At the end of August, I telephoned the well-known Kazakh human rights advocate Yevgeny Zhovtis and asked how things were going on "the front" with the criminal case that had been opened in relation to him. Yevgeny replied that in connection with the celebration of the Day of the Constitution of Kazakhstan, the trial had been postponed until 2 September. I also asked him, as a lawyer, what the punishment could be with respect to the charge that had been brought against him of having committed a DTP [a "road transport event", known as a "motor vehicle accident" in English--Trans.], as the result of which a person died? Inasmuch as the person who died was himself at fault in what had happened, said Zhovtis, the punishment could be only conditional [a suspended sentence--Trans.].
...On 2 September I telephoned anew. This time Yevgeny Alexandrovich was less optimistically disposed. I think, said he, they'll give around three years of a real term...
...They gave Yevgeny Zhovtis four years of a colony-settlement.
And I thought: to whose benefit is this? Zhovtis, after all, to the extent that was known to me, is far from the most rank-and-file of the human rights advocates in Kazakhstan. Then I found in the Net a multitude of other facts, bearing witness that in Kazakhstan the rights of people are being violated, that in the country are many totalitarian features, very similar to Russian reality.
...I flew to Almaty - the former capital of Kazakhstan.
At the Domodedovo airport I joined the end of the queue -- around 50 people. To takeoff of the flight to Almaty - around 40 minutes. Working at passport control were four border guards, although there were, as always, a lot of people. Suddenly the border guard in "our" booth got up and went away without a word. The crowd began to look around in perplexity, seeking about with the eyes a representative of the airport. A woman was found. "They are not subordinate to us," she said, and recommended that we ask a senior customs agent. One young passenger did take on the task, and willing approached the maws of bureaucracy. The bordereños heard him out in silence and did not react in any way. We had to scatter ourselves into the other queues, it goes without saying, into the ends of these queues.
In the airport of Almaty the first to meet me were the border
guardesses - nice, pleasant, attentive. They gently scolded me for
having forgotten to fill out a declaration. They quickly put a stamp on
the blank. They suggested how to go further.
At the exit I took an official taxi - on the expensive side, but then
they issued a receipt for payment. The young lad-driver spoke the
Russian language splendidly. Everywhere along the road I saw signs in
Russian and in Kazakh. But then I did not see practically any Russian
automobiles like the «Zhiguli» [Lada in English--Trans.] So where are
they? - I asked the driver. He laughed and said that Kazakhs prefer to
ride in good autos.
Almaty-on-the-Seine?
In the hotel room on a table I discovered the magazine «Altyn korpu»
(«Golden bridge»). In it an article under the name «The cause of
Genghis Khan lives and conquers, or what is pan-turkism...» The author of
the article - a Serik Maleyev. Inasmuch as I did not know what
pan-turkism was, I read the article. From it I found out that tribes
headed by Attila that had enslaved Italy and Gaul in the year 451 were
called Huns and were the founding ancestors of today's Turkic peoples.
That the Kazakhs were forced to become Russian subjects at the turn of
the 17th-18th centuries. That in the year 1916 the Kazakhs were
deprived of their property, being forcibly driven off the lands.
That the initiative of president of Kazakhstan Nazarbayev with respect to the founding of a Turkic parliamentary assembly is «far from accidental». That Russia has only one path - « within the framework of the Eurasian idea hand in hand with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Turkey to build up a new Turco-Slavic union». Otherwise - a catastrophe for Russia.
Inasmuch as Russia has no need to get accustomed to catastrophes [i.e. they are nothing new for Russia--Trans.], I put the magazine aside. I took a newspaper. It's called «Panorama». In it was told about politics business, sport... Here are but a few of the headlines: «The OSCE is granting Kazakhstan an opportunity to broadcast its national interests and priorities»; «In August inflation fell»; «Work with respect to the modernization of the normative-legal base in the sphere of construction and housing-and-public-utilities will be continued»; «Results of golf tournament totalled up»...
From the notices in just one issue of just one newspaper I found out that two journalists have literally recently been convicted in Kazakhstan: Ramazan Yesergepov - for the publication of an article about the activity of the Kazakhstani Committee for National Security (the former KGB) and journalist of the newspaper «Vremya» Tokhniyaz Kuchukov - for participation in a DTP with a lethal outcome.
You could accuse me of subjectivism, but I consider: in a country where they lock up journalists for their publications or in obviously falsified cases, there isn't even a whiff of democracy. And yet Kazakhstan is trying to get into European family: president Nazarbayev declared the presidency in the OSCE in the year 2010 a «national priority» of the country.
By the way, in many mass information media there was a story about a military parade of troops that took place on 30 August in Astana - the capital of Kazakhstan - and was dedicated to the Day of the Constitution. An opinion about this parade was expressed in that same «Panorama» by the poet, translator and philosopher Auezkhan Kodar. In his opinion, the parade is an indicator of the «fear of the ruling pinnacle before today's political situation», before «a world that wants to live without them».
I also found such a notice: «Yevgeny Zhovtis has been convicted to four years of deprivation of liberty».
(To be continued)
Photos: Almaty today (photo by G.Pasko)
