On the night of January 19-20, 1990, on the orders of the USSR leadership, the 26-thousand Soviet army was introduced into the Azerbaijani cities Baku, Sumgayit and others. As a result of this military invasion, 147 people were killed, 744 people received severe injured. This event entered into the modern history of Azerbaijan as “bloody January.” This is stated in the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan in connection with the tragedy on January 20.
On the eve of these tragic events, the unreasonable territorial claims of Armenia to Azerbaijan in the late 1980s, the aggressive separatist activities of Armenian chauvinists in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region of Azerbaijan and the support of the Soviet leadership of this activity, as well as the violent deportation of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis from Armenia contributed to Strengthening movement in Azerbaijan against Soviet power. The Soviet army, introduced into the country in order to prevent the nationwide movement and break the will to the independence of the Azerbaijani people, made an unprecedented violence over the civilian population, fully violating the norms of international law, the Constitution of the USSR and the Azerbaijan SSR.
Immediately after the tragic events, the National Leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev held a press conference at the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan in Moscow, which sharply condemned this atrocity, demanded a political assessment of these events and punish those perpetrators. At the special session of the Milli Majlis Azerbaijan in February 1994, the events of January 20, 1990, during which innocent people were cruelly killed, were regarded as military aggression and a crime. As a result of the continued discussions in Parliament in March 1994, a resolution was adopted “On the tragic events committed in Baku on January 20, 1990.”
From the tragedy on January 20, 32 years passes, but this is a crime that is a gross violation of the UN World Declaration on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other International Documents and is one of the most terrible crimes of the twentieth century, Received a political and legal assessment. Responsibility for this crime directly bears the former Soviet leadership. In international law, the event of January 20 should be classified as a crime against humanity, its customers and performers must be punished.
Strengthening independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is the basis of our statehood, our struggle for the preservation of these fundamental principles is eternal. Any threats against the independence and integrity of our state will continue to be given a decisive answer. The necessary steps will be taken to be responsible for various crimes against the people and the state of Azerbaijan, suffered the answer, “the statement says.