Yerevan: Maragha massacre was continuation of organised pogroms of  Sumgait, Kirovabad and Baku committed by Azerbaijan

ArmInfo.31 years ago, on April 10, 1992, the Azerbaijani armed forces carried out a preplanned brutal massacre of the peaceful population of the Armenian settlement  of Maragha in Martakert region of Nagorno-Karabakh, as a result of  which the settlement with a population of about 5,000 was completely  subjected to ethnic cleansing, more than 50 civilians were brutally  killed and as many were taken captive.

This data has been documented in the reports of the human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.  The fates of many hostages have not  been clarified to this day, and they are considered to have been  forcibly disappeared. Statement by the Foreign Ministry of Armenia on  the 31st anniversary of the massacre of Armenians in Maragha reads.

 As the press service of the RA MFA reports, the statement notes:  "The Maragha massacre was a continuation of the organised pogroms of  Armenians in Sumgait, Kirovabad and Baku and one of the  manifestations of mass crimes committed by the Azerbaijani  authorities on the grounds of national identity. The preplanned  crimes against the civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, war  crimes, their impunity and glorification became part of Azerbaijan's  systemic policy and took on new manifestations during Azerbaijan's  aggression against Nagorno- Karabakh in April 2016 and on a larger  scale during the 44-day war of 2020 as a result of which tens of  thousands of Armenians were displaced also from Hadrut, Shushi and  surrounding regions.

It is no coincidence that not only the Armenians displaced from  Nagorno-Karabakh during 1988-1991 have never had the opportunity to  return to their homes and exercise their rights, including managing  their private property, but also nowadays, Azerbaijan violates the  provisions of the Trilateral Statement of November 9, 2020,  disrupting the return of displaced persons and refugees to  Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions, which should be carried out  under the supervision of the United Nations High Commissioner for  Refugees. Moreover, violating the norms of international law and the  international obligations, nowadays the official Baku is populating  with Azerbaijanis the Armenian settlements fallen under its control,  the homes of Armenians, for example in the Armenian village of  Talish.

It is also noteworthy that, grossly violating the decisions of  authoritative international courts, Azerbaijan openly continues to  desecrate, vandalise and destroy the Armenian religious, historical  and cultural monuments and sanctuaries, having the aim to completely  erase the Armenian trace from the territories that are under its  control. At the same time, the hate speech towards the Armenians  continues at the highest level. These actions have already been  repeatedly condemned by international institutions.  31 years after  the Maragha massacre, already for around four months Azerbaijan has  been illegally blocking the Lachin corridor connecting  Nagorno-Karabakh with the rest of the world. The deliberate creation  of a humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, the periodic violations  of the ceasefire and the aggressive actions of the Azerbaijani armed  forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, the consistent targeting and terrorising  of the peaceful population prove once again that Azerbaijan's goal is  to subject Nagorno-Karabakh to ethnic cleansing.

Today we pay tribute to the memory of the victims of the Maragha  massacre. In order to further prevent such crimes, we once again  emphasise the urgency of taking the active steps by the international  community, including by using the available international mechanisms.

The Republic of Armenia reaffirms its commitment to the establishment  of lasting and comprehensive peace and security in the region, which  is possible by Azerbaijan's refusal of the maximalist and aggressive  policy and by the search for fair solutions to the existing  problems," the RA MFA concludes.