Soviet leaders meet to discuss crisis

Press, 19 July 1988, Page 6

Soviet leaders meet to discuss crisis

NZPA-Reuter Moscow Residents of Yerevan, the capital of Soviet Armenia, returned to work yesterday after a two-week strike as Soviet leaders prepared to meet to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh regional crisis.

“The situation is normal,” a spokesman for the official Armenpress news agency told Reuters from Yerevan. “In the main, people have gone back to work.” He said fuller details of attendance at work would be available later in the day. The strike, which began on July 4, was called off at a Yerevan demonstration on Saturday. Tens of thousands of people rallied in Yerevan on Sunday to voice their support for Nagorno-Kar-abakh, the disputed Transcaucasian region that last week announced it was seceding from the republic of Azerbaijan to join Armenia. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the highest State body, was due to convene in Moscow to discuss the regional

conflict, in which at least 36 people have died in ethnic turmoil since February. The Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, was expected to speak at the meeting, to be attended by the parliamentary leaders of all 15 Soviet republics and 10-member delegations from Armenia and Azerbaijan, which are at loggerheads in the dispute. Armenian leaders have called on the Kremlin to meet Nagorno-Karabakh’s request to leave Azerbaijan, which has ruled the small, mountainous enclave since 1923. Azerbaijani leaders have refused to cede the territory. Recent developments suggest the Presidium might opt for a compromise solution — transferring Nagorno-Karabakh to administration by Moscow

or by the Russian Federation, the largest Soviet republic. The regional crisis has presented Mr Gorbachev with one of the most serious challenges of his career. The strike, the first known mass work stoppage to last so long in the Soviet Union, sparked cries of official alarm over economic losses. Yerevan’s new party leader, Mikhail Minasbekyan, appointed last week, said on Armenian television on Sunday that the strike had cost the republic 70 million roubles (SNZIB.O9 million), the official Tass news agency reported. In a conciliatory statement, he supported the right of Yerevan residents to continue holding mass meetings. “There is a need for constructive meetings,” he

said, “as many problems have accumulated, particularly in such matters as combating speculation, bribe taking and protectionism. “This is where the start should be made. And we shall be deciding these matters together, in unity, as we have no other road.” The Communist Party newspaper, “Pravda,” which has sharply criticised the mass actions of Armenians in recent days, also took a conciliatory line yesterday. It said residents of Yerevan had tried during the last five months of conflict to prevent irresponsible acts and came close to praising their newly awakened activism and “sense of social justice” by linking the trends with the Kremlin reform drive.