President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov made personnel changes in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In particular, he transferred Vepa Hajiyevfrom the post of Deputy Minister to the post of Ambassador to Switzerland and Permanent Representative to the UN office in Geneva.
The post of Ambassador to Switzerland and Permanent Representative of Turkmenistan to the UN Office was held by Atageldi Khaljanov. He was dismissed “due to a transfer to another job” at a meeting on December 11. His new post is not specified.
Berdiniyaz Myatiev was also dismissed from the post of Deputy Foreign Minister. It is reported that he was dismissed “due to a transfer to another job”.
Former Ambassador to Iran Akhmet Gurbanov and Serdar Muhammetdurdyev became the new Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs. The latter still held the position of head of the department of state protocol and international relations of the Office of the President of Turkmenistan. He has not been dismissed from this post and will work part-time.
Turkmen.news reported about personnel changes being prepared at the Foreign Ministry in mid-November. In particular, Hajiyev was already predicted to have the position of Permanent Representative to the UN. Previously, he regularly spoke at various UN hearings, presenting national reports on human rights and answering questions from country representatives and international experts.
The reports named Batyr Niyazlyev, who was recently removed from the post of Ambassador to Russia, as a possible successor to Hajiyev as Deputy Minister. But his relative, the ex-head of the Turkmenhimiya state concern Niyazly Niyazlyev, was recently taken under arrest in a corruption case.
New Deputy Foreign Minister Serdar Muhammetdurdyev is called a protégé of Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov.
Source: AKI Press