Doha: The Azerbaijan embassy commemorated the 26th anniversary of the tragedy of January 20.
On this day of 1990, under orders from then Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, tanks and a large contingent of Soviet Army units, interior troops and special destination detachments entered Baku city and other regions of Azerbaijan and opened fire on civilians.
With the invasion and violence, the leadership in the erstwhile USSR was trying to maintain the Communist regime in Azerbaijan and strangle the national liberation movement.
At the end of 1980s, Armenians increased their claims on Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region inside Azerbaijan, and forced Azerbaijanis to flee from Yerevan and other regions of Armenia. Azerbaijanis were beaten, killed and driven from their homes. The people protested injustice and began their struggle to protect their rights and preserve their territorial integrity.
The failure of the USSR government to prevent increasing Armenian claims on Azerbaijan’s territory and separatist activities in Nagorno-Karabakh caused concern of Azerbaijanis and reinforced the people’s national liberation spirit. In 1988, mass demonstrations of Azerbaijan people started and developed into a national liberation movement. The aggression on January 20 killed 137 civil citizens and injured over 700 in Baku, while some 800 were arrested. Soldiers destructed and burnt homes, apartments, automobile shops.
Azerbaijani people united in their effort to continue their struggle. Azerbaijan’s national leader Heydar Aliyev, who lived in retirement in Moscow at that time, strongly condemned the Soviet leadership for the invasion at a press conference in Moscow on January 21, 1990 and soon after that he resigned from the Communist Party.
The January 20 tragedy became a turning point for Azerbaijan, strengthening the will of the people to build their own independent country and in 1991, Azerbaijan became independent state.
The Peninsula
