(in Russian – https://aga-tribunal.info/ks_7-4-2019/)

In connection with the anniversary of the massacre of the population of the Karabakh village of Maraga, carried out by the armed formations of the Azerbaijan Republic on April 10, 1992, the Coordination Council of the Russian-Armenian Organizations (CC RAO) made a special statement. We offer the text of the statement in full:

SPECIAL STATEMENT

COORDINATION COUNCIL OF RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN ORGANIZATIONS CONDEMNS THE FACT OF THE GENOCIDE – MASS MURDERING OF THE ARMENIAN POPULATION OF THE KARABAKH VILLAGE OF MARAGA IMPLEMENTED BY THE ARMED FORMATIONS OF THE AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC ON APRIL 10, 1992

Annually, the month of April reminds of both the terrible crimes of Azerbaijan and the policy of silence and denial. This policy gives the green light to all the new and new crimes of the genocidal state of Azerbaijan.

Among the numerous crimes committed by Azerbaijan against the Armenian population, pogroms and massacres in Sumgayit, Baku, Kirovabad and other regions of the republic, the mass and brutal murder of Armenians in the Karabakh village of Maraga in April 1992 occupies a special place.

On April 10, 1992, by order of the authorities, the Azerbaijani armed forces committed genocidal crimes in the Armenian village of Maraga in Nagorno-Karabakh. It was an inhuman massacre of innocent civilians. According to human rights organizations and Armenian sources based on testimonies, 52 people were killed, 66 were taken hostage (from a one-year-old child to a 92-year-old man). The fate of 19 hostages remains unknown to this day. Two weeks later, the village was attacked again, the population was forcibly deported, houses were looted and burned. The village was practically wiped out.

Regrettably, but a fact: in Russia there are very few media that have written about this insidious crime – the massacre of civilians. It has been 27 years of silence in Russia of this blatant fact.

In Azerbaijan, meanwhile, war criminals for committed their vile deeds are in the rank of heroes. It is worth at least recalling the Azerbaijani soldier Ramil Safarov, who in 2006, during joint training in Hungary, hacked to death the sleeping Armenian soldier Gurgen Margaryan with an ax. In April 2016, Azerbaijan committed another chain of crimes in the so-called April War – a four-day large-scale aggression against the Republic of Artsakh. Then the “glorious warriors” of Azerbaijan, but in reality the war criminals, without a twinge of conscience, showed off their “trophies”. The body of the Army Artsakh Defense Army soldier, Karam Sloyan, was beheaded after his death, and Major Hayk Toroyan was beheaded while still alive. Moreover, the Azerbaijani military himself proudly admitted to committing this atrocity. And this thug on June 24, 2016 by the decree of the president of Azerbaijan was awarded the medal “For courage.” Azerbaijani soldiers also decapitated a 68-year-old contract serviceman, driver Grant Gharibyan.

Azerbaijan is making great efforts to consign to oblivion this shameful page of its history. But it is impossible to erase from the people’s memory the terrible mass crimes of Azerbaijan against the Armenians, those crimes that were later practiced by Islamic terrorists in Syria, namely the beheading of Armenian prisoners of war and elderly civilians…

As before, the essence of the problem is silenced and cynically distorted, the Truth and the facts of crimes are ignored, a hypocritical symmetrical attitude to the hangman and to the object of regular aggression is imposed. And at the same time in all Azerbaijani history books, Russia is represented as an occupier and the main enemy along with Armenia and Iran.

Azerbaijan is a country that has put Armenophobia and Armenian hatred at the head of its state ideology. It cannot infinitely mislead the international community and shirk its responsibility for Nazi and fascist ideology.

Russian society must know the full truth about the numerous crimes against humanity on the part of Azerbaijan, including hell against civilians in the village of Maraga. Society must know this truth even after 27 years.

Coordination Council of the Russian-Armenian organizations:

– condemns mass killings – crimes committed by Azerbaijani armed forces against the Armenian population of the Karabakh village of Maraga;

– declares that the massacres of peaceful villagers, committed in the Karabakh village of Maraga, are crimes against humanity and do not have a statute of limitations;

– appeals to the public organizations of Russia and Armenia, to international human rights organizations, together with the participation of international judicial bodies established to prosecute war criminals, to intensify activities to bring the true perpetrators from the Republic of Azerbaijan to justice.

We are confident that the day will come when justice will triumph and war criminals represented by the authorities of Azerbaijan will be severely punished.

COORDINATION COUNCIL OF RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN ORGANIZATIONS

April 7, 2019

Source in Russian