THE “BLACK JANUARY” OF 1990
Pogroms of Armenian Population in Multinational Baku
Azg/arm
19 Jan 05
These days 15 years ago, on January 13-19 of 1990, when Azerbaijan was
still soviet, the People’s Front nationalistic party instigated
pogroms of Armenians in multinational Baku. The Armenian population
numbering 200 thousand was massacred, persecuted and send out of the
country by the admission of Mikhail Garbachov and the soviet army.
But this fact was no obstacle to give Garbachov a Nobel Prize for
Peace few months later. Few years later the first and the last
president of the USSR confessed that the fact that he declared
emergency and sent troops to Baku was the most serious mistake in his
political biography. This was, in fact, an apology to Azeris who had
taken few tolls on January 19-20 in Baku. But Garbachov never repented
for the death of dozens of Armenians killed by the Azeri throng on
January 13-19. Instead, he hailed the pogroms of Sumgait as
hooliganism.
Tom de Waal, British journalist and eyewitness of the events, wrote in
his “The Black Garden” that the Armenian borough of Baku and Sumgait
turned into a slaughterhouse. Armenians were thrown down from their
flats of many-storied buildings; the throng was beating Armenians to
death. Thousands of Armenians found refuge at the police stations or
the “Shafag” cinema; thousands of terrorized and tortured Armenians
reached Krasnovodsk harbor of Turkmenistan. Some of them died aboard
ships on the Caspian Sea or at Yerevan hospitals.
Rufat Ahmedov, an Azeri journalist wrote: “There is no doubt that the
Armenians underwent massacres. Few dozens out of the 200 thousand
Armeniansof Baku were killed, others fled. Many of them hid at the
Azeris’ homes. All in all, the soviet inner forces billeted on Baku
and numbering more than 11 thousand were able to prevent the pogroms”.
Undoubtedly, the pogroms were carried out by a direct order from Azeri
authorities. Let’s turn to the chronicle. Neymed Panahov and Rahim
Ghaziev from the People’s Front stated in a televised appearance on
January 12 that Baku is full of homeless refugees whereas there are
still thousands of Armenians inthe town. Abdurahman Vezirov, leader of
Azerbaijan appealed to the nation to take active measures against the
Armenians. “We hold he Center (Moscow) in our hands”, he said.
According to Zardusht Alizade, a famous Azeri political analyst, the
posters on the People’s Front office were indicating to the homes of
Armenians. According to Arif Yunusov, an independent analyst, the
death toll of Armenians was 86.
Interestingly, Yevgeny Primakov and Dmitri Yazov were in Baku when the
pogroms were carrying out. Only on January 19, when the massacres
stopped as there was no Armenian left, the soviet inner forces took to
task of settling the Azeris down. At least 130 Azeris died and
hundreds got wounded. There were innocent victims as well. The soviet
forces took a toll of 21 dead during the two-day “operation”.
Heydar Aliyev held a press conference at the Azeri diplomatic
representatives on January 20 of 1990 and condemned the “Azeri” part
of Baku pogroms. The “black January” of 1990 was the start of Aliyev’s
new political activity. Ayaz Mutalibov changed Vezirov as the head of
the country on January the 20th.
By Tatoul Hakobian
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress