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Azerbaijani portal “Xeberle.com” conducted a survey among the residents of the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait. The topic of the survey was the awareness about events held on January 20, 1990 in Baku.

The video footage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKN6dCPEUvc, placed in the YouTube becomes obvious that almost none of the respondents could give a full and clear answer about the place, time and the nature of the events of "January 20", which is usually marked as tragic date in Azerbaijan.

For example, on the 50th second of the record the journalist asks a young man, what he knew about the events of January 20 and the latter replies that the events have taken place in 1993 in Khojaly, Kubatly and Fizuli.

On the second minute of the record, another one accuses Armenians of the events that took place on January 20. "These events have shown the true face of the Armenians," he says.

Another respondent could not answer the question about the number of martyrs killed during the abovementioned events. However, the other respondents as well could not give a name of a single Azerbaijani buried in the Alley of Martyrs in Baku. Many of them state confidently that the events hav occurred in Sumgait.

Nearly all the respondents get confused in the date of the events; someone says it happened in 1991, another one says 1993. Also, none of the respondents could tell any specific thing about those events. Some even flatly refused to answer to any question.

On January 13, 1990 in Baku, where there were left less than 35,000 Armenians, a massive pogrom of Armenian population started. Lists of apartments where Armenians lived were prepared beforehand; the rioters were walking with these lists in their hands, in some places they were being supported by the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry officers. Hundreds of people were killed. At the same time, as General Lebed wrote, the Azerbaijani nationalists killed not only Armenians but also Lezghins, Ossetians and Georgians. Moreover, a wave of violence against the Russian population of the country started. Soviet special squad soldier found even a well that was full of corpses of Russians and Armenians.

On January 20 night, 1990, after a week of riots, Soviet troops were introduced to Baku. The Azerbaijani militants fired at the troops, as a result of which 28 Soviet soldiers were killed, another 100 Soviet militants were wounded. According to official figures of Azerbaijan, 131 civilians were killed during the events held on the "20th January."