Pravda Charges West Incites Ethnic Unrest

The Communist Party newspaper Pravda accused Western radio stations on Monday of inciting recent ethnic unrest in and around the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In an article under the heading “Instigators,” Pravda attacked the British Broadcasting Corp., the Voice of America, U.S.-sponsored Radio Liberty and West Germany’s Deutsche Welle over their coverage of events in Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“Instigation. In our view, that is what best describes the activities of those circles inside and outside the country, who stand behind the events in and around Nagorno-Karabakh,” Pravda declared.

The newspaper said it could understand the desire of Western journalists to get information about the Soviet Union. “But is it worth consorting with former criminals and unscrupulous personalities engaged in spreading deliberate lies?”

Pravda referred particularly to dissident publisher Sergei I. Grigoryants and Armenian nationalist Paruir Airikyan, both of whom supplied Moscow-based journalists with information about the troubled region.

Closed to Foreign Reporters

The republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been closed to foreign journalists since the unrest started in February, when the Parliament in Nagorno-Karabakh voted to rejoin Armenia.

The territory has been administered by Muslim Azerbaijan since 1923, although most of its people are Christian Armenians. A long history of tension exists between the two communities.

Grigoryants, editor of the unofficial journal Glasnost and himself part Armenian, brought to Moscow the first pictures of the February demonstrations in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, in which hundreds of thousands of people took part.

Airikyan was detained in Moscow and put on a plane to Yerevan, shortly after giving a news conference at which he read a message from a Pravda correspondent, disclaiming authorship of an article in the daily on the unrest.

He has since been arrested, and dissident sources say he has been charged with defaming the Soviet state.

Not Telling the Truth

Pravda said its correspondents had been accused by Armenians of not telling the truth about riots in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait, where the official death toll was 32.

It said people were quoting the BBC, Voice of America and other radio stations as saying the number of dead was much higher--as dissident sources claim.

Pravda said that during the recent unrest, people had understood the “anti-social” essence of Airikyan’s behavior and demanded that he stop appearing in public places.

“Knowing he would get no support either in Armenia or anywhere else in our great multi-nation country, Airikyan banked on the advocacy and assistance of certain reactionary circles in the West interested in whipping up national division and creating a crisis in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.”

It added: “This self-styled activist has twice faced criminal charges for anti-Soviet activity and a third time for attempting to bribe an official.”

7-Year Sentence

Airikyan, 38, was sentenced to 7 years strict labor and 3 years of exile in 1974 for anti-Soviet agitation. He received an additional 3-year term in 1980 for continuing his activities and was finally released in 1987.

The daily accused the Western stations of trying to discredit the process of democratization being carried out under Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.