This year, January 20
th marks the seventeen anniversary of tragic events in
Baku (
Azerbaijan), when Gorbachev ordered the special troops to enter the city and crash the independence rally in then Soviet Azerbaijan. According to various sources, about 26,000
Soviet troops attacked the protesters firing in the crowds. The shooting, which resulted in murdering of about 130 civilians and wounding 700,
continued for three days.
While the objective of sending the troops was to crash the independence movement, the end-result was quite opposite and only united the society in its strive for restoring its independence.
Later, on April 27, 1995, while in Istanbul, Gorbachev recognized that “Proclaiming the state of emergency in Baku and sending army to the city was the biggest mistake of my political life...”
Photo: Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia
Comments