January 20: Day of national mourning in Azerbaijan

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

“... It was a bloody night that I cannot forget despite so many years have passed. That horror, scare, panic,” 46-year-old Arzu Aliyeva says with trembling voice. "And that was the first ever sounds of gunfire that I heard in my life. There was horrific scene outside. Everywhere was covered with a mist produced from the shots, while the accompanying sound of gun-shorts made the feeling much more dreadful. It was awful to watch screaming people down the street, running away the Soviet tanks and bearded soldiers targeting civilians."

That is the very gloomy memory of my interlocutor, who scares even to remember those tragic timeframe of her life -- fired, wounded, dark...

The collective punishment of people demonstrating their unwavering will to independence from the Soviet empire after 70 years of subjugation was cruel and unexpected.

Twenty six years pass since that tragic January events in Azerbaijan, which was went down into the country’s history as “Bloody January”.

During an operation which began from the late hours of January 19 into January 20, 26,000 hostile and aggressive-minded Soviet special forces called "Alfa" entered Baku to commit atrocities against the Azerbaijani people. They stormed and murdered hundreds of civilians without declaring a state of emergency.

Around 10pm in the evening deafening silence suddenly covered the city after demolition of the central television station and termination of phone and radio lines by the Soviet army. The people were deprived of the right to access information.

They fired protesters crushing many of them with tanks, and arrested hundreds more for imprisonment and torture. The invasion was launched at midnight. It was committed with unbelievable brutality. Even children, women and the elderly were targeted.

Abbas Abbasov, the old man, remembers that blackish day in his life with sorrow. “I was going home in BIna settlement outskirts Baku, when soldiers short me on my leg. Then the tanks approached me, and soldiers started to beat me down. In agony, I was taken to the hospital by local residents,” he said.

Sevinj Safarova, an employee of the Clinical Hospital said that she cannot forget the cries and moans of the wounded people.

“I was on duty that day and we received the wounded beginning from 12pm. There was huge stream of injured, while we had only three surgeons and two nurses at the hospital then. We were unaware of the happened,” she told. “We needed help, and medical students came to assist us. There was not even an electricity, and we were burning papers, or lighting a candle to save the injured.”

Soviet soldiers were standing near the hospital, not allowing people to go out. They were firing at doctors, she added.

She could not keep her tear while remembering that tragic night at the hospital.

“We received forty-two corpses in an hour. I will never forget the death of two children -- nine and fourteen years old. There was also a child wounded in the stomach, who later died...”

January events of 1990 will forever remain as a big wound for Azerbaijanis. People could hardly forget the pain and confusion that the nation experienced on those days. No one even could imagine that the Soviet authority would be so cruel with the civilians.

Though the final death toll is still disputed, at least 130 people died from wounds received during the subsequent violent confrontations. A vast majority of the casualties were civilians, with over 700 of them wounded

Sparks for collapse

Historian Firdovsiya Ahmadova says that the reasons of January tragedy go deep into history, beginning from the territorial claims of Armenians against Azerbaijan.

“Back in 1987 the Armenian academics and official figures claimed to the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and conducted propaganda in this direction. Taking advantage of Soviet Union’s last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika policy, Armenians once again resumed their insidious policy towards Azerbaijan,” the historian added.

Then, the Soviet government had an intention to realize the Armenian policy by diplomatic means in 1988, but failed because millions of Azerbaijanis headed to the streets to protest Armenian aggression and separatist forces fueling unrest in the ancient land of Azerbaijan -- the mountainous Karabakh region.

Azerbaijani people launched the square movement to defend their rights and land. “Indeed, the Central government sent military forces to suppress the national movement and even crushed the rebellions by force. But that was temporary,” Agayeva stressed.

Azerbaijanis were determined to protect their territorial integrity and did not step back, showing their sacrifice and vigor for the national freedom.

The crime that the Soviet army committed on these two days in Baku was a real sabotage and bloody crime against Azerbaijanis, who were protecting their constitutional rights, the historian stressed.

At that time Azerbaijan's national leader, former President Heydar Aliyev, was living in Moscow and he came to Azerbaijan’s permanent representation to present his condolences to the people. In an emotional speech he directly blamed the officials of the USSR and Azerbaijan in initiating the tragedy. Heydar Aliyev, who considered this tragedy a crime against the Azerbaijani people, emphasized that the initiators bore responsibility for it and should be properly punished.

This tragic event did not break the spirit of the nation, but marked a turning point in the history of Azerbaijan’s independence from the Soviet Union and revealed the strong determination of the people to build their own independent country.

January 20 tragedy has provoked worldwide anger and indignation of the progressive forces.

A report by Human Rights Watch titled “Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "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."

The horrible night did not give the chance for many young people to fulfill their purest dreams, including the lovely couple of Ilham and Fariza, who also became the victims of bloody tragedy.

The event separated two loving hearts. Ilham became one of the first victims at that night. Unable to bear the death of her beloved Fariza took her own life drinking acid, the day after Ilham’s funeral.

Now their graves lie side by side near the entry of the Martyrs’ Avenue, like the day that Ilham and Fariza promised to be together forever and kept their word.

Every January 20th is a mourning day in Azerbaijan to commemorate all martyrs, who sacrificed their lives for the bright future of the nation. They live in hearts of Azerbaijanis...