Today, the people of Azerbaijan commemorate the day of “Black January”, one of the bloodiest events in the history of Azerbaijan.

Thirty years ago, on 19 January the Soviet troops entered the city of Baku and other areas of Azerbaijan as the central government of the Soviet Union declared the state of emergency in our country. On the night of 20 January, the commandership of the Soviet troops started the bloody massacre against the innocent civilians living in Baku. Soldiers were ordered to shoot everyone who they saw in front of them. According to the number of the reports, during that night over 140 residents, including men, women and children, became victims of Soviet aggression as well as the hundreds of people were wounded. Most of the residential objects, vehicles and busses were destroyed by the Soviet tanks.

According to the many experts, Soviet atrocities on 20 January against the people of Azerbaijan should be considered an unforgivable crime against all humanity.

Irish historian, Patrick Walsh made comments to Eurasia Diary about the Soviet atrocities on 20 January and the disastrous policy of Gorbachev.

According to him, what happened in Baku on 20 January was a senseless massacre.

“The Soviets justified their actions on the basis that there was inter-communal violence taking place in Baku. However, there was little connection between this violence and the massive response from the Soviet forces,” Walsh said.

 “This was actually what the British used to call an “administrative massacre” when it was practiced in India in events like Amritsar. An “administrative massacre” is where the state employs massive violence in a single event to intimidate a population into passivity. That is what Black January was,” he added.

Touching upon the resistance of the Azerbaijani people to the Soviet colony in order to gain their independence, Walsh considered that the Azerbaijani people were primarily motivated by the failure of the USSR to uphold the settlement of the 1920s against the separatists in Karabakh.

“Gorbachev was encouraging nationalism through his misguided policies and failed to protect Azerbaijanis in Karabakh and Armenia, which is after all the primary responsibility of the state. It was this that led the Azerbaijanis in the direction of independence. The USSR was obviously disintegrating and independence became a necessity,” he stressed.

The Irish historian also noted that the western community has been reluctant to condemn the massacres committed by the Soviet leadership in Baku till today.

According to his view, Michael Gorbachev, the last General Secretary of the Soviet Union, is a suitable tool for the interests of western leaders, who tried for the collapse of the USSR.

“The West loved Gorbachev. They saw him as a useful fool who was helping to dismantle the powerful state which was the main enemy of the western world. They were reluctant to criticize him because he was doing such a good job and didn’t want a successful reaction,” he said.

“There was also an element of racism because if this had happened in Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia or Hungary it would never have been forgotten,” he added.