Strike Paralyzes Armenian Area, Pravda Reports

An unprecedented three-week general strike has paralyzed the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in the southern Soviet republic of Azerbaijan as residents continue to demand the region’s incorporation into neighboring Armenia, the Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda reported Friday.

Factories, offices and most shops are closed, transport has come to a standstill, communication with Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, has been cut, and food supplies are decreasing daily, according to the report.

Local government and party officials have lost control of the situation, Pravda said. They have yielded power in some areas to vigilante groups, and repeated attempts by the Azerbaijani authorities to end the strike have failed.

Pravda’s frank account of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, the focus of serious ethnic disturbances that began in February, said plainly that the underlying problems remain unresolved despite government efforts to reduce protests through the gradual amelioration of Armenian grievances.

Effective Organizers

Local Armenian nationalist leaders have shown themselves to be more in touch with political opinion in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Pravda correspondent implied, and thus they have been better at organizing support than the party and government.

The report comes at a difficult time for Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, as he strives to promote democracy and faster reform in the face of conservative fears that such measures will propel the country into political chaos.

Decisions, including those on the sensitive nationalities issues that date back 40, 50 or 60 years, are now emerging as significant obstacles to his plans to broaden and accelerate reform, Gorbachev has argued to local journalists.

While his calls for patience win broad acceptance in Moscow, he has found that tempers are running much higher in the country’s outlying ethnic provinces.

In an attempt to reassert central authority over the whole area and to calm tensions there, the Communist Party first secretaries in both Armenia and Azerbaijan were replaced last month, and the party chief in Nagorno-Karabakh was expelled from the party for political errors that worsened the situation.

Yet, as the Pravda report makes clear, the situation has only continued to deteriorate.

‘Self-Defense Units’

In Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian “self-defense units,” in a move that recalls the early days of the Lebanese civil war, have taken control of many areas of Stepanakert, the regional capital, and three district towns in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to Pravda, and they have clashed with Azerbaijanis there.

“When night falls, lights begin to flicker in special huts in the streets and alleyways,” Pravda reported. “These house the so-called ‘self-defense posts’--small detachments that keep vigil until morning to ensure the security and tranquility of their families. . . .

“From whom are they protecting themselves? The answer is unequivocal: ‘the Azerbaijanis.’ Although no attacks have occurred and there are quite adequate forces safeguarding security there, these volunteers still stand in the dark and scrutinize each passer-by.

“But these posts do not provide the desired safety. On the contrary, they are the source of conflicts, and several clashes have already occurred on the spot.”

Daily rallies in Stepanakert are drawing huge crowds of Armenians who want the region to be transferred under the Soviet Union’s federal system from Azerbaijan, a Muslim-dominated, Turkic-speaking republic, to Armenia, where the Christian faith dates to the 4th Century and the national identity goes back several hundred years more.

Daily Demonstrations

“Every morning, tens of thousands of people are marching along the streets (of Stepanakert) with slogans and calls for political rallies,” Pravda’s correspondent reported. “But the understanding remains that there is really only one goal--to endure as a nation until all this ends.”

More protests have taken place recently in the district towns of Martunin, Mardakert and Askeran, according to Pravda, which noted than even the government-organized May Day demonstration turned into a rally demanding the region’s immediate reunification with Armenia.

To judge by the demonstrations, the Pravda correspondent added, an anti-government Armenia group known as Krunk, which was officially ordered to disband after earlier disturbances, appears to have organized most of the protests and to be directing Armenians in Stepanakert and elsewhere into a confrontation with the regime.

While most residents of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave are tired of the fighting and want peace, the Pravda correspondent wrote, “nonetheless some still propose to escalate the issue.”

Morale continues to worsen, according to Pravda, as the conflict becomes the main fact of people’s lives.

Rumors and Fabrications

“Almost every day, some event has either really happened in the region, or people have imagined that it has. These events, surrounded by rumors and fabrications, have taken hold of people’s minds and feelings and disrupted the normal pace of life,” the paper said.

In Yerevan, the Armenian capital, crowds ranging from several hundred to more than 10,000 are continuing a sit-in on various days in Opera Square outside the headquarters of the Armenian Supreme Soviet, or Parliament, to demand a debate on the future of Nagorno-Karabakh when the legislature convenes Wednesday.

The Yerevan demonstrators, who began their protest in late May, also want stiffer punishments for those convicted of murder and other crimes during the “pogrom”--as the government describes it--against Armenians in the Azerbaijani town of Sumgait, where 32 people were killed three months ago.

But the Kremlin remains determined, according to all official statements here, to preserve the present regional boundaries, which top party officials declared in March and reiterated Thursday will remain in force.

To give in to the Armenians, at this point, would both create precedents for the resolution of other ethnic problems--already a vast range that threatens the country’s internal cohesion--and for revising local, even international borders, that Moscow sees as elements of a broader European peace.

February Vote to Secede

The trouble in the area began in February when deputies elected to the Nagorno-Karabakh regional assembly voted to secede from Azerbaijan and join neighboring Armenia, their cultural home. Of the region’s estimated 160,000 residents, three-quarters are said to be Armenians.

Families have continued to flee both Armenia and Azerbaijan to escape the fighting, and each small incident brings larger reprisals as Armenians are forced from Azerbaijani areas and Azerbaijanis from Armenian localities.

“The population (in Nagorno-Karabakh) is weary of the many months of disturbances,” Pravda said, “and the depressing food situation is making their position worse. Despite this, certain people are suggesting that the question should be pursued even more sharply.”

Soviet authorities have barred foreign correspondents from Armenia and Azerbaijan since the the February outbreak of violence.