31 Killed in Armenian Rioting, Soviets Admit

Thirty-one people were killed in ethnic rioting in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait, Tass press agency reported today.

It was the first time the official media reported deaths in ethnic violence between Azerbaijanis and Armenians in the two southern Soviet republics. Dissident sources had reported that as many as 20 people died in the Sumgait riots.

The rioting erupted Sunday in the industrial city 19 miles northwest of the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. Government spokesmen had previously acknowledged that people were killed in the rioting but they had refused to say how many. A television worker in Baku had said one or two people were killed.

The Tass dispatch blamed the Sunday killings on “hooligan elements provoked by disorder.”

Dispute Over Region

Trouble between the Azerbaijanis, who are predominantly Shia Muslims, and Armenians, who are Christian, began early last month with a dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan just north of Iran and east of Turkey. More than three-quarters of the population is Armenian, but it was made part of Azerbaijan in 1923.

Armenians are demanding that the region be made part of the republic of Armenia. Azerbaijanis opposed the move, and violence has ensued.

“Unstable, immature people, falling under the influence of false rumors about the events in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, involved themselves in lawless actions,” Tass said. “Criminal elements took part in violent activities and looting. From their hands, 31 people perished.”

An English version of the Tass story said the dead included “members of various nationalities, old men and women.”

‘There Was Hooliganism’

On Thursday, Gennady I. Gerasimov, chief spokesman for the Soviet Foreign Ministry in Moscow, gave the first official confirmation of deaths during the riots in Azerbaijan, but would not say how many people were killed.

On Tuesday, he said he could not confirm reports from Armenian activists that up to 20 people were killed in Sumgait. But he added, “There was hooliganism, and there can be deaths in such cases.”

The first official hint of deaths in the ethnic unrest came Feb. 24, when non-voting Politburo member Vladimir I. Dolgikh said on Armenian television that “in Nagorno-Karabakh, the matter has gone so far as confrontations between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, and there have been casualties.”

Street rallies began Feb. 13 in Nagorno-Karabakh and later spread to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, where dissidents said more than 1 million people demonstrated. On Feb. 19 rioting spread to Sumgait.