On January 17, 2020, a ceremony was held at the Presidential Library to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the tragedy of January 20. The event featured an updated version of the electronic project titled 20 January. Aggression 1990” in the Azerbaijani, English, and Russian languages.
The event, organized in accordance with the President’s Order of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the thirtieth anniversary of the January 20 tragedy, was attended by a group of secondary school students from middle schools No. 6, 8, and 23 in the city of Baku, as well as representatives of some government institutions. A video dedicated to the victims of January 20 was first shown in the Reading Room during the event, prepared by library staff. Participants then had the opportunity to visit the photo and book exhibition.
Director of the library, Mail Ahmadov, noted that it has been 30 years since the day of the bloody massacre that took place in January 1990 in Baku and some districts of Azerbaijan. Over this time, a number of studies have been conducted, articles and books have been written, and documentaries have been filmed about the reasons, scale, and consequences of the January 20 tragedy. At the initiative of the national leader Heydar Aliyev, the highest legislative body of the country gave a political and legal assessment of this tragedy.
Speakers at the event, including the director of high school No. 23, Julia Karimova, professor Elchin Ahmadov, director of the State Archives Emin Sardarov, Director of the Archive of Socio-Political Documents of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan Elmira Alakbarova, and a senior official of the Presidential Administration Fazil Zeynalov, emphasized that these materials are a valuable source for studying and promoting the events of January 20.