2023 Student Protests in Talas

The 2023 Student Protests in Talas were a wave of demonstrations by university students and delivery couriers in Talas in October 2023, set off by a new municipal licensing surcharge on independent technology startups and couriers. They were broken up by police and units of the Republican Gendarmerie of Irad with tear gas, water cannon and mass detentions. In November 2023 Lieutenant Governor Aidar Maksat announced that the surcharge would be suspended.^[1][2]

Background

The protests came during a period of economic stagnation and frustration among young urban Iradis, and in the year in which, according to independent reporting, the Governor's executive moved from Talas to the Boz-Korgon compound east of Nurzhan; the government maintains that Talas remains the operational capital. The gubernatorial election was due the following month.^[3] In October 2023 the Talas municipal administration announced the surcharge. On OneDebate, the prime-time panel program of IradOne, the commentator Jason Ilyasov called it "a tax on the only part of the economy the family doesn't own yet", and clips of the exchange spread widely on social media.^[1]

The protests

Within days, students and couriers gathered at Talas State University and marched on the government district. Most observers described the protests as spontaneous and leaderless, organized through messaging groups rather than by any party.^[1] Small merchants joined some of the marches. Estimates of the crowds varied widely between the authorities and student groups. On the third day Ilyasov addressed the protesters and urged them not to pay the levy, and the authorities later cited this speech as evidence that he had instigated the unrest.

Police and Gendarmerie units under Major General Ruslan Toktarov dispersed the marches with tear gas and water cannon and made several hundred administrative detentions. Ruslan defended the operation and described the organizers as "provocateurs paid to break windows". Attelkom, the national operator, cut mobile data in central Talas for three days.^[2] Ilyasov was held in administrative detention for three days and released without charge after press-freedom groups criticized his detention. A Talas Herald reporter, Erkin Bolot uulu, was held for ten days.

Aftermath

In November 2023 Maksat announced the suspension of the surcharge. Human Rights Watch criticized the use of force and the detention of minors (see Human rights in Irad).^[2] IradOne kept Ilyasov off the air for several months before booking him again in 2024, and his audience grew further after Governor Erlan Toktarov withdrew from public view in July of that year.^[4]

The protests prompted competing explanations. Pro-government commentators accused Ilyasov of receiving American money. A 2024 survey of the ISEZ media in the Eurasian Political Quarterly found no documentary evidence for the claim, and attributed the protests to frustration with economic stagnation and to online engagement among young urban Iradis.^[4] Ilyasov says that his platform is self-funded.

References

1. ^ Talas Herald (November 2023). 'Courier Levy Sparked Student Marches, Now Suspended.' Talas.
2. ^ Human Rights Watch (2024). 'Water Cannon and Silence: The Policing of the 2023 Talas Protests.' New York.
3. ^ Central Asian Demographic Review (2024). 'Generations and Politics in the Special Economic Zone.' Vol. 17.
4. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'Media Provocateurs and Opposition Politics in the ISEZ.' Vol. 31, Iss. 2.