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MARAGHA: ETHNIC CLEANSING IN PROGRESS WAR IN NAGORNO KARABAKH
http://www.maragha.nk.am/documentseng4.html
http://www.maragha.nk.am/index.html
By
Caroline Cox
and
John Aijbner
with a preface
by Elena Bonner Sakharov
Institute for Religious Minorities in the Islamic World
Zurich. London, Washington 1993
APPENDIX
MARAGHA: The name of this village is associated with a massacre which
never reached the world's headlines, although at least 45 Armenians
died cruel deaths. During the CSI mission to Nagomo Karabakh in April,
news came through that a village in the north, in Mardakert region,
had been overrun by Azeri-Turks on April 10 and there had been a
number of civilians killed. A group went to obtain evidcn ce and found
a village with survivors in a state of shock, their bum-out homes
still smouldering, charred remains of corpses and vertebrae still on
the ground, where people had their heads sawn off, and their bodies
burnt in front of their families. 45 people had been massacred and 100
were missing, possibly suffering a fate worse than death. In order to
verify the stories, the delegation asked the villagers if they would
exhume the bodies'which they had already buried. In great anguish,
they did so, allowing photographs to be taken of the the decapitated,
charred bodies. Later, when asked about publicising about this tragedy,
theyreplied they were reluctant to do so as "we Armenians are not
very good at showing our grief to the world".
We believe it is important to put on record these events and the way
in which they have, or have not, been interpreted and port rayed by
the people themselves, and by the international media. International
public opinion is inevitably shaped by media coverage and lost a great
deal of political support as a result of their alleged behavior at
Khodjaly. The international media did not cover the massacre of the
Armenians at Maragha at all. Consequently, in the eyes of the world,
the armed forces of the Armenians of Nagomo Karabakh have been made
to appear more brutal then those of the Az eri-Turks; in reality,
evidence suggests that the opposite is more likely to be true.
Source: Ethnic Cleansing in Progress, War in Nagomo Karabakh, by
Caroline Cox and John Eibner, Institute for Religious Minorities in
the Islamic World, Zurich, London, Washington , 1993.
Maragha: The name of this village is associated with a massacre which
never reached the world's headlines, although at least 45 Armenians
died cruel deaths. During the CS1 mission to Nagorno Karabakh in April,
news came through that a village in the north, in Mardskert region,
had been overrun by Azeri-Turks on April 10 and there had been a
number of civilians killed. A group went to obtain evidence and found
a village with survivors in a state of shock, their burnt-out homes
still smouldering, charred remains of corpses and vertebrae still on
the ground, where people had their heads sawn off, and their bodies
burnt in front of their families. 45 people had been massacred and 100
were missing, possibly suffering a fate worse than death In order to
verify the stories, the delegation asked the villagers if they would
exhume the bodies which they had already buried. In great anguish,
they did so, allowing photographs to be taken of the decapitated,
charred bodies. Later, when asked about publicising about this tragedy,
they replied they were reluctant to do so as "we Armenians are not very
good at showing our grief to the world". We believe ii is important
to put on record these events and the way in which they have, or
have not, been interpreted and portrayed by the people themselves,
and by the international media. International public opinion is
inevitably shaped by media coverage and the Azeri-Turks certainly
won great sympathy through their presentation of the 'Khodjaly
massacre'. Conversely, the Armenians received much criticism and lost a
great deal of political support as a result of their alleged behaviour
at Khodjaly. The international media did not cover the massacre of the
Armenians at Maragha at all. Consequently, in the eyes of the world,
the armed forces of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh have been made
to appear more brutal than those of the Azeri-Turks; in reality,
evidence suggests that the opposite is more likely to be true.
