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Senior Azerbaijani official: Gorbachev must be stripped of Nobel Peace Prize

17 January 2020 14:06 (UTC+04:00)
Senior Azerbaijani official: Gorbachev must be stripped of Nobel Peace Prize

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Head of the Department for Foreign Policy Affairs of Azerbaijan’s Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev has said that Mikhail Gorbachev must be stripped of his Nobel Prize Peace Prize over sending troops to Baku in January 1990 that was aimed at crushing the making of Azerbaijan’s independence and killed dozens of civilians.

"It is not too late to deprive Gorbachev of the Nobel Prize. The Soviet government tried but failed to break the will of the Azerbaijani people. Azerbaijan gained independence, and we must preserve it. We are proud of our martyrs who gave their lives for Azerbaijan’s independence," Hajiyev said during an event at ADA University in Baku to mark the 30th anniversary of the January 20 tragedy.

The official said that the crackdown on Baku residents was carried out after Heydar Aliyev was dismissed from his position in the political bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

"A plan of occupation of Baku as a foreign city was prepared. Tanks and other armored vehicles were used. There was not only artillery. The goal was the mass destruction of people on the streets," Hajiyev stressed.

He underlined that the massacre took place during Azerbaijan’s information blockade, adding that “foreign journalists were accredited in Moscow and were not allowed to visit Baku.”

"After a small number of journalists covered the press-conference of Heydar Aliyev, who appeared in the Azerbaijani Permanent Mission in Moscow, the international community learned about the events from other viewpoint. The international media reported on the tragic events in Baku," he stressed.

"The January 20 tragedy must be considered as a process which followed the Sumgayit events and then continued in Khojaly city," Hajiyev stated.

He underlined that a policy of ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis was conducted in Armenia, adding that this process also occurred in Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Furthermore, Hajiyev said that “January 20 tragedy must be considered as a process which followed the Sumgayit events and then continued in Khojaly city.”

He underlined that a policy of ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis was conducted in Armenia, adding that this process also occurred in Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Black January, also known as Black Saturday or the January Massacre, was a violent crackdown on a civilian population of Baku on the night leading to January 20 in 1990.

According to official estimates, 147 Azerbaijani civilians were killed, 800 people were injured and five people went missing. However unofficial number put the number of victims at 300 dead.

In 1995 Gorbachev apologized to Azerbaijan by stating: "The declaration of a state emergency in Baku was the biggest mistake of my political career."

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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