The Diplomat
The Embassy of Azerbaijan commemorated this week the 33rd anniversary of the tragic events that took place in the early hours of 20 January 1990, when Soviet Army units entered Baku, perpetrating a massacre against the civilian population. As a result, 147 civilians were killed and 744 seriously wounded.
The event was attended by the Azerbaijani Minister of Tourism, Fuad Naguiyev, on a working visit to Spain, representatives of the Spanish community and Azerbaijanis living in Spain. At the beginning of the ceremony, a minute’s silence was observed.
The Ambassador of Azerbaijan, Ramiz Hasanov, in his speech recalled in detail the tragic events of Black January. In a statement, the Azerbaijani Embassy stressed that “the National Leader of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, was the first to give a political-legal assessment of the tragedy of 20 January: the civilian massacre in Baku was a flagrant violation of the Constitution of the USSR and the Constitution of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic; the UN Charter, norms of international law and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were violated”.
“On 21 January 1990,” the statement continues, “Heydar Aliyev in his speech at the Permanent Representation of Azerbaijan in Moscow demanded condemnation of the USSR leadership for the violent repression of the Azerbaijani people.”
Ambassador Ramiz Hasanov stressed in his speech that “the massacre perpetrated against the Azerbaijani people did not stifle their will to restore independence. The heroism of the citizens opened a new page in the history of national self-determination, giving impetus to the re-establishment of the Republic of Azerbaijan on October 18, 1991, when the constitutional act ‘On the state independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan’ was adopted”. Every year, 20 January, known as Black January, is commemorated as a Day of National Mourning.
