Nagorno Karabakh

The fighting is over, and the women of the carpet factory have returned to their looms. Hunched over the bright threads with combs, scissors and shuttles, they are once again weaving the traditional rugs of the Caucasus Mountains. Still, half the looms in the cold hall stand idle, and many of the low stools drawn up to them are empty. Ethnic Armenians are still here, grieving for the thousands killed in a decade of ethnic conflict.

Thousands of people marched Sunday morning in support of reuniting the Nagorno-Karabakh region with Armenia, long a subject of dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. About 2,500 people, most of Armenian descent, walked from Verdugo Park on La Canada Boulevard to Glendale City Hall and back to the park, said Vicken Papazian of the Armenian National Committee of America. The 4 1/2-mile walk began about 9 a.m., and the last walkers returned to the park about two hours later.

Growing division between the Armenian government and leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh has dashed hope that a preliminary settlement to the bitter strife over the tiny enclave could be reached by the end of the year. The conflict over the mainly Armenian-populated enclave in Azerbaijan, a sometimes bloody battle that has been at a standstill since a 1994 cease-fire, will be an issue in Copenhagen starting Thursday when foreign ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe meet.

Mstislav Rostropovich wrapped up an emotional visit to his native Azerbaijan after offering his music or even his life to prevent new fighting in the region. The renowned cellist and conductor offered during his five-day stay to play for the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan for as long as it took to settle the long dispute over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

People throughout the Caucasus Mountains of the former Soviet Union are proud of their hospitality toward anyone not trying to slaughter them. Their generosity can be as overwhelming--even as aggressive--as their ethnic blood feuds. This is one reason why the longest of Caucasus feuds, the 7 1/2-year conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, has been so painful for Bilal Abbasov. He not only was driven from his native village, but he wound up in a refugee shelter not suitable for entertaining guests.

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, brought together by Russian mediators, agreed here Friday night to extend a 4-month-old cease-fire in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and to intensify their search for a peace settlement. "This is a step forward," Russian Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev remarked after two days of talks at a Russian government compound. He said there will be "a series of such meetings" leading to a three-way summit involving Russian President Boris N.

Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed Thursday to extend the longest cease-fire yet in their bloody conflict over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, officials from the warring sides and foreign diplomats here said. The formal extension of the 10-week truce along the front lines has raised hopes among both mediators and combatants that an end is in sight to one of the ugliest conflicts triggered by the collapse of the Soviet Union. At least 15,000 people have been killed since the fighting started in 1988.

A new peace effort by Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh stalled, with Azerbaijan holding back from signing a cease-fire agreement. In talks in Moscow on Monday, the two sides agreed on a truce and a withdrawal of forces to form an exclusion zone around Karabakh. But the Azerbaijani delegation returned home without signing the deal.

Armenians and Azerbaijanis agreed Monday to a Russian-brokered cease-fire that offers a fragile hope of stopping the longest-running ethnic war in the former Soviet Union. Dozens of other such truces have collapsed almost immediately in the bloody, six-year struggle over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

They found the photo in one of the Azerbaijani tanks they had captured and took it as a war trophy. It had been a good day's battle. Azerbaijani forces had attacked at dawn. The Armenians, pretending to retreat in disarray, had led them into a booby-trapped village, then savaged them with artillery. The picture, inscribed "To my brother, Elman," was on the body of an Azerbaijani tank crewman.