Ethnic Cleansing in Progress
War in Nagorno Karabakh
tml
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 sur – vivors 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 miss – ing, possibly suffering a fate worse than death In
order to verify the stories, the delega – tion 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 interna – tional 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.
13 YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE THE MARAGHA TRAGEDY
[07:36 pm] 11 April, 2005
The events of thirteen years’ prescription in the village of Maragha
of the NKR Martakert region occupy a special place by the depth of
human tragedy, the level of cruelty, the number of people exposed to
violence and captured. On April 10, 1992, as a result of the
Azerbaijani regular army units’ attack the village was basically
destroyed. According to various data, from 53 to 100 peaceful
inhabitants were brutally killed, including 30 women, 20 of them of
declining years. Their bodies were mutilated, beheaded, divided and
burnt. 53 peaceful people were captured, including 9 children, 29
women (about 3 tens of hostages were then killed in the Azerbaijani
captivity). After 2 weeks Maragha was again attacked, the population
deported, the houses robbed, many of them burnt. The deportation of
the population was accompanied with the acts of violence and
humiliation. The observers note the events in Maragha also in the
context that the violence on the peaceful population was made in the
frames of military operation by a concrete military unit. It was not
accidentally that the majority of the hostages appeared in private
houses of the servicemen of the Interior Ministry, Defense Ministry,
Detachments of Militia of Special Assignment, etc. The destiny of many
hostages is not known yet. Baroness Karoline Cox, who had visited the
place of the tragedy, was shocked to the innermost of her heart by
what she had seen. «They are not of human race» – the Baroness so
spoke of the DMSA servicemen who had carried out the slaughter.
p;id=26975
AZG Armenian Daily #037, 01/03/2006
Karabakh diary
PROVISIONAL COMMISSION IS NOT THERE TO DEMAND WAR INDEMNITY
At the last session of the NKR parliament the lawmakers passed a law
on setting up a provisional commission to study the Azerbaijani
violence against the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh in the period of
1988-1992. This decision is dictated by the need to present
Azerbaijan’s illegal acts before the world community, particularly the
OSCE Minsk Group and the PACE. The author of this initiative was
Vahram Atanesian, head of the Foreign Relations Committee of the
parliament. Mr. Atanesian told daily Azg that the commission will work
till the end of the year and the materials it will gather during this
period will be sent to international structures as well as will be
posted on the Internet. Suchlike commission was set up in June 12 1992
too but it did not function because of the war and later because of
the sensitiveness of the peace talks. As today the sides discuss
humanitarian aspects of the conflict, the parliament sees it rightful
to present to the world community the massacre of Maragha in 1992, the
take-over of part of Shahumian and Martaker regions and the
humanitarian crisis that it incited. The most essential though will be
the study of notorious "Koltso" operation on May 15 1991 organized by
the State Emergency Committee. Mr. Atanesian reminded that at one
point in time Russia’s Supreme Council also organized hearings on
"Koltso" operation. The researches of the provisional commission by no
means aim at demanding war indemnity from Azerbaijan, as it is not
within the parliament’s power. Vahram Atanesian thinks that the
government of Nagorno Karabakh has also to put before the world
community all facts of violence against the Azeri inhabitants of
Karabakh and the fact of considering them "second-rate citizens" of
the country. The parliamentarian explained that in exchange for the
evacuated Azeri population from Karabakh’s Azeri villages, Baku
authorities sent special militia units, terrorists and outlaws. He
assured that there are materials and videotapes to prove this.
By Kim Gabrielian in Stepanakert
Magazine: Christianity Today, April 1998 Vol. 42, No. 5
SURVIVORS OF THE MARAGHAR MASSACRE:IT WAS TRULY LIKE A CONTEMPORARY
GOLGOTHA MANY TIMES OVER
By Baroness Caroline Cox of Queensbury
The ancient kingdom of Armenia was the first nation to embrace
Christianity – in AD 301. Modern Armenia, formerly a Soviet republic,
declared autonomy in September 1991 and today exists as a member of
the Commonwealth of Independent States. There you find many of the
oldest churches in the world, and a people who have upheld the faith
for nearly 1,700 years, often at great cost. Nowhere has the cost been
greater than in the little piece of ancient Armenia called
Nagorno-Karabakh, cruelly cut off from the rest of Armenia by Stalin
in 1921, and isolated today as a Christian enclave within Islamic
Azerbaijan. Only 100 miles north to south, 50 miles east to west,
there are mountains, forests, fertile valleys, and an abundance of
ancient churches, monasteries, and beautifully carved stone crosses
dating from the fourth century. This paradise became hell in 1991.
