(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 20. Azerbaijan's
Aghdam residents held a procession to the Alley of Martyrs on the
occasion of the 33rd anniversary of January 20 tragedy, trend reports.
The march was attended by Special Representative of the
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the liberated
territories of the Karabakh Economic Region (except Shusha
district) Emin Huseynov, employees of the representative office,
executive director of the 'Restoration, Construction, and
Management in the Karabakh economic region' public legal entity,
employees of this structure, military personnel, martyr families,
representatives of law enforcement agencies, representatives of
companies and institutions operating in Aghdam.
The procession participants, which started from the headquarters
of the special representative office of the President of the
Republic of Azerbaijan, visited the Alley of Martyrs, where prayers
were offered for the repose of martyrs' souls, flowers were laid at
their graves. A minute's silence was observed in memory of the
martyrs.
At the end of the event, Emin Huseynov delivered a speech.
On the night of January 19-20, 1990, as a result of military
aggression of the units of the Soviet Army and special forces,
civilians, including children, women and elderly were massacred in
the cities of Baku, Sumgayit, Lankaran and Neftchala by order of
the USSR leadership.
As a result of this military aggression, 149 civilians were
killed, 744 were seriously injured, and 4 people went missing. The
Soviet army sent to the country in order to forcefully suppress the
mass protests of the Azerbaijani people and the national
independence movement started in response to the discrimination
policy of the USSR leadership against the people of Azerbaijan, the
deportation of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis from their
historical lands in the territory of present-day Armenia, and
Armenia's unfounded territorial claims against Karabakh, committed
an unprecedented massacre against the civilian population.
On January 21, 1990, immediately after the tragic events, at the
Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan in Moscow, National Leader Heydar
Aliyev, demonstrating his solidarity with the Azerbaijani people,
strongly condemned this crime, demanding political and legal
assessment of the massacre, and punishment of the perpetrators. At
the special session of the Milli Majlis (Parliament) held in
February 1994 the brutal killing of innocent people on 20 January
1990 was qualified as military aggression and a crime, and in March
1994 a decision“On the tragic events committed in Baku on 20
January 1990” was adopted. January 20 was declared the National
Mourning Day.