On the night of January 19 to 20, 1990, on the orders of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, units of the Ministry of Defense, the State Security Committee (KGB), and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR were deployed to Baku and several regions of Azerbaijan. The peaceful population was subjected to gunfire from heavy military equipment and various types of weapons, leading to a massacre.
The occupation of Baku by large contingents of Soviet special forces and internal troops was accompanied by extreme brutality and unprecedented savagery. Even before the state of emergency was officially declared to the public, the military had brutally killed 82 people and fatally injured 20 others. Following the declaration of the state of emergency, an additional 21 people were killed in Baku over the next few days. In regions and cities where no state of emergency was declared, eight more people were killed—on January 25 in Neftchala and on January 26 in Lankaran.
As a result of the illegal deployment of troops, 131 people were killed in Baku and the surrounding regions, and 744 were injured. Among the victims were women, children, the elderly, medical workers, and police officers.
The troop deployment was also accompanied by mass arrests of peaceful civilians. During the operations, 841 people were unlawfully detained in Baku and other cities and regions of Azerbaijan, of whom 112 were sent to prisons in various cities across the USSR.
Military personnel fired on 200 homes and 80 vehicles, including ambulances, destroying large amounts of state and private property through incendiary bullets.
The victims of January 1990 are symbolically referred to as the “Martyrs of January 20.” In total, Azerbaijan counts 150 martyrs from this tragic event.
Immediately after the tragedy, on January 21, 1990, National Leader Heydar Aliyev, accompanied by his family, visited Azerbaijan’s permanent mission in Moscow to demonstrate solidarity with his people. He strongly protested against the bloody operation carried out by the Soviet leadership and exposed those responsible for the crimes.
The tragedy of January became not only a national day of mourning but also a testament to the unyielding will and resilience of the Azerbaijani people. Despite the Soviet army’s brutality and the imposition of martial law in Baku, the people of Azerbaijan organized a mourning march on January 22 in Freedom Square in the capital to honor the burial of the January 20 martyrs. Nearly two million people attended the burial ceremony at the Alley of Martyrs. At the people’s demand, an extraordinary session of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR was convened, during which a decision was made to lift the state of emergency in Baku. However, many high-ranking officials of the republic, fearing public outrage, did not attend the session.
On March 29, 1994, on Heydar Aliyev’s initiative, the January 20 tragedy was given a legal and political assessment for the first time at the level of Azerbaijan’s highest legislative body, the Milli Majlis (National Assembly). Since then, January 20 has been commemorated annually in Azerbaijan as a National Day of Mourning. Every year on January 20, officials and citizens visit the Alley of Martyrs to pay tribute to the victims of the tragedy.
According to a special plan, traffic in the direction of the Alley of Martyrs is restricted from 8:00 AM on January 20 until the end of the ceremonies to ensure the safety of visitors. Citizens are advised to minimize the use of private vehicles and prioritize public transport.
On January 20 at 12:00 PM local time, a minute of silence is observed throughout the country to honor the memory of the martyrs. Ships, cars, and trains sound their horns. On this day, as a sign of mourning, Azerbaijan’s national flags are flown at half-mast across the country.
To draw the attention of the international community to the Bloody January tragedy, Azerbaijani embassies, diplomatic missions, and Azerbaijani communities abroad organize corresponding events.
