On the night of January 19-20, 1990, by order of Mikhail Gorbachev, Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, troops from the USSR Ministry of Defense, the State Security Committee, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs attacked Baku and several regions of the republic. During the attack, civilians were shot dead by heavy equipment and various types of weapons. This premeditated plan of aggression was aimed at undermining the struggle of the Azerbaijani people for democracy and national liberation, insulting the people, and inflicting a moral blow to them. On the night of the tragedy, servicemen killed 82 people and 20 were fatally wounded. Within a few days of the declaration of a state of emergency, 21 people were killed in Baku. People were also killed in districts and cities where no state of emergency was declared. Thus, 8 more people died on January 25 in Neftchala and on January 26 in Lankaran. On January 20, 131 people, including women, children, the elderly, as well as ambulance and police officers, were killed and 744 people were wounded in Baku and surrounding areas.

            Immediately after the events, on January 21, 1990, National Leader Heydar Aliyev and his family members visited the Permanent Representation of Azerbaijan in Moscow, strongly protesting against this bloody operation by the USSR leadership and exposing those who led the operation. Demonstrating his solidarity with the people in the tragedy, the Great Leader said: 

"... I consider the events in Azerbaijan contrary to law, democracy, principles of humanism ... If the political leadership of the country had taken timely measures in the initial stage of the events in Nagorno-Karabakh, there would be no basis for a military intervention that resulted in the massacre of many people ... All the perpetrators of the massacre must be punished! ”     

What happened on January 20 was not only a national tragedy, it also showed the whole world the tenacity and unshakable will of our people. The courage shown by the young generation, in particular, was a turning point in the formation of Azerbaijan's national identity and the restoration of state independence. It was after this tragedy that the national liberation movement became a full-fledged and permanent political reality. Despite the state of emergency imposed by the Soviet army in Baku, the people of Azerbaijan held a mourning procession on January 22 in connection with the burial of the martyrs of January 20 in the capital's Freedom Square. About 2 million people attended the funeral in the Alley of Martyrs. Then, at the request of the people, an emergency session of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR was convened and a decision was made to lift the state of emergency in Baku.

On March 29, 1994, the tragedy of January 20 was given a legal and political assessment for the first time at the level of the Milli Majlis on the initiative of National Leader Heydar Aliyev. The Azerbaijani people have always cherished the memory of the martyrs of January 20. The carnations, which have become a symbol of the tragedy, accompany visitors to the Alley of Martyrs every year on the anniversary. The Azerbaijani people proudly commemorate the martyrs of the tragedy, curse their killers, and express their deep hatred for the perpetrators of this tragedy. Every year on January 20, at 12:00 Baku time, the memory of the martyrs of January 20 is commemorated throughout Azerbaijan with a minute of silence, sound signals are given from ships, cars, and trains, and national flags are lowered as a sign of mourning.

The tragedy of January 20 hastened the end of 70 years of Soviet rule in Azerbaijan and the achievement of state independence. No matter how much time passes, this tragedy will never be forgotten by the Azerbaijani people.

Chairman of the Council of Young Scientists and Specialists of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnologies of ANAS,

 Nargiz Bayramova