Soviet Armenians Stay Away From Jobs in Azerbaijan Area

MOSCOW —  Thousands of Armenians stayed away from work today in a general strike that shut down factories and mass transit in a city at the center of an ethnic dispute, a local resident said.

Also today, the Tass news agency announced that two officials were dismissed from the Communist Party for alleged negligence that led to the violence between Armenians and Azerbaijanis last February.

The resident of the city of Stepanakert, reached by telephone from Moscow, said that public transport is not running and that factories and other businesses in the city are closed in a strike that has been going on several days.

“People aren’t working,” the woman said. Asked how many, she answered: “Many thousands.”

Stepanakert is the main city of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in the republic of Azerbaijan. Armenians want the Armenian-dominated region to be made a part of their neighboring republic.