History is not merely the changing of calendar pages; it is a series of facts etched into the memory of a nation with blood. From the bloody March of 1918 to this day—January 20, 2026—the Azerbaijani people have faced a systematic policy of extermination, genocide, and deportation for 26,229 days. These are not accidental clashes; they are the operations of a unified terror machine managed with the support of external patrons.
1918: A History Written with the Blood of 150,000 Turks
ELAZ.INFO reports that one of the greatest crimes of Armenian dashnaks took place in 1918. During that period, not only Baku but the entire geography of Azerbaijan was targeted. Historical facts prove that in March and April of 1918, more than 150,000 Turkic-Muslim compatriots were brutally murdered in Baku, Shamakhi, Guba, Zangezur, Karabakh, and the Erivan Governorate. The primary goal of this mass massacre was to erase the Turkic trace in the South Caucasus and create a “clean” territory for the imaginary “Greater Armenia.” The forces led by Stepan Shaumyan, wearing a Bolshevik mask, and the foreign patrons who provided them with weapons were directly involved in this crime.
1948-1953: Deportation – The Destruction of a Nation on Migration Routes
The next link in the chain of crimes covers the years 1948-1953. The decisions signed by the USSR leadership, especially Joseph Stalin, were one of the greatest victories for the Armenian lobby. Approximately 150,000 Azerbaijanis were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in the Armenian SSR and resettled in the Kur-Araz lowlands of Azerbaijan. The goal was to completely rid Armenia of Azerbaijanis. Thousands of elderly people and children, unable to withstand the harsh change in climate, became victims of this “silent genocide.”
January 20, 1990: Imperial Terror Against the Will of Freedom
The tragedy of January 20 is one of the heaviest links in this chain. Under the direct order of the last leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the plan of his Armenian advisors, the Soviet army entered Baku and martyred 147 civilians. The purpose of this terror was to break the independence spirit of the Azerbaijani people and create unhindered conditions for Armenia’s occupational activities in Karabakh. On that bloody night, the norms of international law were trampled upon before the eyes of humanity.
1992: Khojaly – The Bloody Stain of the Century
On February 26, 1992, the world witnessed one of the most horrific acts of genocide in modern history—Khojaly. Armenian armed formations, with the direct participation and technical support of the 366th Motorized Rifle Regiment of Russia, brutally murdered 613 peaceful residents. Among them were 63 children and 106 women. The atrocities committed in villages like Khojaly, Garadaghly, and Agdaban were the joint crime of Armenian fascism and the foreign powers that armed them.
2020: The Missile Terror of the 21st Century
Even in modern times, this philosophy of crime did not change. During the 44-day Patriotic War, Armenia, defeated on the battlefield, targeted the cities of Ganja, Barda, and Tartar with ballistic missiles. As a result of this terror, nearly 100 civilians lost their lives. The political and military support provided to Armenia by France and certain other Western circles constituted the 21st-century leg of this series of crimes.
ELAZ.INFO Editorial Note: This 26,229-day path of oppression was shattered by Azerbaijan’s Victory. Today, the souls of our martyrs are at peace, because all the lands where these crimes were committed are now free. However, we pray for God’s mercy upon all our martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the existence of our supreme nation, from the March Genocide of 1918 to Khojaly, from January 20 to the Patriotic War. We carry the pain of this 26,229-day series of crimes in our hearts, while simultaneously taking pride in the restoration of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
On this sorrowful yet honorable day, we offer our deepest condolences to the people of Azerbaijan, to our compatriots across the four corners of the world, to all Turkic-speaking nations, and to the supreme Turkic world. The cherished memory of our martyrs will always light our path, and the history written with their blood will be the unshakable fortress of our national identity.
Ruslan MAMMADOV
