January 20 in Azerbaijan is called Black January. Aside from the coloration of the date, it is the most solemn day in the country. On this day in 1990, while the country was still part of the USSR, then President Gorbachev ordered 26,000 troops in the capital of Baku to quell the nasient independence movement called the AZ Popular Front. This group was leading the most organized resistance to the Communist Party and the fear was AZ might break away. (We all know ultimately the USSR collasped)...
When the troops and tanks roared into the city nearly 200 people were killed and 800 wounded (including women, children and elders)...some people were killed as they stood on their balconies just watching...shot by Soviet troops. The people never thought that "their own would shoot them or run them over in tanks".
The continued struggled resulted in the explusion of the troops and one year later, the AZ ratified their first constitution declaring their independence....but this day is to honor the heroic matyr's to died or were injured....
I must say it is pretty intense here today...thousands of people are marching, including their President Aliyev to the burial site honoring those killed. I don't think there is currently a comparable day in the US...perhaps immediately after the WW..Veteran's Day, or even the day after September 11...but what comes to mind for me..is the JFK funeral...where all America stopped to watch the riderless horse in the procession.....
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