One year after the Zhanaozen massacre, a memorial protest was held in Berlin. The Kazakh artist and activist, Raushan Tolganbayeva, opened her exhibition “Reflections” dedicated to the victims of Dec 16 & 17, 2011. Raushan is very active in the resistance against the Kazakh regime and has organised and participated in various protests in Berlin, Brussels and elsewhere. The vernissage was visited by several dozens of people.
Theatre director Bolat Atabayev, who had been taken captive this summer after publicly taking the side of the striking oil workers and was only freed after a massive wave of international solidarity, also participated in the exhibition. Bolat and US-american artist Ruth Sergel, during their speeches and via a film, pointed to the ongoing human rights’ violations in Kazakhstan.
Campaign Kazakhstan was present at the event with information material about our work, collecting signatures and winning new supporters. In our speech, we stressed the need for an anticapitalist perspective for the social resistance against the Nazarbayev regime in Kazakhstan. We emphasized the fate of Vadim Kuramshin who recently has been convicted to 12 years of jail, and whose release will be one of the main objects of the campaign in the next months.
This intensification of collaboration between German and Kazakh artists and activists raises the pressure on the Nazarbayev regime, and we’ll surely stage more protests in the near future.
