Armenian Foreign Ministry remembers victims of Maragha pogroms

The Armenian Foreign Ministry has remembered victims of the Maragha pogroms․

“On April 10, 1992, the Armenian civilians of the village of Maragha were subjected to complete ethnic cleansing: more than 50 civilians, including 30 women, were killed by the Azerbaijani forces, while the population of 5000 was forcibly displaced. 29 women and 9 children were taken hostage, the fate of 19 is still unknown. These atrocities were well documented in the reports of the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The patterns of behavior that led to the Maragha massacre – ethnic hatred, impunity, glorification of war crimes, the destruction of Armenian cultural sites and forced displacement – were earlier witnessed during the 1988-1990 pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait, Kirovabad, Baku, and elsewhere,” it noted.

“Today, as we pay tribute to the victims of pogroms in Maragha, we recall that prevention of such atrocities and achieving lasting peace requires abandoning hate speech and promoting respect for fundamental human rights,” the Ministry said.