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In February 1988, following the Sumgait pogroms, the peak of anti-Armenian violence in Azerbaijan occurred in January 1990 with the massacre of the Armenian population in Baku. Interethnic relations had already deteriorated after the events in Sumgait. During February and March 1988, protests began on Lenin Avenue in Baku, where anti-Armenian slogans such as "Death to Armenians," "Sumgait will be repeated in Baku," and "Armenians, leave, or we will kill you" were chanted. [1] Starting in May 1988, the leader of the "Varlig" organization, [2] Neymat Panahov, [3] took charge of organizing anti-Armenian rallies in Baku. [4] This extremist nationalist figure delivered speeches declaring that if the Azerbaijanis wished, they could "create a second Ararat from the heads of Armenians." [5] Isolated acts of violence against Armenians occurred throughout the city. [6]
The next wave of anti-Armenian violence in Baku began in the autumn of 1988. Starting on November 17, mass protests erupted in the city against the Soviet central authorities' policies concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKAO). [7] The immediate trigger for the escalating tensions was news about plans to build a dormitory for Armenian refugees in an area near Shushi known as "Khachin Tap" (in Azerbaijani, "Topkhana").[8] Although Arkady Volsky, the representative of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in NKAO, ordered the construction to be halted, the rallies in Baku continued. On the night of November 24–25, Soviet troops entered Baku, and a state of emergency was declared. [9]
On December 5, crowds attacked government buildings, factories, and residential apartments. Attempts were made to assault military units, individual soldiers, regional offices of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and hunting stores to seize weapons and ammunition. The Soviet military managed to calm the situation only by the end of the day. [10] Another wave of anti-Armenian violence in Baku erupted in July-August 1989[11], followed by further incidents in November of the same year. [12]
Another pretext for inciting Armenophobia in Azerbaijan arose on December 1, 1989, when the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR and the National Council of Nagorno-Karabakh adopted a joint decision on the reunification of the Armenian SSR and Nagorno-Karabakh. This decision was followed by the massacre and final expulsion of the Armenian population of Baku.
On January 11, 1990, demonstrations organized by the Azerbaijani Popular Front began in Baku, where slogans such as "Death to Armenians" and "Glory to the heroes of Sumgait" were chanted. [13] On January 12, the Popular Front established a National Defense Committee aimed at mobilizing the population to massacre the remaining Armenians in the city. [14]
The protests escalated into mass violence on January 13, with groups of rioters roaming the streets of Baku, searching for and killing Armenians. The USSR's central authorities declared a state of emergency in Baku and deployed Soviet troops only on January 20. [15] By then, nearly the entire Armenian population of the city had been forced to flee Azerbaijan, primarily traveling by ferries to Krasnovodsk in Turkmenistan. [16]
The massacres of the Armenian population in Baku and other regions of Azerbaijan from January 13 to 19 were organized and premeditated. The violence was preceded by deliberate incitement of anti-Armenian sentiment, the orchestration of mass protests, the compilation of addresses of Armenian residents and maps of Armenian-populated neighborhoods, as well as the preparation and distribution of necessary tools and weapons and groups of perpetrators. [17]
During the massacres, law enforcement agencies inacted, and according to numerous testimonies, even participated in the atrocities. [18] Soldiers of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs limited their actions to protecting party and government buildings in the city, ignoring reports of crimes being committed against Armenians.
The exact number of victims of the massacres in Baku, as well as in other Armenian-populated areas of Azerbaijan, remains unknown.[19] No investigations were conducted following the massacres, nor were the organizers and participants of the crimes identified and punished. In addition to human losses, the Armenian population of Baku suffered significant material damage, as targeted attacks led to the destruction, damage, or looting of Armenian-owned property.
Azerbaijani manipulations of the 1990 massacres of the Armenian population in Baku
On the night of January 19–20, Soviet troops entered Baku, resulting in casualties among Azerbaijanis during clashes. [20] The study of Azerbaijani manipulations of the massacres of Baku's Armenian population reveals that these narratives follow two main directions, according to the Azerbaijani side:
In the manipulations of the January events in Baku, the so-called "Armenian trace" is particularly emphasized. For instance, on January 24, 1990, during a speech at the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, writer Ismayil Shikhly declared that the events in Baku were meticulously planned and provoked by Armenians. [21]
The narrative of an "Armenian provocation" in Azerbaijani rhetoric was primarily aimed at a domestic audience, with the intent to incite hatred and hostility toward Armenians within Azerbaijani society. To this end, in news materials and interviews marking January 20 each year, the alleged "guilt of Armenians" is consistently highlighted, linking the January 20 events predominantly to Armenians in the public perceptions in Azerbaijan.
One of the key narratives in Azerbaijan's manipulations of the January events in Baku is the idea of "suppressing the struggle for Azerbaijan's independence." Propaganda in this direction has intensified particularly in recent years, targeting primarily an international audience.
