Statement on the 31st Anniversary of the Maragha Massacre

10 April marks the 31st anniversary of the Maragha massacre, one of the most tragic and horrific pages in the history of the first Karabakh War.

On 10 April 1992, the Azerbaijani armed forces, after continuous and intense shelling, invaded the village of Maragha of the Martakert region of Artsakh and brutally massacred the local civilian population. More than 50 innocent citizens were brutally killed and tortured to death, dozens of villagers, including women and children, were captured, some of whom were brutally killed in captivity, while the fate of 19 people remains unknown to this day. Two weeks after those horrendous events, the village was again attacked, and the residents, who returned to bury their relatives, became victims of new atrocities by the Azerbaijani armed forces.

The Maraga massacre was a continuation of the atrocities and deportations committed against the Armenian population of Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad and other settlements of the Azerbaijan SSR, as well as Northern Artsakh, the purpose of which was to nip in the bud the legitimate demand for self-determination of the Artsakh Armenians, as well as to deprive them of their homeland through ethnic cleansing and forced deportation.

Despite the fact that the atrocities committed in Maragha were documented in detail by the international community, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the lack of proper political assessment by the relevant international organisations and the impunity of this crime prepared fertile ground for further aggression by Azerbaijan, and for the continuation and strengthening of the anti-Armenian and genocidal policy of its leadership. As a result, confident in their impunity, Azerbaijan subsequently unleashed two more large-scale wars against the Republic of Artsakh, in April 2016 and September 2020, committing new atrocities and war crimes against the Artsakh Armenians, flagrant violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, as well as occupying new, larger territories of the Republic of Artsakh.

Even today, disregarding the Order of the International Court of Justice to immediately end the blockade of Artsakh, Azerbaijan continues to carry out its criminal and genocidal policy before the eyes of civilised humanity, keeping the population of Artsakh under unlawful blockade for 120 days, depriving them of basic living conditions and creating a humanitarian crisis, as well as pursuing the implementation of their criminal plan to ethnically cleanse Artsakh through terrorist activities.

We once again call on all international actors to put an end to the crimes of the Azerbaijani authorities and not become silent witnesses or even accomplices, and take practical and effective measures to bring Azerbaijan into a legal and constructive framework so that its authoritarian leadership respects international law and their international obligations.

http://www.nkr.am/en/news/2023-04-10/Statement_Maragha