Unforgettable January

The mourning public meeting of the International association Israel-Azerbaijan ‘AzIz’ Board was dedicated to the terrible events that left a running sore in the heart of everyone who survived the tragic days of January 1990 in Baku. Azerbaijanis, as well as representatives of other communities of Israel gathered in the hall of the art studio ‘By Pen and Brush’.

Speaking about the grave events in the history of modern Azerbaijan, director of the Azerbaijan Cultural Center ‘AzIz’ Yegyana Salman told about the innocent people who became the victims of the war crime committed by the Soviet troops against the inhabitants of Azerbaijan. Among the deceased were Azerbaijanis, Russians, Tatars, Lezgins and Jews, who were brutally killed, when they were trying to save the lives of others, like Alexander Marchevka and Yan Meerovich, or were in their houses like Vera Bisantina. The most terrible fact of those events is that it was a brutal war against the citizens of its own country. It was clear that the fatal events of January 1990 became the price that Azerbaijan paid for its independence.

A member of the Union of Journalists, the Union of Writers and Artists of Israel, Frida Yusufova, shared her memories and personal experiences about the Black January. With tears in her eyes, she told how close death was to her and to her family on that terrible day.

A radio journalist, member of the AzIz board, Victoria Dolinskaya told about how miraculously she managed to survive when bullets were flying, adding that she considers this date her second birthday.

The head of the Jerusalem branch of AzIz, Alexander Agranovsky, shared his memories of the victims and deceased friends. He read the poems by Baku-born Leila Begim and Mikhail Salman, dedicated to the January tragedy.

The youngest member of the association, new repatriate from Azerbaijan, attorney Neta Katsman shared her memories of those dramatic events. Her mother miraculously saved the life of her unborn child during those days. Neta Katsman read in the Azerbaijani language very emotional poems dedicated to the Baku tragedy of 1990 by Mamed Aslan.

Addressing the audience, the director general of the International association Israel-Azerbaijan ‘AzIz’, Lev Spivak said that ‘probably, we left Baku and today we are here in Israel only due to those tragic events’’.  He asked to pay tribute to the memory of the innocent victims of the Black January by observing a moment of silence.

According to the tradition, the audience honored the memory of the victims of the tragic events of January 20, 1990, by observing a moment of silence. Then, the chairman of the AzIz branch in Netanya, Tomer Aliev, read the Kaddish, a Jewish prayer for the peace of the dead.

At the end of the meeting, the member of the Board of Directors of the Aziz Association, Shaul Siman-Tov thanked all attendees for their participation in the special meeting of the AzIz Association Board.