BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 20. The Organization of Turkic States has shared a post on the 33rd anniversary of the 20 January tragedy on its Twitter account, Trend reports.
"January 20, 1990, which went down in history as Black January, is not only a "Day of Mourning" for Azerbaijani people, but also a "Day of Honor" that moved the nation towards independence. We join our Azerbaijani brothers and sisters in commemorating martyrs of this heinous incident," said the tweet.
On the night of January 19-20, 1990, as a result of military aggression of the units of the Soviet Army and special forces, as well as contingents of internal troops against Azerbaijan, civilians, including children, women and elderly were massacred in the cities of Baku, Sumgayit, Lankaran and Neftchala by order of the USSR leadership.
As a result of the occupying forces’ military aggression 149 civilians were killed, 744 were seriously injured, and 4 people went missing. The Soviet army sent to the country in order to forcefully suppress the mass protests of the Azerbaijani people and the national independence movement started in response to the discrimination policy of the USSR leadership against the people of Azerbaijan, the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis from their historical lands in the territory of present-day Armenia, and Armenia’s unfounded territorial claims against Karabakh, committed an unprecedented massacre against the civilian population grossly violating international law and the Constitution.