“One of its most tragic episodes the Azerbaijan’s military aggression against the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was the massacre of the population of the village of Maragha in Martakert region, NKR. On April 10, 1992, after intensive artillery shelling the Azerbaijani armed units invaded the peaceful village and committed a ruthless reprisal over defenseless people.

The attack on the village was not driven by military necessity but aimed to annihilate its peaceful population. According to various sources, including those of such human rights organizations as the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, from 53 to 100 people were killed, more than 60 people including 9 children and 29 women were taken hostages. More than 30 hostages were subsequently killed in Azerbaijani captivity. Two weeks later, the village was subjected to a renewed attack and its inhabitants who returned to bury their relatives yet again fell victim to the atrocities committed by the Azerbaijani army.

This hideous crime in Maragha became the next in the chain of the anti-Armenian pogroms and deportations in Northern Artsakh, as well as Sumgait, Baku, Kirovobad and other settlements of Azerbaijan.

We note with regret, that the lack of the adequate political and legal assessment of the international community of the massacres and ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population in Azerbaijan and the impunity of the perpetrators of the crime paved a way for the cult of zealous hatred towards Armenians and anything Armenian and uncurbed propaganda of xenophobia, intolerance and militarism in today’s Azerbaijan.

To prevent the recurrence of similar tragedies in the future, the massacre in Maragha and other manifestations of armenophobia should be condemned by the international community and its organizers and perpetrators should receive deserved punishment”,- is said in the NKR MFA Press Service commentary.

Artsakhpress.am