Azerbaijan honors memory of January 20 tragedy victims
34th anniversary of the January 20 tragedy in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan today remembers the victims of the tragedy that took place in 1990.
On the night of January 19-20, 1990, several units of the Soviet army entered Baku and some other cities of Azerbaijan to suppress the popular movement for independence and to introduce a state of emergency.
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This took place against the background of the crisis in the USSR, the escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and growing dissatisfaction with the Soviet authorities’ position on the Karabakh conflict. At the time, thousands of protest rallies were held daily in Baku.
To stop all this, troops were brought into Baku.
According to official data, 150 civilians were killed that night, 744 were seriously wounded, and 4 went missing.
In 1994, the prosecutor’s office of already independent Azerbaijan recognized several major Soviet officials, including Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, as guilty of the tragedy. But in fact no one was punished.
January 20 is a day of mourning in Azerbaijan. On this day, the country’s officials, diplomats and ordinary citizens come to Shehid Alley to commemorate the victims.
“Despite the terrible crimes committed against our people, the attacks on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our country, and the nearly 30-year military occupation of our lands by Armenia, the 44-day Patriotic War led to the full restoration of territorial integrity, and the local anti-terrorist operations of September 19-20 last year led to the full restoration of our country’s sovereignty. The 34th anniversary of the tragedy of January 20, which led to the opposite result, becoming the culmination of the national liberation movement, this year for the first time coincides with the period of full restoration of our sovereignty, for which our sons and daughters gave their lives.
With deep respect and gratitude, we honor the memory of our Shehids who gave their lives for our independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty. Their memory lives forever in our hearts,” the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
