From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: News: Abkhazia, Azerbaijan, Northern Caucasus ....
Date: 6 Oct 1992 07:44:06 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
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                      RFE/RL Daily Report

                                         No. 191, 5 October 1992

                   SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR

HEAVY FIGHTING IN ABKHAZIA. On 2 October some 3,000-4,000 Abkhaz
National Guardsmen and volunteers from the North Caucasus captured
the town of Gagra after heavy fighting with the 200 Georgian
troops there; some 100 people were killed, Western agencies
reported.  The Georgian State Council announced plans to mobilize
40,000 reservists. State Council Chairman Eduard Shevardnadze flew
to the Abkhaz capital, Sukhumi, where he told journalists that
while Georgia had complied with the 3 September ceasefire
agreement, Abkhaz forces had consistently violated it with the
support of the Russian parliament. He vowed that Georgia would
retake Gagra. Meeting in Tbilisi on 3 October in Shevardnadze's
absence, the Georgian State Council voted to seize all former
Soviet military equipment on Georgian territory.  Also on 3
October, Shevardnadze's helicopter was fired upon as he travelled
to Sochi for talks with Russian military officials.  Gagra was
reported calm on 4 October, but a representative of the State
Council told AFP that the Abkhaz were committing "atrocities"
against the civilian population.  Georgian reinforcements were
dispatched to the towns of Gantiadi and Leselidze, between Gagra
and the Russian frontier.  The State Council appealed to NATO
Secretary-General Manfred Woerner and to the CSCE to help calm the
situation, according to AFP. Addressing a rally in Sukhumi,
Shevardnadze called on the Georgian population of Abkhazia to
participate in the 11 October parliamentary elections which he
termed the key to stabilizing the situation in the republic.  (Liz
Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.)

GRACHEV WARNS GEORGIA ABOUT ARMS SEIZURES. Russian Defense
Minister General Pavel Grachev on 4 October warned Georgia that
any attempts to take control of Russian military equipment in the
republic could lead to armed clashes between Russian and Georgian
forces. Grachev was responding to the recent Georgian State
Council's decision to seize all Russian arms stationed in Georgia.
ITAR-TASS quoted Grachev as saying that this decision was "a
flagrant breach of earlier agreements" and that he had given
orders to all Russian troops to prevent any forcible seizure of
military facilities. Russian and Georgian authorities had
previously worked out arrangements for the transfer of some
Russian military equipment to the republic. In August, the
Russians announced that the 10th Motorized Rifle division in
Akhaltsikhe, stationed along the Turkish border, would be
disbanded and its equipment handed over to Georgia. However, on 17
September the Russian Defense Ministry charged that Georgian units
were attacking Russian troops and civilians, and warned that its
forces reserved the right to fight back. (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL,
Inc.)

WESTERN CORRESPONDENTS VISIT TAJIKISTAN WAR ZONE.  Reports on 2,3
and 4 October from Western correspondents visiting Kurgan-Tyube
and other locations in southern Tajikistan provide some
confirmation of charges made earlier by opponents of deposed
President Rakhmon Nabiev that Russian forces stationed in the
country are helping pro-Nabiev fighters.  The pro-Nabiev forces
from Kulyab Oblast have severely damaged the town of Kurgan-Tyube,
and thousands of refugees from there were reported to be making
their way to Dushanbe.  In an interview on Tajik Radio on 4
October, Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Davlat Usmon, a leader of the
Islamic Renaissance Party, compared the role of Russian troops in
Tajikistan with that of Soviet troops in Afghanistan and accused
the Russians of siding with forces opposed to the present Tajik
government.  (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)

CRIMEAN MEJLIS TO HOLD EMERGENCY SESSION. Crimean Tatar leaders
are calling for an emergency session of their parliament, the
Mejlis, Interfax and Western news agencies reported on 4 October.
The action follows a clash between Tatars and Crimean authorities
after the latter ordered the removal of temporary houses built by
the Tartars in the southern town of Alushta.  More than 50 people
were reported injured.  (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL, Inc.)

