Azernews.Az

A group of activists attempted to hold an unsanctioned protest outside the Russian embassy in Baku on Thursday, a day ahead of the January 20 anniversary of the killings perpetrated in Baku by Soviet troops in 1990.

The members of the Garabagh Liberation Organization and the Social Rights Monitoring Group chanted slogans urging to punish those responsible for the mass killings, demanding USSR’s successor Russia to apologize to Azerbaijan and calling on the international community to recognize the tragic developments as a massacre.

The police did not allow the protesters to proceed and prevented them from approaching the embassy compound, but they were allowed to submit a statement to the diplomatic mission.

At the time the Soviet Union was on the brink of collapse and amid Armenia’s territorial claims, the USSR leadership, which was trying to maintain the Communist regime in Azerbaijan and strangle the unfolding national liberation movement, pulled troops into Baku early on January 20, 1990 without declaring a state of emergency. 132 people were killed, including women, children and the elderly, and 612 others were injured. 117 of those killed were Azerbaijanis and the rest were people of other nationalities, according to official estimates.

January 20 is a national mourning day which is marked across Azerbaijan every year.