This Political Science & International Affairs program of the American University of Armenia commemorated the 24th anniversary of the massacre of Armenians in the village of Maragha by Azerbaijan yesterday, by hosting a talk about the events by former National Assembly deputy Larisa Alaverdyan, followed by a 45-minute film and discussion.
As we witnessed, 24 years later, during the unprecedented escalation of military operations of April 2-5, 2016, a similar crime was committed by the Azerbaijani soldiers in the village of Talish, in the same Mardakert region of Nagorno Karabakh Republic. Three members of elderly family were brutally executed in their own house and their ears cut.
“60 families living in New Maragha were forced to be evacuated for the second time because of the recent military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh”, said Larisa Alaverdyan.
Ms. Alaverdyan stated that although the high-level international bodies were aware of the possible massacre in Maragha, they did not stop Azerbaijan. And the lack of the further punishment and accusation resulted in continuation of the Azerbaijan’s unhuman and brutal policy.
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“After Sumgait Pogrom, Azerbaijanis were waiting for the reaction by the international community. But when they saw no serious accusation they continued very well planned massacres in Baku and Maragha”, said Alavaerdyan.
Ms. Alaverdyan also noted that starting from 2003, when Ilham Aliev became the president of Azerbaijan we started to deal with a new society. A society where armenophobia and brutality towards Armenians became popular phenomena.
In the end, by answering to the questions of the students Ms. Alaverdyan mentioned that “the principle of territorial intergrity is political principle, but the right of self-determination is universal right with no limit of time”. She also brought an example of the fight for independence of the US from the UK and Africa’s decolonization by raising a rhetorical question “was the US violating the territorial integrity of the UK when it was fighting for its independence? Of course, no…”
The Maragha massacre never reached the world’s headlines, although the estimates of the actual number of people deceased ranged from 50 to 100. The village of Maraga was located in the Martakert region of Nagorno Karabakh Republic, just across the border from the Azerbaijani town of Terter (oil-rich Mir-Bashir region) and was one of the region’s largest villages. The mass murder of Karabakh civilians in the village was committed by Azerbaijani troops who had captured the village on April 10, 1992, in the course of the Nagorno-Karabakh War. The villagers, including women, children and elderly, were killed indiscriminately, and their houses were pillaged and burned. The village was destroyed and was subsequently occupied by the Azerbaijani forces.
