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Abdulaziz bin Mohieddin Khoja
Saudi politician and diplomat (born 1940) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Abdulaziz bin Mohieddin Khoja (Arabic: عبد العزيز خوجة; born 1940) is a former ambassador of Saudi Arabia and the minister of culture and information between 2009 and 2014.
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Early life and education
Khoja was born in Mecca in 1940.[1] He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from King Saud University. Then he earned a Master of Science degree in organic chemistry in Birmingham University in 1967.[2] He also holds a PhD in organic chemistry at Birmingham University in 1969.[1]
Career
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Khoja was appointed dean of the faculty of education in Mecca in 1979,[1] and his term lasted until 1984.[2] Then he served as the undersecretary for information affairs at the ministry of information from 1984 to 1991.[2] Later, he served as the Saudi Ambassador to various countries, including Turkey (1991), Russia and Morocco.[1] He was also Saudi ambassador to Lebanon[3] and was in office from 2004 to 2009. During this period of time, King Abdullah's foreign policy towards Lebanon was highly intense and also seen as an interventionist approach.[4] On 14 February 2009, Khoja was appointed minister of culture and information, replacing Iyad bin Amin Madani in the post who had been in office since February 2005.[1][5] Khoja's appointment was regarded as part of King Abdullah's reform initiatives.[6]
Khoja's term as the minister of culture and information ended in November 2014 when he was fired from the office.[7] Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al Khudairi replaced him in the post on 8 December 2014.[8] On January 11, 2016, he was appointed as the ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the Kingdom of Morocco (for the second time) with the rank of minister and continued in his role until November 19, 2019.[9][10]
Khoja is considered to be a relative liberal and was close to King Abdullah, former ruler of Saudi Arabia.[4] Khoja is also a poet. However, some of his works are banned in Saudi Arabia, although he himself was the minister of culture and information.[11]
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Other positions
Khoja was the chairman of the General Assembly of Makkah Establishment for Publishing and Printing, publisher of now-defunct newspaper Al Nadwa (newspaper).[12] As of 2011 he was also the chairman of the International Islamic News Agency (IINA) Executive Council.[13]
Book
In 2020 Khoja published his memoirs in Arabic, titled The Experience: Interactions of Culture, Politics, and Media, printed by Jadawel publishing, a Beirut-based company.[14][15]
References
External links
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