[4] Atabek was born on 31 January 1953, with a birth name Aron Qabyşūly Nūtuşev, in the village Naryn Khuduk in the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (now Kalmykia, Russia).
[5] His father lived during the Holodomor famine, and spent years in a Gulag camp before eventually becoming the chairman of a collective farm in the Astrakhan Oblast.
His great-great-grandfather Makhambet Otemisuly was a poet and warrior who led an uprising in Bukey Horde in 1836–1837, but was later killed by Kazakh mercenaries under the order of the Russian Tsarist authorities.
[7] In April 1989, Atabek wrote a letter to the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union demanding "a revision of the political assessment in regards to Jeltoqsan and the release of all its protesters, as well as granting of Kazakhstan's state sovereignty".
[8] Months later in November 1989, he personally submitted an application to the Alma-Ata City Executive Committee in a request to allow a trizna feast in memory of the victims of the Jeltoqsan.
[8] In spite of this, with the approval of the Ideology Secretary Özbekälı Jänıbekov, mourning rallies were held in Alma-Ata on 13 December 1989 at the medical institute and continued until January 1990 to commemorate the third anniversary of the Jeltoqsan.
[9] In December 1989, Atabek met with First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev to voice demands that were written prior in a letter to Congress of People's Deputies.
Apart from calling for Kazakhstan's independence and the establishment of a unified Islamic Turkestan which would expel all Slavs, the party criticized the existing government, specifically Nazarbayev.
[13] In response, Atabek condemned the incident caused by the party members, accusing the KGB and Islamic fundamentalists of setting up the provocative attack.
Ultimately, the Kazakh government pledged not to demand an extradition of Atabek, while in return, Azerbaijan would only provide security, rather than granting a political asylum.
[9] Atabek defended Azerbaijan in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and became one of founders of the Turkestan Committee, an opposition group consisting of emigrants from the Turkic-speaking countries in Central Asia, taking trips to Karabakh and Chechnya, as well as participating in the 1st World Kurultai of Turkic Peoples held in Antalya.
[17][18] Atabek participated in the defense of homes in Bakai District against demolition, while calling on others to join in these efforts, writing to First Lady of Kazakhstan Sara Nazarbayeva: "Why not show some humanity and philanthropy, and legalise these miserable 0.06-hectare plots for these Kazakh families for whom these pieces of land are the only way to survive in an environment of unchecked capitalism?
[20] Multiple squadron assaults were carried out in an attempt to take control of the area, but resisting locals repelled police until the city authorities called off the siege, thus preventing further enactment of evictions and demolition of homes.
[20] Atabek, who headed the Shanyrak's Land and Dwelling Committee advocacy group at that time, sought medical care after being injured in the riot and was attacked by six policemen while staying in hospital; he was interrogated by the Almaty Department of Internal Affairs before his release at one o'clock in the morning.
[24] After returning to Kazakhstan from exile in 1996, Atabek published his poetry collection in 1998, where he translated Kul-Teguin Monument, an ancient Turkic poetic stele into Russian and Yollig-tegin.