Troops Could Leave Baku in 2 Weeks, General Says

Baku’s military commandant said today that thousands of troops who entered the city last month after ethnic pogroms and a collapse of Communist power might be withdrawn in two weeks but that the pullout depends on many factors.

Representatives of the radical Azerbaijan Popular Front--many of whose supporters died in the operation--were skeptical, and one said he believed the soldiers will remain until elections could be held in the southern republic.

Lt. Gen. Vladimir Dubinyak told a news conference, attended by the first foreign reporters allowed into the Azeri capital for almost a month, that there was little sign of any continued organized resistance to the army.

Asked when the troops, including 5,000 from the Soviet army and 12,000 from the Interior Ministry, might be pulled out, he replied: “Hard to say. I think it may be the middle of February, but it depends on many things.”

Azerbaijan’s official news agency Azerinform put at 139 the death toll in the city since troops smashed through barricades erected by nationalist groups just after midnight Jan. 20.

Among these were 106 civilians, 20 soldiers and 5 policemen, the agency said. It did not specify who the remaining eight were.

The army action, following a decree signed by President Mikhail S. Gorbachev imposing a state of emergency in Baku, came a week after dozens of Armenians were killed in the oil port on the Caspian Sea.

Defense Minister Dmitri Yazov has said the operation was aimed at returning Azerbaijan to law and order.