Thirty years ago,, on the night 19 on 20 January 1990 of the year, units of the Soviet Army with a total number of 26 thousand. human. This is how Operation Strike began., responsibility for the victims of which in modern Azerbaijan is entirely assigned to the Soviet leadership.
"Black January" – this is what the events of thirty years ago are called, leading to the death of at least 147 civilians.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan issued a special statement on this anniversary, in which he accused Mikhail Gorbachev of introducing a state of emergency in the republic in violation of articles of the constitution of the USSR and the Azerbaijan SSR. Naturally, that all the blame for the civilian casualties, and those who died as a result of the operation were mostly Azerbaijanis, the leadership of the republic is assigned to the Soviet Army.
At the same time, Azerbaijan is silent about the reasons for the introduction of troops into Baku, which consisted in massive Armenian pogroms in the city. The best proof of this, what was happening in the city on the eve of the introduction of Soviet troops - the mass exodus of Baku Armenians. Today, there are very few people of Armenian nationality in the capital of Azerbaijan compared to Baku before 1989-1990 gg. The change in the ethnic composition of the population of Baku is a direct consequence of the events of thirty years ago.
The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Karabakh led to, what's in Baku itself, where by the end of the 1980s. lived over 200 thousand Armenians, 13 January 1990 Armenian pogroms began. They were provoked by the radical wing of the Azerbaijani Popular Front, whose leaders made an appeal, in which they talked about refugees from Karabakh, filling Baku, and on the, that at the same time the Armenian population in the capital of the republic feels at ease. At the same time, the leadership of the Popular Front was against the pogroms and tried to reduce their intensity as much as possible., but it was too late. Interestingly, at first, the Soviet troops stationed in the city did not intervene in what was happening. This circumstance subsequently gave Azerbaijani politicians grounds for accusing Moscow of inaction..
Troops were brought into Baku after, how the Soviet leadership was afraid of the displacement of the power of the KP of the AzSSR by the Popular Front of Azerbaijan. it, by the way, 26 January, after the events, admitted by the then Minister of Defense of the USSR Dmitry Yazov.
During 16-19 January, in the vicinity of Baku, a large operational group with a total number of 50 thousand. military. They were units of the military districts of the SA, Soviet Navy, Internal Troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. The 76th and 106th airborne divisions were directly involved in Operation Strike, 56-1st and 21st airborne assault brigades, cadets of the Leningrad Higher Political School of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Saratov Higher Military Command School of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. The military units brought into the city acted tough, there were many dead.
Interestingly, US President George W. Bush supported Mikhail Gorbachev, stressing, that these actions were necessary to restore order in the republic. obviously, that the West, who already understood, that the policy of the Soviet leadership is leading the country to complete collapse, did not want unnecessary problems for Mikhail Sergeevich - such a convenient figure for the USA. To tear off oil-rich Azerbaijan from the USSR and to worsen the relations between Baku and Moscow as much as possible - "black January" from the point of view of the implementation of this task was very opportune.
Russia began to return the debts for military supplies
However, all the tragic consequences of the introduction of Soviet troops into Baku cannot be linked exclusively with Moscow's policy.. No matter how they try in modern Azerbaijan to shift all responsibility for what happened to the Soviet leadership, Azerbaijani nationalists, destabilizing Baku by Armenian pogroms, perhaps, not without support from third parties, have their own degree of guilt in those events.
If not for the activation of nationalist forces in Azerbaijan, Baku would have remained a peaceful and multinational city in 1990, where Azerbaijanis have lived for centuries, Armenians, Russian, Georgians, Jews, lezginy, Tatars and representatives of many other peoples.
Ilya Polonsky
