The Black January 1990 was an infamous event in the lives of the people of Baku, said Patrick Walsh.
Speaking to Eurasia Diary, Irish historian and political expert Patrick Walsh commented on the tragedy of Black January.
According to him, Gorbachev government’s policies had entailed the political instability, confrontation and violence in the South Caucasus.
“It came about as a result of First Secretary Gorbachev’s inept policies in which he encouraged popular mobilization across the Southern Caucasus and then bloodily repressed them in Baku. What happened in Baku cannot be disconnected from what happened before that in Yerevan and in Nagorno-Karabakh”, he said.
Irish expert believed that Gorbachev’s reforms on the Soviet system had created the opportunities for the rise of Armenian nationalism, the provocations of Armenian nationalists and their claims on the territory of a neighboring state.
“Gorbachev attempted to reform the Soviet system to bring about “socialist democracy” and reinvigorate the USSR. However, in doing so he encouraged the masses to demand change and provoked in Armenia a resurgence in expansionary nationalism that made illegal demands on the territory of a neighboring state. This brought the masses onto the streets of Baku, organized by the Popular Front. Gorbachev then proceeded to order the repression of this movement when it threatened the rule of the Communist Party in Azerbaijan”.
Patrick Walsh underscored that Gorbachev’s repression on the Popular Front had gained nothing, in contrast it had strengthened the resistance of people’s freedom movement against the totalitarian regime.
“An administrative massacre is a state attempting to frighten people into submission by a single act of massive violence. It proved counter-productive because it not only brought more Azerbaijanis onto the streets but finished the Soviet relationship for Azerbaijan. What made the mass killing so senseless was the fact that just weeks later Gorbachev moved to dissolve the political monopoly of the Communist Party and set in train the process of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Therefore Gorbachev’s forces had killed more than 130 people merely to buy time for the First Secretary’s disastrous reform policy. It was a truly senseless act on all accounts”.
It should be noted that 32 years ago, on 19 January, 1990 a large number of Soviet troops under the order of the chairman of the Communist Party of Soviet Union, Mikhail Garbochev, was sent to Baku, and a state of emergency was declared in the city. The main aim of the deployment of troops in Baku by the Kremlin was to suppress the people’s demonstrations protesting the Soviet Union’s totalitarian policy and seeking freedom, solidarity and prosperity in their country. On 20 January night, the Soviet forces deliberately launched a brutal and violent crackdown on protesters as their tanks and other military equipment crushed the barricades.
As a result of the horrendous attack, over 132 innocent civilians were killed, 774 were wounded, and over 800 were arrested at one night. The Soviet tanks also caused huge damage to the apartments of the city.
Every year, on 20 January, the people of Azerbaijan visit the Valley of Martyrs to remember the victims who sacrificed themselves for the independence of their country.
Yunis Abdullayev