"Our fight will not just end in itself"-says president of the Karabagh
National Assembly foreign relations committee Vahram Atanesyan Anahit
DANIELYAN | April 14, 2006
We can't consider the tragedy in Maragha as a war because Maragha
was not a military post, but rather a peaceful settlement. It should
be considered as a crime against humanity for which there is no
expiration date for punishment and the perpetrators must be brought
to justice sooner or later by Karabagh, as well as the international
community. This was what president of the Karabagh National Assembly
foreign relations committee Vahran Atanesyan said on April 10 during
a press conference dedicated to the "Tragic events in Maragh on
April 10, 1992". In his speech, V. Atanesyan said that in 1992,
in the early hours of the morning at 5 a.m., the Maragha village
located in the Martakert region of Karabagh was attacked by missiles
sent from Azerbaijan's Mirbashir region (present day Tartar region)
for three hours. Afterwards, Azerbaijani armed forces, which were
supported by the subdivision of the 4th army of Gyanja allocated in
Azerbaijan by the former Soviet Union, invaded the Maragha village
and massacred the people living there. Nearly 100 people died, mainly
women, children and elderly. The Azerbaijani armed forces took tens
of hundreds of hostages with them as they left the village, some of
which managed to escape while the rest remain missing (According to
V. Atanesyan, there are about 30 missing hostages). "As of April 10,
1992, there were more than 3,000 people living in Maragha. Currently,
only 300 people who have survived the massacres live in the Nor
Maragha village. In other words, more than 2 and a half thousand
people are living abroad and don't have the opportunity to come back
to their homeland. The Maragha village is currently under the control
of Azerbaijani armed forces, as well as the villages of Margushavan,
Karmiravan, Seysula, etc. The Karabagh authorities have stated that
the Karabagh conflict resolution must include Karabagh's territorial
integrity, especially the northern section of the Martakert region,
which has been the region with the most agriculture and one of the
most developed substructures of the republic. As a result of the tragic
events in Maragha and the war in progress, five wine factories, nearly
30,000 vineyards have been destroyed, and the mother water route of
Karabagh has also been ruined," says Vahram. V. Atanesyan also said
with a feeling of pity that Armenia hadn't done anything about the
economic losses caused by Azerbaijan, as well as the evidence of the
tragic crime committed by the Azerbaijani authorities and the armed
forces. Recently, Karabagh's National Assembly has formed a temporary
committee on reviewing the facts of the actual crime. V. Atanesyan
hopes that the committee will be able to summarize the tragic events
in Maragha before the end of the year, as well as present the facts
of the atrocities committed in the territory of Karabagh to Armenian
society, the international community, as well as the parliaments of
the member countries of the OSCE Minsk Group. Atanesyan says that
this must be done within the framework of Azerbaijan's efforts to
bring cases against spies of the Karabagh Defense Army and several
significant individuals who fought in the Karabagh liberation war. "We
must be ready to present the facts to the international community not
as a counterattack to Azerbaijan's anti-propaganda, but so that the
international community will know who, when and how were the people
massacred and who was it that decided to took advantage of the war
in order to organize ethnic-cleansing. Azerbaijan has led this kind
of politics for years through peace when Karabagh was still located
in Azerbaijan as an autonomous region. This politics reached the
climax in 1991, when Azerbaijan let go of the opportunity to solve
matters peacefully with the people of Karabagh and declared a war
on Karabagh. So, the attacks on the border shouldn't be looked
at as the result of the politics led by the Karabagh authorities,
but rather as the result of Azerbaijan's aggression and keeping the
people of Karabagh under foreign control as a means of defending the
country. If we have the studies conducted by the National Assembly
temporary committee, we can then present them to the international
community and start the propaganda so that the international community
also knows about Karabagh's national-liberation struggle. Basically,
the fact that the Karabagh conflict may be an honor for Azerbaijan,
while it is a question of survival on the homeland for the people of
Karabagh," said the president of the Karabagh National Assembly foreign
relations committee. During the conference, the "Koltso" war was also
touched upon and according to V. Atanesyan, both the National Assembly
and the political parties must organize events to the 15th anniversary
of the war. "I don't think that we have the chance today to bring the
perpetrators to justice, but if we are going towards international
recognition of Karabagh's independence, then we must start raising
the issue by announcing the names of the perpetrators one by one,
especially since it's no secret to anyone. These issues must not
only be raised by announcements, but also by an official document,
especially since today there are people living in Karabagh who have
experienced living in those concentration camps, have been arrested
as a result of the "Koltso" war and have been kept as prisoners in
different prisons around Azerbaijan. There are even people who have
been sentenced by Azerbaijani courts, but have later been released and
turned into military hostages. We must also collect evidence regarding
those people, analyze it and have an official document, which will
help us prove that this struggle does not end in itself, that it
started in our homeland in order to defend our right to live. We have
not and aren't digging a hole for ourselves. The only guarantee that
we have to live here peacefully is the self-defense of our country
with its security and national attributes," said the president of
the committee in closing. http://www.168.am/en/articles/2070-pr
http://www.cilicia.com/Maragha.htm
http://www.nkr.am/eng/mid/press/zparl.htm
http://www.nkr.am/eng/mid/bull/text1_01.html
http://sumgait.info/maraga/maraga-eng/survivors-maraghar.htm
From: A. Papazian
http://www.maragha.nk.am/documentseng4.html
http://www.maragha.nk.am/index.html
By
Caroline Cox
and
John Aijbner
with a preface
by Elena Bonner Sakharov
Institute for Religious Minorities in the Islamic World
Zurich. London, Washington 1993
APPENDIX
MARAGHA: The name of this village is associated with a massacre which
never reached the world's headlines, although at least 45 Armenians
died cruel deaths. During the CSI mission to Nagomo Karabakh in April,
news came through that a village in the north, in Mardakert region,
had been overrun by Azeri-Turks on April 10 and there had been a
number of civilians killed. A group went to obtain evidcn ce and found
a village with survivors in a state of shock, their bum-out homes
still smouldering, charred remains of corpses and vertebrae still on
the ground, where people had their heads sawn off, and their bodies
burnt in front of their families. 45 people had been massacred and 100
were missing, possibly suffering a fate worse than death. In order to
verify the stories, the delegation asked the villagers if they would
exhume the bodies'which they had already buried. In great anguish,
they did so, allowing photographs to be taken of the the decapitated,
charred bodies. Later, when asked about publicising about this tragedy,
theyreplied they were reluctant to do so as "we Armenians are not
very good at showing our grief to the world".
