Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 21, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba Free it january soviet Empire in conflict legacy of soviet hatred Gorbachev heir to ethnic strife d enemy still in Middle Ages a photo by Andrew Katell the associated press Moscow from Central Asia w the caucasus and the ancient ethnic grievances and a Taftt palist Fervour Are rising in the set purity cordon the Kremlin among neighbors that simmered quietly under the soviet facade iof and de brands for ultimately could erode Moscow vast pm Breeding grounds Are South the caucasus Moun the Fields and forests of Mol the Fertile soil of Ukraine and the Baltic in the in those areas live Many of the soviet unions More than 100 Mikhail facing bitter strife Between armenians and told the country he was struggling with a legacy of ethnic which have been accumulating tens for hundreds of years have erupted and acquired the character we Are new confronted he told a meeting in Moscow on in Lithuania less than a week where Gorbachev was try bag to rein a but deter mined secessionist the soviet Leader openly worried that demands for Independence could to the unions disintegration on ethnic Gorbachev policy of glasnost openness and democratic re forms has let genies out of Iff Many cases with violent Conse formerly underground and Long repressed groups seek secession from the soviet Union for lat Lithuania and of nations Long before the rus Sian czars pushed South into Cen trial Asia and the caucasus and West into the Baltic and Moldavia in the 18th and 19th they brought under their control lands bordering other major empires that frequently threatened with to discrimination or the russian czars did Little to make populations like their Mas ters in Iii introduced Russini cation to make All russian in character angering no russian his son Nicholas the last continued that soviet founder Vladimir Lenin called the russian Empire that the bolsheviks inherited a prison of in the year of the peasants an gered by the postponement of v agrarian Reform struck out at rus Sian in years of soviet Power h nationalist ferment was High in Central Transcaucasia and the same areas where abound Many like the Baltic republics of Latvia and took lenins policy of National self determination to heart and declared their Stalin followed Lenin and took the areas Back under Kremlin in his Effort to rebuild the Security Stalin seized the three Baltic republics in Stalin was a but like Urther czars he tried to Russity the ruled by for was regained from Rico mania in 1940 and the language was converted from latin to Cyril r 4ic letters in an attempt to make it to seem More armenians and georgians two Christian ethnic groups in the Cau eases that in the 19th and Early 20th centuries sought Protection of the Czar against the ottoman Empire Are among those most vigorously for inde soviet Interior ministry carrying Batons and wearing body patrol a Street in ethnic divisions in Eastern Europe divisions and tensions that had been suppressed for decades by stalinist regimes Are reemerging in Eastern significant ethnic minorities in Bulgaria and Romania have already begun using newfound freedoms to press their human rights and autonomy sometimes against passionate opposition from majority in polyglot often violent ethnic tensions threaten to tear the country shown below Are the proportions of ethnic backgrounds in each and for those with Large the general areas of the country where those minorities Are l Southern slav and romanian Poland slavic and other Czechoslovakia German slovak Yugoslavia hungarian Gypsy Romania hungarian montenegrin r slovene albanian macedonian yugoslav Albania Bulgaria serbs and bulgarian hungarian German russian and other Gypsy macedonian Turk and Gypsy after Gorbachev took Cri mean tatars and armenians led the Way for other nationalities in voicing their the Cri mean tatars demanded to resettle in the crimean from which they were deported by the armenians wanted to regain control Over a Small mountainous territory Stalin had transferred to Azerbaijan in the Magorno Karabash dispute has turned out to be the bloodiest ethnic feud in recent and it is the focus of the latest and most dangerous but that is just the tip of the in Central where the red army reasserted soviet Power after uzbeks attacked mesh hetian turks last june in the Fer Gana Valley of leaving More than 100 people Amkha zians clashed with who also fought with Chain reaction some experts have estimated there Are 40 areas of the soviet Union where uprooted populations could make territorial soviet officials worried out loud about a Chain reaction or Domino effect in the campaigns to assert National Calls for Independence were heard in Ukraine the second Lar Gest of the 15 republics after Russia in september when activists there formed the Rush political modelled after the peo Ples front organizations that Are pressing Independence in the bal tics and supports soviet action from the news services Washington the Bush administration has Given soviet presi Dent Mikhail Gorbachev Broad sup port in dealing with explosive changes in his country and East Europe including the approval of the selective use of troops in Azer Baijan and elsewhere prevent the change he has sponsored from exploding into As the Kremlin prepared to Send the red army to Stop the fighting Between moslem azerbaijanis and Christian armenians Early in the there was prompt support for the use of Force from the White we understand the need to establish order in a situation where order has broken White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater we recognize the right of any state to ensure the safety of its armenian rebels warn Moscow Beirut Reuter an under ground armenian group that has killed dozens of turkish diplomats warned Moscow yesterday that the soviet Union would also become a target if the Central government fails to prevent a new massacre of soviet we expect and Hope that the Central government of the soviet Union revises its policy and brings a just solution to the problem of a Gorno Karabash and reunites it with soviet Armenia without fur ther the armenian secret army for the liberation of Armenia said in a a serious secessionist Effort in Ukraine would bring the problem much closer to Moscow