�� January 20 ��

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N o o n e a n d n o t h i n g w i l l b e f o r g o t t e n . . .

BLACK JANUARY IN AZERBAIJAN

Late at night on January 19, 1990, 26.000 Soviet troops stormed Baku. They acted pursuant to a state of emergency declared by the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium, signed by President Gorbachev and disclosed to the Azerbaijani public only after many citizens lay wounded or dead in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku.

More than 130 people died from wounds received that night and during subsequent violent confrontations and incidents that lasted in February; the majority of these were civilians killed by Soviet soldiers. More than 700 civilians were wounded. Hundreds of people were detained, only a handful of whom were put on trial for alleged criminal offenses. Civil liberties were severely curtailed.

The behavior of Soviet armed forces in Baku must be judged in the context of their actual mission. Mikhail Gorbachev's use of force in Baku was nothing but the desperate attempt to stop dissolution of Communist ruling in Azerbaijan. The Soviet army was trying to rescue the totalitarian regime, the rule of Communist Party and Soviet empire.

OPEN LETTER TO THE EX-PRESIDENT OF THE USSR, M.S.GORBACHEV

Mr. Gorbachev,
As it happens 18 years successively since 1990, on January 20 people of Azerbaijan go into mourning and commemorate the defenseless compatriots killed in result of invasion of the Soviet troops to Azerbaijan.

Events of Bloody January - 133 people of peaceful population killed, knocked down by tanks on the streets of the city, 611 wounded women and children, 200 homes ruined and burned down.

Tragedy of Bloody January is a result of your order to invade peaceful city of Baku and some regions of the Azerbaijan Republic by armed troops of the Red Army on January 19-20, 1990. This was undisguised aggression against Azeri people undertaken by leadership of CPSU, Soviet State and personally by you, Michael Gorbachev.

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January Tragedy

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