MARAGHA: AN ‘EXAMPLE OF AZERI CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY,’ SAYS BARONESS COX
Baroness Cox
asbarez
April 10th, 2012
On the 20th anniversary of the Azeri massacres of Armenians in the
Maragha village north of Mardakert, Panorama.am interviewed Baroness
Cox, who went to the village a day later in 1992 and witnessed
first-hand what she called “cold blooded slaughter of civilians.”
Below we present this important interview, thanking our colleagues
at panorama.am.
Panorama.am: You went to Maragha village right after the mass
atrocities of April 10, 1992 – 20 years ago, when the village and its
inhabitants were wiped out by the Azeri militia and the army. Do you
have any untold memories to share?
Baroness Cox: Indeed, too many memories. We were in Stepanakert [then],
and we heard there was an attack on the village, called Maragha. We
immediately went out there on the day itself. Homes were still burning,
still smoldering. We saw the evidence of the atrocities which had
been carried out. I saw human bodies, beheaded. We had to do very
unhappy thing of asking the local villagers if they would mind us to
take photographic evidence of the bodies that they started to bury…
I have one in front of me at the moment… And I also have a photograph
in front of me of a villager holding an ear of his Armenian friend,
which had been cut off by Azeris. So the horror was there. We also
met some women, who survived, with photographs of their loved ones
taken from their smoldering homes in order to have memories of their
families who perished…
Panorama.am: I want to ask you to touch upon the international
campaign of the governments of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh to bring
in international outcry on the atrocity. What has been done so far,
and what do you think should be done in this regards?
Baroness Cox: Ever since I witnessed the atrocities of what happened
in Maragha, I have been urging the Armenian Government and [Nagorno]
Karabakh Government to get the story told to the international
community, to raise this as a really serious example of Azeri crimes
against humanity. What happened in Maragha was a serious [crime]
in terms of cold blooded slaughter of civilians with decapitation
and burning.
The Government of Nagorno Karabakh has indeed published an account
of what happened in Maragha. I think the Governments of Armenia and
Nagorno Karabakh should make efforts to place it on the news screens
of international community: it was an absolutely horrendous, cold
blooded crime, a deliberate slaughter of innocent civilians in a brutal
way. And I think the Armenian Government really should be making it an
international issue, and taking Azerbaijan into international arena,
to get this horrible situation on the record, and Azerbaijan called
to international accountability.
What happened in Maragha is an untold truth, and needs to be told
both for justice and for the people of Maragha who suffered so much,
their survivors shall know that justice is served, and Azerbaijan to
be brought to account for that apparent crime against humanity.
Panorama.am: Following up on what you just said, considering there
was no “military necessity” to wage an attack on Maragha, and it was
quite far from where the war was taking place, can we claim it was
a war crime and/or a crime against humanity, as you phrased it?
Baroness Cox: It is certain that what I saw was clearly an apparent
crime against humanity, which needs investigation. I saw a bloody
slaughter against innocent civilians, innocent villagers. Armenia
really needs to make a case for recognition of that as a crime
against humanity.
Panorama.am: Few days ago when the Armenian parliament members were
visiting Baku for Euronest part session, Mr. Aliyev, the President
of Azerbaijan, called them “fascists”. In an earlier statement
he proclaimed “Armenians world over are the number one enemy of
Azerbaijan.” Judging from the current totalitarian regime of Mr.
Aliyev and his family, do you think international recognition of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is the best measure toward the prevention
of new atrocities?
Baroness Cox: I think there are the “Madrid Principles,” which are on
the table, which I think is agreed by the international community as
an appropriate way forward. They would give the Armenians of Nagorno
Karabakh the right to self determination and for secession, and it
should be internationally recognized in the same way as other valid
recognitions of the right of self determination and secession have
been granted to the people that had been subjected or attempted to
ethnic cleansing. There is no doubt that Azerbaijan had the intent
upon ethnic cleansing upon the Armenians living in Nagorno Karabakh.
The President [Abdulfaz] Elchibey once said his “famous” statement
that if a single Armenian was left alive in Karabakh by next October,
then the people of Azerbaijan could take him and hang him at the
center square of Baku. This was a pretty forceful statement of ethnic
cleansing. The whole policy of the Operation “Ring” was a tacit
example of ethnic cleansing. So they have the right, I believe, for
self determination and secession, the same was as any other minority
group in a country where the regime of that country is trying to
exterminate them physically and culturally.
Panorama.am: The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
(ECRI) report last year alarmed, that it’s unsafe to show Armenian
identity in Azerbaijan, as the person would risk getting into huge
troubles, to put it in a smooth way. What steps shall the international
community undertake for easing the human rights and freedoms issue
there, and eventually – for denazification of Azerbaijan?
Baroness Cox: Well, I think, Azerbaijan is a country that carries out
oppressive measures such as, as we all know, inhibitions on the freedom
of speech. I think, there has been somebody who tried to tell the truth
about Khojaly, and he had been imprisoned. Any attempt of inhibition
of telling the truth is a fundamental violation of the fundamental
human right of freedom of speech. Any country which contravenes those
fundamental human rights, as defined in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, should be called into account, and there should be
measures taken against this. So I think there need to be recognition,
and much more robust calling into account to Azerbaijan for its human
rights violations against its own people today, who are suffering an
absence of any respect toward their human rights. Azerbaijan human
rights record is extremely unsatisfactory.