We believe it is important to put on record these events and the way
in which they have, or have not, been interpreted and port rayed by
the people themselves, and by the international media. International
public opinion is inevitably shaped by media coverage and lost a great
deal of political support as a result of their alleged behavior at
Khodjaly. The international media did not cover the massacre of the
Armenians at Maragha at all. Consequently, in the eyes of the world,
the armed forces of the Armenians of Nagomo Karabakh have been made
to appear more brutal then those of the Az eri-Turks; in reality,
evidence suggests that the opposite is more likely to be true.
Source: Ethnic Cleansing in Progress, War in Nagomo Karabakh, by
Caroline Cox and John Eibner, Institute for Religious Minorities in
the Islamic World, Zurich, London, Washington , 1993.
Maragha: The name of this village is associated with a massacre which
never reached the world's headlines, although at least 45 Armenians
died cruel deaths. During the CS1 mission to Nagorno Karabakh in April,
news came through that a village in the north, in Mardskert region,
had been overrun by Azeri-Turks on April 10 and there had been a
number of civilians killed. A group went to obtain evidence and found
a village with survivors in a state of shock, their burnt-out homes
still smouldering, charred remains of corpses and vertebrae still on
the ground, where people had their heads sawn off, and their bodies
burnt in front of their families. 45 people had been massacred and 100
were missing, possibly suffering a fate worse than death In order to
verify the stories, the delegation asked the villagers if they would
exhume the bodies which they had already buried. In great anguish,
they did so, allowing photographs to be taken of the decapitated,
charred bodies. Later, when asked about publicising about this tragedy,
they replied they were reluctant to do so as "we Armenians are not very
good at showing our grief to the world". We believe ii is important
to put on record these events and the way in which they have, or
have not, been interpreted and portrayed by the people themselves,
and by the international media. International public opinion is
inevitably shaped by media coverage and the Azeri-Turks certainly
won great sympathy through their presentation of the 'Khodjaly
massacre'. Conversely, the Armenians received much criticism and lost a
great deal of political support as a result of their alleged behaviour
at Khodjaly. The international media did not cover the massacre of the
Armenians at Maragha at all. Consequently, in the eyes of the world,
the armed forces of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh have been made
to appear more brutal than those of the Azeri-Turks; in reality,
evidence suggests that the opposite is more likely to be true.
