Unknown Azerbaijan...19-20 January, 1990…

USSR era ended for Azerbaijan with last massacre Soviet Army has brought upon it on 19-20 January, 1990…

In short Azerbaijan Republic had declared independence and Soviet Army entered on tanks and with Kalashnikovs in their hands to show power and who was in charge... Although USSR government knew that USSR was collapsing and Republics were going independent, government didn’t want to give away the last chance of showing its deep hatred toward free minds and people I must say in general…

I wouldn’t go further on government and army but just would say that the head of USSR at that time was Mikhail Gorbachev.

I will neither go into details of wildness when tanks were going over armless people and soldiers were shooting to every window they saw light in…

Years of repression and organized crime towards people’s identity and self esteem were finalized with that last massacre that ended lives of 170 people including six women and nine children and teenagers; 370 people were wounded...

Azerbaijanis have short memory for cruelties the nation went through its history...its modern history…this is a forgiving and peaceful nation that pays the price…

I am a woman, mother, spouse and sister and I don’t believe into wars and revenge. To me the most valuable thing on planet Earth is a life of a person, of any person…We had two explosions in Baku tube during last ten years…The country is in ceasefire but now and then coffins of some young guys go back to their homes and ruin lives of their families…I am following the news from places like Gaza, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, civil wars in Africa and it is unfortunate to see what people are doing...Excuse me for this nonsense but I always say that whoever gives ok to war must be “made pregnant”, have really bad pregnancy period, then have hard delivery, bring up the child and then made to send that grown up child to a war to become a victim…maybe this will make those people realize that their ideas and ambitions are not worth any person’s life and any mother’s tear…

20 January is the day Azerbaijanis pay tribute to those who gave their lives for the country's independence...

Photo: At Shahidlar Khiyabani (Martyr's Cemetary), 1990. By Reza