[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 17 (Wednesday, January 29, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E142]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       AZERBAIJAN--BLACK JANUARY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. ROBERT B. ADERHOLT

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 29, 2014

  Mr. ADERHOLT. Mr. Speaker, every four years, on January 20th, all 
Americans celebrate the inauguration of a new President. It is a time 
of hope and a quadrennial reminder of the enduring nature of our 
democracy and the peaceful transition of power from one administration 
to the next.
  January is also a time for celebration and commemoration for a friend 
and ally, the Republic of Azerbaijan. This January marks the 24th 
anniversary of the events that marked the beginning of the end of 
Soviet rule over Azerbaijan, an occupation that existed for much of the 
20th Century.
  This time period is referred to in Azerbaijan as ``Black January,'' 
when violent conflict erupted in Azerbaijan's capital city of Baku on 
January 19-20, 1990 Soviet troops killed over 100 nationalist 
demonstrators and wounded another 700 Azeri citizens. When Soviet 
troops fired on innocent civilians, including old people and children, 
demanding freedom, it became a defining moment in recent Azeri history.
  Azerbaijan eventually declared its independence from the U.S.S.R. on 
October 18, 1991. In the report, ``Black January in Azerbaijan,'' Human 
Rights Watch put the events into a larger perspective: ``the violence 
used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19-20 was . . . an 
exercise in collective punishment . . . intended as a warning to 
nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in the other Republics of the 
Soviet Union.''
  I ask the House of Representatives to join me in commemorating--with 
our friend and ally, Azerbaijan--the events of Black January in 1990, 
events which began in tragedy but culminated in the birth of an 
independent nation and ally of the United States. May God bless this 
nation as it continues to move forward.

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