The World - News from June 22, 1988

The legislature in Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave within the Azerbaijan Soviet republic, appealed to the national government that the territory be made independent until Moscow decides whether it belongs to Soviet Armenia or Azerbaijan, an Armenian activist said in Moscow. Koryun Nahabidyan said he spoke to Nagorno-Karabakh residents familiar with the decision. Azerbaijan has refused to give up the territory, and Moscow has not said when it will decide the question. Most of the people in Nagorno-Karabakh are ethnic Armenians and Christians, but it was assigned in 1923 to predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan.