By Vafa Ismayilova

Azerbaijan marks the 31st anniversary of Black January, namely the brutal killing of over 130 people and wounding of hundreds of civilians by the Soviet army in capital Baku and outskirts on January 20, 1990.

This epochal event was the deciding factor in forming Azerbaijani national identity and marked a turning point in restoring national independence. It was the January tragedy that turned a national liberation movement into political reality and gave a strong impetus to the Azerbaijani people`s struggle for independence.

Black January

On the night of January 19-20, under direct instructions from Mikhail Gorbachev, the then General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, military units from the USSR Defence Ministry, State Security Committee and Interior Ministry entered Baku and nearby regions, massacring the civilian population using heavy military equipment and other various forms of weaponry.

The Soviet army deployed a large contingent of special and internal troops in Baku who displayed unprecedented cruelty against the peaceful population. The army had brutally killed 82 civilians and severely wounded 20 others until a curfew was announced.

Several days after the curfew was announced, 21 more civilians were murdered in Baku. Eight more civilians were killed in areas where a curfew had not been imposed, on January 25 in Neftchala and on January 26 in Lankaran. As a result of the January tragedy, 131 civilians were killed and 744 more were wounded in Baku and nearby regions. Among those killed were women, children and the elderly, medical employees and policemen.

Mass arrests accompanied the illegal deployment of troops and the subsequent military intervention. A total of 841 civilians were arrested in Baku and other cities and regions of the republic, 112 of whom were sent to prisons in different cities of the USSR. The Soviet troops fired on 200 homes, 80 cars and set fire to a large number of public and private property, including ambulances.

Political-legal recognition of January 20

The first political-legal recognition of the January 20 tragedy came on March 29, 1994, when Azerbaijan’s legislative body Milli Majlis adopted a relevant resolution on national leader Heydar Aliyev`s initiative.

The resolution read: “The deployment of the Soviet troops in the city of Baku and several other regions and the brutal killing of civilians, with the intent to suppress, to break the confidence and will of a people who by peaceful means demanded a new democratic and sovereign state and to humiliate their national identity as a show of Soviet army power must be regarded as a military aggression and crime of the totalitarian communist regime against the people of Azerbaijan.”

The Azerbaijani people continue to hold the memories of the martyrs dear to their hearts. On January 20 of each year, thousands of people visit the Alley of Martyrs to pay their tributes by laying flowers, say prayers for the victims and express their condemnation of the perpetrators of the tragedy. Each year at midday on January 20, a nationwide moment of silence is observed to commemorate January 20 martyrs. Ships, cars, and trains sound sirens throughout the country, commemorative events are held in all cities and towns, and the national flag is lowered on all buildings.

MFA statement

In its recent statement this year, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry commented on factors that stipulated the strengthening determination of the Azerbaijani nation to get independent from the Soviet Union.

“In the late 1980s, the aggressive separatist activities of chauvinist-minded Armenians in the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region of Azerbaijan, the USSR's support for these activities, and the subsequent forcible and brutal deportation of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis from Armenia gave impetus to the expansion of the anti-Soviet movement in Azerbaijan," the ministry said.

The statement by the ministry later added that “it was on the night of January 19-20, 1990, that the Soviet army entered the country in order to prevent a nationwide movement and break the will of the Azerbaijani people to commit an unprecedented massacre of civilians in gross violation of international law and the Constitutions of the former USSR and Azerbaijan SSR”.

“However, the events of January 1990 did not break the determination of the Azerbaijani people to independence, and the country regained its independence. Today, the independence and sovereignty of Azerbaijan are unambiguously recognized and supported by the entire international community", the statement added.

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Original Article

By Trend

There is no official information from the countries on whether the citizens of Azerbaijan need a document on vaccination against COVID-19 when entering a foreign country, the Management Union of Medical Territorial Units (TABIB) of Azerbaijan told Trend.

Every vaccinated person in Azerbaijan will be registered online, TABIB said.

"The information booklet, which will be provided to the citizen, will indicate in how many days and to which clinic he should come, what side effects of the vaccine are possible, etc. If in the future there are any restrictions regarding the citizen's trip abroad, a document on confirmation of vaccination will be issued," TABIB added.

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Original Article

By Trend

The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) sold $66.4 million to the local banks at the foreign exchange auction held with the participation of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) on January 19, 2021, Trend reports citing the country's CBA.

The demand from banks at the auction decreased by 33.7 percent compared to the previous indicator and was fully met.

At the end of the auction, the weighted average rate of the manat to the dollar amounted to 1.7 AZN/USD.

Earlier the CBA reported that the expectations formed in recent days amid the unfounded news in the press and social networks about the fall of the Azerbaijani manat rate caused a certain demand in the cash currency market, which affected the relative growth of demand at foreign exchange auctions.

However, opinions about the fall of the Azerbaijani manat rate are unfounded, given the rise in oil prices compared to 2020, the adoption of positive decisions on oil production at the recent OPEC + meeting, the launch of vaccination programs against the COVID-19 virus worldwide, and huge transfers from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan.

The first foreign exchange auction for a long time was held with the participation of SOFAZ on March 10, 2020, during which Azerbaijani banks purchased $323.2 million.

The CBA began to conduct currency auctions through a one-way sale of currency in a competitive environment from mid-January 2017.

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Original Article