U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) member Durdana Balakishiyeva called the US media join in commemorating the `20 January` tragedy victims, AzVision.az reports.
”To the Editor,
On Jan. 20, the Azerbaijani-Americans commemorate the 26th anniversary of “Black January” events that marked the beginning of the end of Soviet Russian rule in Azerbaijan. On the night of Jan 19-20, 1990, Azerbaijan was invaded by 26,000 Soviet Russian troops. A courageous resistance by Azerbaijanis to the Soviet invasion continued into February. Eventually, 170 Azerbaijanis were killed, 321 disappeared (presumed dead), over 700 wounded, hundreds more detained.
The Soviet attack authorized by Mikhail Gorbachev and the Russian leadership, against innocent civilians in Azerbaijan followed massacres in other Soviet republics, including Kazakhstan (1986), Georgia (1989) and was tragically replicated one year later in Lithuania. Although the brutality of the “Black January” tragedy was the biggest exercise in collective punishment by reactionary forces of the Communist Party.
The terrible event remembered by this commemoration was an atrocity — but it also gave birth to a hope that led eventually to independence and freedom the following year. In 1991 the Soviet Union broke up, and the ancient nation of Azerbaijan was able to re-establish its independence and sovereignty. Today, the challenges to its independence from Putin’s government are present, and we must help defend nations like Azerbaijan.
My family and I are joining the U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) in commemorating the tragedy and its victims, and ask for you to also commemorate the victims with a minute of silence and statement for the record, just like Texas and New York legislatures did in the past.
A draft resolution is available for your consideration:
https://azvision.az/redirect.php?url=http://USAzeris.org/USANresolutionBlackJanuary1990.pdf
Durdana Balakishiyeva,
Plano, Texas”
Durdana Balakishiyeva is the Post Doctorate Researcher at University of Florida and Lecturing Professor at SMU
AzVision.az
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20 January 2016
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