ETHNIC CLEANSING IN PROGRESS WAR IN NAGORNO KARABAKH
By Caroline Cox and John Aijbner
with a preface by Elena Bonner Sakharov
tml
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.
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)
Stat ement 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
ors-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.
.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