Today is Kazakhstan’s Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression and Starvation, which is devoted to honoring the memory of the victims of great famine and mass starvations as well as the political depressions of late 20s and early 30s, during which more than 2 million people died and more than 1 million were forced to leave the country as a result of the criminal Stalinist ethnic policy.

As one of the most tragic events of the 20th century, the Kazakh nation had lost the third of its population.  No modern nation in the world has experienced such a tragic fate.

The mass famine was followed by an unprecedented political repression and targeted killings of the Kazakh elite and intellectuals. Thousands of people were imprisoned for political reasons and most of them were sentenced to death. In Kazakhstan around 20 camps were established to keep imprisoned the repressed and their family members in detention in the most terrible conditions. 

On this important day, we join our Kazakh brothers and sisters in commemorating with respect all the martyrs of this human catastrophe of the recent times. 

On this occasion we restate that we all should do our best to prevent similar tragic events like mass famine and horrible practices such as mass political murders from happening and to ensure the peaceful and stable development of our countries and peoples as well as the whole world. 

Baghdad Amreyev
Secretary General of the Turkic Council