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Soviet Union Defiance in the Streets

5 minute read
Thomas A. Sancton

Rarely, if ever, had the Soviet Union seen such huge and persistent protests. Day after day, large crowds filled the central square of Yerevan, capital of the Soviet Armenian Republic. About 115 miles to the east, similar throngs clogged the streets of Stepanakert, capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region, which is mainly populated by ethnic Armenians. In both cities the protesters voiced the same demand: that the Armenian Republic be permitted to annex Nagorno-Karabakh, now part of the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan. “We’ve reached our limit,” said a Yerevan resident by telephone late last week. “If this is a time for democracy, we want democracy. We want this problem resolved now.”

The upheaval in the south was the latest sign of unrest among the Soviet Union’s more than 100 national ethnic groups. In December 1986 thousands of demonstrators rioted in Alma-Ata, capital of Kazakhstan, to protest the appointment of an ethnic Russian as the regional Communist Party head. Last July a group of Crimean Tatars protested in Moscow’s Red Square, demanding the right to return to their hereditary homeland in the Crimea. In the Estonian capital of Tallinn last week, a march celebrating the 70th anniversary of Estonia’s short-lived independence drew 20,000 people into the streets, according to emigre sources.

While Moscow is hardly in danger of losing its hold over the restive regions, there has been an undeniable upsurge in nationalist tendencies during the three years since Mikhail Gorbachev came to power and launched his campaign for greater openness. In a speech before the Central Committee two weeks ago, Gorbachev described the nationalities question as the “most fundamental, vital issue of our society” and called for a special Central Committee plenum to deal with the problem.

The roots of last week’s upheaval go back to 1923, when the agricultural region of Nagorno-Karabakh, three-quarters of whose population is Armenian Christians, was made part of the largely Muslim Azerbaijan Republic. Claiming that they are discriminated against by the Azerbaijani majority, Nagorno- Karabakh’s 120,000 Armenians have long wanted to meld their 1,760-sq.-mi. enclave into the Armenian Republic. Earlier this month officials of the Armenian Republic proposed annexing Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous backwater that produces grapes, tobacco and livestock. Moscow rejected the request.

The announcement of that decision two weeks ago sparked rallies and school boycotts in Stepanakert. Within days the protest had spread to Yerevan, where, witnesses claimed, hundreds of thousands of citizens were congregating each day in front of the Opera House, chanting slogans like “One nation, one republic!” and demanding a special session of the Armenian Republic’s legislature to reconsider the question of annexation.

The Soviet press issued several sketchy reports on the disturbances and the demands of the Armenians, which were, after all, not directed against Soviet rule. But the limits of glasnost were soon reached. Authorities banned foreign journalists from the area and imposed a virtual news blackout. Telephone conversations with local residents, however, provided some details about the unrest.

Armenian Activist Paruyr Ayrikyan and other witnesses in Yerevan spoke of as many as 1 million protesters, a figure that could not be confirmed. “The whole Armenian Republic is on its feet,” said a musician reached by telephone in Yerevan. “They’re coming from the farthest reaches of the country, from the mountains, from the villages. This is a crusade, a flow that can’t be stopped. There are rivers of people. It’s unprecedented.” Said another Yerevan resident: “Nothing like this has ever happened in this region % before.” A 17-year-old student from Stepanakert reported similar protests in Nagorno-Karabakh. Said she: “No one’s sleeping. No one is going to work. The only stores open are groceries.”

The demonstrations in both cities appeared to have been nonviolent and, at least initially, were not interfered with by local police. Officials confirmed, however, that there had been clashes between Azerbaijanis and Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. According to local residents, there were several deaths, and a Yerevan party newspaper reported that “there have been victims.”

The protests faced Gorbachev with one of his most serious challenges since taking office. Giving in to the Armenian demands by redrawing internal boundaries would set a potentially troublesome precedent for the Kremlin’s dealings with other nationalities. Crushing the demonstrations by force, on the other hand, would tarnish Gorbachev’s reform image at home and abroad. Moscow first tried persuasion, sending Politburo Members Georgi Razumovsky and Pyotr Demichev to Stepanakert to meet with demonstrators and local party officials. Next day Politburo Member Vladimir Dolgikh and Central Committee Secretary Anatoly Lukyanov embarked on a similar mission to Yerevan, where they invited a group of protest leaders to a mediation meeting.

The Kremlin appeared to have made one significant concession by naming an ethnic Armenian, Genrikh Pogosyan, 56, as the new party leader in Nagorno- Karabakh. Pogosyan replaced a non-Armenian whom Moscow criticized as ineffectual. When the Pogosyan appointment failed to end the disturbances, Armenian party officials were reported by TASS to be considering “urgent measures to normalize the situation.” At midweek, according to local residents, troops moved into Yerevan and took up positions around the city.

Against the backdrop of that implicit threat of force, Gorbachev made a dramatic plea for “civic maturity and restraint.” His 15-minute statement, which was read by Dolgikh over local radio and television, acknowledged “unresolved problems” in Soviet society but added, “The fomenting of strife and mistrust among peoples only hinders their resolution.” The Soviet leader sternly warned that continued disorder was “fraught with serious consequences.” The protesters reportedly began to disperse several hours after the broadcast, but it was unclear at week’s end whether Gorbachev’s appeal had put a final stop to the unrest.

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