Azerbaijan remembers "Black January" (02/13/00)

Azerbaijan remembers "Black January"

The commentary below is from the January 20 issue of Azerbaijan Newsletter, published by the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

This year on January 20 the people of Azerbaijan commemorated the 10th anniversary of tragedy in Baku, Azerbaijan's capital. Azerbaijanis remember the night of January 20, 1990, when Soviet troops invaded Baku in what became one of the most tragic events in the country's recent history. The Kremlin chose indiscriminate violence against civilians, using tanks as a response to popular demands for more sovereignty and an end to the Communist regime. Victims of that tragedy represented Azerbaijan's diverse and multicultural society and included a 7-year-old boy, a newly married couple, an 80-year-old man, a 16-year-old girl, a doctor shot in an ambulance, and many others.

In his "Decree on the 10th Anniversary of the Tragedy of January 20," the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, said: "Despite being subjected to military, political and moral aggression, the people of Azerbaijan showed the entire world their dedication to a historic tradition of heroism, ability to withstand the most difficult challenges, and readiness for self-sacrifices for freedom and independence of the Motherland."

Unprecedented in their brutality, the events in Baku were preceded by earlier attacks on civilians in Almaty, Kazakstan, and Tbilisi, Georgia, in 1986 and 1989, respectively. Furthermore, January 20, 1990, was followed by use of force in Vilnius, Lithuania.

According to "Black January in Azerbaijan", a report by Human Rights Watch: "Among the most heinous violations of human rights during the Baku incursion were the numerous attacks on medical personnel, ambulances and even hospitals." The report concluded that: "Indeed the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19-20 ... constitutes an exercise in collective punishment ... The punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in other republics of the Soviet Union."

Some in the West were fooled by the Gorbachev-led Soviet leadership's rhetoric about "restoring Constitutional order," however, the people of Azerbaijan, who were on the receiving end of Moscow's "measures," knew it was about their freedom and independence.

In 1991 Azerbaijan gained independence; in April 1993 it became the first among the former Soviet republics - ahead of many countries of Eastern Europe - with no Russian military bases on it soil.

The Alley of Martyrs, in Baku's hilltop park, where the victims of the Black January were laid to rest, became one of most vivid reminders of the terrible price Azerbaijan has paid for its freedom and independence.

Among many Azerbaijanis united in their effort to tell the truth about January 20 in Baku and break the news blackout, was Azerbaijan's current leader President Aliyev, who was [then] living in retirement in Moscow. His strong condemnation of Soviet leadership because of this invasion, delivered at an improvised press conference in Moscow on January 21, 1990, became his first public appearance since his resignation from the Soviet Politburo in 1987.

Every year Azerbaijanis around the world mark the tragedy of January 20. This year, the Azerbaijan Society of America organized a briefing on Capitol Hill.

Speaking at the event, Azerbaijan's Ambassador Hafiz Pashayev said: "I know that Black January started the process of strengthening my people's determination to achieve independence and eventually leading to the restoration of Azerbaijan's sovereignty. I believe this determination will help us to prevail, despite all problems, on our path toward becoming a rightful member of the 21st century international community, where governments will never even consider using troops against their own peoples."

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