US urges peaceful resolution to ongoing unrest in Kazakhstan

WASHINGTON

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged a peaceful resolution on Thursday to ongoing unrest in Kazakhstan that has left dozens dead amid worries of a potential civil war.

Blinken spoke by telephone with Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi, and "reiterated the United States’ full support for Kazakhstan’s constitutional institutions and media freedom," spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. The top US diplomat further "advocated for a peaceful, rights-respecting resolution to the crisis."

Protests that began in western Kazakhstan on Jan. 2 over an increase in prices for liquified petroleum gas, or LPG, later spread to other areas of the Central Asian nation, and have since gone nationwide.

In response, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared a state of emergency in the commercial capital Almaty and the oil-rich Mangystau region, which was later made nationwide. Tokayev also approved the resignation of the government, and requested support from the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Eurasian alliance of former Soviet states and Russia.

Tokayev also imposed a curfew in Almaty, the country’s former capital, where thousands of people had taken to the streets.

Kazakh security forces have said dozens of protesters died in the ongoing unrest as they attempted to take over government buildings in Almaty.