Black January (Azeri: Qara Yanvar), also known as Black Saturday or the January Massacre was a crackdown of Azeri protest demonstrations by the Soviet army in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR on January 20, 1990. Black January is seen as the rebirth of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The demonstrators demanded the ousting of Azerbaijani communist officials and called for independence from the Soviet Union. Their rhetoric was, according to a Human Rights Watch re...
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Black January (Azeri: Qara Yanvar), also known as Black Saturday or the January Massacre was a crackdown of Azeri protest demonstrations by the Soviet army in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR on January 20, 1990. Black January is seen as the rebirth of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The demonstrators demanded the ousting of Azerbaijani communist officials and called for independence from the Soviet Union. Their rhetoric was, according to a Human Rights Watch report, "heavily anti-Armenian".
Beginning on January 13, 1990, a repetition of the pogroms of Sumgait was carried out in Baku against Armenians. Armenians were thrown to their deaths from the balconies of upper-story apartments. Around 90 Armenians were murdered in the pogroms. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan claimed that the pogroms were the result of "Armenian aggression." The Popular Front instigated the attacks and local authorities did nothing to stop the violence. Baku's 300,000 Armenians hastily escaped.
The 12,000 strong MVD internal...
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