Armenians hope for transfer of region

Press, 27 July 1988, Page 11

Armenians hope for transfer of region

NZPA-Reuter Moscow Armenians in the disputed Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh have bowed to Kremlin pressure to end a months-long protest strike, but still hope for the eventual transfer of the region to Armenia. .

A spokeswoman for I “Sovietsky Karabakh,” the newspaper in the regional i capital Stepanakert, said i the atmosphere was calm, with all enterprises and i transport working for the 1 first time since the stop- i page began in the spring. “No further actions are i taking place,” she said. “But our hopes remain.” i The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the country’s highest State body, ruled on July 18 that the mountainous enclave with a 75 per cent Armenian population should remain a part of Azerbaijan, which has administered the region since 1923. At the same time it appointed a special commission to examine the issue in conjunction with officials from Armenia and Azerbaijan. Soviet television announced on Monday that this commission had been set up. It also said a Soviet Communist Party Central Committee member, Arkady Volsky, was

being sent to NagornoKarabakh to assess the situation and meet local officials. Soviet sources have suggested that one possible long-term solution to the dispute, which has lasted nearly six months and cost at least 36 lives, would be to raise the status of Nagorno-Kara-bakh to an autonomous republic within Azerbaijan. This would maintain Azerbaijan’s formal authority over the territory, enshrined by the Soviet Constitution, while giving the region a virtual free hand to run its own affairs. “I think that is the only thing they have left to do,” said one Armenian resident in Moscow. “They will have to give us something, then we can call it a draw.” The Soviet leadership also ordered an economic development programme for the region, but the Nagorno-Karabakh Com-

munist Party chief, Genrikh Pogosyan, dismissed this as a solution to the problem when he made a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Soviet Presidium. “The population cannot be satisfied by . material benefits to compensate for the damage to its spiritual and cultural development,” he said. On Friday, Mr Pogosyan made an appeal on television for an end to the strike in Nagorno-Kar-abakh, apparently falling in line with Moscow’s demands for an end to unrest. The Kremlin has warned of tough measures against the instigators of strikes and demonstrations over the issue. Hundreds of thousands of people in the ■ Armenian capital, Yerevan, took part in daily protest rallies last week. Residents on Monday said Yerevan was quiet and working normally. No meetings were planned.