MCIT held a commemoration ceremony to honor the memory of the victims of 20 January tragedy

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has held a commemoration ceremony to honor the memory of the victims of the 20 January tragedy. The heads and employees of the administration, subdivisions, associations and organizations of MCIT, as well as members of families of the communications workers, who had fallen victims to this tragedy, attended the ceremony, which began with the one’s minute of silence in remembrance of the victims of this bloody massacre.

Speaking at the ceremony, the minister of communications and information technologies Ali Abbasov said that this barbarian and terroristic act perpetrated against the people of Azerbaijan will remain as a black page in the history of mankind and will be remembered as one of the gravest crimes against the humanity.

“On the night of the 19th - 20th January, the Soviet Army launched a military operation against Azerbaijan without having declared the state of emergency in the Republic. As a result of this military operation, 131 people were killed, 744 people were heavily wounded, 4 people went missing, and 400 people were arrested. 4 communication workers were among those killed by the Soviet Army. By using tactics of a mass terror to intimidate the peaceful people of Azerbaijan, who rose to defend the national freedom and territorial integrity of their country, and by killing hundreds of innocent people, the failed totalitarian soviet regime, once again, demonstrated to the world its criminal nature.

Heydar Aliyev was the first politician to answer the people’s voice. On January 21, 1990, immediately after the tragic events had taken place, our National Leader, despite of being under surveillance, and the existing threat to his family, went straight to our country’s permanent representation in Moscow together with his son and associate, our President Ilham Aliyev, where he expressed a strong protest over this tragedy, condemned M.S.Gorbachov as the organizer of this massacre and demanded the immediate withdrawal of soviet troops from Azerbaijan. At that time, a considerable courage was required from a man to lay accusations against the USSR and its head in the capital of this state. After regaining the political power in Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev gave a legal and political assessment to the 20 January tragedy. Since before he came to power, Heydar Aliyev said: ‘I consider that the USSR’s political leadership and, particularly Mikhail Gorbachov, are responsible for the 20 January tragedy, which happened as a result of Gorbachov’s dictatorial inclinations and betrayal of people by Azerbaijan’s leadership.”

23 years have passed since these bloody events took place, but the Azerbaijani people will never forget this tragedy. These brave sons and daughters of Azerbaijan, who gave their lives defending the independents of their country, will live in as long as the life itself continues.

Their names have been immortalized in the history of our Republic, which provides due care and attention to the families of the victims. And the end of the activity, the minister listened to victims families’ problems and gave relevant instructions for solving these problems. Commemoration activities have been also held in MCIT’s structural divisions and units, whose employees attended the Alley of Shahids to pay tribute to the victims of this terrible tragedy.