Black January

Documentary Theatre Performance

Student 1 - Dafne
Student 2 - Emil
Student 3 - Mansura

Photo 1 (Total black)

Student 1: Baku residents recall the "Black January" of 1990:

Student 2: We
Student 3: We just wanted freedom

Everyone: We just wanted freedom

Student 1: If you go up to the park on a hill overlooking the Baku Bay, then the first thing you will
see is the straight lines of graves, identical rows of light marble with portraits of men, women and
children of different nationalities. The tombstones bear the same date of death - January 20th, 1990.

Student 3: Photo caption The Alley of Martyrs in Baku. A row of identical black graves receding
into the distance. The victims are buried here on January 20th, 1990.

Student 1: On January 20th, 1990, troops entered Baku. For the first time in the history of the
USSR, the Soviet army took a Soviet city by storm in peacetime.
According to the official version, the troops were brought in to prevent the Armenian pogroms in
Baku. In reality, by that time the pogroms had already stopped, and the troops, according to
Moscow, were supposed to prevent the seizure of Soviet power in the republic by the Popular Front
of Azerbaijan (PFA).

Student 2: My name is Akhmed. ”It was like in a cinema. I could everything that was happening
from my balcony facing the Tbilisi Avenue”

Student 1: Akhmed Rakhmanov speaks calmly about what happened to him, without much
emotion.

Then he, a 16-year-old teenager, lived with his parents and younger brother on the first floor of a
four-story building. The apartment had a balcony overlooking Tbilisi Avenue - one of the main
transport arteries of Baku, from where cars enter the capital from the north.

Student 2: From the balcony one could see how the protesters against the transfer of Karabakh to
Armenia, trying to block the military entry into the city, blocked the avenue in this place with two
rows of cars. There were large trucks in the first row, and smaller vehicles in the second.

Student 3: Photo caption:

A few days before January 20, city streets were blocked by such barricades of trucks and buses.
Student 2: Bonfires were burning in several places: "We were sitting around the fires and felt like
adults. Foreign journalists came, and some French woman took a picture of me and my brother."

Student 1: On January 19, in the evening, a dark green UAZ car drove up to the barricades, and the
people sitting in it ordered the protesters to disperse, because the military would come and shoot.
At about 11 o'clock in the evening, new people began to come to the avenue. They said that soldiers
were approaching the avenue from the entrance to the city near the village of Balajari.

Student 2: “And we went in the direction of the soldiers”. “We saw the searchlights shining on us
from there, we didn’t see the soldiers, only their shields. And in between every five shields there
was a machine gun.”

Student 1: The protesters began to shout over the loudspeaker to disperse: "Your actions are
illegal!"

Student 2: Your actions are illegal!

Everyone: "Your actions are illegal!” "Your actions are illegal!”

Student 2: Someone in the crowd tried to persuade people to throw away everything in their hands:
"They will see that you are unarmed, and no one will touch you."
Student 1: The whole crowd squatted down, as they usually did at rallies. Me and others have done
so before, demonstrating to the authorities that they are facing a peaceful demonstration.

Student 3: Photo caption: The soldiers who arrived in the city were armed not only with shields
and clubs, but also with machine guns.

Student 1: The soldiers came closer, the shields opened, and people with truncheons came out from
behind them ... and began to beat the first row:

Student 2: "Panic began, and we ran back to the barricades, and they shot after us - just above our
heads. They were shooting at the level of the sides of the cars. I I remember a guy standing in the
back of one car, shouting something, and suddenly he collapsed to the ground. What happened to
him, I don't know. "

Student 1: Smoke bombs flew into the crowd. It became dark, and Ahmed felt someone dragging
him:

Student 2:"I turned and see, this is my mother, she is dragging me, scolding me, screaming for me
to return home."

Student 1: By two o'clock in the morning on January 20, it became quiet on Tbilisi Avenue, the
streets were empty, only shots were heard in some places. And when the ranks of soldiers passed
further towards the city, heavy equipment drove behind them.
A state of emergency was declared in the city, but many did not know about it - in the television
center, an army sabotage group blew up a transformer unit that fed the transmitter of the republican
television. Most of the people learned about the curfew only in the morning from the
announcements on the radio.
In the morning, Ahmed and other residents of the houses went out into the street. BMPs and
soldiers were stationed in several places.
Student 2: “Our people are strange, for some reason they began to bring jars with compotes for
them, and those guys began to swear that we just arrived this morning, we were not here at night”

Student 1: The next morning, more than a million residents of the city attended the funeral of the
victims of the nighttime events. They were buried in the Upland Park, part of which has since
become known as the Martyrs' (Victims) Alley.
On January 20, 1990, Moscow essentially lost Azerbaijan.

Photo 5

Student 3: Photo caption: Hundreds of thousands of people attended the funeral of the victims on
January 20th.

Photo 6

Student 3: Photo caption: Among those killed that day were women, old people and children.

Photo 7

The tragedy of January 20 became a turning point in the history of Azerbaijan, forever changing the
attitude of ordinary people to the Soviet regime. It also became evidence that Moscow had lost
control over the processes in the national republics that led to the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
Soon a full-scale war for Karabakh began between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Student 2: Akhmed Rakhmanov just turned 18 years old, he went to the front, where he was
wounded.
Today, about January 20, he says: "We just wanted freedom”.