6-Mile Peace Zone Proposed Near Armenia

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Monday proposed creating a six-mile-wide, Soviet-patrolled zone between Armenia and Azerbaijan, apparently seeking a bigger peacekeeping role for Moscow in the troubled Soviet south.

The State Council, the country’s top state body, later invited the presidents of both Transcaucasian republics to Moscow this week to discuss how to keep the conflict from escalating.

Tension in the region has mounted in the last week over a helicopter crash, which killed 20 people, in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan says Armenians shot down the helicopter, whose passengers included Azerbaijani peace negotiators. Armenia says the aircraft crashed due to bad weather.

“The situation is extremely explosive now. It is on the brink of real war,” Gorbachev told reporters at the suburban villa of Novo-Ogaryovo after meeting leaders of seven Soviet republics behind closed doors.

“I suggested that union forces take responsibility for a five-kilometer (three-mile) zone on each side of the border to deprive the militants of both sides of the chance of open clashes.”

The Azerbaijan Parliament in Baku opens an emergency session today to debate imposing a state of emergency on Nagorno-Karabakh and cutting all ties with Armenia.

President Levon Ter-Petrosyan of Armenia has said the agenda of the debate amounts to a declaration of war against Armenia.

Fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is claimed by both Azerbaijan and Armenia, has taken more than 800 lives since 1988. The territory, mostly populated by Armenians but run from Baku since 1923, is completely enclosed by Azerbaijan.

Gorbachev did not make clear whether Soviet troops would be stationed inside Azerbaijan around Nagorno-Karabakh or on the formal border where fighting has been far less fierce.