Victims of Black January are buried in the Cemetery of Martyrs

Victims of Black January are buried in the Cemetery of Martyrs on a hillside in Baku.

Azerbaijani stamp with imagery from Black January.

Azerbaijani stamp with imagery from Black January.

Black January

On January 19 and 20, 1990 well over 100 protesters and bystanders were killed by the Soviet army in a violent crackdown on the Azerbaijani Independence movement in Baku. President Mikhail Gorbachev never apologized formally for the military action in Baku, but in one video interview he did call it the “biggest mistake” of his political career. In 1999, victims of Black January were awarded the honorary title “Martyr of January 20,” and January 20 is known as Martyrs’ Day, a time of national mourning.