EXTRAORDINARY CONGRESS OF MOUNTAIN PEOPLES OF THE CAUCASUS.  The
two-day extraordinary congress of the mountain peoples of the
Caucasus held in the Chechen capital Groznyi to discuss the
situation in Abkhazia ended on 4 October, ITAR-TASS reported. Its
final declaration calls on the official leaders of the North
Caucasian republics to denounce the federal treaty that governs
their relations with Russia as not in accord with the interests of
the peoples of the North Caucasus.  It also recommends that
political organizations and movements in the republics demand that
the leaderships strive for real independence, recognize the
independence of Chechnya, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia, and create
joint forces of regional security.  If the republican leaderships
refuse to do this, the confederation threatens to organize mass
protests demanding their resignations.  The congress also demanded
the immediate withdrawal of all Russian troops from the region.
(Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL, Inc.)

CONFEDERATION OF MOUNTAIN PEOPLES RENAMED.  The congress decided
to rename the Confederation of the Mountain Peoples of the
Caucasus the Confederation of the Peoples of the Caucasus in the
hope that the local Cossacks and others would join it.  In an
interview with ITAR-TASS on 3 October, the confederation's
president, Musa Shanibov, said that although Chechnya was the
standard-bearer of freedom in the region, he still believed that
the other 15 peoples who are members of the confederation should
for the time being continue to link their fate with Russia to
avoid a conflagration. A session of the confederation's parliament
is due to take place in two weeks' time. (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL,
Inc.)

PRESIDENT OF KABARDINO-BALKARIA CRITICIZES RUSSIA. Valerii Kokov,
president of Kabardino-Balkaria, told Russian journalists on 4
October that Russia's policy towards the North Caucasus was
"inadequate," and lacking in an understanding of the situation,
ITAR-TASS reported.  He said that the arrest in Nalchik of Musa
Shanibov, the leader of the Confederation of the Mountain Peoples
of the Caucasus, had been illtimed.  The arrest sparked off
round-the-clock protests meetings in Nalchik that are still
continuing. Interfax reported on 4 October that protesters were
still awaiting a response from the republican government to their
demands that Russian MVD troops withdraw and that Kokov resign.
(Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL, Inc.)

POLL ON POLITICAL PARTIES IN AZERBAIJAN. On 3 October Interfax
cited the results of a poll conducted by the Baku Center for
Sociological Studies which indicates that the ruling Azerbaijan
Popular Front is the most popular political organization in
Azerbaijan, with a rating of 37.2 per cent among an unspecified
number of respondents in the cities of Baku and Sumgait.  The
radical National Independence Party of Azerbaijan, headed by
Etibar Mamedov, was second with 26 per cent.  Among the
Azerbaijani leadership, Iskander Gamidov, the pan-Turkist Minister
of Internal Affairs, is supported by 58.7 per cent of those
polled, followed by Defense Minister Ragim Kaziev (50 per cent,)
and Nakhichevan parliament Chairman Geidar Aliev (39.5 per cent).
No rating was listed for President Abulfaz Elchibey. (Liz Fuller,
RFE/RL, Inc.)

OIL INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS. Azerbaijan has signed a preliminary
agreement with Pennzoil, Remco, and Pennzoil Caspial to develop
oil and gas deposits in the Guneshli offshore field in the Caspian
Sea, Turan, RIA, and The Wall Street Journal reported on 2
October. The Western companies are expected to invest $2.5 billion
during the next 10 years. Russia's top corruption investigator was
quoted by Trud on 2 October as saying that corruption in the oil
industry is "alarming" and that only one-quarter of the value of
exported oil is repatriated. And the governor of Tyumen oblast
told Reuters on 2 October that his oil industry will fight to keep
its 20% share of oil revenues.  (Keith Bush, RFE/RL, Inc.)

KYRGYZ VICE PRESIDENT VISITS TAJIKISTAN. Kyrgyzstan's Vice
President Feliks Kulov was the first representative of a CIS state
to visit the war zone in southern Tajikistan, Tajik acting
President Akbarsho Iskandarov told Interfax on 2 October.  The
following day Kulov told Interfax that the issue of a peacekeeping
force for Tajikistan will be raised at the CIS summit on 9
October, and Tajik leaders will present plans for the deployment
of peacekeepers. The opposing sides in the conflict agreed to
support the deployment of a CIS peacekeeping force, according to
Kulov, but want it to be made up of troops from a neutral state.
(Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)

Copyright 1992, RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.