19th Anniversary of Maragha Massacres

YEREVAN, APRIL 11, ARMENPRESS: “During the days of Maragha Massacres the anti-Armenian propaganda by Azerbaijan even cannot be compared with today’s military rhetoric of Ilham Aliev,” Larisa Alaverdyan, deputy of the NA “Heritage’ faction, said today at a press conference, dedicated to the 19th anniversary of Maragha Massacres. In the early 1990s, Larisa Alaverdyan was the head of “Against Legal Abuse” NGO, which was engaged in issues of refugees.

She says on those days the ideology of killing Armenians were spread violently. “In that period we presented to the UN the data we collected,” she said. The deputy says starting from 1988 Azerbaijanis attacked the largest and richest rural community of Artsakh – Maragha. In 1992 – the year of the massacre– only 115 inhabitants remained in the village, which had a population 6 thousand. 57 people were killed and 52 ones were taken prisoner during the April 12 massacre. Larisa Alaverdyan said she agrees with Baroness Caroline Cox, who called Maragha “Golgotha of Armenians, but crueler”.

She also mentioned that the oil factor had a great role in the events of Maragha, as the oil pipe was located next to the village. According to Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan, in the war situation armies tend to solve their military issues; however in this case Azerbaijanis just tended to destroy the village, which had a large Armenian population. “Today they go on terrorizing people with their inhumane behavior,” the political scientist said.