Black January (), also known as Black Saturday or the January Massacre, was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in Baku on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a state of emergency during the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
In the resolution of January 22, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan SSR declared that the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in Baku and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression. Black January is seen as the rebirth of the Azerbaijan Republic. It remains one of the few occasions during the glasnost and perestroika era in which the USSR used force against dissidents.
Events
In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering Iran ripped down border fences, demanding closer ties with ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. The local authorities in Jalilabad surrendered to rioters, turning over administration to the Popular Front of Azerbaijan. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of the Lankaran administration to the Popular Front two weeks later. On January 9, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR voted to include Nagorno-Karabakh in its budget and allowed its inhabitants to vote in Armenian elections, thus disregarding Soviet authority and Azerbaijani jurisdiction and causing rage throughout Azerbaijan. This led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of Azerbaijani communist officials and called for independence from the Soviet Union. Their rhetoric was, according to a Human Rights Watch report, "heavily anti-Armenian". On January 12, the Popular Front organised a national defence committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilise people for battle with Armenians. Azerbaijani authorities also ordered the 12,000-strong Interior Ministry troops to abstain from intervening in the Baku riots and numerous Soviet army and fleet units of the Baku garrison and Caspian Flotilla did not intervene to stop the riots, claiming that they had no orders from Moscow authorities. however, findings of the Moscow-based non-governmental organisation Shield found no evidence of "armed combatants of Azerbaijani Popular Front", which had been used as a motive to crush the civilian population on January 20. The independent Shield organisation which consists of a group of lawyers and officers in reserve, observing human rights violations in the army and its military operations, concluded that the army waged a war on its civilians and demanded to start a criminal investigation against the Minister of Defence, Dmitry Yazov, who had personally led the operation. The Azerbaijani Interior Ministry officials had helped Popular Front activists in stirring disorder by providing them with weapons, technical facilities, and informing them about the movement of army units. In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing into the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a state of emergency, which continued for more than 4 months afterward, declared by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, signed by President Mikhail Gorbachev. The state of emergency was, however, disclosed to the Azerbaijani public only several hours For another 40 days, the country stayed away from work as a sign of mourning and mass protest. However, how the soldiers died is still disputed. The soldiers' death toll was claimed by Soviet authorities to have resulted from armed resistance, although some of the soldiers could have been victims of friendly fire. and 137 civilians died with unofficial number reaching 300. Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing. An additional 26 people were killed in Neftchala and Lankaran regions of the country.
State of emergency
President Gorbachev and other officials asserted that it was necessary to stop pogroms and violence against the Armenian population and to thwart efforts by extremists to overthrow the Azerbaijani government. The government's decree said: "Extremist groups are organizing mass disorders fanning national enmity. They are committing bold criminal acts, mining roads and bridges, shelling settlements, taking hostages."
Defence Minister Yazov also said that nationalists were plotting a coup d'état in Azerbaijan: "A meeting was planned at which it was proposed to declare the transfer of power into the hands of the People's Front." He noted how the "Popular Front" declared its own state of emergency in Baku before the action was taken and how Soviet state organs "ceased to control the situation."
News coverage
During the Black January crackdown, Soviet authorities managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in Baku, one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, Abdurrahman Vazirov would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order. making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organise protest actions. Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the USSR complained officially to the United States about Radio Liberty's coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990 broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar's appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: "On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people."
Assessment
A special session of the
Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR was held on January 22, 1990 at the request of the public and by initiative of a group of MPs. It tried to initially assess the January 20 events and adopted some documents condemning the crackdown operation by Soviet army.
The Memorial Society and Helsinki Watch reported in May 1991 that they had found compelling evidence that the imposition of the state of emergency had led to an unwarranted breach of civil liberties and that Soviet troops had used unjustified force resulting in many deaths. This includes the usage of armoured vehicles, bayonets and firing on clearly marked ambulances.
and Black January.]]
Independence
On October 18, 1991, the Azerbaijan parliament restored the country's independence. Gorbachev later apologised to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career". In 1994, the
National Assembly of Azerbaijan adopted a full political and legal evaluation of the Black January events. According to the decree of the
President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev from December 16, 1999, all victims of the crackdown were awarded an honorary title of the "Martyr of January 20" ().
January 20 is marked as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.
See also
Martyrs' Lane
History of Azerbaijan
History of the Soviet Union
April 9, 1989 Massacre
Jeltoqsan
Singing revolution
January Events (Lithuania)
January 1991 events in Latvia
Notes and references
External links
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe - Working Papers - 2008 Ordinary Session 21. Written Declaration No. 405. Doc. 11499 - 21 January 2008. Massacre of Azerbaijanis by Soviet troops
Black January: Baku (1990) / Azerbaijan International (Spring 1998)
http://www.january20.net
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1477933.stm
Category:Articles with inconsistent citation formats
Category:History of Azerbaijan
Category:Massacres in Azerbaijan
Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union
Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union
Category:Riots in the Soviet Union
Category:1990 in the Soviet Union
Category:Protests in the Soviet Union
