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Ombudsman calls for condemning ‘ Black January’

16 January 2014 19:38 (UTC+04:00)
Ombudsman calls for condemning ‘ Black January’

By Nigar Orujova

Azerbaijan's Human Rights Commission has issued a statement on the 24th anniversary of January 20 tragedy urging international community to condemn the crime against humanity.

"This date would be lodged forever in the memory of the Azerbaijani people as 'The Black January', this date is a day of remembrance of the martyrs, as well as the day of solidarity and unity of the people. Like all the crimes, this bloody action has clients and executors," Ombudman Elmira Suleymanova said in the statement.

The statement underlined that the UN Human Rights Declaration as well as other international documents on human rights were violated by the crime committed against humanity.

This bloody tragedy has not received international legal assessment. Those who ordered and committed this crime have not been punished yet, Suleymanova said.

"We believe that the world community and international organizations will support the right demands of Azerbaijan, the crime against humanity will soon receive its international legal assessment, the perpetrators will not remain unpunished," the statement said.

The statement was sent to UN Secretary General, UN Security Council, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, European Commission, OSCE, the Council of Europe, Institute of International and European Ombudsmen, Asian Ombudsman Association, International Peace Bureau, Universal Peace Federation, human rights commissioners of various countries, Azerbaijani embassies in foreign countries, embassies of foreign countries in Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani Diaspora organizations.

The statement went on adding;" Patience of the Azerbaijani people was wearing thin with conditions created by the former Soviet state for the Armenian separatism, which, began to increase in Nagorno-Karabakh since 1988, the gradual elimination of republican subordination departments and organizations in the region, as a result of biased policy against Azerbaijan, and the deportation of Azerbaijanis from their historical lands in Armenia."

Late at night on January 20, 1990, some 26,000 Soviet special forces called "Alfa" entered Baku without declaring a state of emergency and committed atrocities against the innocent Azerbaijani people. The invasion was launched at midnight and was committed with brutality; even children, women and the elderly were not spared.

In total, some 133 people were killed, 611 wounded, 841 illegally arrested and five went missing as a result of the intrusion of troops into Baku and other regions of the republic.

"International rules of law, the relevant articles of the USSR and Azerbaijan constitutions were violated, a brutal massacre was committed against the people who defended their land and national dignity," the statement said.

To draw the attention of the world community to the tragedy, a series of events will be held in 2014 by Azerbaijan's embassies, diplomatic missions and Azerbaijani communities.

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