Sherali Khayrulloyevich Khayrulloyev (Russian: Шерали Хайруллоевич Хайруллоев; Tajik: Шералӣ Хайруллоевич Хайруллоев; born 8 November 1949) is a retired Tajikistani general and politician. He was the Minister of Defense of Tajikistan from 1995 to 2013.[1][2]
Early life
He was born in November 1949 in the village of Hamadoni, in the Danghara District of the Kulob Oblast. He is Tajik by ethnicity. He graduated from high school in 1966. In 1970, he graduated from the Department of Economics, Tajik National University.
During the Tajik Civil War that began in 1992, he remained loyal to the central government, organizing operations against rebel groups.
Defence Minister
Khayrulloyev became the minister of defense on 7 April 1995. It was previously expected that his predecessor, Colonel Shishlyannikov, would eventually be replaced by Colonel Ramazon Radjabov, rather than Khayrulloyev.[4] He was reappointed by decree on 1 December 2006 after the 2006 Tajik presidential election.
In 2010, during a dinner meeting with the departing Richard E. Hoagland, Khayrulloyev allegedly questioned NATO's attempts to bring Georgia into the alliance, saying that "Even the Warsaw Pact didn't subsume losers!" also saying that the United States "indulges the adolescent" referring to President Mikhail Saakashvili. He also added that "Without Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Georgia has no hope of existing."[5] He resigned in 2013 due to health issues.[6][7][8]
Advisor to the President (2014–2019)
On 25 January 2014, the President of TajikistanEmomali Rahmon appointed him the Advisor to the President on National Security issues.[9] In March 2019, Khayrulloyev retired from military service.[10]
