Two Kazakh women ask Obama to help return their homes
| Publisher | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Publication Date | 2 February 2015 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Two Kazakh women ask Obama to help return their homes, 2 February 2015, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/54e1a497c.html [accessed 28 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
February 02, 2015
By RFE/RL's Kazakh Service
ASTANA – Police in Kazakhstan briefly detained two women who demonstrated outside the U.S. Embassy and appealed to President Barack Obama to help solve economic and social problems in the Central Asian nation.
Gulbarshin Baktybaeva and Rysqaisha Kerkimbaeva were detained on February 2 after they unfurled a sign urging "U.S. President Barack Obama and the U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan to ask President [Nursultan] Nazarbaev how we can live without homes and pensions."
Baktybaeva's daughter, Moldir, told RFE/RL that her mother was protesting a court decision on their apartment's foreclosure.
She said the two women decided to demonstrate outside the U.S. Embassy because Kazakh authorities had refused to help them.
The women, both from the northeastern city of Semey, were held for two hours and then released.
Last year, residents of several cities demonstrated in Astana to demand relief from hard-currency mortgage loans whose cost shot up after the National Bank announced a 19-percent devaluation of the national currency, the tenge, in February. Protests have also been held in Almaty.
Link to original story on RFE/RL website
