As Talks Open, Protesters Have Their Say

Armenians, Jews and even three American Indians staged protests Sunday as President Reagan began his summit meeting with Mikhail S. Gorbachev in which human rights is a major issue.

In a country where public protests are rare and usually discouraged, it was a day for demonstrations and counterattacks partially encouraged by Reagan’s visit and the arrival in Moscow of thousands of journalists.

The Armenians called for protection of their fellow countrymen in a hostile area, the Jews demanded the right to emigrate and the American Indians called for an end to alleged mistreatment by the Reagan Administration.

Meanwhile, spokesmen for a new Soviet opposition party in Leningrad said Sunday that police there beat up protesters to break up a demonstration by 2,000 people on Saturday calling for greater freedom.

Spokesmen for the Democratic Union, founded earlier this month, said that police arrested 35 people gathered at Leningrad’s Kazan Cathedral and that at least one person was injured. There was no official confirmation of the report.

The Armenian protest by about 200 people included ringing shouts of “Down with Ligachev,” a reference to Yegor K. Ligachev, Gorbachev’s conservative deputy.

It is highly unusual for demonstrators here to personally denounce a powerful party official, but the Armenians appeared furious at allegations that Ligachev recently vowed that the disputed province of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Azerbaijani republic would never become part of Soviet Armenia.

Despite Gorbachev’s backing for Ligachev’s views concerning this ethnic dispute, the demonstrators chanted, “Long live Gorbachev,” which prompted one Western diplomat to remark, “He (Gorbachev) has a lot of Teflon on him, just like Ronald Reagan.” The Armenians claim that hundreds of Christian Armenians have been slaughtered by Azerbaijani Muslims while Moscow refuses to solve the problem by putting Nagorno-Karabakh under the protection of Armenia.

About 25 Jewish demonstrators gathered at the Lenin Library to demand the right to emigrate to Israel. They were greeted by hostile anti-Semitic taunts and the roar of sandblasting on the library’s front steps.

Three American Indians, accompanied by their lawyer, flew into Moscow on Sunday to complain that the rights of native Americans are being trampled upon.