The Karimov Foundation recalled the “Osh events” of 1990 and published an excerpt from Leonid Levitin’s book “Uzbekistan on a historical threshold”.
“And there was Osh. I do not consider it possible for me to write in detail now about the “Osh events” of June 1990 for many reasons. Let me remind you that then, in only two days, according to Askar Akayev, hundreds of Uzbeks and Kyrgyz were killed in the interethnic massacre. The republic was miraculously saved from the second Karabakh. The firm position of President Karimov helped.
More than 600,000 Uzbeks live in the south of Kyrgyzstan. Almost each of them has relatives in the adjacent areas of Uzbekistan. Tens of thousands of people, armed and without weapons, began to gather at the borders of the two republics under the slogans of protecting their brothers. They were constrained by the army units urgently redeployed from the central regions of Russia. The situation grew hotter by the hour.
In this truly critical situation, Karimov said that as long as he is the president, not a single Uzbek will cross the border of Kyrgyzstan with unkind intentions, that he will not allow any revenge, whatever the cause. And he prevented the tragedy by using all means available to the president. What an amazing moral feat! And how rare they are in the modern world.
On the occasion of the “Osh events”, Carlile said that Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are mutually interested in ensuring that the situation in the Osh region remains stable. Karimov is striving to this with all his might in order to prevent a tragedy similar to that which suddenly broke out in June 1990.
In March 1991, Karimov flew to Osh to sign an agreement on friendship and cooperation between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Thousands of people greeted Karimov along the entire road from the airport and on the streets. It was never seen by me, either before or after, massive enthusiasm and happiness for the arrival of the statesman. People with flowers, and, I recall, March, ran out onto the roadway, throwing bouquets under the wheels of the car in which the leaders of the two republics were traveling. The motorcade now and then stopped in the crowd”.
It should be recalled that on June 4, 1990, a major inter-ethnic Osh conflict occurred in Kyrgyzstan. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kirghiz SSR and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the former USSR, 305 people were killed during the riots, 1371 people were injured.
