Soviet Leaders Bar Armenian Separation From Azerbaijan

MOSCOW — The Soviet leadership today rejected a bid by a predominantly Armenian region to secede from the republic of Azerbaijan in a bitter territorial dispute that has sparked five months of unrest in the Caucasus.

“The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. confirmed today that Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan,” Tass press agency said.

The decision at the special session was unanimous, even though Armenia--which has supported the effort by the region of Nagorno-Karabakh to separate from Azerbaijan--is represented on the Presidium.

At the same time, the Presidium “made provision for measures that would ensure the region’s real autonomy as well as unconditional fulfillment of a comprehensive program for its social, economic and cultural development,” Tass said. The Presidium is the government’s highest executive body.

Nagorno-Karabakh has been part of the mostly Muslim Soviet republic since 1923, although three-quarters of its 160,000 inhabitants are ethnic Armenians, who are predominantly Christian.

On July 12, the legislature of the Delaware-sized district voted to secede from Azerbaijan and join neighboring Armenia, but Azerbaijan’s government voided the decision hours later, calling it illegal.

The 1977 Soviet Constitution requires that any of the nation’s 15 constituent republics agree before any change can be made in their borders.

Both Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, which has voted to accept the region, asked the central Soviet leadership to intervene in the dispute, which has kept the Caucasus on the boil with ethnic tensions since February and has triggered strikes that have cost more than $100 million.