Gorbachev justifies 1990 crackdown in Baku - Azeri TV

ChrisD(RJ) chrisd at russiajournal.com
Tue Feb 4 23:13:41 PST 2003


BBC Monitoring Gorbachev justifies 1990 crackdown in Baku - Azeri TV Source: ANS TV, Baku, in Azeri 1700 gmt 3 Feb 03

[Presenter Aytan Safarova, over archive footage of Gorbachev] The former president of the former USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, has commented on accusations that he is to blame for the Baku events of 20 January 1990 and that a lawsuit was filed against him in this regard.

Gorbachev believes that before the troops arrived in Baku, the [Azerbaijani]

Supreme Soviet and other political bodies were paralysed, dozens of people had fallen victim to extremists, power had been toppled by force in some regions, the 200-kilometre section of the USSR's border [with Iran] had been

destroyed and a state of emergency had been declared to prevent arbitrariness and robbery.

Gorbachev admits that the events of 20 January 1990 were a tragedy. However,

Gorbachev believes that the measures taken in the prevalent conditions of the time prevented greater dangers.



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