My Truth vs. Your Truth

Yesterday, on January 20th 2012, I opened my Facebook homepage as usual and surprisingly saw a number of statuses with the same statement in different languages. The poster was one of my Facebook friends, who is Azerbaijani and with whom I participated in an international project.

So the guy was saying, “‎20 tammikuu 1990, Armenija Neuvostoliiton imperiumin laittomasti hyökkäsipääoman Azerbaidzhanin Bakuun, ja tappoi ihmisiä, jotka halusivatvapautta, yli 130 siviiliä sai surmansa..!”, as this is in Finnish, I tried to Google translate to understand what it said. I understood the guy wanted to say that on January 20th 1990, Soviet Army in Armenia illegally killed 130 civilians of Baku.

This was quite amazing for me, so I decided to discuss the issue with the young Azerbaijani guy saying that it’s not an accurate information he is spreading around. I would like to present a quote from http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Armenian_History_Timeline#1988_-_1991 – “Armenians in Baku attacked by mobs. Moscow sends troops to Azerbaijan, nominally to stem violence against Armenians over Karabakh”. The guy and his friend pretended to be surprised and told me they heard about this for the first time and claimed the source may be unreliable and that the information is false.

Well, let’s consider Armenian source is not objective, how about http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/20/world/rockets-being-fired-truck-armenian-fighters-yeraskhavan-response-azerbaijani.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm – “Popular Front members reported that Baku had been brought to a standstill by Azerbaijani militants intent on separatism and on ousting the Armenian minority from the republic”.

According to many history books during January 13-19, 1990, the national-fascist Popular Front of Azerbaijan attacked, tortured and killed Armenians in Baku. Meanwhile local authorities had lost control of the situation and even some Russians were killed. Further annihilation of Armenians and Russians was prevented by the entry of Soviet troops on January 20th. Azerbaijanis call this “a terrorist act against the Azerbaijani people, attempt to suppress its will for freedom.”

What gave me hope during the discussion with the Azerbaijani guys was the fact that for the first time I talked with civil and respectful Azerbaijanis. Before this, I only came across aggressive and disrespectful notes and pictures toward Armenians in social media.

Nvard Sununu, FD blogger from Armenia