President Sacks Influential Power-Broker

Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov has sacked the powerful head of the presidential guards service, Akmurat Rejepov. He also removed the first deputy Minister of National Security, Agajan Passyev.



The presidential decrees said both men had moved to new posts, but gave no details.



Little is known about Passyev, but Lieutenant-General Rejepov was seen as an influential figure, the “grey eminence” of the Berdymuhammedov administration.



Rejepov was head of the 2,000-strong Security Service or presidential guard, which is a separate institution from the Ministry for National Security and which for the past 17 years has protected first Saparmurat Niazov and now Berdymuhammedov.



After Niazov died suddenly in December, Rejepov backed Berdymuhammedov and helped him come to power. He is said to have helped engineer the constitutional amendments needed to allow him to stand for election.