On the night of January 19-20, under direct instructions from Mikhail Gorbachev, the then General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, military units from the USSR Ministry of Defense, State Security Committee and Ministry of Internal Affairs entered Baku and nearby regions, massacring the civilian population using heavy military equipment and other various forms of weaponry. The Soviet army deployed a large contingent of special and internal troops in Baku who displayed unprecedented cruelty against the peaceful population. The army had brutally killed 82 civilians and severely wounded 20 others until a curfew was announced. Several days after the curfew was announced, 21 more civilians were murdered in Baku. 8 more civilians were killed in areas where a curfew had not been imposed, on January 25 in Neftchala and on January 26 in Lankaran.

As a result of the January tragedy, 150 civilians were killed and 744 more were wounded in Baku and nearby regions. Among those killed were women, children and the elderly, medical employees and policemen.

Mass arrests accompanied the illegal deployment of troops and the subsequent military intervention. A total of 841 civilians were arrested in Baku and other cities and regions of the republic, 112 of whom were sent to prisons in different cities of the USSR. The Soviet troops fired on 200 homes, 80 cars and set fire to a large number of public and private property, including ambulances.

The atrocities committed by Soviet troops were reminiscent of those actions condemned in the 1945-1946 international tribunal known as the Nuremberg trials.

The victims of the tragic events of 1990 are symbolically named “20 January martyrs”. In total, there are 150 “20 January martyrs” in Azerbaijan.

Immediately after the tragedy, on January 21, 1990, National leader Heydar Aliyev visited with his family members the office of Azerbaijan`s permanent representation in Moscow. He expressed solidarity with his people, sharply condemned the Soviet leadership for committing the bloody tragedy and exposed those who led the operation. At a session of the Milli Majlis of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic on November 20, 1990, National leader Heydar Aliyev described the January tragedy as an assault on the Azerbaijani people`s sovereign rights: “I think this tragedy, which took place on January 19-20, is a result of the great fault of the political leadership of the Soviet Union, namely Gorbachev and his dictatorial ambitions, as well as of the then Azerbaijani leadership’s betrayal and crimes against their own people.

This epochal event was the deciding factor in forming Azerbaijani National identity and marked a turning point in restoring national independence. It was the January tragedy that turned a national liberation movement into a political reality and gave strong impetus to the Azerbaijani people`s struggle for independence.

The first political-legal recognition of the January 20 tragedy came on March 29, 1994, when Azerbaijan’s legislative body Milli Majlis adopted a relevant resolution on national leader Heydar Aliyev`s initiative. The resolution read: “The deployment of the Soviet troops in the city of Baku and several other regions and the brutal killing of civilians, with the intent to suppress, to break the confidence and will of a people who by peaceful means demanded a new democratic and sovereign state and to humiliate their national identity as a show of Soviet army power must be regarded as a military aggression and crime of the totalitarian communist regime against the people of Azerbaijan.”

The people of Azerbaijan continue to hold the memories of the martyrs dear to their hearts. On January 20 of each year, thousands of people visit the Alley of Martyrs to pay their tributes by laying flowers, say prayers for the victims and express their condemnation of the perpetrators of the tragedy.

Each year at midday on January 20, a nationwide moment of silence is observed to commemorate January 20 martyrs. Ships, cars, and trains sound sirens throughout the country, commemorative events are held in all cities and towns, and the national flag is lowered on all buildings.

Recommended literature:

1. 20 yanvar: tariximizin qanlı və şanlı səhifəsi / tərt.- red. Ə. B. Mehdiyev, V. Əliyev, D. M. İsmayılov, E. Qədirli, ingilis dilinə tərc. N. İ. İsmayılov, O. Muradov, rus dilinə tərc. N. Xıdırov, A. Axundova, ərəb dilinə tərc. Ş. Əliyev, layihənin rəh.: Ə. M. Həsənov, A Ə. Aslanov.- Bakı: Şərq-Qərb, 2014.- 356 s. 
2. 20 Января: кровавая и славная страница нашей истории.- Баку: Шарг-Гарб, 2014.- 356 с. 
3. Черный январь. Баку - 1990: документы и материалы / сост.: М. Т. Абасов [и др.].- Баку: Азернешр, 1990.- 288 с. 
4. 20 January: a Bloody and Glorious Page in our History / tərt.- red. Ə. B. Mehdiyev, V. Əliyev, D. M. İsmayılov, E. Qədirli, ing. dilinə tərc. N. İ. İsmayılov, O. Muradov.- Bakı: Şərq-Qərb, 2014.- 356 p.