25 YEARS SINCE THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the "Black January" tragedy in Baku. Exactly a quarter of a century ago, Soviet troops entered the capital of Soviet Azerbaijan to suppress mass demonstrations in support of the country's independence from the Soviet Union. The result of military atrocities against unarmed citizens is well known. In Baku alone more than 130 civilians were killed and more than 600 people were injured. The whereabouts of more than 400 people - women, children and the elderly - are unknown to this day.

The 20 January tragedy caused even more massive negative implications, and not only for Azerbaijan. Shortly after "Black January", Armenian separatism in the former Nagornyy Karabakh Autonomous Region turned into an open war, which still holds the world under the threat of resumption.

The 25th anniversary of the bloody January events gives us reason to think not only of their role in the history of Azerbaijani statehood and the responsibility of the culprits of the events, but also the lessons learnt by the Azerbaijani people.

The first assessment of the act of aggression of the Soviet leadership against the Azerbaijani people was given on 22 January 1990 at an extraordinary session of the Supreme Council of the Republic. It was then that a parliamentary-investigative commission was set up to investigate the January events, and on the basis of its findings on 19 January 1992, the parliament gave its political and legal assessment of these events. Two years later, on 29 March 1994, the Milli Maclis once again gave a political and legal assessment of "Black January", but this time more comprehensive. The resolution that was adopted placed responsibility for the massacre of the civilian population on the CPSU which ruled the country at the time, the government of the Soviet Union and personally President Mikhail Gorbachev.

At the same time, it was noted that responsibility for the tragic events lies with the then republican leadership as well. The Prosecutor-General's Office of Azerbaijan was instructed to complete the criminal investigation as soon as possible and ensure that those responsible for the tragedy are brought to justice. The initial investigation of the tragedy was conducted by the Prosecutor-General's Office of the USSR. However, the investigating authorities closed the criminal case on 20 December 1990 under the pretext that "the actions of the military did not contain elements of a crime". In response, the Prosecutor General's Office of independent Azerbaijan overturned this decision on 14 February 1992, initiating a criminal case under several articles of the Criminal Code - 94 (premeditated murders with aggravating circumstances), 149 (intentional destruction of or damage to property), 168 (abuse of power or official authority) and 255 (abuse of power).

However, the question of the responsibility of the perpetrators still remains open. The republican Prosecutor's Office explains this by the fact that the Russian side is not responding to queries. The materials of the 68-volume criminal case initiated by the Prosecutor- General's Office of Azerbaijan were taken to Moscow at the time. In this regard, requests and the necessary documents were sent to the law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation for the return of these materials and the arrest and extradition of the accused persons. But these appeals have still not received a positive response.

In other words, nobody from the leadership of the former USSR and the Azerbaijan SSR was ever brought to justice for the punitive operation against civilians carried out with extreme cruelty and with the use of means of warfare prohibited by international law.

Relatives of the victims of those tragic events and the people of Azerbaijan are waiting for the punishment or at least repentance of the persons directly responsible for the murder of their loved ones, and first and foremost, the main person without an order from whom it would have been impossible to dispatch a military contingent to an allied republic and open fire. Gorbachev - this is, in the words of a famous character from a cult Soviet detective film, the only and unique witness of all time.

In 2008, the publishing house "Rossiyskiy Pisatel" published a book by the Honoured Lawyer of the Russian Federation and Doctor of Law Gennadiy Melkov "Criminal responsibility of individuals for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity". One of the fragments of the book is devoted to the January 1990 tragedy in Baku. In 1990-91, as an independent expert of the public organization Shield, Gennadiy Melkov was a member of the commission to investigate the killings of an unarmed population in Baku and Vilnius. The author notes that senior political and military leaders of the USSR and Azerbaijan SSR received absolutely no punishment for the crimes committed against their own people in Baku. Among the perpetrators of the tragedy, the author of the investigation named the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Soviet Defence Minister Dmitriy Yazov, who directly supervised the shooting of Baku civilians. Moreover, three months after the January events, Yazov received the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. It the same Yazov who, in order to hide unreasonably high civilian casualties in the first days of the state of emergency, issued an order to simulate an active firefight between army patrol groups in order to blame this shootout on members of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan. By the way, two years ago a documentary on the life of the Soviet defence minister with a blasphemous title: "Marshal Yazov. I do not shoot my own people" premiered on the Rossiya 1 channel...

