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  • MARAGHA: Ethnic Cleansing In Progress War In Nagorno Karabakh

    ETHNIC CLEANSING IN PROGRESS WAR IN NAGORNO KARABAKH
    Kim Gabrielian

    http://www.maragha.nk.am/documentseng4 .html

    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 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. http://www.168.am/en/articles/2070-pr

    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.

    http://www.a1plus.am/en/?page=issue&am 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)

    http://www.cilicia.com/Maragha.htm

    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

    http://www.nkr.am/eng/mid/press/zparl.htm

    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

    http://sumgait.info/maraga/maraga-eng/surviv 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.

    http://www.nkr.am/eng/mid/bull/text1_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.
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