Soviet Tanks, Troops Patrol Armenia Capital

Soviet tanks and troops patrolled the streets and cordoned off government buildings in Yerevan, capital of the Armenian republic, amid escalating political and ethnic tension in the region.

“The situation is not improving,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Vadim Perfiliyev told a news briefing in Moscow. “It has become even more threatening.”

There were “pogroms, beatings, looting and arson,” and more than 30 buildings have been burned down in and around Stepanakert, capital of the predominantly Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in Soviet Azerbaijan, Perfiliyev said.

9-Hour Curfew Imposed

Authorities imposed a 9 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew in Stepanakert, center of the dispute between Armenians, who are of Christian heritage, and mainly Muslim Azerbaijanis that erupted into open hostilities in February.

Soviet authorities said the number of people hurt in Nagorno-Karabakh since ethnic violence broke out anew Sunday had reached 49--33 Armenians and 16 Azerbaijanis. One of the Armenians died of his wounds, officials confirmed.

Protesters in Nagorno-Karabakh, who want the area to be taken from Azerbaijan and made part of Armenia, attacked the city’s prosecutor’s office in Stepanakert on Thursday.

“There are soldiers on every street, at every crossroad, checking passports and personal cars,” said a man who answered the telephone at the state radio and television office, Gostelradio, in Stepanakert.

Nagorno-Karabakh, in the Caucasus Mountains, was virtually at a standstill and sealed off because of ethnic tension.

700,000 Rally

In Yerevan, about 700,000 people poured into the streets for a three-hour rally Thursday night despite heavy presence by police and thousands of soldiers, resident Arpine Popoyan said.

The Foreign Ministry closed Azerbaijan to foreign journalists Thursday, a day after barring travel to Armenia. It gave no reason.

Asked the mood of Armenians, Popoyan’s 17-year-old son, Vahagen, replied: “Fighting.”

Dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers were deployed and soldiers guarded government and Communist Party buildings in Yerevan, Popoyan said by telephone.

‘Very Tense’

“It’s very tense. Everyone is at the edge,” she said.

She said several deputies of the Armenian Supreme Soviet, the republic’s Parliament, agreed at Thursday’s rally to push again for an emergency session to renew demands--previously rejected by Moscow--to annex Nagorno-Karabakh. A rally was planned for today, and Armenians vowed to pursue their general strike until they get an answer, she said.

Armenian authorities on Wednesday refused to hold such a session.

State-run television showed armored personnel carriers in Yerevan. It said similar measures involving the military were taken in 16 other areas of Armenia with a “mixed population,” apparently meaning areas where both Armenians and Azerbaijanis live. Armenia has a population of 3.4 million.

In an unusually candid report, the evening news program Vremya showed angry crowds milling about Yerevan and displaying posters in illegal rallies, as well as hunger strikers wrapped in blankets in the city’s central square.

The official news agency Tass said a strike that began in Yerevan Sept. 16 spread to three other towns and an entire district of the republic.

Food Stores Open

An editor for Armenia’s official news agency, Armenpress, who demanded anonymity, said food stores were open in Yerevan, but public transportation was not working and many people were on the streets.

Perfiliyev blamed the violence on “corrupt elements” trying to distract attention from Kremlin leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s reforms.

“Such a situation, of course, cannot be tolerated . . . ,” he said. “The alternative was to take urgent and tough measures.”

In another flare-up of unrest, dozens of uniformed police manhandled nationalists in Tbilisi, capital of the Georgian republic, when they tried to protest near the site of a U.S.-Soviet citizens conference. Activists said at least 15 demonstrators were detained.