The 1990 Dushanbe riots marked a period of heightened civil disobedience and inter-ethnic violence in the capital city of the Tajik SSR of the Soviet Union.

Existing tensions over lacking economic and political reforms were exacerbated by the arrival of Armenian refugees from the Azerbaijan SSR due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The mass movement of Tajik nationalists (e.g., the Rastokhez), anti-communists, and Islamists targeted ethnic minorities, such as Armenians, Russians, Jews, as well as unaffiliated Tajiks—namely women who did not conform to Islamic clothing standards.

[1][3] Despite the fact that Armenian refugees resettled not in public housing but with their relatives, and by 1990 had already left Tajikistan for Armenia,[1] official denouncement of the rumours was not able to stop the protests.

However Mahkamov's over-reliance on military force was criticized by Buri Karimov, a deputy chair of Council of Ministers, who called for the resignation of the leadership of the Tajik Communist Party.