Nagorno Karabakh History

Clad in dark green parkas and nervously fingering the gold crosses around their necks, the 40 Armenians flew into the battle zone aboard an aging helicopter that used to belong to the Soviet state airline. One passenger was a skinny, soft-spoken medical student in a Boy Scout uniform who firmly gripped an automatic rifle. Another, a father of three young children, was an accordion teacher from Yerevan, Armenia's capital, whose wife was deathly afraid he might be killed.

Clad in dark green parkas and nervously fingering the gold crosses around their necks, the 40 Armenians flew into the battle zone aboard an aging helicopter that used to belong to the Soviet state airline. One passenger was a skinny, soft-spoken medical student in a Boy Scout uniform who firmly gripped an automatic rifle. Another, a father of three young children, was an accordion teacher from Yerevan, Armenia's capital, whose wife was deathly afraid he might be killed.

Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin embarked Friday on a peace mission to the Caucasus Mountains, leaving behind a trail of accusations that he was grandstanding for international prestige while ducking criticism for troubles in his own republic.