In Baku they believe, and rightly so, that the people of Azerbaijan have every reason to bring to justice the last leader of the Soviet Union, by whose decision troops entered the capital of Azerbaijan in January 1990, which led to numerous casualties among the civilian population. As has already been noted, the multivolume materials collected by the investigating authorities also show the responsibility of Gorbachev for the January 1990 events in Baku and the already proven provocation in February 1988 in Sumqayit.

Meanwhile, it is naive to believe that Gorbachev and his cronies will ever be brought to justice for the deaths of thousands of citizens who became victims of his criminal ethnic policy, which led to the emergence of a number of ethnic conflicts and wars throughout the former socialist camp, although these acts, which easily fall under crimes against humanity, have no time limit and history knows many examples where despots had to answer for their actions. The old tyrant Pinochet and even some older activists of the Third Reich failed to escape a trial.

Today, the main culprit of the January 1990 events in Baku and the armed aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan unleashed at his connivance, despite his advanced age, though he complains of health problems, still continues to preach about the world order and is even trying to teach the Russian authorities and other countries lessons of democracy. The first and last president of the Soviet Union, who once destroyed the most powerful world power with his own hands, now criticizes others for flaws in the government.

Is it worth hoping that Gorbachev at least feels guilty when he is left alone with himself? In an interview a few years ago, he acknowledged that his biggest mistake at the head of the Soviet Union was that he allowed the rampant spread of separatism and ethnic conflicts. So what? Surely, his feelings of remorse, if they can be called such, quickly go away when he remembers that he still is the winner of the most prestigious award for his outstanding contribution to the cause of peace. By the way, the Peace Prize is perhaps the most controversial of all the Nobel Award nominations, judging by its laureates. Gorbachev, Obama... Is it not blasphemous to award the Peace Prize to people directly responsible for wars in various parts of the world and for the death of thousands of people? What can we say if even Nazi leaders Mussolini and Hitler were nominated the Nobel Peace Prize?

Gorbachev is still trying to justify violence against his own citizens in Vilnius, Tbilisi and Baku and clumsy attempts to extinguish the centres of separatism he himself generated in various Soviet republics by plausible goals - preservation of law and order in the country. But these actions received an adequate assessment not only in Lithuania, Georgia and Azerbaijan, but also in Moscow itself. According to the current Russian President Vladimir Putin, Gorbachev "should have fought for the territorial integrity of our state consistently, persistently and fearlessly and without burying his head in the sand and leaving his arse outside." With such negative characteristics from his successor Gorbachev will have to live out his days.

The 20 January events became a lesson for all, including the Azerbaijani people - a lesson showing that only by facing external threats together, the people can achieve what they want. The bodies of civilians killed on that night rest in the Alley of Martyrs next to the bodies of Azerbaijani sons and daughters, who died a little later in the fight against the Armenian aggressors. All of them - a team of doctors shot by soldiers of the Soviet army in Baku and soldiers who died while repelling enemy attacks in Karabakh - are equally martyrs who fell in the struggle for the peaceful and independent future of their country.

But an equally important lesson from the tragic events of 25 years ago has to be learnt by external forces that now consider Azerbaijan as a tidbit in their imperialistic ambitions. The main lesson is that a people longing for freedom cannot be stopped by anyone. Azerbaijan strove for the restoration of its independence for too long, and achieving this goal cost it dearly in order to sacrifice its sovereignty once again.