Nationalists Seek Coalition in Azerbaijan; Armenian Attack Reported : Republics: The capital is quiet. Attention turns to the struggle over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

With Azerbaijan’s reappointed president overthrown and in hiding, the nationalist Popular Front on Sunday appeared in full control of the former Soviet republic and began sanctioning changes in the government to guarantee itself wide popular support.

The situation in Baku, the capital on the Caspian Sea, was tense but quiet. Overnight, gunmen fired upon the Popular Front’s headquarters, and officials conjectured that seven men who were detained are supporters of ousted President Ayaz Mutalibov.

Meanwhile, a battle began in another region of the predominantly Shiite Muslim republic near the strategic town of Lachin. Military spokesman Azad Ali-Zade said that Armenian irregulars have launched a two-pronged attack and have already taken the village of Tursu, north of Lachin.

Lachin is outside of the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, and if the Armenians can seize it, they will be a good part of the way toward reopening land transportation routes between Armenia itself and the predominantly Armenian Karabakh enclave.

That would break a longstanding Azerbaijani blockade that has cut off food and ammunition supplies to the Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan.

Ali-Zade said the recent turmoil in Baku has been hampering his government’s ability to defend Lachin because some units deployed there were trying to leave the town to return to the capital. The spokesman said that Azerbaijani forces have been pushed back by the attackers to a small area outside Lachin.

As an indication of the situation’s increasing gravity, Azerbaijan’s defense minister, Ragim Kaziev, called on the Popular Front sympathizers who helped drive Mutalibov from office to leave Baku now and regroup at Lachin to defend it.

According to the Reuters news agency, Popular Front spokesman Oktoi Gasimov said the defenders have already blown up the main bridges on the road to Shusha, the Azerbaijani stronghold inside Nagorno-Karabakh that fell to the Armenians last week, to slow the attackers’ progress.

Armenian authorities reported that 1,000 Azerbaijanis backed by tanks were trying to retake Shusha. But Ali-Zade said that was “physically impossible” because his country was “defending Lachin to our last forces.”

Summoned by the Popular Front, the National Council, or inner Parliament, met in Baku to approve changes in the Cabinet after Mutalibov’s overthrow. It refused to accept the resignation of the parliamentary chairman, Yagub Mamedov, who had been Azerbaijan’s acting president until Mutalibov was reinstated last Thursday.

Outside the legislature, at least 3,000 Azerbaijanis rallied to hear speakers denounce the failed attempt at Mutalibov’s restoration as a bid to create a “Communist dictatorship.”

Russian Television said the Popular Front seems to be seeking a coalition government to prevent the sort of political schism that occurred in neighboring Georgia after its president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was driven from office by an armed rebellion last January.

The National Council, working practically nonstop, approved government changes based on decrees signed by Mamedov as acting president. The most important appointment was that of Ragim Guseinov as prime minister, a clear sign of a desire to placate a broad political spectrum, because Guseinov had originally been appointed by Mutalibov.

The chairman of the Azerbaijani Popular Front, Vakhid Mamedov, was made the prime minister’s first deputy. Fakhraddin Takhmazov was named the new national security minister, with a Popular Front official as his first deputy.

Another Popular Front militant, Mamed Ismailov, was tapped to head the national radio and television company.

Azerbaijan’s entire Parliament was summoned for an emergency session today that should determine the future structure of political power in the republic.

Popular Front officials accused Mutalibov, Azerbaijan’s former Communist Party leader, of trying to stage a coup and said he will be arrested and tried when found.

Front militants and supporters backed by armed irregulars drove the president from office by storming Parliament and the presidential palace Friday.

The 53-year-old deposed leader, who had resigned his office under public pressure in March, is widely believed to have fled Baku with his national security minister, Ilgusein Guseinov.

On Saturday, the National Council annulled the parliamentary vote that reinstated Mutalibov, rescinded the state-of-emergency decree he had issued and ordered that presidential elections scheduled for June 7, which Mutalibov canceled, be held as planned.