200,000 Rally in Armenia to Back Annexing

More than 200,000 people rallied in the Armenian capital of Yerevan to demand annexation of an Armenian enclave in neighboring Azerbaijan, and a strike today paralyzed many of the city’s industries, sources said.

People took to the streets Wednesday night after learning that Azerbaijan’s government had overridden Nagorno-Karabakh’s decision to secede and join Armenia, activist Khovik Vasilyan said by telephone from Armenia.

“There will be another rally in Yerevan tonight and the reaction of the Armenian people to Azerbaijan’s impudent lie will become visible,” said Vasilyan, a former political prisoner.

In the disputed region itself, a general work stoppage continued and troops were deployed to maintain calm, said a worker for the region’s party organization.

Calls to Work Ignored

“The people are still not prepared to work” despite repeated calls by Communist Party and government leaders to end the nearly 2-month-old strike, said the worker, who spoke by telephone from Nagorno-Karabakh’s main city, Stepanakert.

In Moscow today, police arrested 15 demonstrators after they unfurled the Latvian flag and protest banners on the steps of the Lenin Library.

One protester held a banner demanding in English, “Return Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.” Another held a sign that read in Russian, “Freedom to Paruyr Ayrikyan,” an Armenian nationalist arrested in Yerevan in March.

Activists in the Baltic republics of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania have been pressing for greater autonomy under Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s reform program.