Time & Perspective Quote by Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

Tokayev’s line is engineered to do two things at once: seal a wound and control the narrative about who inflicted it. “Together” is the key pressure point. It’s an appeal to unity, but also a demand for compliance at a moment when the state needs the public to stop asking who ordered what, and why. In crisis rhetoric, plural pronouns are never neutral; they draft the listener into a single national body where dissent reads as betrayal.

“Step over this black day” is a carefully chosen euphemism. Not mourn, not investigate, not reckon - step over. The verb suggests forward motion without stopping to stare at the damage. “Black day” nods to tragedy while keeping it abstract, a way to acknowledge pain without naming perpetrators, victims, or the state’s own role. That vagueness matters in Kazakhstan’s January 2022 unrest, when protests over fuel prices escalated into violence, a lethal crackdown, and Tokayev’s request for CSTO troops. The phrase offers emotional recognition while sidestepping accountability.

The promise that “we will come out of this crisis even stronger” is classic post-shock legitimation: suffering reframed as a purification ritual that upgrades the nation and, conveniently, the leadership. It’s also a signal to elites. Strength here doesn’t just mean resilience; it implies consolidation - tighter security, firmer control, a reset of loyalties after an internal power struggle that sidelined Nazarbayev’s circle.

The intent is reassurance. The subtext is authority: history will record this as a dark episode, yes, but one that ends with a fortified state and a president positioned as its necessary steward.