ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Family, friends, colleagues, opposition activists, public figures, and journalists paid their respects on August 16 to Baltash Tursymbaev following the death of the longtime Kazakh government critic.
Tursymbaev died on August 14 at the age of 75 from a heart attack.
Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev and former President Nursultan Nazarbaev sent written condolences to Tursymbaev's relatives.
After oil-rich Kazakhstan gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian-born Tursymbaev served in various senior posts, including as a deputy prime minister, agriculture minister, regional governor, Security Council secretary, and an ambassador to Turkey.
In 1999, Tursymbaev joined the opposition and had since harshly criticized the country's first postindependence president, Nazarbaev, and his successor, Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.
In recent months, Tursymbaev was demanding from the authorities a thorough investigation into the violent dispersal of mass anti-governments protests in the country in 2020 that left 238 people dead, including some from torture.
Rights groups insist the official death toll is vastly underreported.