The World - News from Dec. 30, 1988

An Armenian official dismissed mediation efforts by Soviet human rights activist Andrei D. Sakharov in the Caucasus ethnic dispute. “I think we have sufficient help and advice from the government and party on the Karabakh issue,” said Vardges Artsruny, a deputy premier of the Armenian republic. Sakharov, 67, a physicist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, visited Armenia and the neighboring republic with which it is feuding, Azerbaijan. Armenians familiar with the mission said it was aimed at seeking a compromise in the 10-month-old dispute over control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian enclave that has been part of Azerbaijan since 1923.