Azerbaijan's National Security Chief Fired: State T.V.

BAKU, July 23 (AFP) - Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has fired one of his most powerful lieutenants, National Security Minister Namiq Abbassov, state-run television reported Friday.
Abbassov is the biggest figure yet to lose his job in the oil-rich former Soviet republic since Aliyev succeeded his father, Heidar Aliyev, as president late last year.
The minister is to be replaced by Eldar Mahmudov, a senior official from Azerbaijan's interior ministry, according to the text of a presidential order read out on the state-run AzTV station.
The outgoing minister had served under Heidar Aliyev since 1994 and was widely seen as a key figure in the ruling elite. His ministry is the successor organisation to the KGB, the feared Soviet secret police.
Any changes in the government are closely watched in Azerbaijan, where, according to analysts, reformers led by President Aliyev are engaged in a behind-the-scenes power struggle with conservatives inside the government.
The presidential order did not give any reason for sacking Abbasov.
He is the third minister to have been fired by Azerbaijan's 42-year-old president. Earlier this year, Aliyev sacked the ministers for communications and foreign affairs.
Azerbaijan is a mainly Muslim republic of eight million people which borders Russia and Iran.
It has substantial oil reserves off its Caspian Sea coast. A multi-billion-dollar (-euro) pipeline is currently under construction to export the oil from the landlocked Caspian to world markets.