Word: nagorno-karabakh
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Even as Mikhail Gorbachev extolled the virtues of perestroika in Poland, the potential pitfalls of demokratizatsiya continued to be embarrassingly apparent in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Delaware-size region that is geographically part of the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan but whose people are predominantly Armenian. After five months of protests by Armenian activists who wanted the enclave to become part of the Armenian Republic, the ruling council of Nagorno-Karabakh voted unanimously last week to secede from Azerbaijan. According to TASS, the council also decided to rename the area "the Artsakh Autonomous Region of Armenia" and to be governed by Armenia...
...conference's more vaguely worded statements. It called for both "greater independence" for regions and republics and for a strengthening of "our multinational state." That clearly did not go far enough to satisfy nationalists in Armenia, who have been agitating for months for the annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian enclave in the neighboring republic of Azerbaijan. The conference had hardly ended when activists in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, resumed demonstrations that have occurred sporadically since last February. Last week a crowd of nearly 2,000 massed at the city's airport, paralyzing the facility and causing the cancellation...
...position. More than 35 people have been killed in four months of demonstrations and occasional violence over the status of Nagorno- Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan. Last week the issue took a surprising turn, when the Armenian supreme soviet, or parliament, voted in favor of annexing Nagorno-Karabakh, contradicting the position taken in March by Moscow party leaders. The vote also put the Armenian leaders in conflict with their counterparts in Azerbaijan, who had decided earlier in the week not to relinquish control of Nagorno-Karabakh. It was the first time in Soviet history that...
Although the turmoil is neither anti-Soviet nor anti-Communist, it could threaten Gorbachev's position if it remains unresolved. "What is happening around Nagorno-Karabakh is a blow to perestroika, possibly the most serious blow in recent times," warned the youth newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. "This is a challenge to the ideals of glasnost, a chance for conservatives to strengthen their point of view...
After three years of bureaucratic successes, few expect Gorbachev to lose ground in the upcoming party conference. "He is the consummate politician," said one Western diplomat in Moscow. But the Soviet leader could be brought low by circumstances beyond his control. Last week renewed unrest flared in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian enclave in the Soviet republic of Azerbaijan; the Communist Party at week's end dismissed the party leaders of the republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan. The continued turmoil suggests that Gorbachev's decision to allow dissent among ethnic minorities could still return to haunt him. So could the withdrawal...