Tanks, Troops Sent to Armenian Capital

MOSCOW--Red Army tanks and troops swarmed into the capital of Armenia and a disputed region of a neighboring province yesterday, and food was reported scarce because of a general strike, witnesses said.

Thousands gathered for a rally yesterday in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, to press the republic's parliament to renew a demand to annex the disputed region, a mountainous enclave in Azerbaijan called Nagorno-Karabakh.

"There are troops and tanks. I don't want to say the whole city is surrounded, but at Lenin Square and other areas where there are government buildings there are hundreds of soldiers," said the deputy director of Armenia's official news agency, Armenpress.

The journalist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the subway system, the airport and the railroad were running, but that many buses were not. He said many businesses were closed by a general strike.

In Nagorno-Karabakh, factories and schools were closed by a strike, a curfew was in effect and soldiers were patrolling, a resident said.

The soldiers carried machine guns and rode around Nagorno-Karabakh's main city, Stepanakert, in tanks and armored personnel carriers, said the resident, who identified herself in a telephone interview only as a worker for the state broadcasting agency Gostelradio.

Asked how many soldiers were on the streets, she responded: "There are more of them than us."

Food was in short supply because of the strike, she said, adding: "There's nothing in the stores except dairy products and bread. There's no meat or anything else."

A man who identified himself as a Gostelradio colleague of the woman said the soldiers were insulting people and drinking.

"`These are fascists. They are animals," he said.

Nagorno-Karabakh has been part of Azerbaijan since 1923 despite its historical links to Armenia and its mostly Armenian population.

An Armenpress editor, who reported the rally in Yerevan, said the 20-member Presidium, or executive committee of parliament, met to consider whether to call a full Supreme Soviet session of the republic.

Several Supreme Soviet deputies had promised a three-hour rally by up to 700,000 people on Thursday night to press again for an emergency Supreme Soviet session, the Armenpress deputy director and activist Rafael Popoyan said.

The republic's Supreme Soviet endorsed the annexation demand in June, but Azerbaijian and central authorities in Moscow refused to give their consent.

Armenian activists want their republic's Supreme Soviet to issue another annexation call and say more than the required one-third of the 340 deputies have signed a petition calling for a full session.

But Armenian authorities contend some of the deputies were pressured into signing illegally, Popoyan said yesterday.

Armenians have vowed to continue the strike, which they began Sept. 16, until a Supreme Soviet session is held.

Popoyan's wife, Arpine, said the mood in Yerevan was "very tense. Everyone is at the edge."