We visited Martyr's Lane or Alley of Martyrs one morning. It's a cemetery and memorial in Baku dedicated primarily to those killed by the Soviet Army during the Black January uprising in 1990 and in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War of 1988-1994. There are around 15,000 people buried here with about 14,000 of them Azerbaijanis.

One thing that we have experienced in all countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union has been lots of memorials, especially to wars. In this case, it's an Azerbaijan memorial and primarily for the battle against the Soviet Army in 1990 where 126 were Azerbaijanis were killed. This was considered the start of their drive to independence from Russia which they achieved in 1991.

Fighting in Baku broke out in the closing days of World War I, in 1918. Four groups were fighting plus some British troops. During that fighting, 1130 Turks died and as part of that conflict and this first served as a Muslim cemetery, hence the Turkish-built Mosque of the Martyr's.

Martyr's Lane is a really long lane, so I'll include several photos to give you an idea of how long.

Towards the end of the lane are the graves of the 126 Azerbaijanis who died during Black January 1990.

And one closeup to show that the deaths were not all men and definitely not all old, grizzled military types.

At the end of the memorial is an eternal flame, housed in a protective structure. I took the photo to show the Soviet era radio tower in the background.

The view from the end of this memorial, right near the eternal flame was pretty impressive, but made less so by the light rain.