Vying with Armenia for control of this enclave, Azerbaijan began a
policy of ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Karabakh, and 150,000
Armenians were forced to fight for the right to live in their historic
homeland. It was a war against impossible odds: 7 million-strong
Azerbaijan, helped by Turkey and, at one stage, several thousand
mujahideen mercenaries. On April 10, 1992, forces from Azerbaijan
attacked the Armenian village of Maraghar 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. I visited the nearby hospital and met the chief nurse.
Hours before, she had seen her son’s head sawn off, and she had lost
14 members of her extended family. I wept with her: there could be no
words. With the fragile cease-fire that began in May 1994, we have
been able to visit survivors of the massacre at Maraghar. Unable to
return to their village, which is still in Azeri hands, they are
building "New Maraghar" in the devastated ruins of another village.
Their "homes" are empty shells with no roofs, doors, or windows, but
their priority was the building of a memorial to those who died in the
massacre. We were greeted with the traditional Armenian ceremony of
gifts of bread and salt. Then a dignified elderly lady made a speech
of gracious welcome, with no hint of reference to personal suffering.
She seemed so serene that I thought she had been away on that terrible
day of the massacre. She replied: "As you have asked, I will tell you
that my four sons were killed that morning, trying to defend us – but
what could they do with hunting rifles against tanks? And then we saw
things no human should ever have to see: heads that were too far from
their bodies; people hacked into quarters like pigs. I also lost my
daughter and her husband – we only found his bloodstained cap. We still
don’t know what happened to them. I now bring up their children. But
they have forgotten the taste of milk, as the Azeris took all our
cows." How can one respond to such suffering and such dignity? Since
the cease-fire, we have undertaken a program to supply cows. On our
last visit, we met this grandmother, and, smiling, she said: "Thank
you. Our children now know the taste of milk." Nagorno-Karabakh is a
place where we have found miracles of grace. The day of the massacre I
asked the chief nurse, whose son had been beheaded, if she would like
me to take a message to the rest of the world. She nodded, and I took
out my notebook. With great dignity, she said: "I want to say, ‘Thank
you.’ I am a nurse. I have seen how the medicines you have brought
have saved many lives and eased much suffering. I just want to say,
‘Thank you,’ to all those who have not forgotten us in these dark
days."
Baroness Cox of Queensbury is a defender of human rights in the
House of Lords, United Kingdom, as well as a prominent educationalist
and author. Baroness Cox was created a Life Peer in 1982 and has been
Deputy Speaker of the British Parliament’s House of Lords since 1985
to the present. She is Chancellor of Bournemouth University and Vice
President of the Royal College of Nursing and President of the
Institute of Administrative Management. Baroness Cox is heavily
involved with international humanitarian and human rights endeavours,
serving as non-executive director of the Andrei Sakharov Foundation
and as a trustee of MERLIN (Medical Emergency Relief International)
and is the President of Christian Solidarity Worldwide (P.O. Box 99,
New Malden, Surrey, KT3 3YF, England)
S tatement
by the Presidium of the Supreme Council
of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
On April 10, whilst representatives of the Russian Federation and
Islamic Republic of Iran were in Nagorno-Karabakh Republic with the
mediation mission, the National Army of Azerbaijan following a
sustained rocket and artillery bombardment made a massed attack with
the support of armoured forces and occupied a part of the Armenian
village, Maraga, in Martakert region. The enemy was repelled from the
Maraga and over the NKR border following a counter attack by the NKR
Forces of Defense. All inhabitants of the occupied part of the village
were brutally killed, and their homes looted and burned. Up to now, 45
corpses, mostly old men and women have been identified. The
Azerbaijani leadership, motivated by political ambitions, continues
large-scale armed operations against NKR to aid the process of
electoral struggle. The peaceful population of Maraga village was
barbarically killed, although there had not been any military
necessity for such an event. This crime must not remain unpunished,
and the leadership of the Republic of Azerbaijan bears full
responsibility for the consequences of these actions.
Stepanakert,
12 April 1992
A Soldier of Independence
April 24, 2006
In 1991 the Soviet Army and Azerbaijani military groupings were the
masters of the situation in the Shahumyan region. Under these
circumstances, Leonid and his comrades managed to carry out the
self-defense of Armenian villages.
