Mountainous Karabagh Calls on International Community to Condemn Maragha Massacre

Twenty-two years ago, on April 10, the village of Maragha located in the Martakert region of Mountainous Karabagh was attacked by Azerbaijani forces. The Maragha Massacre was the mass murder of ethnic Armenian civilians. Up to now the Azerbaijani government has not been appropriately reprimanded by the international community.

“One of the most tragic episodes of Azerbaijan’s military aggression against the Nagorno-Karabagh Republic was the massacre of the population of the village of Maragha in Martakert region, Karabakh,” the Nagorno Karabagh Republic’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in comments to Artsakhpress news agency. “On April 10, 1992, after intensive artillery shelling, Azerbaijani armed units invaded the peaceful village and committed a ruthless reprisal over defenseless people.”

“The attack on the village was not driven by military necessity but aimed to annihilate its peaceful population. According to various sources, including those of such human rights organizations as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, from 53 to 100 people were killed, more than 60 people including 9 children and 29 women were taken hostages. More than 30 hostages were subsequently killed in Azerbaijani captivity. Two weeks later, the village was subjected to a renewed attack and its inhabitants who returned to bury their relatives yet again fell victim to atrocities committed by the Azerbaijani army,” the Ministry said.

“This hideous crime in Maragha became the next in the chain of the anti-Armenian pogroms and deportations in Northern Artsakh, as well as Sumgait, Baku, Kirovobad and other settlements within Azerbaijan,” the statement reads.

The Foreign Ministry noted that “the lack of the adequate political and legal assessment of the international community of the massacres and ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population in Azerbaijan and the impunity of the perpetrators of the crimes paved way for the cult of zealous hatred towards Armenians and anything Armenian and uncurbed propaganda of xenophobia, intolerance and militarism in today’s Azerbaijan.”

“To prevent the recurrence of similar tragedies in the future, the massacre in Maragha and other manifestations of Armenophobia should be condemned by the international community and its organizers and perpetrators should receive deserved punishment,” the Ministry concluded.

"Asbarez," April 10, 2014