Tajik interior minister, security service chief retain their posts
DUSHANBE. Nov 20 (Interfax) - Tajik Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimov and head of the State Committee for National Saimumin Yatimov were reinstated to their positions after the inauguration of President Elect Emomali Rahmon on November 16, the presidential press service said.
The relevant decrees were posted on the Tajik president's website.
Earlier Rahmon removed Defense Minister Sherali Khayrulloev from office for health reasons and appointed Border Forces Commander, first deputy head of the State Committee for National Security Sheralisho Mirzo to that position.
Rahimov, 53, was born in the Dangara district, which is also the place of the president's birth. He was a deputy interior minister in 2005-2007, headed the Interior Ministry's Migration Service since 2007, and became the interior minister in 2012.
Yatimov, 58, is a diplomat, a doctor of political science. He was a deputy security minister (the ministry was later transformed into the State Committee for National Security) and a deputy foreign minister. In May 2007 he was appointed as the Tajik Ambassador to Belgium and in September 2010 he was put in charge of the State Committee for National Security.
Also, Rahmon transferred Tajik National Guard Commander Rajabali Rahmonaliyev to the position of the first deputy head of the State Committee for National Security and the Border Forces Commander. Bobojon Jamolzoda, whose previous place of work was not reported, was appointed as the National Guard Commander.
The Tajik president is entitled to appoint ministers, deputy ministers, heads of regional, city and district administrations, and heads of state committees and services. Rahmon, who has been the leader of Tajikistan for 21 years, was reelected to another seven-year term of office on November 6.