Mikhail Gorbachev

The head of the Caucasus Muslims Department, Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, was speaking at a conference to mark the 20th anniversary of Black January at the Muslims Department.

A new group is to be set up to investigate the January events and submit the collected materials to the European Court of Human Rights, Pashazade told the conference.

"We believe that all those responsible for these crimes will be punished either in this world or on Judgment Day. They will not escape punishment. In an attempt to realize their filthy plans to annexe Azerbaijani land during the USSR collapse, the Armenian lobby skillfully used the Soviet leadership, led by the puppet Gorbachev, as a tool for their purposes. Heydar Aliyev was dismissed from the Politburo because he got in the way of the Armenian plans. By having Gorbachev dismiss Heydar Aliyev, the venal Soviet regime untied the hands of Armenian separatism and fully encouraged the plans of the Armenian lobby," Pashazade said.

"Soviet troops were deployed in Baku on the night of 19-20 January and committed bloody massacres of the civilians of the Azerbaijani capital. As a result, 136 people died, 744 were wounded and 814 were arrested. The Soviet regime attempted to suppress Azerbaijani democracy and present the national liberation movement of Azerbaijan as a demonstration of Islamic fundamentalism and extremism.  Heydar Aliyev, who was living in Moscow at that time, provided great support and did an enormous amount of work to unite the Azerbaijani nation. His return to Azerbaijan thwarted the enemy's plans to destroy Azerbaijani statehood," the head of the Caucasus Muslims Department concluded.

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