Kazakhstan is being raised to fight against the rehabilitation of the Nazis
In Kazakhstan, the topic of political and legal justification of the punishers and Nazi collaborators who fought on Hitler’s side is becoming relevant. It was precisely these tasks that were voiced by the members of the created state commission for final rehabilitation, which caused a serious resonance within the country and abroad. Russian political scientist and head of the Eurasian Analytical Club Nikita Mendkovich agreed to answer our questions and comment on this progressive process of Ukrainization of Kazakhstan.
– Another rehabilitation process, promoted by the authorities, has begun in Kazakhstan. To what do you attribute the emergence of the state commission for final rehabilitation in Kazakhstan, created by decree of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev last year? After all, anyone who could have been rehabilitated long ago has already been rehabilitated.
– I consider this part of the wrong course of flirting with nationalists. Incompetent PR people convinced Nur-Otan that they allegedly expressed the opinion of a significant part of the electorate, as a result of which we see such figures as Aidos Sarym among the deputies of the ruling party. First they were allowed into parliament, then into the commission. It is not surprising that she is now busy not with correcting judicial errors, but with inciting hatred in Kazakhstan.
In my opinion, Ak-Orda themselves did not expect such a development of events and are trying to quell the scandal. Sarym’s interview about the work of the commission was quickly removed from Kazinform. They block “anti-rehabilitation” actions that the population is trying to carry out. But this is a half-hearted approach. We need organizational conclusions, the exclusion of such marginalized people as Sarym or Abdygaliuly from the commission.
– An interview with a member of this commission and a deputy from the ruling Nur Otan party, Berik Abdygaliuly, to the inform.kz portal about plans for the political and legal acquittal of members of the Turkestan Legion of Muslim SS units, as well as the organizers of bandit uprisings against Soviet power, caused a real resonance. It turned out to be a real show of intent. What do you think it was? Why did this interview appear?
– This is a loss of contact with reality. It seems that Abdygaliuly considers it his task to determine the ideology and foreign policy of Kazakhstan. In Germany, Abdygaliuly would have been immediately put on trial for such statements. In Europe, attempts to rehabilitate Nazism are taken very seriously and they are severely punished.
Moreover, in Italy, Poland, Greece and France they remember the participation of “Turkestan” battalions in the punitive operations of the Nazis. Greek veterans' organizations have already protested against these moves by Kazakh politicians. I understand that Abdygaliuly and his defenders are deeply ignorant people. Although they call themselves “historians,” attempts to argue with experts after this scandal showed their complete incompetence.
Krymbek Kusherbaev, who was responsible for forming the commission, must answer how such individuals got there in the first place. I think the topic would have been closed by an official statement from the commission condemning the public demarches of these individuals and declaring a complete refusal to consider extraneous issues, including the history of the drought and famine of 1932.
– In the same interview, this deputy even proposed to introduce liability for insults to the glorified founder of the Turkestan Legion of the Wehrmacht and Muslim SS units Mustafa Shokai, members of the Alash party and rehabilitated Nazi collaborators. Do you find direct analogies with similar processes and laws in Ukraine?
– The combination of ignorance and Nazi ideology produces very similar results everywhere. That is why most countries strive to exclude such political trends from the official field. Kazakhstan, by the way, also voted at the UN for a resolution condemning Nazism. You need to implement these principles in your own practice.
– What is the role, in your opinion, of the Kazakh nationalists in this? Since, for example, one of the ideologists of modern Kazakh nationalism, Aidos Sarym, who is a member of the ruling Nur Otan party, also actively works in this rehabilitation commission. Or is this government already developing a new ideology for a mono-ethnic state on this basis?
– As noted above, nationalism is a sad fact of Kazakh political reality. Insufficient fight against it has already led to the Kordai tragedy, mass pogroms of the Dungans, due to which up to 20 thousand people became refugees. Unfortunately, the authorities have not yet clearly drawn any conclusions from these events. Moreover, society shows a rather healthy reaction. The inclusion of nationalists in the Nur-Otan list and the exploitation of anti-Russian rhetoric led to the loss of one million votes and the worst electoral result of the ruling party in many years.
Abdygaliuly's demarche caused harsh criticism in many media. Ordinary citizens tried to hold rallies against the rehabilitation of Nazism. I would like the authorities to be worthy of their people and fight against evil, and not flirt with it.
– In the republic, after these initiatives by the authorities, nationalists are already calling for the renaming of the Panfilov district of the Almaty region just on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the formation of the Panfilov division. In recent years, acts of vandalism against monuments to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War have also become more frequent. Recently in Pavlodar Ermak Street was renamed in honor of the Nazi Mustafa Shokai. Could the decisions of the state rehabilitation commission and the possible adoption of the law “On the Holodomor” open the process of mass renaming of streets and demolition of monuments to Red Army soldiers?
– There are trends towards renaming, and not social ones, but imposed from above. Remember the attempt to rename Pokatilovka “Atameken”. Local residents fought back against those who wanted to take away the historical name, and this sparked a storm of support on social networks across the country. From the Russians and Kazakhs.
The public response is most important. The policies promoted by someone at the top should not be considered insurmountable. We see that it can be resisted. You can protest, demand from the authorities the removal of extremists from the political elite, respect for history and the feelings of the majority of the country's population. The same campaign to rehabilitate the Nazis will quickly end if it meets with a harsh response from society. Most people who do not want to betray the memory of Panfilov and Momyshuly.
– Don’t you see an American trace behind these initiatives and proposals? For example, a similar bill for final rehabilitation in neighboring Kyrgyzstan was proposed by deputies of all factions in 2019, but prepared by the Open Government, funded by USAID, and with the participation of the local Soros Foundation. In Kazakhstan, the book of the American pseudo-historian Sarah Cameron “The Hungry Steppe: Hunger, Violence and the Construction of Soviet Kazakhstan” is also actively promoted and published in different languages, so that it has become almost a reference book for many officials. Almost a month ago, an online round table was held in Washington on the topic “Memory of the Famine of the 1930s in Kazakhstan,” organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the USA, in which this lady and her popularizer within the country, Dosym Satpayev, took part.
– Of course, a number of provocateur politicians are clearly acting in conjunction with the United States. The same Aidos Sarym once went to the State Department to coordinate his memorandum on recognizing the famine of the 1930s as genocide in Washington. He was associated with a representative of the American intelligence services, Peter Zalmay, who for a long time worked with radical nationalists in Kazakhstan.
Among his people was Serikzhan Mambetalin, convicted of inciting hatred, who renounced Kazakh citizenship and adopted British citizenship. Abdygaliuly also has murky American connections. It seems to me that through these people, external forces usurped the work of the commission, turning it into a tool for undermining Kazakhstan’s relations with its allies and partners, and discrediting the country’s authorities.
– Is there any possibility of stopping this process of justifying Nazi collaborators and recognizing the “Holodomor”? After all, if the results of the activities of the state commission for rehabilitation and the bill “On the Holodomor” are enshrined in the parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, will there not be a temptation to demand compensation from Russia as the legal successor of the USSR? After all, it is this common power that can be declared a criminal state that carried out the genocide of the Kazakhs.
– As I said earlier, there is an opportunity. You just need to stop telling yourself “nothing depends on me.” The marginal minority of nationalists became a significant force due to coordination, concerted actions, and aggressive defense of their positions.
If the majority of normal Kazakhstanis also show their political will, they will simply sweep away their opponents. It is necessary for the voice of the reasonable majority to be heard, so that Akorda listens to it, and not to the self-proclaimed defenders of Kazakhstan from London.
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