[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 9 (Thursday, January 15, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E102]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   BLACK JANUARY--JANUARY 19-20, 1990

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                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 15, 2009

  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, few Americans have heard the term ``Black 
January,'' yet it is imbedded in the memory of all Azerbaijanis. Black 
January marks the evening of January 19, 1990, when at midnight 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 Presidium 
and signed by then President Mikhail Gorbachev, the incursion was 
intended to suppress a growing independence movement. The net result 
was 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.
  According to a report by Human Rights Watch entitled ``Black January 
in Azerbaijan,'' ``among the most heinous violations of human rights 
during the Baku incursion were the numerous attacks on medical 
personnel, ambulances and even hospitals.'' The report concluded that 
``indeed the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 
19-20 . . . constitutes an exercise in collective punishment . . . The 
punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended 
as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in other 
Republics of the Soviet Union.''
  In the days after the invasion, thousands of Azerbaijanis surrounded 
Communist Party headquarters demanding the resignation of the 
republic's leadership. The Baku City Council demanded that Soviet 
troops be withdrawn. The Soviet legislature in Azerbaijan condemned the 
occupation as ``unconstitutional'' and threatened to call a referendum 
on secession unless Soviet troops were withdrawn within 48 hours. And, 
Azerbaijani oil tankers blocked Soviet naval vessels from reaching the 
Baku harbor.
  Soviet troops were eventually withdrawn from Baku, but political 
control was maintained for almost another 2 years until Azerbaijan's 
parliament declared independence in October 1991. The Republic of 
Azerbaijan has maintained its independence for more than 17 years, 
despite lingering economic and social problems from the Soviet era and 
the military occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijan by Armenia. Today, 
Azerbaijan has developed into a thriving country with double digit 
growth, in large part due to a freely elected president and parliament, 
free market reforms led by the energy sector, and, most importantly, no 
foreign troops on its soil.
  While January 20 has been inauguration day in the United States every 
4 years since 1937, in Azerbaijan it is the day on which Azerbaijani 
citizens stood up to Soviet equipment and martyrs gave up their lives 
for freedom from communism and dictatorship. Indeed, January 20, 1990, 
in Baku, Azerbaijan, the fate of the Soviet empire was sealed.

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