The Liberation Army stood out compared to other military detachments
for its discipline. In the course of four years and dozens of battles,
Leonid lost six only soldiers. He trained his soldiers to be ready for
every hardship. Smoking and drinking were strictly prohibited. There
was no other detachment like this in Karabakh. His boys trained for
eight hours a day. He was preparing soldiers for a regular army.
Before combat he would always order, "Don’t shoot at unarmed people,"
and would add, "Don’t shoot at fleeing soldiers either. Let them go."
He gave that order the day the military station near the village of
Aghdaban was destroyed. That same day the Azerbaijanis came and
massacred the peaceful residents of the village of Maragha. Leonid and
his unit rushed to Maragha. The enemy suffered heavy losses and
retreated, leaving behind the villagers they had killed, dozens of
mutilated bodies of children, women, and old people.
Leonid admired the natural beauty of Karabakh and said, "Armenians
have no sense of beauty; if they had they wouldn’t have given up
Karabakh, for that reason alone. Giving something so beautiful away to
somebody else is a crime."
Leonid’s dream was to create a national army with a powerful Armenian
state behind it. But the Army was taking shape slowly at that time.
When we last met (it was after the opening of the Lachin corridor) he
said, "These victories will come to nothing because there is no
regular army behind them."
He could not reconcile himself to the surrender of the Shahumyan
region and parts of Martakert after the opening of the Lachin road.
The fact that some soldiers left these regions before the residents
did filled Leonid with rage. He said that they should be punished. He
was planning to liberate Shahumyan with his soldiers.
Leonid’s best friend and his favorite soldier was the commander of the
Artsakh Front unit of the Liberation Army, Vladimir Balayan.
Leonid considered Vladimir a born military expert. Vladimir Balayan
was killed on June 9, 1992 defending the village of Chailu in the
Martakert region. That day Leonid’s soldiers saw their commander
crying like a baby for the first and last time.
"He was killed, he went to the gods because they needed him there.
Therefore, we have to defend our country so that he doesn’t become a
martyr. He is a victim, not a martyr," Leonid told the people who
gathered for the funeral.
After Vladimir’s funeral, he didn’t speak to anybody for two hours; he
just stood by himself. Then he waved his hand and said, "I’ll go and
meet Vladimir there – in heaven."
Twelve days later Leonid Azgaldyan was killed.
On different occasions, Leonid used say, "The nation that loses
Karabakh will be completely overthrown."
Edik Baghdasaryan
Photos by Frederic Karegin Tonolli, Myriam Gaume Guragossian, Sarkis Hatspanian
Survivors of Maraghar massacre: It was truly like a contemporary
Golgotha many times over
The ancient kingdom of Armenia was the first nation to embrace
Christianity – in AD 301. Modern Armenia, formerly a Soviet republic,
declared autonomy in September 1991 and today exists as a member of
the Commonwealth of Independent States. There you find many of the
oldest churches in the world, and a people who have upheld the faith
for nearly 1,700 years, often at great cost. Nowhere has the cost been
greater than in the little piece of ancient Armenia called
Nagorno-Karabakh, cruelly cut off from the rest of Armenia by Stalin
in 1921, and isolated today as a Christian enclave within Islamic
Azerbaijan. Only 100 miles north to south, 50 miles east to west,
there are mountains, forests, fertile valleys, and an abundance of
ancient churches, monasteries, and beautifully carved stone crosses
dating from the fourth century. This paradise became hell in 1991.
Vying with Armenia for control of this enclave, Azerbaijan began a
policy of ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Karabakh, and 150,000
Armenians were forced to fight for the right to live in their historic
homeland. It was a war against impossible odds: 7 million-strong
Azerbaijan, helped by Turkey and, at one stage, several thousand
mujahideen mercenaries. On April 10, 1992, forces from Azerbaijan
attacked the Armenian village of Maraghar 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. I visited the nearby hospital and met the chief nurse.
Hours before, she had seen her son’s head sawn off, and she had lost
14 members of her extended family. I wept with her: there could be no
words. With the fragile cease-fire that began in May 1994, we have
been able to visit survivors of the massacre at Maraghar. Unable to
return to their village, which is still in Azeri hands, they are
building "New Maraghar" in the devastated ruins of another village.
