Aziz Qodirov, Tajikistan’s oldest surviving veteran of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, passed away on February 25 at the age of 104. His funeral took place in the Shahrinav district of the country.
The news of his death was confirmed by the district's War and Labor Veterans Council, who reported that Qodirov had been ill in recent months and receiving treatment at home.
Born in 1922 in Shahrinav, Qodirov left his job as a schoolteacher in 1939 to enlist in the army. He served on the front lines, where he was wounded multiple times. In 1943, he returned home and resumed his work in education.
With Qodirov's passing, only 12 veterans of the Great Patriotic War remain in Tajikistan.
In a statement delivered in Dushanbe’s Victory Park on May 8, 2025, President Emomali Rahmon, in particular, noted that “out of 1.5 million residents of Tajikistan at the time, approximately 300,000 were mobilized to the battlefield — that was 50 percent of the working-age population. Over 100,000 of them gave their lives in battle, more than 40,000 went missing, and another 60,000 returned from the war with disabilities.”
