Rioting Erupts in Azerbaijan; Dissident Links It to Armenia

Rioting broke out in an industrial city in Azerbaijan, the Tass press agency reported today. A dissident said the violence was sparked by tensions between Armenians and Azerbaijan’s dominant ethnic group, the Azeris.

The Tass report said the disturbances Sunday in Sumgait, a city on the Caspian Sea, were provoked by “a group of hooligans,” and “rampage and violence followed.” The agency said measures were adopted “to normalize the situation.”

Tass gave no indication what led to the violence.

Armenians in huge numbers took to the streets last week in their capital, Yerevan, to demand that a region of Azerbaijan with a largely Armenian population be made part of their republic.

Of Sunday’s violence in Sumgait, a city about 1,500 miles from Moscow, dissident Sergei Grigoryants said: “Thugs in Sumgait went up to people and asked them if they were Armenian or not. They started to beat people who said they were Armenians. Several people were knifed.”

Grigoryants, who lives in Moscow but is of Armenian origin, said it appeared that no one was killed in Sumgait. He said “several dozen” Azeris were reportedly involved in the attacks.

Grigoryants said by telephone that he received his information on the unrest from sources in Yerevan.

Tass said an investigation has been launched into the violence at Sumgait.

Sumgait, with a population of more than 160,000, is the second largest city in Azerbaijan after the capital. It is 150 miles from the autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is at the center of a dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan.