TODAY IS 17 ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN POGROMS IN BAKU

‘Yerevan, January 13. ArmInfo. Today is the 17th anniversary of the
Armenian pogroms in Baku.

On Jan 13 1990, after a meeting of the People’s Front of Azerbaijan,
several thousands of ralliers began to attack the houses of Armenians.

"Mass disorders began in Baku yesterday. There are human
casualties. We have gathered today to prevent them," the first
secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Azeri
SSR Abdurahman Vezirov said during an extraordinary meeting on Jan 14.

Jan 14 evening a group of Soviet generals came from Moscow and forced
the local leadership to agree to the projection of 10,000-strong
additional contingent of interior troops to the city. However, by that
time Baku was already controlled by "the extremist forces of the
People’s Front" – that’s how the central press called them a few days
later. The additional forces could not enter the city.

It was a massacre similar to the one taking place two years before in
Sumqyit: people were slaughtered only because they were Armenians,
tens of thousands of Armenians were evicted from their houses and
expelled from the city, hundreds were severely beaten. Bakinsky
Rabochiy (Baku Worker) newspaper reported 91 deaths. The leaders of
Azerbaijan Vesirov, Kafarova and Mutalibov admitted that they were
mostly Armenians.

General Alexander Lebedev entered the city as late as Jan 19. The
fighters showed armed resistance.

As a result of the Armenian pogroms, over 200,000 Armenians were
expelled from Baku leaving their houses and property. Most of them
presently live in Armenia, Russia and other countries in difficult
social conditions.