The International News
RASHEED KHALID
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Speakers highlighted the importance of events of January 1990, in the history of oil-rich Central Asian Republic of Azerbaijan in a seminar titled ‘20th January a turning point in the history of Azerbaijan.’
The seminar was organised by Society for Asian Civilisation at the auditorium of Preston University here Wednesday. Soviet forces and Caspian flotilla stormed streets of Baku, the Azerbaijan capital, on January 20, 1990, killing people protesting against the communist system and attack of Armenians at Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian-majority enclave of Azerbaijan inside the republic.
Ambassador of Azerbaijan Dashgin Shikarov who was the chief guest, highlighted the good brotherly relations between Pakistan and his country and thanked SAC for organising the function.
Dr. ZA Qureshi, Head, Department of International Relations, National University of Modern Languages, said that Soviet authorities ordered full-scale military attack on Baku with 26,000 Special Forces backed by tanks after declaring state of emergency in the Azerbaijan capital. He said that they killed more than 130 people including women, children and elderly, injured thousands of civilians and detained thousands of civilians in the face of stiff resistance put up by the Azerbaijan people.
He said that the harsh action was to stop dissolution of communist rule in Azerbaijan. He said that Human Rights Watch called this as an exercise in collective punishment and a warning to the nationalists everywhere in the union. He said that Haider Aliyev, A CPSU Politburo member joined the protesters in Moscow. He later became the president of Republic of Azerbaijan.
Former ambassador Aamir A Shadani said that disintegration of Soviet Union started on January 20 as the events in Baku led to separatist movements in other Central Asian Republics. He said that later, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev admitted in Istanbul in 1995 that declaring the state of emergency in Baku was the greatest political mistake of his life.
Mati-ur-Rehman Mirza, vice-president of the society, presented vote of thanks in the end. Preston University Vice-Chancellor Dr. Basit in his welcome address said that January 20 is a day in Azerbaijan history to be remembered for paying homage to the sacrifices of the people who laid their lives for the independence of their homeland.
Dr. Saif-ur-Rahman Malik, Ilhan Muhammadov and Dr. ZA Qureshi also spoke on the occasion. ‘Fateha’ was offered for the departed souls of the January 20th, 1990, massacre. A documentary in this respect was also screened on the occasion.
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