KAZAKHSTAN. Almaty. January 2022. Environmental activist Asya Tulesova has become known to a wider audience in Kazakhstan after being arrested for displaying a politically motivated sign during a marathon in 2019. Since then, she has been politically active, co-creating an activist youth movement called “Oyan Qazaqstan” (“Wake Up, Kazakhstan”), while also taking part in protests and getting arrested several times.

On January 4th, she met with a group of people who met in an area south of the First President’s Park and then made their way across the city to the Republic Square. However, Asya, as well as some others, was captured and taken away to a police station. She was held until the next morning, tired and hungry, and without any knowledge of what was happening in the city. After being released, she went home to eat and rest, and since there was no internet, she wasn’t aware of the details, until the evening of the 5th.

She understands that this is an important time for the country, and it is important to take actions now, but at the moment she feels tired and overwhelmed from the past years. She wants to start a political party, but she is not sure when she might start doing this, because she needs to gather her strength, before she can continue.

225 people were killed (including soldiers and police officers) and 4,578 wounded; nearly 12,000 people have been detained in Kazakhstan in massive riots across the country, according to authorities.