Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has fired Charymurad Amanov, the minister of national security "for insufficiencies in his work," and replaced him with the minister of defense, the Turkmen state media and regional press have reported. The precise reasons were not stated, but followed an investigation by Prosecutor General Chary Hojamuradov which uncovered "shortfalls," according to the State News Agency of Turkmenistan.
As we've noted in the past, the job of Minister of National Security has to be one of the most insecure jobs in the Turkmen regime, particularly in the last two decades since independence.
Past dictator Saparmurat Niyazov had a series of the security chiefs arrested on charges of treason or corruption, or forced some to resign on "health grounds," or demoted them to lesser posts. One minister would be used to investigate his predecessor, and then become the target of the next witch hunt.
Then Berdymukhamedov removed the ministers associated with the legacy of Niyazov, but later became dissatisifed with his appointees. Amanov received a number of warnings for poor performance.
In October 2010, we said,
Charymurad Amanov has held the post of security chief since 2007, when President Berdymukhamedov came to power, but as the Turkmen leader constantly shuffles his ministers in an effort to maintain his own power, his job tenure is not certain.
So, by presidential decree dated March 29, Amanov is out now, and in his place is Yaylym Berdyyev, who was serving as minister of defense, gundogar.org reported.The new minister of defense, Begench Gundogdyyev, was the deputy minister.
The presidential press service issued only a terse statement about the changes, regnum.ru reported.
Amanov previously served as head of the presidential security service, and as he advanced up the ranks, the previous minister of national security, Geldymurad Ashirmukhammedov was arrested, and the then-head of presidential security, Akmurad Rejepov, was fired, notes regnum.ru.
In his report to the meeting of the national security council on March 29, Prosecutor General Hojamyradov said his purpose was to "guarantee the rule of law in all spheres of the state and government and society." Yet there's no guarantee he might not be next. Berdymukhamedov and Amanov likely invoked law and order when they cleaned up the Rejepov mess. Rejepov, who had helped engineer Berdymukhamedov's succession to power after Niyazov's death, was later arrested with his son and a businessman on charges of corruption and misuse of office.
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