Major General Zarif Sharifzoda ( Russian and

Tajik Tajik, Tadjik, Tadzhik or Tajikistani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Tajikistan * Tajiks, an ethnic group in Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan * Tajik language, the official language of Tajikistan * Tajik (surname) * Tajik cu ...

: Зариф Шарифзода) was a Tajik general who was the former Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Tajikistan.

Biography

He was born Zarif Tairovich Bobokalonov on November 3, 1970, in

Soviet Tajikistan The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic,, ''Çumhuriji Şūraviji Sotsialistiji Toçikiston''; russian: Таджикская Советская Социалистическая Республика, ''Tadzhikskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Resp ...

. His military career first took off in the early 2000s, when he was appointed as Deputy Chief of the General Staff. On top of that, in 2010, Sharifzoda was made the Head of the Operational Directorate of the General Staff of Tajikistan, a position he would serve in for 2 years before leaving the country in 2012 to go and study at Russia's general staff academy in Moscow. On January 18, 2014, President Emomali Rahmon appointed him as his Chief of the General Staff, overseeing all four military branches of the armed forces. That same year, he changed his name from his family name, Bobokalonov, to Sharifzoda, which was a result of Rahmons's efforts to de-

Russification Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...

the country's culture. He was dismissed from his role on November 24, 2015, being replaced by General

Emomali Sobirzoda Lieutenant General Emomali Abdur Rahim Sobirzoda (Tajik: Эмомалӣ Абдураҳим Собирзода; born July 20, 1972) is a Tajik military leader and the current Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Tajikis ...

. He was killed in a car accident in the center of Dushanbe on January 18, 2017, when he was returning home after work and made a collision with another car. Sharifzoda died immediately after the accident took place.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharifzoda, Zarif 1970 births 2017 deaths Tajikistani generals Chiefs of the General Staff (Tajikistan)

Biography

See also

References