Maraghar Massacre

The Maraghar Massacre occurred on April 10, 1992, during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, a war in which both the Armenian and Azeri forces involved are alleged to have committed acts of ethnic cleansing upon civilian populations. [ [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FF3C5D0C708CDDAA0894DA494D81 New York Times - Massacre by Armenians Being Reported] ] According to Caroline Cox, who observed the damage and interviewed eyewitnesses, Azerbaijani forces attacked the Armenian town of Maraghar, decapitated about forty five villagers, burned and looted much of the town, and kidnapped about one hundred women and children [ [http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/1998/april27/8t5092.html Christianity Today Article] ] . The inhabitants of Maraghar who were driven out after the attack were unable to return to their village after the cease-fire of 1994, as the area was still under Azeri control.

“Maraghar: 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 Nagorno Karabakh in April, news came through that a village in the north, in Martakert 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 burn-out homes still smoldering, 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 publicizing the tragedy, they replied they were reluctant to do so as ‘ we Armenians are not very good at showing our grief to the world’. [Ethnic Cleansing in Progress, War in Nagorno Karabakh, by Caroline Cox and John Eibner, Institute for Religious Minorities in the Islamic World, Zurich, London, Washington, 1993]

According to Gevorg Petrossian, Chairman of the Parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh, fifty-three civilians were killed during the attack on Maraga. [Bloodshed in the Caucasus: Escalation of the Armed Conflict in Nagorno Karabakh - Page 29 by Rachel Denber, Robert Kogod Goldman]

ee also

* Sumgait pogrom
* Kirovabad pogrom
* Khojaly Massacre
* Nagorno-Karabakh War
* Anti-Armenianism

References

External links

* [http://www.maragha.nk.am Marghar.nk]
* [http://www.armenians.com/Genocide/Maraga/index.html Photographs of the Maraghar Massacre] – Warning: Graphic Content
* [http://www.geocities.com/master8885/Cox/baroness_caroline_cox.html Christianity Today Article]
* [http://www.nkrusa.org/nk_conflict/ethnic_cleansing_campaigns.shtml#maragha Ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict]
* [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199899/cmselect/cmfaff/349/349ap18.htm UK House of Commons report]
* [http://www.sumgait.info/maraga/maraga-eng/survivors-maraghar.htm Survivors of Maraghar massacre: It was truly like a contemporary Golgotha many times over]