Black January

Black January (Azerbaijani: Qara Yanvar), also called Black Saturday or the January Massacre, refers to a violent Soviet military crackdown in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 19–20 January 1990, occurring amid the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The crackdown targeted anti-Soviet and anti-Armenian sentiment, Azerbaijani nationalism, and the independence movement led by the Popular Front of Azerbaijan.

The unrest emerged from escalating tensions over Nagorno-Karabakh. In December 1989, Azerbaijanis in border regions with Iran tore down border fences, and local administrations in Jalilabad and Lankaran were handed to the Popular Front. On 9 January 1990, the Armenian SSR's Supreme Soviet voted to incorporate Nagorno-Karabakh into its budget, prompting outrage and demonstrations in Azerbaijan. On 13 January, an anti-Armenian pogrom began in Baku, resulting in 48 deaths as thousands fled or were evacuated by Soviet forces. Local Azerbaijani authorities, paralyzed by internal divisions, could not restore order, and Interior Ministry troops and Soviet garrison units reportedly did not intervene, citing a lack of orders from Moscow.

On 19 January, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, under General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, approved a decree imposing a state of emergency in Baku, effective 20 January. That night, after Soviet special forces demolished the central television station and cut phone and radio lines, roughly 26,000 Soviet troops entered Baku, breaking through civilian barricades. Gorbachev claimed that Popular Front gunmen fired on soldiers, but the independent Moscow-based Shield organization found no evidence of armed combatants and concluded the army had waged war on civilians, calling for a criminal investigation of Defence Minister Dmitry Yazov, who led the operation. Troops fired into crowds over three days.

According to Azerbaijani official estimates, 147 civilians were killed, 800 were injured, and five went missing; other sources cite a toll between 133 and 137 civilian deaths, with unofficial figures reaching as high as 300. An additional 26 people were killed in the Neftchala and Lankaran regions. Reports on military casualties vary, with figures of 21 to 29 Soviet soldiers reported killed, though the circumstances of some soldier deaths, including possible friendly fire, remain disputed.

Human Rights Watch and the Memorial Society/Helsinki Watch later found the use of force disproportionate to any resistance, describing it as collective punishment, and documented the use of armored vehicles, bayonets, and gunfire directed at marked ambulances. Following Azerbaijan's 1991 restoration of independence, the General Prosecutor's Office filed a 1992 lawsuit against individuals involved, later extended in 2003 to target Gorbachev for alleged constitutional violations. Victims were posthumously honored as "Martyrs of January 20" by presidential decree in 1999, and 20 January is observed annually in Azerbaijan as a Day of Mourning. A memorial to the victims was unveiled in Baku's Yasamal district in January 2010.