CAROLINE COX: YOU HAVE THE MOST POWERFUL WEAPON – THE TRUTH
Monday,
April 02 Politics
In the history of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict, abounding in
numerous facts of atrocity and vandalism by Azerbaijan, the events in
the village of Maragha of the NKR Martakert region are one of the most
extreme manifestations of sadism and barbarity ever known to humanity.
On April 10, 1992, after a three-hour preparatory bombardment,
the subunits of the Azerbaijani regular army invaded the village of
Maragha from the Azerbaijani village of Mir-Bashir (now Tartar). As
a result of the aggression 100 people were massacred – mostly women,
children, and elderly persons. Scores of people were taken hostages
and later were exchanged but the fate of many of them still remains
unknown. Two weeks later, on April 22-23, the village was repeatedly
attacked and the people who had come back to their burnt homes were
forced to abandon the village once and for all.
The monstrous crimes in Maragha followed the Armenian pogroms and
deportations in the Northern Atsakh, Baku, Sumgait, Kirovabad and
other settlements of Azerbaijan and were aimed at frightening the
people and disabling them to live in their homeland. By the depth of
human tragedy, the level of cruelty, the number of people exposed to
violence and captured, the events in the village of Maragha occupy
a special place among the bloody crimes committed by Azerbaijan in
Getashen, Martounashen, Buzlukh, Erkej and the other Armenian villages
in the northern part of the NKR in 1991-1992.
Vice Speaker of the House of Lords of the British Parliament Baroness
Caroline Cox, who visited the place of the tragedy several days later,
was shocked at what she saw. “They are not of human race” -said the
Baroness about the Azerbaijani servicemen who had carried out the
slaughter. Baroness Caroline Cox both took pictures and video-taped
those atrocities committed by the Azerbaijanis in the village of
Maragha and also described them in her book “Ethnic Cleansing in
Progress”, as well as in her numerous interviews.
“It is impossible to describe what we saw there. The village was
completely destroyed. The people were burying the dead, rather to say
anything that was possible to bury, charred human remains, tortured,
cut or sawed parts of bodies. We saw the bloody swords by which
they had done all these brutalities. After killing the villagers
the Azeris robbed and burnt the village. By the way, they told us
that the servicemen were followed by the civilians with trunks who
were going to finish the robbery, – and we saw some of those trunks
scattered all over the land, which the looters did not manage to take
away with them”, – witnessed Caroline Cox.
Seda Poghosyan, an eyewitness of the tragic events, who was saved
by a miracle told. “The women, elderly people and children were
hiding themselves in the basements and dugouts. On the third day –
on April 10, 1992, the Azeris invaded Maragha. Several people came
up to the dugout where I along with my daughter-in-law Marine and our
two children – 4-year-old Karen and 2-year-old Vigen were hidden. The
Azeris commanded us to get out of the dugout. The first was an old man
Sasha, Asya and Zabel followed him. As soon as a man was getting out
of the dugout he was immediately killed. My daughter-in-law leaving
her children with me also walked up the stairs. The Azeri, with
a knife in his hands prepared for stab, stopped and began tearing
away her jewellery. Then he tore her dress. She broke into a run,
the Azerbaijani rushed after her. The exit from the dugout was open.
People dashed for the exit. They were noticed by the Azerbaijanis who
were busy with robbery and threw themselves to kill with axes, knives
and scythes. Masya and Ruben Ananyans were overcut immediately. I
saw how my daughter-in-law’s sister Karina was trying to escape from
the executioners.
Larisa Badalyan, a resident of the village of Maragha, was held
hostage by the Azeris from April 10 till December 2, 1992.
“Women, Zoya, Masho and Tamara, were led out of the cell by turn,
and brought back blood-stained and half-naked. In an hour the door
opened, the armed soldiers burst into the cell and pulled off the
remains of their clothes and raped.
Three days later we were brought to a prison in Kubatly, where I saw
my son Apres, who was mentally ill. His eye came out, his head was
swollen. A young Armenian from Martakert was on the floor beaten up
to death… My son served as a shepherd, I did chores. We slept in a
barrack, ate leavings. My son was often beaten up before my eyes. Once
they brought a body of a dead Azerbaijani and they wanted to overcut
us on his grave…”- she witnessed.
In 1997, a number of human rights organizations conjointly prepared a
comprehensive reference on the events in Maragha and submitted it to
the UN Commission on Human Rights. The Helsinki Watch International
Human Rights Organization officially confirmed that scores of
civilians were martyrized and tens of women and children were taken
hostages. However, the international media did not cover the massacre
of the Armenians in Maragha at all and the international community
has not given yet a corresponding assessment to these tragic events.
“You have the most powerful weapon – the truth – said Baroness Cox.
You should bring it to the international structures’ notice that
Azerbaijan attempted to commit genocide against the population of
Karabakh. You must more actively present to the world the mass crimes
perpetrated against Armenians in Maragha, Sumgait, Baku, etc. These
are crimes against humanity. I support the Armenians and comprehend
that they will never be able to live under the Azerbaijani dominion, as
the Armenians of Karabakh, who lived under the control of Azerbaijan,
suffered much”.
The massacre in the village of Maragha, which is still under
Azerbaijan’s occupation, cannot be called a military operation,
as there were no military bases in the village but only peaceful
citizens, who became the main target of the aggression. The crimes
were aimed at deporting the Armenian people from their homeland.
Summarizing the abovementioned, we should state that the slaughter
of unarmed civil population of Maragha is a crime against humanity
and civilization, without period of limitation, and the perpetrators
of this crime must carry punishment to the fullest extent of the law.
From: A. Papazian