Their "homes" are empty shells with no roofs, doors, or windows, but
their priority was the building of a memorial to those who died in the
massacre. We were greeted with the traditional Armenian ceremony of
gifts of bread and salt. Then a dignified elderly lady made a speech
of gracious welcome, with no hint of reference to personal suffering.
She seemed so serene that I thought she had been away on that terrible
day of the massacre. She replied: "As you have asked, I will tell you
that my four sons were killed that morning, trying to defend us – but
what could they do with hunting rifles against tanks? And then we saw
things no human should ever have to see: heads that were too far from
their bodies; people hacked into quarters like pigs. I also lost my
daughter and her husband – we only found his bloodstained cap. We still
don’t know what happened to them. I now bring up their children. But
they have forgotten the taste of milk, as the Azeris took all our
cows." How can one respond to such suffering and such dignity? Since
the cease-fire, we have undertaken a program to supply cows. On our
last visit, we met this grandmother, and, smiling, she said: "Thank
you. Our children now know the taste of milk." Nagorno-Karabakh is a
place where we have found miracles of grace. The day of the massacre I
asked the chief nurse, whose son had been beheaded, if she would like
me to take a message to the rest of the world. She nodded, and I took
out my notebook. With great dignity, she said: "I want to say, ‘Thank
you.’ I am a nurse. I have seen how the medicines you have brought
have saved many lives and eased much suffering. I just want to say,
‘Thank you,’ to all those who have not forgotten us in these dark
days."
Baroness Caroline Cox
April 1998
vors-maraghar.htm
THE TRAGEDY OF MARAGHA
9 years ago – on April 10,1992, a tragedy, which, on different
estimations, caused 49-53 victims, took place in the village of
Maragha, Martakert region. 50 more people, including 9 children, were
taken hostages. The fate of many of them still remains unknown. The
Azerbaijani armed units – the OMON (militia units on special purpose)
detachments, which, supported by twenty tanks, had entered Maragha,
committed unprecedented by their cruelty crimes against peaceful
villagers. The massacre was resumed on April 22-23, when the survived
people of Maragha returned to bury the deceased ones. The facts on the
victims of Maragha have been confirmed by different international
human rights organizations, in particular, the organization Helsinki
Watch. Caroline Cox, Viced-Speaker of the British Parliament’s House
of Lords, visiting the tragedy place, witnessed how in the fully
destroyed village people were burying the remains of the cut up and
sawed bodies, as well as burned alive – adults and children. Later,
Baroness Cox described the atrocities of the Azerbaijanis in the
village of Maragha in her book "Ethnic Cleansing Is Going On". The
tragedy of Maragha is regarded as one of the most terrible examples of
genocide.
_01.html
AZG Armenian Daily #037, 01/03/2006
Karabakh diary
PROVISIONAL COMMISSION IS NOT THERE TO DEMAND WAR INDEMNITY
At the last session of the NKR parliament the lawmakers passed a law
on setting up a provisional commission to study the Azerbaijani
violence against the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh in the period of
1988-1992. This decision is dictated by the need to present
Azerbaijan’s illegal acts before the world community, particularly the
OSCE Minsk Group and the PACE. The author of this initiative was
Vahram Atanesian, head of the Foreign Relations Committee of the
parliament. Mr. Atanesian told daily Azg that the commission will work
till the end of the year and the materials it will gather during this
period will be sent to international structures as well as will be
posted on the Internet. Suchlike commission was set up in June 12 1992
too but it did not function because of the war and later because of
the sensitiveness of the peace talks. As today the sides discuss
humanitarian aspects of the conflict, the parliament sees it rightful
to present to the world community the massacre of Maragha in 1992, the
take-over of part of Shahumian and Martaker regions and the
humanitarian crisis that it incited. The most essential though will be
the study of notorious "Koltso" operation on May 15 1991 organized by
the State Emergency Committee. Mr. Atanesian reminded that at one
point in time Russia’s Supreme Council also organized hearings on
"Koltso" operation. The researches of the provisional commission by no
means aim at demanding war indemnity from Azerbaijan, as it is not
within the parliament’s power. Vahram Atanesian thinks that the
government of Nagorno Karabakh has also to put before the world
community all facts of violence against the Azeri inhabitants of
Karabakh and the fact of considering them "second-rate citizens" of
the country. The parliamentarian explained that in exchange for the
evacuated Azeri population from Karabakh’s Azeri villages, Baku
authorities sent special militia units, terrorists and outlaws. He
assured that there are materials and videotapes to prove this.
By Kim Gabrielian in Stepanakert