President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov dies

Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov passed away on 2 September 2016 at Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He was 78.

Karimov had dominated Uzbekistan, Central Asia's most populous nation, for more than 25 years.

About Islam Karimov

• Islam Karimov was the first President of Uzbekistan, in office from 1990 to 2016.

• He was born in Samarkand and was in and out of an orphanage from 1941 to 1945.

• He became an official in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He became the party's First Secretary in Uzbekistan in 1989.

• On 24 March 1990, he became President of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic.

• His election to the Uzbek Communist Party resulted after his predecessor Rafiq Nishonov failed to quell inter-ethnic clashes and instability in the Fergana Region.

• He declared Uzbekistan an independent nation on 31 August 1991.

• He subsequently won its first presidential election on 29 December 1991.

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