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January 20, 1990, a decisive historical moment on the path to Azerbaijan's independence

2026-01-19 11:25:00, Kosova & Bota Anar Huseynov

January 20, 1990, a decisive historical moment on the path to Azerbaijan's

January 20, 1990 is a decisive historical moment on the path to independence of Azerbaijan. Officially marked as the Day of National Mourning, it is also a day of national pride for the country, becoming a symbol of the unwavering will in the name of national independence and freedom of our people. This epochal event marked a turning point in the restoration of national independence.

It was the January tragedy that turned a national liberation movement into a political reality and gave a strong impetus to the Azerbaijani people to fight for independence. The massacre of the civilian population of Baku on January 20 was carried out on the instructions of the Soviet government of that period to suppress the just protest of the Azerbaijani people in order to prevent the expansion of the liberation movement in Azerbaijan and beyond.

January 20, 1990, a decisive historical moment on the path to Azerbaijan's

For this reason, Soviet Union troops numbering more than 20,000 people entered Baku on the night of January 19-20, 1990, and the Soviet Army, without declaring a state of emergency, began military operations against the civilian population of Azerbaijan.

The brutal massacre was carried out on the peaceful population, and hundreds of people were killed, injured and disappeared. The roots of the January tragedy date back to 1988, when attempts to annex the former Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan from Armenia, and another wave of expulsions of Azerbaijanis from their historical lands in Armenia were gaining momentum. Due to the aggravation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the national movement grew in Azerbaijan and the situation in the country became tense.

The people of Azerbaijan were outraged by the territorial claims and aggressive acts of Armenia, supported by some then Soviet officials against Azerbaijan. Since 1988, the national movement for freedom has grown. Protesting against this policy of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), thousands of people took part in demonstrations throughout the day in the central square and on the streets of Baku. But the Soviet leadership committed a terrible crime against the Azerbaijani people, instead of preventing these growing tensions.

January 20, 1990, a decisive historical moment on the path to Azerbaijan's

Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and last president of the USSR, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the same year 1990, was in fact the main proponent of armed conflicts and massacres within the Soviet Union. He was a staunch supporter of Armenian separatism in Nagorno-Karabakh and the annexation of this territory to Armenia.

As a result of the military rally, officially 131 people were killed. Unofficially, the figures increase to at least 300 people, and possibly more. To this day, 36 years later, the truth is not known, since apparently most of the documents were confiscated and returned to Moscow by the Soviet Army when it became clear that the USSR was on the verge of collapse. 744 people were seriously injured, 4 missing, 400 arrested. After the declaration of a state of emergency, another 21 people were killed in Baku, 26 were shot in the cities of Neftchala and Lankaran. Azerbaijanis call this tragedy "Black January", meaning the massacre of civilians that took place during these days.

January 20, 1990, a decisive historical moment on the path to Azerbaijan's

Since Soviet officials publicly stated that the purpose of the intervention of Soviet troops was to prevent the overthrow of the Soviet government of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the national movement, the punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers could have been intended as a warning to the liberation movements, not only in Azerbaijan, but also in other Republics of the Soviet Union. The bloody massacre that occurred in Baku in January 1990 showed the bloody anti-humanist essence of the Soviet totalitarian regime, when the armed forces of the Soviet Union were once again used against the liberation movement and the independence of the people.

This was the Soviet Union’s “trusted method” for suppressing liberation movements, applied against the Hungarian uprising in 1956 and the Prague Spring in 1968. The punitive action of the Soviet armed forces in Baku in January 1990, in its scale, cruelty, and number of human victims, surpassed the events in Tbilisi, Vilnius, Riga, and so on. These were the last convulsions of the outdated Soviet empire. January 20 was the first test and moral victory on the path that led the nation to independence, to the restoration of national-spiritual ideas.

January 20, 1990, a decisive historical moment on the path to Azerbaijan's

“Black January” turned out to be the beginning of the end of Soviet rule in Azerbaijan and paved the way for the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Despite the bloody events in Baku, the day of January 20, 1990 became a page of heroism in the history of the struggle for independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

At this truly crucial time for the republic and when Azerbaijan was still part of the Soviet Union, risking his life, the National Leader of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, delivered his famous speech in Moscow, in which he called the decision of the Soviet supreme leadership to send troops to Baku an “inhuman, anti-democratic and unconstitutional” act and demanded that “all those involved in the tragedy be punished.” Then the decision on the first political-legal assessment of the January 20 tragedy was adopted by the Parliament of Azerbaijan on his initiative.

“Black January” has forever been recorded in the history of the country as a day of heroic struggle in the name of freedom and territorial integrity of independent, modern, democratic and prosperous Azerbaijan. The day that led to heavy losses and the killing of innocent people, highlighted the readiness for war, the pride of the people, who, not enduring the treacherous policy of the Soviet Union leadership towards Azerbaijan, raised their voices to gain freedom and independence.

January 20, 1990, a decisive historical moment on the path to Azerbaijan's

Having gone this bloody path, Azerbaijan gained its independence, but the cost was high - 20 percent of our territory was occupied as a result of Armenian aggression, which turned into active military operations. The Soviet leadership continued to undermine the restoration of an independent and democratic state, supporting Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan.

This support resulted in the occupation of 1/5 of the internationally recognized territories of our country. In addition, Armenia has carried out a policy of ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis. As a result, more than a million Azerbaijanis found themselves in the position of refugees and internally displaced persons. These actions, without a doubt, are a massive violation of the fundamental rights of the civilian population.

Azerbaijan has always advocated a peaceful resolution to this conflict. Despite nearly 30 years of negotiations mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, no results have been achieved. In recent years, Armenia has deliberately sabotaged the negotiation process, threatening Azerbaijan with a new war for new territories.

In September 2020, Armenia launched a large-scale military offensive in Azerbaijan. Completely defeated in the forty-four-day war, Armenia was forced to withdraw the remainder of its troops from the remaining parts of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan by signing an act of capitulation on November 10, 2020. Azerbaijan itself ensured the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions on the former conflict.

In September 2023, after a one-day anti-terrorist operation, Azerbaijan restored its sovereignty over all of its internationally recognized territories. The so-called “Nagorno-Karabakh conflict” has gone down in history. This development is not only an important milestone in the history of independent Azerbaijan, but also a vital condition for lasting peace, cooperation, and good-neighborly relations in the region.

The war is over for Azerbaijan, now we need to consolidate peace on the ground and make it long-term./ CNA