DUSHANBE, May 28, 2014, Asia-Plus – The presidential adviser on foreign policy has dropped his Russified name Erkin Rahmatulloyev for Erkinkhon Rahmatullozoda.  

We will recall that in an article published in the government newspaper Jumhuriyat (The Republic) on January 21, 2014, Tajik chief prosecutor Sherkhon Salimzoda expressed concern about young people’s going back to the Russian-style spellings of their names.  According to him, it is a sign of the low level of national and patriotic identity of the younger generation.

As proof he presented figures culled from the country''s three largest universities, where he said only two students specifically requested that their names be changed to their Tajik form in 2013, whereas 513 requested that their names be spelled with Russian-style endings.

Following this article, Tajik official circles have applied for a formal name change.  Over the past two-three months, many high-ranking Tajik state officials have begun dropping Russian-style suffixes.

Thus, Minister of Agriculture Qosim Qosimov is now known as Qosim Rahbar, Director of the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption Fattoh Saidov is now known as Abdufattoh Ghoib, Minister of Health and Social Security Nusratullo Salimov is now known as Nusratullo Fayzullo, Head of the Communications Service Beg Zuhurov is now known as Beg Sabouri, First Deputy Foreign Minister Ozoda Rahmonova is now known as Ozoda Emomali, etc.

Meanwhile, young people say that the main reason to go back to the Russian-style spellings of their names is to avoid trouble in Russia.