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Maragha. Crime Against Humanity And Civilization

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  • Maragha. Crime Against Humanity And Civilization

    MARAGHA. CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY AND CIVILIZATION

    http://www.yerkir.am/en/news/22826.htm
    12:35 - 03.04.2012

    In the history of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict, abounding in
    numerous facts of atrocity and vandalism by Azerbaijan, the events in
    the village of Maragha of the NKR Martakert region are one of the most
    extreme manifestations of sadism and barbarity ever known to humanity.

    On April 10, 1992, after a three-hour preparatory bombardment,
    the subunits of the Azerbaijani regular army invaded the village of
    Maragha from the Azerbaijani village of Mir-Bashir (now Tartar). As
    a result of the aggression 100 people were massacred - mostly women,
    children, and elderly persons. Scores of people were taken hostages
    and later were exchanged but the fate of many of them still remains
    unknown. Two weeks later, on April 22-23, the village was repeatedly
    attacked and the people who had come back to their burnt homes were
    forced to abandon the village once and for all.

    The monstrous crimes in Maragha followed the Armenian pogroms and
    deportations in the Northern Atsakh, Baku, Sumgait, Kirovabad and
    other settlements of Azerbaijan and were aimed at frightening the
    people and disabling them to live in their homeland. By the depth of
    human tragedy, the level of cruelty, the number of people exposed to
    violence and captured, the events in the village of Maragha occupy
    a special place among the bloody crimes committed by Azerbaijan in
    Getashen, Martounashen, Buzlukh, Erkej and the other Armenian villages
    in the northern part of the NKR in 1991-1992.

    Vice Speaker of the House of Lords of the British Parliament Baroness
    Caroline Cox, who visited the place of the tragedy several days later,
    was shocked at what she saw. "They are not of human race" -said the
    Baroness about the Azerbaijani servicemen who had carried out the
    slaughter. Baroness Caroline Cox both took pictures and video-taped
    those atrocities committed by the Azerbaijanis in the village of
    Maragha and also described them in her book "Ethnic Cleansing in
    Progress", as well as in her numerous interviews.

    "It is impossible to describe what we saw there. The village was
    completely destroyed. The people were burying the dead, rather to say
    anything that was possible to bury, charred human remains, tortured,
    cut or sawed parts of bodies. We saw the bloody swords by which
    they had done all these brutalities. After killing the villagers
    the Azeris robbed and burnt the village. By the way, they told us
    that the servicemen were followed by the civilians with trunks who
    were going to finish the robbery, - and we saw some of those trunks
    scattered all over the land, which the looters did not manage to take
    away with them", - witnessed Caroline Cox.

    Seda Poghosyan, an eyewitness of the tragic events, who was saved
    by a miracle told. "The women, elderly people and children were
    hiding themselves in the basements and dugouts. On the third day -
    on April 10, 1992, the Azeris invaded Maragha. Several people came
    up to the dugout where I along with my daughter-in-law Marine and our
    two children - 4-year-old Karen and 2-year-old Vigen were hidden. The
    Azeris commanded us to get out of the dugout. The first was an old man
    Sasha, Asya and Zabel followed him. As soon as a man was getting out
    of the dugout he was immediately killed. My daughter-in-law leaving
    her children with me also walked up the stairs. The Azeri, with
    a knife in his hands prepared for stab, stopped and began tearing
    away her jewellery. Then he tore her dress. She broke into a run,
    the Azerbaijani rushed after her. The exit from the dugout was open.

    People dashed for the exit. They were noticed by the Azerbaijanis who
    were busy with robbery and threw themselves to kill with axes, knives
    and scythes. Masya and Ruben Ananyans were overcut immediately. I
    saw how my daughter-in-law's sister Karina was trying to escape from
    the executioners.

    Larisa Badalyan, a resident of the village of Maragha, was held
    hostage by the Azeris from April 10 till December 2, 1992.

    "Women, Zoya, Masho and Tamara, were led out of the cell by turn,
    and brought back blood-stained and half-naked. In an hour the door
    opened, the armed soldiers burst into the cell and pulled off the
    remains of their clothes and raped.

    Three days later we were brought to a prison in Kubatly, where I saw
    my son Apres, who was mentally ill. His eye came out, his head was
    swollen. A young Armenian from Martakert was on the floor beaten up
    to death... My son served as a shepherd, I did chores. We slept in a
    barrack, ate leavings. My son was often beaten up before my eyes. Once
    they brought a body of a dead Azerbaijani and they wanted to overcut
    us on his grave..."- she witnessed.

    In 1997, a number of human rights organizations conjointly prepared a
    comprehensive reference on the events in Maragha and submitted it to
    the UN Commission on Human Rights. The Helsinki Watch International
    Human Rights Organization officially confirmed that scores of
    civilians were martyrized and tens of women and children were taken
    hostages. However, the international media did not cover the massacre
    of the Armenians in Maragha at all and the international community
    has not given yet a corresponding assessment to these tragic events.

    "You have the most powerful weapon - the truth - said Baroness Cox.

    You should bring it to the international structures' notice that
    Azerbaijan attempted to commit genocide against the population of
    Karabakh. You must more actively present to the world the mass crimes
    perpetrated against Armenians in Maragha, Sumgait, Baku, etc. These
    are crimes against humanity. I support the Armenians and comprehend
    that they will never be able to live under the Azerbaijani dominion, as
    the Armenians of Karabakh, who lived under the control of Azerbaijan,
    suffered much".

    The massacre in the village of Maragha, which is still under
    Azerbaijan's occupation, cannot be called a military operation,
    as there were no military bases in the village but only peaceful
    citizens, who became the main target of the aggression. The crimes
    were aimed at deporting the Armenian people from their homeland.

    Summarizing the abovementioned, we should state that the slaughter
    of unarmed civil population of Maragha is a crime against humanity
    and civilization, without period of limitation, and the perpetrators
    of this crime must carry punishment to the fullest extent of the law.

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