AZERTAC commemorates 25th anniversary of Black January

Baku, January 19 AZERTAC Azerbaijan State Telegraph Agency (AZERTAC) has held an event to pay tribute to victims of the Black January that saw the Soviet troops storm Baku to commit a massacre against civilian Azerbaijanis 25 years ago. The event kicked off with a minute`s silence for the tragedy victims, which then continued with demonstration of a documentary about the horrors of the massacre. In his speech, Director General of AZERTAC Aslan Aslanov provided an insight into the history of the Black January events. “National leader Heydar Aliyev came to Azerbaijan`s representative office in Moscow and condemned the bloody events. He protested the policy of the totalitarian Soviet regime,” said the Director General. The speakers highlighted the role of the 20 January events in the history of the Azerbaijani people`s struggle for freedom. They noted that the tragedy was given a political and legal assessment at the initiative of national leader Heydar Aliyev The speakers also said important decisions had been adopted by President Ilham Aliyev towards solving the problems of shahid families. A book-album on the 25th anniversary of January 20 events entitled “January 20: A bloody and glorious page of our history”, a joint project of the Public and Political Affairs Department of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration and AZERTAC, was presented at the event. Project managers are head of Public and Political Affairs Department of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration, professor Ali Hasanov and AZERTAC`s Director General Aslan Aslanov. The publication includes hundreds of photos depicting the tragedy. The book can be useful for current and future generation of Azerbaijan. The book-album presents - in a chronological order - the facts about the causes of the January 20 events, socio-political tension in Azerbaijan, groundless territorial claims of Armenia and their efforts to annex Nagorno-Karabakh, sly policy of the former Soviet leadership against Azerbaijani people. The book features several sections, including “Road to January 20”, “Information blockade”, “Bloody statistics”, “Day of farewell”, “Shahids” and “Alley of Shahids – a sacred place”. The photos were taken from the archives of AZERTAC and outstanding photographers.