20 JANUARY 1990

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On a cold winter night of January in 1990, 26,000 Russian troops stormed the capital city of Baku with tanks. Armed with a state of emergency declared by the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet Council and signed by then President Mikhail Gorbachev, the incursion was intended to suppress a growing independence movement. However, the consequences were the opposite. This incident inflamed Azerbaijani nationalism and contributed to the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Leading up to Black January, the national independence movement had reached a remarkable momentum with hundreds of thousands demonstrating for independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. Emerging democratic groups were leading the political agenda and were projected to succeed in upcoming Parliament elections in March 1990. The Soviet Union sought to ``restore order'' by indiscriminately firing on peaceful demonstrators in Baku, including women and children. The protesters were calling for independence from the Soviet Union and the removal of Communist officials. More than 130 people died that night and in subsequent violence, 611 were injured, 841 were arrested, and 5 went missing.

In a report titled "Black January in Azerbaijan", Human Rights Watch put the events into a larger perspective, calling the violence used by the Soviet Army so out of proportion to the civilian resistance that it constituted “an exercise of Soviet army in collective punishment.” The report said the punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in the other Republics of the Soviet Union.'' Indeed, The Soviet attack against innocent civilians in Azerbaijan followed massacres in other Soviet republics, including Kazakhstan in 1986 and Georgia in 1989 and was tragically replicated one year later in Lithuania, although the brutality of the "Black January" tragedy was the biggest exercise in collective punishment by reactionary forces of the Communist Party.

Even to this day- the complete truth is unknown as apparently, most of the documents related to Operation “Strike”- 200 boxes, according to some accounts - were confiscated and sent back to Moscow by the Soviet Army when it was clear that the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse.

Every year, thousands of people in Baku visit the graves of those victims buried in Martyr's Lane, a cemetery dedicated to the innocent lives that ended on Black January. The carnation flower has become to symbolize the blood spilt that night and the mourning of the nation. Dozens of carnations are laid every year on the graves, including the youngest victim a 12 year old girl Larissa Mammadova who was shot dead by Soviet soldiers with her father in a bus. Or Ilham and Fariza Allaheverdiyevs, whose story became a modern day equivalent to Romeo and Juliet. Married only months before the bloody January events young Ilham was on his way back from work when he got fired at numerous times by soviet soldiers. His 20 year old wife Fariza found it impossible to live without him. She left a note to her family and committed a suicide the next day. Ilham and Fariza’s are the first graves on Marty’s Lane where they are buried face-to-face and live forever as a symbol of everlasting love. Their marriage date of June 30th is celebrated as Azerbaijan’s own Valentine's Day.

Black January was a turning point in the history of Azerbaijan. On January 20, 1990, it is believed that Azerbaijanis acquired their national identity. Every bullet that was fired splattered blood across the face of the Soviet Empire, undermining the ideals of communism. Those tanks, armored vehicles, automatic rifles and bullets were supposed to have scared the nation into giving up its dream for independence. But instead, the sun rose the next day on a very different Azerbaijan, more determined than ever to pursue its independence.

In 1995 former president of USSR Mikhail Gorbachov stated in his speech in Istanbul that “proclaiming the state of emergency in Baku and sending army to the city was the biggest mistake of my political life...”http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151258677058218&set=a.491320718217.266115.727708217&type=1&theater