GORBACHEV ON KARBAKH
Excerpts from his <Memoirs>

Mikhail Gorbachev, Memoirs. New York and London: Doubleday, 1996. 

THE KARABAKH EXPLOSION [pp. 333-340]

In February 1988 the population of the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous oblast (which was 85-per-cent Armenian) of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic demanded that it be made a part of the Armenian Soviet Social Republic. A resolution was passed by the oblast Soviet and immediately supported by thousands of people at demonstrations and meetings in Armenia. These demonstrations were carried out in an organized way, without excesses. The marches carried large posters supporting perestroika and glasnost. Law-enforcement agencies only maintained order, without taking stronger measures—anyway, there was little they could have done against this sea of people.

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