January 20 is portrayed as the day when the Soviet central authorities suppressed Azerbaijan's fight for independence and the Azerbaijani people's struggle for freedom. In this context, Armenians are mentioned as a provocative force facilitating the entry of Soviet troops into Baku.
The Azerbaijani side consistently avoids acknowledging the organization and execution of massacres against the Armenian population in the city during the period leading up to January 20.
The lack of proper legal and political evaluation by the Soviet central authorities of the massacres of the Armenian population in Sumgait led to a new wave of anti-Armenian violence and the further spread of Armenophobia in Azerbaijan.
[1] Обыкновенный геноцид, Геноцид длиною в век: Бакинская трагедия в свидетельствах очевидцев (книга первая), Ереван, Центр общественных связей и информации, 2016, с. 39, 123.
[2] In the summer of 1988, a group of Azerbaijani intellectuals in Baku established the "Club of Scientists of Baku City," which later served as the foundation for the formation of the Initiative Group of the Popular Front. In October 1988, this initiative group merged with the nationalist intellectual group "Varlig" ("Existence"), leading to the creation of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party. For more details, see: Hayrapetyan T., The Formation and Activities of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (1988-1990), Issues of Oriental Studies, No. 7, 2014, pp. 140-144.
[3] The surname Panahli is also encountered in some sources.
[4] Гребенников Е., Народный фронт азербайджана 1988-1989 гг.: Проблема объединения либерального и националистического направлений, Историческая и социально-образовательная мысль. Toм 8, N 5/2, 2016, с. 56-57; Обыкновенный геноцид, Геноцид длиною в век (книга первая), с. 39.
[5] Гребенников Е., Народный фронт азербайджана 1988- 1989 гг.: Проблема объединения либерального и националистического направлений, с. 56.
[6] Обыкновенный геноцид, Геноцид длиною в век: Бакинская трагедия в свидетельствах очевидцев (книга вторая), Ереван, Центр общественных связей и информации, 2017, с. 18, 24, 40, 176.
[7] Noble J., Kohn M., Danielle Systermans. Lonely Planet. Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan, 3rd Ed., London, Lonely Planet, 2008, p. 296.
[8] Зверев А., Этнические конфликты на Кавказе, 1988-1994, Contested Borders in the Caucasus, ed. Bruno Coppieters, VUB University Press, 1996․
[9] Ibid.
[10] Гуров В., Вооруженные силы СССР в армяно-азербайджанском (Карабахском) вооружённом конфликте (1988-1991 гг.), Известия Самарского научного центра Российской академии наук, т. 14, N 3, 2012, с. 111-112.
[11] Обыкновенный геноцид, Геноцид длиною в век (книга первая), с. 60, 129, 161.
[12] Ibid, p. 22, 39, 57, 85, 159.
[13] Обыкновенный геноцид, Геноцид длиною в век (книга первая), с. 13, 35, 98.
[14] Keller B., , Upheaval in the East Soviet Union: Force as a Last Resort: Armed Power Salvages Moscow's Facing Authority, “The New York Times”, 28 January 1990.
[15] Corbachev M., On my Country and the World, Foreword by Taubman W., 20th Anniversary Edition, United States of America, Columbia University Press, 2019, p. 96.
[16] Now, it is Turkmenbashi.
[17] For more details on the Baku massacres, see: Mosesova I., Hovhannisyan A., The Baku Massacres: Official Documents, Eyewitness Testimonies, and Other Materials on the Tragic Events of January 13-19, 1990, with necessary commentaries, Yerevan, Narekatsi, 1992.
[18] Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan, p. 7, Mosesova I., Hovhannisyan A., The Baku Massacres, p. 110.; p. 188, էջ 218; Обыкновенный геноцид, Геноцид длиною в век (книга первая), с. 152; Обыкновенный геноцид, Геноцид длиною в век (книга вторая), с. 13, 43.
[19] The number of victims of the Baku massacres, according to various sources, ranged from 150 to 400 people. Мелик-Шахназаров А., Нагорный Карабах: факты против лжи. Информационно-идеологические аспекты нагорно-карабахского конфликта, Москва, Волшебный фонарь, 2009, с. 454; Mosesova I., Hovhannisyan A., The Baku Massacres, p. 36; Stepanian G., The History of the Armenian Population of Baku: A Historical and Demographic Study, Yerevan, Institute of History, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, 2011, p. 514.
[20] According to Mikhail Gorbachev, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 83 Azerbaijanis were killed as a result of the confrontation between the Popular Front and the Soviet army in Baku on January 19-20. Gorbachev M., On my Country and the World, p. 96: According to official Azerbaijani data, the number of casualties of January 20 events is 147.
[21]Управление делами Президента Азербайджанской Республики, Обращения, Заявления, Мероприятия, Президентская Библиотека, Доклад заместителя Председателя Верховного Совета Азербайджанской Республики Афияддина Джалилова от 18 января 1994 года, с. 54․