Word: armenians
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Unlike some citizens in the Baltic republics, Armenians do not seriously contemplate secession from the Soviet Union. "Look at us, surrounded by Turkey and Iran," says an Armenian party official. "Secession would be the stupidest thing we could do. We'd be swallowed up immediately." His comments are backed by history: for several centuries, Armenians and Turks fought for control of the Lesser Caucasus mountain range, which borders Asia Minor. During that struggle, Armenians often turned to their Russian neighbors for + help. In the 19th century, Russians and Armenians built a string of fortress cities along what...
...above all, Armenians remember the massacre that began in 1915 in which more than 1 million Armenians died at the hands of Turkish mobs. A small memorial commemorating the event is located in a corner of Theater Square. One photograph taped to the wall depicts three Turkish army officers posing with a pile of severed Armenian heads, stacked up like bowling balls...
Next month the movement to return Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenian control will attempt to broaden its character by transforming itself into a Baltic-style Armenian All-National Movement. Like similar organizations in Estonia and Lithuania, the group will officially be committed to supporting perestroika, though its agenda may not be identical to Moscow's. So far, the group's organizers have not announced a specific program, but they are expected to press for issues such as more Armenian-language instruction in schools, greater economic independence for the region, and the right to establish embassies in other Soviet republics with cities...
...Armenian organizations gain sophistication, popular resentment is growing at Moscow's apparent disdain for nationalist grievances. While accounts of Stalin's crimes have been splashed across the pages of leading Soviet newspapers, the Armenian crisis has virtually been ignored. Pravda has given only vague accounts of the Yerevan demonstrations; when articles have appeared, correspondents have condemned the protests as the work of "corrupt elements" and "extremists." Says Ter-Petrossian: "What we are doing is what Gorbachev says he wants: people participating in government decisions." Adds another Armenian who regularly attends the Theater Square meetings: "He should be proud...
...December 1986, Kazakh youths rampaged through Alma Ata to protest the appointment of an ethnic Russian as party first secretary of Kazakhstan. In July 1987, Crimean Tatars demanded the right to return to their homeland on the Black Sea, from which they were removed in 1944. Last February, Armenians and Azerbaijanis began to clash over control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian enclave south of the Caucasus. And last week in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, the local supreme soviet turned down constitutional amendments proposed by Moscow and voiced new demands for sovereignty. Two days later, the Lithuanian supreme soviet...