Black January - News Coverage

News Coverage

During the Black January crackdown, Soviet authorities managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community. On the eve of the Soviet military invasion in Baku, one of leaders of Popular Front, Ekhtibar Mamedov proposed to Kremlin officials to appear on Azerbaijani TV at 8 PM announcing First Secretary of Azerbaijani Communist Party, Abdurrahman Vazirov would be leaving and no troops would invade Baku which would restore the order.

Instead, an energy supply source to Azerbaijani TV and State Radio was blown up by intelligence officers at 7:15 PM in order to cut off the population from any source of information. TV and radio was silent and all print media was banned. But Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty succeeded in broadcasting daily reports from Baku, making it the only source of news to Azerbaijanis within and outside of the country for several days. The Kremlin leadership tried hard to keep the outside world and the population inside Azerbaijan unaware of the military invasion, but Mirza Khazar and his staff foiled this attempt. Thanks to Mirza Khazar and his staff at Radio Liberty, Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan, as well as the international community, learned about the Soviet invasion and gained a chance to organise protest actions.

Shocked by this "surprising" development, the government of the USSR complained officially to the United States about Radio Liberty's coverage of the military invasion of Azerbaijan. The January 20, 1990 broadcasts turned Mirza Khazar into a legend among Azerbaijanis in and outside Azerbaijan. Malahat Aghajanqizi, a well-known Azerbaijani poetess and writer, described Mirza Khazar's appearance on radio at the time of the Soviet military invasion as follows: "On January 20, Mirza Khazar with his God-given divine voice, gave hope to the dying Azerbaijani people."