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Maragha
On April 10, 1992 Azerbaijan committed a barbaric
massacre of the population of Maragha village in Martakert (Nagorno
Karabakh), during which 53 unarmed villagers, mostly women, children,
and elderly persons were slaughtered in cold-blood and close to 100
more were taken hostage. The massacre was repeated on April 22-23, 1992,
when a handful of survivors came back to the village to bury their dead.
One of the most tragic events of the recent Armenian
history is the slaughter of unarmed civil population in Maragha village
of the Martakert region of Nagorno Karabagh Republic. The horrible tragedy
is well documented and is confirmed by many international human rights
organizations, including Human Rights Watch/Helsinki.
Vice Speaker of the House of Lords of the British
Parliament Baroness Caroline Cox, who at the time was on a humanitarian
mission to Nagorno Karabagh recalls:
"On April 10, 1992,
forces from Azerbaijan attacked the Armenian village of Maragha in
northeastern Karabakh. The villagers awoke at 7 a.m. to the sound
of heavy shelling; then tanks rolled in, followed by infantry, followed
by civilians with pick-up trucks to take home the pickings of the
looting they knew would follow the eviction of the villagers.
Azeri soldiers sawed off
the heads of 45 villagers, burnt others, took 100 women and children
away as hostages, looted and set fire to all the homes, and left with
all the pickings from the looting.
I, along with my team
from Christian Solidarity Worldwide, arrived within hours to find
homes still smoldering, decapitated corpses, charred human remains,
and survivors in shock. This was truly like a contemporary Golgotha
many times over."
SURVIVORS OF THE MARAGHA MASSACRE
Christianity Today
April 27, 1998.
The full account of Baroness Cox's recollection of
the tragic events in Maragha can be found at www.christianitytoday.com/ct/8t5/8t5092.html
April 10, 2002. The National Assembly
issued a statement regarding the tragic events in Maragha village of
Jraberd province, saying that on April 10, 1992 Azerbaijani armed detachments
burst into Maragha village, brutally murdered and deported its population
of more than 4,000. According to the statement, the village was not
a legitimate military target. In Maragha, Azerbaijani armed forces acted
out of hatred towards the Armenian population of the village. Representatives
of Russia and Iran, who were visiting Nagorno Karabagh on a peace mission
witnessed the events. The statement said, in part, "The NKR National
Assembly appeals to the international community, to the United Nations
and its General Assembly, to the OSCE and its Minsk Group, to the Council
of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly and brings to their attention
acts of violence against the Armenian population of the Maragha village.
We demand that those acts of violence be condemned based on the norms
of international law and qualified as an act of genocide perpetrated
by the Azerbaijani Republic against the Armenian people."
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