Garadaghli massacre

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The massacre Garadaghli was right at the beginning of active armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh War and immediately before the Khojaly Massacre on 17 February 1992 in the village Garadaghli the city of Martuni (Xocavənd) by Armenian units committed against Azerbaijani civilians.

Attacks from 1991

With increasing escalation in the embattled Nagorno-Karabakh region, the security situation in the Azerbaijani-settled village of Garadaghli, west of the city of Martuni, deteriorated as early as the spring of 1991. In June of the same year, the village, which had gradually become encircled, was the target of attacks by Armenian units operating in culminated in the murder of six villagers.

Conquest and the subsequent massacre

On February 17, 1992, well-armed and outnumbered Armenian militias took the village completely under their control after almost 11 hours of battle. The Russian news agency ITAR-TASS , citing information from the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan, reports on more than 20 killed and 15 wounded in the storming of the village by armed Armenian fighters, who then drove the remaining local residents to a nearby forest. According to Azerbaijani sources, Armenian forces killed more than 80 civilians and captured 117 others. In connection with the conquest of the Azerbaijani villages of Gushchular (near Şuşa ) and Agdaban, the Swedish South Caucasus expert Svante E. Cornell assumes a total of 99 murdered and 140 injured.

Markar Melkonian, brother of Monte Melkonian , one of the best known leaders of the paramilitary Armenian underground organization ASALA (in some sources it is classified as a guerrilla , in others as a terrorist organization ) describes in his book "My Brother's Road: An American's Fateful Journey to Armenia" Scenes of killing of the Azerbaijani residents of Garadaghli. According to him, the fighters from “Arabo” and “Aramo” (Armenian voluntary militias, mostly from Lebanon and Syria ) brought 38 Azerbaijani prisoners, including several women and other non-combatants, together in a trench on the outskirts of the village. The Arabo and Aramo members, who wanted to “avenge” the death of another comrade the day before, “began to stab and shoot their prisoners” until they were all dead. One of the Armenian fighters is said to have doused several wounded Azerbaijani soldiers with gasoline and set them alive. According to Melkonian, a total of 53 Azerbaijanis were massacred in and around Garadaghli within two days .

See also

Literature and individual references

  1. ↑ Thomas de Waal: Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War . New York University Press, New York and London 2003, ISBN 978-0-8147-1945-9 , pp. 115 .
  2. ↑ Татьяна Евгеньевна Чаладзе: Сострадание . Изд-во "Азербайджан", Baku 1995.
  3. ↑ 20 killed in attack on Azerbaijani Village. In: Desert News. February 17, 1992, accessed April 1, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Со дня массового убийства мирных жителей азербайджанского села Гарадаглы прошло 26 лет. In: Moscow-Baku.ru. February 17, 2018, Retrieved April 1, 2019 (Russian).
  5. ↑ Svante E.Cornell: Small Nations and Great Powers. A study of ethnopolitical conflict the Caucasus . London / New York 2001, ISBN 978-0-7007-1162-8 , pp. 81 .
  6. ↑ Frederik Coene: The Caucasus. An Introduction . Taylor & Francis, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-203-87071-6 , pp. 221 .
  7. ^ Colleen Sullivan: Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia. Retrieved January 4, 2019 .
  8. ^ Markar Melkonian: My Brother's Road: An American's Fateful Journey to Armenia . IB Tauris, New York City 2005, ISBN 978-1-84511-530-2 , pp. 211-212 .