Thread by @Aytekin_Niketya

🧵 Thread on the heroism of Azerbaijani sailors who stood up against the Navy warships , government and Minister of Defense of the USSR, in January 1990.

#Baku #Azerbaijan
#BlackJanuary #20January1990
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On the night of January 20, at the order of M. Gorbachev, 26,000 Soviet troops stormed Azerbaijan’s capital city of Baku without declaring the state of emergency and committed a brutal massacre upon civilian population, killing 147, wounding 744 men, women, children, elderly
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But first, the power supply unit of local TV station was exploited, phone, radio lines were terminated by "Alfa" special services of USSR.
Azerbaijanis got 1st information on betrayal of the Soviet government from leaflets distributed from helicopters.
#CrimesAgainstHumanity
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The radio operators of @ASCO_CJSC the Caspian Oil Fleet ships were one of the 1st to break information blockade and tell the world about invasion of Soviet troops in Baku on January 20, 1990.

On the night when Soviet troops attacked Baku from all sides, the civilian ships
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in the Baku bay blocked the way for the USSR Navy warships.

If it were not for the heroism shown by the crews of the Caspian Oil Fleet ships, the number of those killed, wounded and missing in those tragic days would have been many times greater.
On January 20 1990
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102 ships blocked the way to Baku bay in order to prevent Soviet warships from approaching Baku.
A headquarters was created on "Sabit Orudzhev" ship, where the captains elected a council of 7 people.They unanimously decided to send SOS signal in Azerbaijani, Russian,English.
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Faig Balabeyli, the senior assistant to ship captain: "Foreign mass media was broadcating information they received from TASS (ТАСС - Телеграфное агентство Советского Союза).
But thanks to the information transmitted by the sailors, which was received by foreign ships, it
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became possible to bring truthful information about the tragedy to the world community."

For the first time since the World War II, when SOS signals sounded from the burning "Agamali" tanker attacked by fascist aircraft, distress signals were again heard on Baku air.
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The first responses to repeated distress signals from the morning of January 20 to the night of the 21st were received by the Black and Baltic Seas, Kaliningrad.

At the same time, an alarm sounded every half an hour.
Rovshan Dashdamirov, ship captain: "Imagine how a hundred
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ships are signaling at the same time.
The Soviet soldiers,who at that time were in tanks, felt very uncomfortable. We had neither rifles nor cannons.But our signals had an effect on them.The next night they could not continue the attack on civilians."
Sailors from more than
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50 states responded to the SOS signal.All radiograms reflected their readiness to help in transferring information on introduction of troops into Baku.

At the same time the Council of Captains prepared and sent demands to Mikhail Gorbachev @mgorbachev the General Secretary
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of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which stated:

"On the night of January 20 1990, without the consent of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan SSR, the leadership of the Soviet troops forcibly brought the army into Azerbaijan.
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The blood of hundreds of civilians was shed. To stop the bloodshed of innocent people, the crews of the ships demand:

Withdraw troops from Baku before 24:00 on January 21, 1990.
Today, as a sign of protest, one of the ships in Baku Bay will be burned. If force is used from
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the shore or from the sea, all ships, tankers, oil bases on the shore will be immediately set on fire.
If warships start moving, we will stop them at the cost of our lives.
Signature: the crews of the ships standing in the roadstead."

To the demand of Admiral Sidorov, the
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Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, and other high-ranking leaders to immediately vacate the bay, the sailors responded with a categorical refusal.

Faig Balabeyli, senior assistant to the ship captain, recalls: "Yazov, the Minister of Defense of USSR, called the names
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and surnames of our captains and demanded punishment for them ranging from 15 years in prison to execution.
Imagine that the captain of a civilian ship stands face to face with the Minister of Defense of the USSR, tells him the truth and forces him to remain silent. E.g.,
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Muzaffar Aliyev, captain, said: "We are not on strike, we are protesting!"

On January 20, Soviet warships went on the offensive against civilian ships, and, seeing the steadfastness of the Azerbaijani sailors, began to fire at them from naval guns. Today, some of these
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vessels still bear the marks of those shellings.
Rza Mehdiyev, ship captain: "The warships launched an offensive. We were informed that everyone should act acc. to situation. Especially important were our large ships, which they were afraid to approach. The shelling began.
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Our ferry "Soviet Uzbekistan" was fired upon, and "Aquarius" ship was set on fire."

Rovshan Damirov, the captain of another ship: "They fired at us for about half an hour. In response, we managed to ram one of their ships."
After the events of January 20, about 40 captains
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were detained and sent to the Russian cities of Orenburg and Ulyanovsk. Criminal cases were opened against them, they were kept under arrest for several months ..but is it possible to break the spirit of people who are confident in their rightness?
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Source: @cbctvaz
#Baku #Azerbaijan
#BlackJanuary #20January
#20January1990
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@ASCO_CJSC ships in Baku Bay joined the minute of silence with a continuous whistle as a sign of respect for the memory of our martyrs

#Baku #Azerbaijan
#20January #BlackJanuary #20January1990