Our readers speak out Armenia

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Dear editor, As an Armenian, Id like to submit my view of the recent events in Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Armenians have faced nothing less than a pogrom in Azerbaijan. In Baku, at rallies organized by the Azeri Popular Front, Armenians were scapegoated for the nation's problems and the crowds whipped up into frenzy. Then lists with the names and addresses were read off and posted.

According to the New York Times, people were thrown out windows, set on fire, and in some cases beheaded. This was a smaller version of the pogroms Jews faced by anti-Semites in Russia. At the same time there were those Azeris who protected and hid potential victims.

I've seen television footage of Armenian elders from Baku who'd been shot at, women who'd been doused with benzene, and other gruesome sights.

Soviet troops only arrived after that carnage had ended, yet when the Azeri Popular Front had taken to the streets and was talking independence.

The Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh and those in the rest of Armenia have been simply demanding to be able to live peacefully and to determine their own fate as a nation.

Nagorno Karabakh was historically Armenian, though all peoples lived there peacefully. The area was ceded to the Azeris by the new, weaker USSR as a concession. The attempt was an effort to appease Turkey, which was a hostile neighbor, by giving more land to their Shia cousins, the Azeris.

The situation in Soviet Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh has become very grave for the Armenians living there. Because of the blockades set up by Azeris, supply trains which pass through Azerbaijan are not making it to Armenia.

Through the harsh winter, fuel for heating is almost non-existent for Armenians. Food and emergency supplies are just not making it through.

As a result, Soviet Armenia is becoming more self-reliant. There is also more of a direct support network now between Yerevan and the Nagorno Karabakh autonomous area. Today, militias from Armenia patrol and protect the population in Nagorno Karabakh.

Large factories in Armenia are now solidarizing with and financially adopting smaller factories in Nagorno Karabakh. Armenians see little if any aid coming from Moscow.

Language and cultural preservation is important to Armenia. To go to a high school where Armenian was taught and used meant that you wouldn't be able to enter any of the universities outside Armenia. But today more students are attending high schools where their language is used.

Baltimore P.O. Box 16005 Baltimore, MD 21218 Boston P.O. Box 1046 GMF Boston, MA 02205 (617) 497-0230 Chicago P.O. Box 578428 Chicago, IL 60657 (312) 327-5752 Cincinnati P.O. Box 21015 Cincinnati, OH 45219 (513) 272-2596 Cleveland P.O. Box 6151 Cleveland, OH 44101 (216) 429-2167 The situation in Yerevan is critical. The economic impact of the December 1988 earthquake and the huge influx of refugees from Azerbaijan continue to strangle the economy. And the ongoing blockades of supplies to the region by the Azeris are devastating.

The Armenian diaspora is organizing worldwide to get money and supplies to Yerevan. Support of whatever size or amount would be appreciated and should be sent to the Save Armenia Fund, 51 Commonwealth Ave., San Francisco, CA 94118.

Vaughn Hovanessian, Oakland, Calif.

Police

Dear editor, Thank you for your article on the Boston murder hoax in the February issue. New York City has also been plagued with blatantly racist police violence in the recent shootings of several unarmed Black and Latino young people.

The white supremacist mainstream press treats these as isolated incidents, but—as in Boston-they are connected, crude attempts to maintain a racist, sexist, classist status quo. Amandla!

Dawn Reel, New York, N.Y.