Azerbaijan ‘on Edge of Abyss,’ KGB Says

The KGB, in an unusual appeal, warned today that Azerbaijan is “on the edge of the abyss,” as extremists ambushed a military convoy also carrying women and children in the troubled republic, killing three.

Hopes for an end to 10 days of ethnic strife between Armenia and Azerbaijan had surfaced Monday when Communist Party and government officials from the republics agreed to try to end the fighting.

But Radio Moscow reported today that the situation in Baku remains “very, very tense.” It said the military commander of Azerbaijan’s capital vowed that his troops are ready to stop further attacks.

Anti-Armenian riots and killings in Baku on Jan. 13 ignited ethnic warfare between Azerbaijanis and Armenians. Azerbaijanis have since threatened to secede from the Soviet Union.

Soviet troops smashed their way into Baku on Saturday to quell the nationalist uprising, and Soviet officials said the assault that day left 83 dead, including 14 soldiers and members of their families.

Radio Moscow, in a broadcast monitored in London by the British Broadcasting Corp., said troops sent to Azerbaijan came under fire four times Monday and overnight, including an attack on a convoy of recently demobilized servicemen also carrying women.

Baku Radio, also monitored by the BBC, said two soldiers and a woman bystander were killed in that attack.

The deaths brought the overall toll in the unrest to 170 killed since the Baku riots, with more than 600 wounded.

On Monday, Azerbaijanis marched through the Caspian Sea port city of 1.8 million to mourn those killed when the Soviet troops moved in. Radio Moscow said anti-army and anti-Russian sentiments are being whipped up by “irresponsible people” sending threatening unsigned letters and making anonymous phone calls.

Suspicious Baku residents also prevented two ships carrying the families of soldiers stationed in the area from leaving the port, Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov said in Moscow today.

He said Azerbaijanis suspected that bodies of people killed in the assault on Baku are being smuggled out. They apparently thought authorities wanted to claim that casualties were lower than in reality.

“Nothing was found in the holds,” Gerasimov told a news briefing.

Azerbaijan’s KGB expressed alarm in its appeal to residents of the republic for calm, Radio Moscow said.

“Azerbaijan is on the edge of the abyss, beyond which lie chaos and anarchy,” the KGB warned.