AZERBAIJAN’S "TRAGEDY": A FAIRY TALE
By Ivan Gharibyan

news.am
Jan 20 2010
Armenia

January 20 is a day of "national mourning" in Azerbaijan. This is the
Aliyev clan’s interpretation of the tragic events in Baku in January
1990. The Azeri state propaganda has taken one episode out of the
entire context of the tragic events – the entry of Soviet troops to
Baku, which was the only way of establishing law and order in the
city, with numerous acts of brutal violence and ethnic murders being
committed there.

For 20 years the tragic events in Azerbaijan have been designated as
"suppression of the Azerbaijani people’s aspiration for freedom." So
what does, according to the Aliyev clan, the "Azerbaijani people’s
aspiration for freedom and independence" mean? Nothing but mass
pogroms of the local Armenian population in several cities, including
the capital, gang rapes, including statutory rapes, burning people
alive. Turks and Azeris have always been "fond of" massacring people
– three Armenians pogroms took place in Baku in the 20th century,
to say nothing of the Armenian Genocide.

And now the rising generation in Azerbaijan is sure that, all of a
sudden, the Soviet leaders decided to introduce troops into peaceful
Baku, and those troops proved to be "extremely cruel." And no one even
asks: Why did the Kremlin order the troops to enter the capital of one
of the Soviet republics? No. But we can only hear "moving" speeches
about the "totalitarian Communist regime, which committed a terrorist
act against the Azerbaijani people." By the way, everything turns out
tragically absurd at this point as well: the "national leader" Heydar
Aliyev, who saved the Azerbaijani people from all the troubles, was
an outstanding representative of the "totalitarian Communist regime."

Xenophobia, the very essence of present-day Azerbaijan, has been
especially obvious over the last few days. The official propaganda
inadvertently betrays one of the pillars of the present-day ideology of
"prospering" Azerbaijan – no room for other ethnic groups, especially
ones practicing other religions, in the country. This is the conclusion
one can draw from the numerous interpretations of the events in January
1990 offered by Azerbaijan. Of course, according to official Azeri
propaganda, beatings, rapes and murders on January 13-19 were not a
tragedy. Moreover, nothing like that had ever happened. But the entry
of Soviet troops to Baku on January 20 was "a national disaster." The
fundamental principles of the Aliyev clan’s propaganda are nothing but
a manifestation of neofascism: Armenian citizens of the Azerbaijani
Soviet Republic could be murdered in cold blood without any problems,
and those murders were manifestations of "the Azerbaijani people’s
aspiration for freedom and independence."

But killing the participants in the Armenian pogroms as Soviet troops
entered Baku was a "tragedy" – they were Azeris!

Yes, January 20 is a tragic date for the Azerbaijanis. It is a real
tragedy when thugs and murderers are officially declared national
heroes, when "a Shahids’ lane" is built in their honor for people,
like a herd of cattle, to go up there to pay homage to the cut-throats’
memory.