The eyewitnesses of the Maragha Massacre say that the shelling started early in the morning, at about 5:30-6:00 a.m. "They were shooting from all kinds of arms, including "Grad", heavy artillery, tanks...The OMON soldiers entered the village together with armoured vehicles followed by many large groups of looters. They didn't spare anyone's life. They killed both the elderly, women and children. They slaughtered everyone. I saw it with my own eyes. They slaughtered, and children were taken captive", recalls Vladik Avagyan, the assistant of the self-defence unit in Maragha.
The self-defence units heroically resisted against the 2 attacks. Only in the afternoon, when the Azerbaijani forces launched the attack along with many armoured vehicles, including tanks, the self-defence units which was experiencing a lack of arms, had to retreat. Staying in the village only a few hours, Azerbaijani forces turned Maragha into ruins. Most of the residents of the village had left the village before the main attack but some women, children, elderly and disabled people, who were not able to leave, were staying in the background shelters. These residents - almost 50 people - were slaughtered in the most violent ways, dismembered, maimed, burnt alive and 49 people were taken captive. Some of the captives were later exchanged but the fate of 19 peaceful civilians is yet unknown.
The Armenian population of Maragha became the victim of Azerbaijan's genocidal policy. They were murdered only because of their Armenian ethnicity. “We should kill you until the last one, Karabagh is ours, you should be demolished and not just evicted: we should kill all of you, Karabagh is ours and it’s us, who should live here, not you…. They were swearing at Armenians. They said that we are Armenians and we are haram [indecent]. They looked down on us with hatred, with a feeling of disgust”, recalls Karine Poghosyan, a survivor who lost her relatives, including her sister, during the Maragha Massacre. She was taken captive along with her children (3-year-old son and 1.4-year-old daughter), father-in-law and neighbours. She was exchanged together with her son but it took a year and seven months to find her daughter who at the time was already 3 years old. Her sister Zarine's and her husbands are still missing.
Roma Karapetyan, the commander of the self-defence units in Maragha, recalls: "Someone was with a cut-off head, s...
Read full story
