for the gunmen.
"It was obvious that it was a force. By the way, it was a united contingent. Besides Russia, there were military units from Belarus, Tajikistan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. In other words, it was a united peacekeeping contingent," Tokayev explained.
Protests broke out in various Kazakh cities on January 2, escalating into mass riots and attacks against police and military personnel, with government buildings getting ransacked across several cities a few days later. Subsequently, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev turned to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) requesting assistance, and as a result, peacekeepers were deployed to Kazakhstan. Law and order, Kazakh authorities affirm, was restored to all of the country’s regions by the morning of January 7. On January 19, the state of emergency was lifted across the country. According to authorities, 225 people were killed in the insurrection, and more than 4,500 people injured.