Deukmejian Pushes for Armenian Settlement in Letter to Gorbachev

Gov. George Deukmejian on Friday wrote Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to express his “deep disappointment” over the Kremlin’s failure to press for a “fair and equitable” solution to the reuniting of separated Armenians.

It was the first time that Deukmejian, the son of Armenian immigrants and the governor of the U.S. state with the largest Armenian population, has written to a foreign leader on a non-trade issue.

In his letter, Deukmejian told Gorbachev that he was “taking the unusual step of writing to you to express my deep disappointment in the (Kremlin) decision . . . not to pursue a fair and equitable solution to an historic injustice committed against the Armenian people” of Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region that once belonged to Armenia but is now within the republic of Azerbaijan.

He noted that while the Kremlin decision contained “certain positive elements,” such as a plan to improve living conditions in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is populated mostly by Armenians, “it is not a final resolution of the serious error made under the Stalin Era (when the disputed region became part of Azerbaijan).”

At the same time, apparently referring the to the dispatch of Soviet troops to the region to protect Armenians from attack by Azerbaijanis, Deukmejian said such steps “are credited with saving thousands of lives,” and “I applaud your instructions to forcefully prosecute those responsible for violent acts against Armenians and the restoration of public order.”