Black January
Black January refers to the bloody crackdown of Azeri protest demonstrations by Soviet army in Baku, Azerbaijan on January 20, 1990.
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and mass prescription of Azeri population from Armenia resulted in peaceful nationalist demonstrations in Baku in the last days of December 1989. The demonstrators protested against ethnic violences, demanded an ouster of Azerbaijani communist officials and called for independence from the Soviet Union. Local government lost control over the situation and Moscow decided to preserve the Soviet power in Baku by force.
The Soviet army units entered Baku from several directions on 19 January 1990, shortly before midnight, without preliminary declaration of the state of emergency. The Soviet troops attacked the protesters firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days.
According to official figures 133 people died, and 611 received injuries of varying severity, 841 were arrested and 5 - missing. The soldiers used bullets with an offset centre of gravity designed to swerve after entering the body.
Almost the whole population of Baku turned out to bury the dead on the third day - January 22. For another 40 days, the country stayed away from work in a sign of mourning and mass protest.
The extreme session of the Supreme Council of the Azerbaijani SSR held on January 22 1990 at request of the people and initiative of the group of deputies tried to evaluate the January 20 events and adopted some documents condemning the behavior of Soviet army.
In 1994, the National Assembly of Azerbaijan (Milly Mejlis) gave the events a full political and legal evaluation for the first time. According to the Decrees of the President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev of December 16 1999 all the victims of the crackdown were awarded the title “Shahid (Martyr) of January 20”.
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