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ETHNOGRAPHER RECALLS ARMENIAN HERO IN DESCRIBING EVENTS OF JANUARY 1990 IN BAKU
epress.am
01.20.2012
Azerbaijan today is home to 2,500 to 3,000 Armenians; however, out
of fear, they don't make their ethnicity known, said ethnographer
Hranush Kharatyan, speaking to journalists in Yerevan today.
Kharatyan mentioned that Azerbaijan's official figures cite 120,000
Armenians living in Azerbaijan, adding that Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenian
population is included in this figure.
On the subject of refugees in both countries, the ethnographer said
that the problems of these groups are ignored in both countries. She
noted, however, that the situation is better in Armenia because a
significant portion of the refugees in Azerbaijan are kept in the
ghetto and cannot leave "to demonstrate their wretched state to the
international community."
Kharatyan then touched upon the 1988-1990 massacres of Armenians in
Baku: "Developments reached their climax on Jan. 19, 1990, and it was
no longer possible to be Armenian in Baku. On Jan. 20, considering
the problem with Armenians finally solved, they barricaded... the
Central Committee, the Supreme Council and even [Armenian National Hero
Nikolai] Ryzhkov, who seems like a normal person, knew about these
events. The man, who wrote about these events in condemning tone,
says that there was a tragedy on the morning of Jan. 20, because the
Popular Front barricaded the Supreme Council and Central Committee
buildings. So there was no tragedy until then? Everything was normal?
They were people, Armenians were killed - it was nothing, this whole
turn of the month wasn't a tragedy, and it was a tragedy [only]
when the symbols of power were blocked?"
Today Azerbaijan, according to the ethnographer, celebrates those who
carried out the massacres of Armenians in Baku, Sumgait and Kirovabad.
Revered is Azerbaijani Lieutenant Ramil Safarov, who hacked to death
with an axe a sleeping Armenian officer in Budapest in 2004.
"And it's hard not to see here that a culture where an aggressor,
a murderer becomes a hero cultivated," she said.
Recall, today is Azerbaijan's National Day of Mourning for Black
January, which commemorates the night of Jan. 19-20, 1990, when Soviet
troops entered Baku to suppress dissident rioters that ended in the
deaths of over 100 people.
These events were preceded by the Jan. 13-16, 1990 pogroms of Armenians
in Baku, which occurred as a result of the deliberate non-intervention
of the USSR authorities.
epress.am
01.20.2012
Azerbaijan today is home to 2,500 to 3,000 Armenians; however, out
of fear, they don't make their ethnicity known, said ethnographer
Hranush Kharatyan, speaking to journalists in Yerevan today.
Kharatyan mentioned that Azerbaijan's official figures cite 120,000
Armenians living in Azerbaijan, adding that Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenian
population is included in this figure.
On the subject of refugees in both countries, the ethnographer said
that the problems of these groups are ignored in both countries. She
noted, however, that the situation is better in Armenia because a
significant portion of the refugees in Azerbaijan are kept in the
ghetto and cannot leave "to demonstrate their wretched state to the
international community."
Kharatyan then touched upon the 1988-1990 massacres of Armenians in
Baku: "Developments reached their climax on Jan. 19, 1990, and it was
no longer possible to be Armenian in Baku. On Jan. 20, considering
the problem with Armenians finally solved, they barricaded... the
Central Committee, the Supreme Council and even [Armenian National Hero
Nikolai] Ryzhkov, who seems like a normal person, knew about these
events. The man, who wrote about these events in condemning tone,
says that there was a tragedy on the morning of Jan. 20, because the
Popular Front barricaded the Supreme Council and Central Committee
buildings. So there was no tragedy until then? Everything was normal?
They were people, Armenians were killed - it was nothing, this whole
turn of the month wasn't a tragedy, and it was a tragedy [only]
when the symbols of power were blocked?"
Today Azerbaijan, according to the ethnographer, celebrates those who
carried out the massacres of Armenians in Baku, Sumgait and Kirovabad.
Revered is Azerbaijani Lieutenant Ramil Safarov, who hacked to death
with an axe a sleeping Armenian officer in Budapest in 2004.
"And it's hard not to see here that a culture where an aggressor,
a murderer becomes a hero cultivated," she said.
Recall, today is Azerbaijan's National Day of Mourning for Black
January, which commemorates the night of Jan. 19-20, 1990, when Soviet
troops entered Baku to suppress dissident rioters that ended in the
deaths of over 100 people.
These events were preceded by the Jan. 13-16, 1990 pogroms of Armenians
in Baku, which occurred as a result of the deliberate non-intervention
of the USSR authorities.