"Our fight will not just end in itself"-says president of the Karabagh
National Assembly foreign relations committee Vahram Atanesyan Anahit
DANIELYAN | April 14, 2006
We can't consider the tragedy in Maragha as a war because Maragha
was not a military post, but rather a peaceful settlement. It should
be considered as a crime against humanity for which there is no
expiration date for punishment and the perpetrators must be brought
to justice sooner or later by Karabagh, as well as the international
community. This was what president of the Karabagh National Assembly
foreign relations committee Vahran Atanesyan said on April 10 during
a press conference dedicated to the "Tragic events in Maragh on
April 10, 1992". In his speech, V. Atanesyan said that in 1992,
in the early hours of the morning at 5 a.m., the Maragha village
located in the Martakert region of Karabagh was attacked by missiles
sent from Azerbaijan's Mirbashir region (present day Tartar region)
for three hours. Afterwards, Azerbaijani armed forces, which were
supported by the subdivision of the 4th army of Gyanja allocated in
Azerbaijan by the former Soviet Union, invaded the Maragha village
and massacred the people living there. Nearly 100 people died, mainly
women, children and elderly. The Azerbaijani armed forces took tens
of hundreds of hostages with them as they left the village, some of
which managed to escape while the rest remain missing (According to
V. Atanesyan, there are about 30 missing hostages). "As of April 10,
1992, there were more than 3,000 people living in Maragha. Currently,
only 300 people who have survived the massacres live in the Nor
Maragha village. In other words, more than 2 and a half thousand
people are living abroad and don't have the opportunity to come back
to their homeland. The Maragha village is currently under the control
of Azerbaijani armed forces, as well as the villages of Margushavan,
Karmiravan, Seysula, etc. The Karabagh authorities have stated that
the Karabagh conflict resolution must include Karabagh's territorial
integrity, especially the northern section of the Martakert region,
which has been the region with the most agriculture and one of the
most developed substructures of the republic. As a result of the tragic
events in Maragha and the war in progress, five wine factories, nearly
30,000 vineyards have been destroyed, and the mother water route of
Karabagh has also been ruined," says Vahram. V. Atanesyan also said
with a feeling of pity that Armenia hadn't done anything about the
economic losses caused by Azerbaijan, as well as the evidence of the
tragic crime committed by the Azerbaijani authorities and the armed
forces. Recently, Karabagh's National Assembly has formed a temporary
committee on reviewing the facts of the actual crime. V. Atanesyan
hopes that the committee will be able to summarize the tragic events
in Maragha before the end of the year, as well as present the facts
of the atrocities committed in the territory of Karabagh to Armenian
society, the international community, as well as the parliaments of
the member countries of the OSCE Minsk Group. Atanesyan says that
this must be done within the framework of Azerbaijan's efforts to
bring cases against spies of the Karabagh Defense Army and several
significant individuals who fought in the Karabagh liberation war. "We
must be ready to present the facts to the international community not
as a counterattack to Azerbaijan's anti-propaganda, but so that the
international community will know who, when and how were the people
massacred and who was it that decided to took advantage of the war
in order to organize ethnic-cleansing. Azerbaijan has led this kind
of politics for years through peace when Karabagh was still located
in Azerbaijan as an autonomous region. This politics reached the
climax in 1991, when Azerbaijan let go of the opportunity to solve
matters peacefully with the people of Karabagh and declared a war
on Karabagh. So, the attacks on the border shouldn't be looked
at as the result of the politics led by the Karabagh authorities,
but rather as the result of Azerbaijan's aggression and keeping the
people of Karabagh under foreign control as a means of defending the
country. If we have the studies conducted by the National Assembly
temporary committee, we can then present them to the international
community and start the propaganda so that the international community
also knows about Karabagh's national-liberation struggle. Basically,
the fact that the Karabagh conflict may be an honor for Azerbaijan,
while it is a question of survival on the homeland for the people of
Karabagh," said the president of the Karabagh National Assembly foreign
relations committee. During the conference, the "Koltso" war was also
touched upon and according to V. Atanesyan, both the National Assembly
and the political parties must organize events to the 15th anniversary
of the war. "I don't think that we have the chance today to bring the
perpetrators to justice, but if we are going towards international
recognition of Karabagh's independence, then we must start raising
the issue by announcing the names of the perpetrators one by one,
especially since it's no secret to anyone. These issues must not
only be raised by announcements, but also by an official document,
especially since today there are people living in Karabagh who have
experienced living in those concentration camps, have been arrested
as a result of the "Koltso" war and have been kept as prisoners in
different prisons around Azerbaijan. There are even people who have
been sentenced by Azerbaijani courts, but have later been released and
turned into military hostages. We must also collect evidence regarding
those people, analyze it and have an official document, which will
help us prove that this struggle does not end in itself, that it
started in our homeland in order to defend our right to live. We have
not and aren't digging a hole for ourselves. The only guarantee that
we have to live here peacefully is the self-defense of our country
with its security and national attributes," said the president of
the committee in closing. http://www.168.am/en/articles/2070-pr
http://www.cilicia.com/Maragha.htm
http://www.nkr.am/eng/mid/press/zparl.htm
http://www.nkr.am/eng/mid/bull/text1_01.html
http://sumgait.info/maraga/maraga-eng/survivors-maraghar.htm
From: A. Papazian