BAKU (TSAT) - Azerbaijani nation on Thursday commemorated “National Mourning Day” to remember their martyrs of January 20, 1990 massacre.

The President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva visited the Alley of Martyrs in capital Baku on the 32nd anniversary of the bloodshed which was committed by the Soviet empire in Baku, according to state-run Azertac news agency.

The country supreme commander-in-chief and First Lady also laid wreath at the the Eternal Flame monument and paid tribute to their martyrs who sacrificed their lives for their country and nation.

Since 1994, Azerbaijani nation every year observe Jan. 20 as “National Mourning Day” to paid tribute to their martyrs and remind the world to take action against the perpetrators who killed over 145 people and hundreds other wounded.

"On the night of January 19 to 20, 1990, by order of the USSR leadership, 26,000 Soviet troops invaded Baku, Sumgait, as well as other cities of Azerbaijan. As a result of this military intervention, 147 civilians were killed and 744 were seriously injured. This event went down in the history of modern Azerbaijan as "Black January"," said the ministry.

Before these tragic events, the groundless territorial claims of Armenia against Azerbaijan in late 1980s, the aggressive separatist activities of Armenian radicals in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region of the former Azerbaijan SSR and the Soviet leadership's support to this illegal activity, as well as the violent and brutal deportation of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis from Armenia spurred the expansion of the movement against the Soviet Government in Azerbaijan.

"The Soviet Army deployed to the country in order to prevent the national movement and break the will of the Azerbaijani people for independence, committed massacre against the peaceful population, violating the norms of international law, the Constitutions of the former USSR and the Azerbaijani SSR," according to the statement.

At a press conference at the Permanent Representation of Azerbaijan in Moscow immediately after the tragic events, the Azerbaijan National leader Heydar Aliyev strongly condemned this atrocity and demanded political assessment of the massacre against our people and punishment for the perpetrators.

Later,  at a special session of the Milli Majlis (Parliament) in February 1994, the brutal murder of innocent people on January 20, 1990 was regarded as military aggression and crime, and as a result of the deliberations in March 1994, decision “On the tragic events committed in Baku on January 20, 1990” was adopted. Since then, 20 January has been commemorated as National Mourning Day.