Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic along a waterway. After Stalin's death in March 1953, Stalinabad, was renamed to "Dushanbe" on 10 November 1961 as part of the De-Stalinization program. In February 1990, tensions between the Tajiks and Armenians squared off in the republic's capital Dushanbe. 26 people died and 565 more were injured and the Soviet troops put down the riots. Both Yaqub Salimov, the Interior Minister and the youth activists were convicted for the participation in the riots. Later on 24 August 1990, Tajik SSR declared its sovereignty over Soviet laws. By 1991, Tajikistan participated in a referendum in March as part of the
Independence Day (Tajikistan) towards independence. For example, it is the fifth article that had given the Supreme Council of the Republic the authority to stop the action of the documents of the USSR, which contradicted the legal rights in Tajikistan." After the failed coup organized by the State Committee on the State of Emergency (19–21 August 1991), supporters of the conservative forces of the CPSU in Moscow, in the national republics began processes proclamation of national independence. This event led to the discontent of the national-democratic and Islamic forces in Tajikistan, who fought against the Communist Party of Tajikistan, which has been ruling