than the unrest in the caucasus or the bal while promising the 15 republics and autonomous National regions within them greater control Over their cultural and Politi Cal affairs in a newly restructured soviet Gorbachev has consistently ruled out redrawing defends crackdown soviet president blames local leadership for azerbaijani chaos newspapers Moscow Mikhail Gorbachev yesterday justified the bloodiest of a nationalist insure during his Kremlin the crackdown was War ranted by an attempt to Over soviet Power in the Republic the nation after so troops fought azerbaijani a in the streets of the capital of Gorbachev Torii sized the republics leadership helping to create the chaotic 4tsjtuation by failing to display proper t soviet president in a 12minute broadcast that the nationalists did not conceal their aim was to seize Power by Force in the this could not continue any he soviet people demanded that the leadership take Resolute at least 57 people were including six As troops backed by tanks and armoured personnel carriers smashed through barricades in Baku Early yester the Interior ministry also re ported that 287 civilians and 36 soldiers were yesterdays deaths brought the toll to at least 130 during the latest round of inter communal violence Between the neighbouring Southern soviet unofficial including the nationalist azerbaijani popular claimed that 120 were killed in yesterdays the popu Lar front declared a three Day Gen eral strike in the already paralysed a state of emergency and a curfew were imposed on the Caspian sea Oil the official news Agency Tass re ported late last night that resistance was continuing in they azerbaijanis Are setting up new barriers made up of trucks and buses and Are opening fire in some Tass party Boss sacked Azerbaijan communist party chief Abdulrahman Vizirov was sacked yesterday at a meeting of the republics party Tass he was one of those indirectly criticized by Gorbachev in his the president of Azerbaijan blamed Moscow for the storm ing of Baku and said her country men would never forgive those responsible for the loss of president Elmira Kafarova said that the Azerbaijan government never imposed or agreed to a state of emergency in the responsibility for the blood that has been shed lies directly with the organs and their offi who have adopted this Deci Sion and put it into she the people of Azerbaijan will never forgive anyone for the tragic Way their sons and daughters have been she the verbal attack on the Kremlin and the explosion of ant Moscow sentiment in Azerbaijan underlined the seriousness of the crisis for Gorbachev and the threat it May pose to his Fivey Earold ambitious pro Gram of political and social restructuring known As by Michael Dobbs the Washington Post leaning on his Hunting just 300 metres from Armenia fiercely defended Frontier with Artur Agopian considered the news that the soviet army had just smashed its Way into the Centre of the azerbaijani finally Moscow is understand ing who its real enemy said a member of the self styled armenian Volunteer army mobilized to defend armenian Vil Lages from azerbaijani they were afraid of the a Erbai now they Are finding out what we have known for these people Are they still live in the Middle Here on the front line Between two no longer fraternal soviet re in the Shadow of mount Armenia National feelings Are mixed about the soviet for armenian activists have accused the soviet Mili tary of tacitly taking the Side of Baku in disputes Over contested territory Between the republics and failing to take adequate measures to prevent the killing of armenians in but suddenly the army is being viewed in a More benevolent citizens of a tiny Christian Republic surrounded on three sides by Iran and Azerbaijan All moslem armenians View them selves As the Standar bearers of Western the sense of being under siege is particularly acute in this win making Village close to the soviet unions Border with the scene of a three Day pitched Battle Between arme Nian and azerbaijani museum piece this is a holy we have to defend our there Are 10 Mil lion of them and Only 3 million of but we Are stronger in said Yuri an Engineer who now commands a 12man displaying his second world War Vintage Kalashnikov thousands of armenian Volun Teers have flocked to Yarash Kha just 50 Kilometres South of the armenian to de fend the Village after a Cross Border shooting incident the casualty toll on the armenian Side now stands at five dead and at least 18 the number of azerbaijani victims is not yesterday Only hours after an armenian counteroffensive with heavy artillery and Katusha the azerbaijanis called a using the army As an inter they sent word to the armenians that they were ready for negotiations on Neutral soviet television reported last night that the truce was holding and the army was in control of the the three sided conflict in which abuts the azerbaijani province of a chiche could be As a microcosm for the Complex balance of forces in the entire trans caucasus Region after an explosion of nationalist senti ment in the past two modern guns armenians and azerbaijanis have slipped Back into their historic bitter unable to extinguish centuries of the soviet army has settled for the role of making sure that neither Side permanently gains the upper the azerbaijanis Are armed with modern automatic the prove Nance of which is the armenians Are convinced that they Are being supplied through either Iran or which has a five mile common Border with Nakhli but there is no evidence of most armenian victims have been shot by expert snipers dug into trenches on the opposite Hillside and camouflaged in Snow the armenians Are mostly armed with shotguns and Hunting but they have also brought up heavy 135mm artillery pieces and Katusha rockets borrowed from the soviet As Well As several rocket propelled Gre according to they also have several repainted armoured cars and a tank that looks As if it belongs in a soviet television reported last night that the armenian activists had agreed to surrender most of their heavy weapons to the army As a result of the stabilization of the the report said the azerbaijani snipers had abandoned their positions and quoted a Leader of the armenian Volunteer Vazgen As saying the soviet army would now be responsible for defending the ;