Diaspora

Home page

Diaspora

New York Senate adopts resolution commemorating Azerbaijanâ€™s Black January tragedy

26 January 2012 08:20 (UTC +04:00)

â€œThe brutality of the Black January tragedy was the biggest exercise in collective punishment by reactionary forces of the Communist Partyâ€, says the resolution.

According to the authors, on January 20, 1990, Azerbaijan was invaded by 26,000 Soviet troops who stormed the capital city of Baku with tanks and armored vehicles. A courageous resistance by Azerbaijanis to the Soviet invasion continued into February.

The resolution cites Azerbaijanâ€™s records mentioning that, 130 Azerbaijanis were killed, five went missing, over 611 were wounded, and 841 were arrested.

â€œThe Soviet attack against innocent civilians in Azerbaijan followed massacres in other Soviet republics, including Kazakhstan (1986), Georgia (1989), and was tragically replicated one year later in Lithuaniaâ€, says the paper adding, â€œthe Baku incursion was an atrocity, but it also gave birth to a hope which led to the consolidation of the rising independence movements throughout the country, and united the Azerbaijani nation in their quest for freedomâ€.

As the campaigner of the Senate resolution, US Azerbaijani Network thanked its members for their support to this process.

This is USANâ€™s seventh parliamentary resolution in US since 2011. Previously the Diaspora organizationâ€™s resolutions were on Khojaly Massacre, Azerbaijani Genocide and etc.