Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports one of the last major figures of Tajikistan's civil war era has just been removed from a key post he held for 20 years.
Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloyev might not be a name well known outside Tajikistan, but he has most certainly been someone well known to Tajikistan's people throughout its 25-year history as an independent country. Ubaidulloyev is reportedly part of Tajikistan's history.
On January 12, Rustam Emomali, the 29-year-old son of Tajikistan's president, was appointed mayor of Dushanbe, replacing Ubaidulloyev, who had been Dushanbe's mayor since 1996.
Ubaidulloyev was reportedly once considered by many to be one of the most powerful people in Tajikistan, possibly the most powerful for a time.
Ubaidulloyev is from Kulob, the same region as President Emomali Rahmon. When Tajikistan became independent in late 1991, Ubaidulloyev was the deputy chairman of the Kulob region's executive committee.
After independence, Ubaidulloyev quickly rose through the ranks of government.
In 1994, Rahmon was elected to the reinstated post of president and Ubaidulloyev became first deputy prime minister. From 1994 to 1997, Ubaidulloyev was part of Tajik government delegations that met at the negotiating table with the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), the government's opponents in the civil war, to try to reach a peace agreement.
In February 1996, the commander of one of the government's units suddenly advanced on Dushanbe making demands for changes in the government.
Colonel Mahmoud Khudoiberdiyev threatened to attack the capital unless Rahmon sacked several top officials, Ubaidulloyev among them. (The others were Prime Minister Jamshed Karimov, presidential chief of staff Izatullo Hayoyev, and the head of the Khatlon province, Abduljalil Salimov.)
Rahmon reportedly acquiesced, but quickly gave Ubaidulloyev the post of chairman, later mayor, of Dushanbe, where he remained until January 12, 2017.
On April 17, 2000, the upper house (Majlisi Milli) of Tajikistan's parliament held its first session and Ubaidulloyev was selected Senate chairman, the second highest post in Tajikistan. He still holds that post, for now.
Ubaidulloyev expended great efforts on trying to modernize a city that really had not been anything more than a town where there was a bazaar every Monday, until the Soviet Union made Dushanbe into a regional center and later republic capital, though from 1929 to 1961 it was called Stalinabad.
Ubaidulloyev also ordered an end to people keeping farm animals in the capital.
With the exception of President Rahmon, Ubaidulloyev was the last person from the civil war era to hold a top post in government.
Ubaidulloyev will turn 65 on February 1. He is certainly eligible to retire.
