KARLOVY VARY COMMEMORATED 20th ANNIVERSARY OF BLACK JANUARY

20 January 2010, Karlovy Vary Today, for the first time commemoration of 20 January events in Baku took place in regional city of Karlovy Vary under auspices of Senator Jan Hornik. It was held in the framework of annual events hosted by Senator to mark Prague Spring.

In his opening remarks Senator Hornik said that the idea to hold such an event in Karlovy Vary originated during his trip to Baku when he accompanied the President of the Czech Senate Premysl Sobotka. He likened the events of 20 January 1990 in Baku to those of Velvet Revolution in the Czech Republic. He said: “There is only one difference between those events. Unlike Azerbaijan, here in the Czech Republic it went without bloodshed”.

He stressed the importance of Azerbaijan to the Czech Republic as a trade partner, while simultaneously rejecting the idea of reducing relations to only energy field. He highlighted the importance of tourism and expressed his support to visa-waiver for Azerbaijan within Eastern Partnership program.

Ambassador Tahir Taghizade drew attention of the audience to similarities existing between two countries. Proceeding to talk about the events of 1990, he added that there is no difference of the 20-year-old events in Baku from what happened in Hungary, in 1956 and Czechoslovakia, in 1968. He continued: “On January 20, 1990, 26,000 Soviet troops under orders from Mikhail Gorbachev, acting in a breach of both Soviet and Azerbaijani Constitutions, invaded Baku, killed one hundred and forty innocent civilians and wounded more than 600 people.” He stressed that Georgians, Russians, Jews and representatives of other nations were also among victims of that aggression.

He concluded his address saying: “Soviet aggression actually became counter-effective. If before people were demanding the resolution of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh conflict, after those events they started demanding state sovereignty and resignation of Soviet authorities. As such, 20 January set in motion the events which led to Azerbaijan's independence a year and a half later”.

Then Ali Mirzoyev, member of Azerbaijani community and representative of “Therma Travel”, the biggest incoming tourist operator in the Czech Republic, located in Karlovy Vary, shared his impressions as a witness of those events.

The event was ended with Q&A session and demonstration of photo exhibition dedicated to those events.