On January 20, 1990, blood flowed through Baku’s streets, setting Azerbaijan on its path to liberation.

Balkan Watchers 2024

On January 19, 1990, when Soviet authorities realized that Azerbaijani citizens were refusing to return home and that the calls for freedom were growing louder, they deployed the army to Baku. The first target was the energy blocks of Azerbaijani Television, which were blown up, plunging the TV and radio stations into silence. On January 20, 1990, a fleet of 102 ships formed a blockade in Baku Bay to prevent Soviet military vessels from advancing. Captain Rovshan Damirov, suspecting that the Soviet ships might be carrying the bodies of the deceased, swiftly directed his ship to intercept them. Unaware that one of the enemy vessels was armed with a torpedo, Captain Damirov attempted to block it by ramming from behind. Under heavy fire from Soviet ships, the area was soon shrouded in smoke from tracer bullets, reducing visibility to nearly nothing as they braced themselves for the worst.