Andijan (Andijon in Uzbek; also Andizhan, Andizan, Андижан) is the fourth-largest city in Uzbekistan, and the capital of the Andijan Province. It is located in the east of the country, at 40°47′ N 72°20′ E, in the Fergana Valley, near the border with Kyrgyzstan on the Andijan-Say River. It has an estimated population of 350,000.
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From the mid-eighteenth century Andijan was a part of the Khanate of Kokand. Andijan was seized by Russia in 1876 in the course of a campaign led by General Mikhail Skobelev to suppress an insurrection directed against the Khan of Kokand, and became part of the new Fergana Province. In 1898 it was the scene of another uprising, this time against the Russians, led by an Ishan from the nearby village of Min-Tyube. A thousand of his Murids attacked the Russian garrison in the early hours of the morning, killing a few soldiers, but the rebellion was easily suppressed. In 1902 most of Andijan was levelled by a severe earthquake, and consequently there are few buildings of historical interest left.
In the 1990s, though, the Andijan and the surrounding region became much more unstable. Poverty and an upsurge in Islamic fundamentalism produced tensions in the region which resulted in riots in Andijan in April 1990 in which the homes of Jews and Armenians were attacked. The town, and the region as a whole, suffered a severe economic decline following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Repeated border closures badly damaged the local economy, worsening the already widespread poverty of Andijan's inhabitants. Islamic fundamentalists established a presence in the city. In May 2003, a local man named Azizbek Karimov was arrested and accused of carrying out terrorist bombings on behalf of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. He was convicted and executed in April 2004.
In May 2005, 2,000 people protesting against the Uzbek government seized control of the prison and the regional administration building in the eastern city of Andijan. The protesters wanted legal charges dropped against 23 men accused of forming a cell of the Akramiya, a banned Islamist organistion .
Uzbek security forces shot dead hundreds of the protesters in efforts to regain control of the city . Independent reports put the number of dead between 400 and 600, almost entirely civilians. Although Uzbek authorities put the death toll as 169, this is widely regarded as an underestimate.