Word: yerevan
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...February, Armenians have been in near open revolt over Moscow's refusal to transfer to Armenian control the mountain enclave of Nagorno- Karabakh (pop. about 160,000), where an Armenian majority has lived under Azerbaijani rule for nearly 70 years. Demonstrations first erupted when news began trickling back into Yerevan, the Armenian capital, that Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh were being beaten, raped and killed by Azerbaijanis, people who are ethnically related to Turks...
Since then the Armenian Republic has been paralyzed three times by widespread work stoppages protesting the Kremlin's refusal to countenance a border change despite the violence committed against Armenians next door. Twice the Soviet government has had to dispatch troops to Yerevan to quell disturbances. Last July a boy was killed by a plastic bullet and 36 people were wounded during a confrontation with soldiers at Yerevan's Zvartnots Airport...
Last week Soviet troop planes swooped into Yerevan, capital of the Armenian republic. The soldiers who alighted and began patrolling the streets with tanks and armored vehicles were charged with a delicate mission: to calm the latest and most volatile outburst of ethnic unrest so far in Armenia and the % neighboring republic of Azerbaijan. The show of force indicated that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was eager to halt the regional conflict, which has become an embarrassing distraction from his goal of reforming Soviet political and economic life, as well as a potential weapon in the hands of his enemies...
News of the violence inflamed passions in Yerevan, where residents are still furious over Moscow's refusal last July to grant their petition to allow Armenia to annex Nagorno-Karabakh. Yerevan workers declared a city-wide strike, and thousands of protesters surged into Theater Square to chant "Sessiya! Sessiya!" (session) -- a call for the Armenian legislature to hold an emergency meeting to take up the annexation issue. Gone were the posters of Gorbachev that crowds carried earlier this year. "Things are different now," a protester said. Several demonstrators tore up their Communist Party cards...
More than 1,000 Soviet troops sealed off Lenin Square, which houses the Armenian Supreme Soviet Building. Three tanks circled the square and then drove off. Elsewhere, troops set up roadblocks on streets leading to and from Yerevan while others waited in armored personnel carriers at the edge of the city. "The violence is in Stepanakert," said an irate citizen. "Why do they need tanks here...