Islam Karimov
1st President of the Republic of Uzbekistan (1938–2016)
Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov (30 January 1938 – 2 September 2016) was an Uzbek politician who served as the first president of Uzbekistan, from the country's independence in 1991 until his death in 2016. He was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan from 1989 to 1991, the last to hold the post. The party was reconstituted as the People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (O‘zXDP); which Karimov led until 1996. He was the President of the Uzbek SSR from 24 March 1990 until he declared the independence of Uzbekistan on 1 September 1991.
He declared Uzbekistan as an independent nation on 31 August 1991. He subsequently won the presidential election on 30 December 1991, with 86% of the vote. Foreign observers and the opposition cited voting irregularities, alleging state-run propaganda and a falsified vote count. Karimov's first presidential term was extended to 2000 by way of a referendum, and he was re-elected in 2000, 2007 and 2015, each time receiving over 90% of the vote. Karimov initially developed strong ties with the West during the War on Terror, but following the Andijan massacre and subsequent Western condemnation, Uzbekistan moved closer to Russia and China internationally.
He ruled a repressive authoritarian regime in Uzbekistan where political opponents were assassinated, human rights were repressed, and dissent was prohibited.
The public source identifies “Islam Karimov” as 1st President of the Republic of Uzbekistan (1938–2016). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Islam, Karimov and President.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q57558. VIAF identifies the subject as 37652708. The Library of Congress control number is no94018524. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1938, 2016, 1991 and 1989.
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This entry incorporates text from “Islam Karimov” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.