NKR marks another anniversary of Maraga Tragedy
2010-04-10 13:52:00
ArmInfo. The Nagorny Karabakh Republic is marking another anniversary
of the tragedy in the village of Maraga, Mardakert region, ArmInfo
correspondent to Stepanakert reported. Maragha was one of the largest
villages of Nagorno Karabakh. It WAS because on April 10, 1992, the
Azeri’ "omon" forces broke into the peaceful village Maraga,
neighboring the Azeri town of Mirbashir. Barbaric massacre was
inflicted. 45 people were tortured to death. 49 people were taken
hostage, of them 9 children, 18 women, 3 elderly
(one of the elderly people was visually impaired). 19 of them are
still missing. The massacre continued from April 22 through April 23
when the survived residents of Maraga returned to the village to bury
the dead.
"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".
The Maraga tragedy is viewed as one of the most horrible examples of
genocide and is considered by the Karabakh side among Azerbaijan’s
bloody crimes in Getashen, Martunashen, Buzluh, Erkej and other
settlements in the north of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic at the time of
aggression in 1991-1992.
The data on Maraga victims are confirmed by different international
human rights organizations, in particular by `Helsinki Watch.’ Having
arrived at the tragedy scene Vice-Speaker of the House of Lords of the
British Parliament Caroline Cox witnessed the people bury remains of
cut up and sawed bodies, children and adults burnt alive.
Baroness Caroline Cox has described Azeri atrocities in Maraga village
in her book entitled `Ethnic cleansing continues’. In particular, Cox
waxes indignant over the fact that Azeris make high-sounding
statements and appeal to various international organizations on the
occasion of the events in khojalu, where in her words, everything was
not so unambiguous, while the Armenians having at their disposal
incontestable proofs of the atrocities present them to the
international community insufficiently actively.
The NKR believes that the tragic events in Maraga have not yet
received relevant assessment by the world community. The village is
still under Azerbaijani occupation. The survivors founded a new
village "Nor Maraga" in the place of the other ruined village. The
last census in Maraga in 1989 registered 4660 people mainly Armenians.
New Maraga has half as much residents.