In November 1992 a session of Tajikistan's Supreme Soviet held in the northern city of Khujand abolished the presidency and installed Emomali Rahmon as chairman of the Supreme Soviet and de facto head of state, shifting power to the Kulob-based faction as the civil war raged. After Nabiyev's forced resignation in September, the acting president Akbarsho Iskandarov and his coalition government resigned in November 1992 in a failed bid to reconcile the warring factions. The Supreme Soviet, still dominated by hardliners, then convened its 16th session in Khujand, an anti-reform stronghold away from the fighting, with major field commanders present.
The session confirmed Nabiyev's resignation, abolished the office of president, and elected the 40-year-old Kulob deputy Emomali Rahmon (then Rahmonov) as chairman of the Supreme Soviet, making him the country's leader. With Russian and Uzbek backing, his faction went on to prevail in the war.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: The November 1992 Khujand session installed Emomali Rahmon and abolished the presidency; the displaced authority was the resigning acting president Akbarsho Iskandarov and his coalition, who stepped down and were not physically harmed.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Emomali Rahmon (installed as head of state)
Akbarsho Iskandarov (acting president whose coalition resigned)
Sources
On 12 December 1992 the Supreme Soviet, where the coalition faction between Khujand and Kulob had held the majority of seats all along, convened and elected a new government under the leadership of Emomali Rahmon, representing a shift in power from the old power based in Leninabad to the militias from Kulob, from which Rahmon came.
In November the Iskandarov coalition government resigned in the hope of reconciling the contending factions, and later that month the Supreme Soviet, still dominated by hard-liners, met in emergency session in Khujand to select a new government favorable to their views, and when the office of president was abolished the speaker of parliament Imomali Rahmonov became de facto head of government.
The sixteenth session of the Supreme Soviet, held in the northern city of Khujand and aided by the presence of 24 main field commanders from all sides, confirmed Rahmon Nabiyev's resignation, abolished the institution of the presidency, and elected Emomali Rahmonov, a forty-year-old people's deputy from Kulob, as the chairman of the Supreme Soviet.
SOURCE REVIEWEDFacts and Details / Nourzhanov and Bleuer, Heart of the Tajik Civil War in 1992open source ↗
Iskandarov resigned in November 1992 in an attempt to end the civil unrest, and that same month the Supreme Soviet met in Khujand for its 16th session and declared Tajikistan a parliamentary republic, with Rahmon then elected by the members of the Supreme Soviet as its chairman.
Coding note: the dataset labels this a rebel coup with a not-physically-harmed fate and dates it November 20, 1992. It captures the November 1992 Khujand session of the Supreme Soviet that abolished the presidency and installed Emomali Rahmon as head of state; the immediately displaced authority was the resigning acting president Akbarsho Iskandarov and his coalition government, who stepped down and were not physically harmed, matching the dataset. Date nuance: sources place the decisive Khujand session in the second half of November 1992 (the 16th session, opening around November 16 to 23), with the associated government formation continuing into December; the dataset's November 20 date falls within this window, and the sequence is recorded. Arc link: this is the third of three linked Tajikistan 1992 records in this batch, following the May outbreak and Nabiyev's September resignation; it marks the rise of Emomali Rahmon, who has ruled Tajikistan ever since. Historical weight and mass-violence context recorded neutrally: the Khujand session shifted power to the Kulob-based faction, which with Russian and Uzbek backing went on to win the civil war that killed an estimated tens of thousands (figures cited from 20,000 up to 100,000) and displaced a large share of the population; these figures are recorded per their sources rather than adjudicated. Neutrality maintained on a contested subject.
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The November 1992 Khujand session installed Emomali Rahmon and abolished the presidency; the displaced authority was the resigning acting president Akbarsho Iskandarov and his coalition, who stepped down and were not physically harmed..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“Tadzhikistan’s new acting head of state elected,” November 19, 1992
“Tadzhikistan to replace presidency with parliamentary system,” November 28, 1992
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →