Editing History of Uzbekistan (section)

===Perestroika and Glasnost===
{{Main|History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991)|Perestroika|Glasnost}}
In the late 1980s, the liberalized atmosphere of the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev (in power 1985–91) fostered political opposition groups and open (albeit limited) opposition to Soviet policy in Uzbekistan. In 1989 a series of violent ethnic clashes involving Uzbeks brought the appointment of ethnic Uzbek outsider [[Islam Karimov]] as Communist Party Chief. When the Supreme Soviet of Uzbekistan reluctantly approved independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Karimov became president of the Republic of Uzbekistan.<ref name=cp/>

During the decade following the death of Rashidov, Moscow attempted to regain the central control over Uzbekistan that had weakened in the previous decade. In 1986 it was announced that almost the entire party and government leadership of the republic had conspired in falsifying cotton production figures. Eventually, Rashidov himself was also implicated (posthumously) together with [[Yuri Churbanov]], Brezhnev's son-in-law. A massive purge of the Uzbek leadership was carried out, and corruption trials were conducted by prosecutors brought in from Moscow. In the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan became synonymous with corruption. The Uzbeks themselves felt that the central government had singled them out unfairly; in the 1980s, this resentment led to a strengthening of Uzbek nationalism. Moscow's policies in Uzbekistan, such as the strong emphasis on cotton and attempts to uproot [[Islamic]] tradition, then came under increasing criticism in Tashkent.<ref name=1980s>Lubin, Nancy. "The 1980s". In Curtis.</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=January 2014}}

In 1989 ethnic animosities came to a head in the [[Fergana Valley]], where local [[Meskhetian Turks]] [[Fergana massacre|were assaulted]] by Uzbeks, and in 1990 in the Kyrgyz city of [[Osh]] [[Osh riots (1990)|Uzbek and Kyrgyz youth clashed]].