U.S. Hits Soviet Decision to Expel Armenian Dissident

WASHINGTON — The United States today denounced Moscow’s decision to expel Armenian dissident leader Paruir Airikyan from the Soviet Union and said a request by him for political asylum would be viewed sympathetically.

“He . . . is a leading figure in the human rights movement in the Soviet Union. Both his arrest on charges of anti-Soviet slander and his expulsion from the Soviet Union are deplorable actions on the part of the Soviet government,” State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley said at a news briefing.

Airikyan, Armenia’s best-known dissident nationalist, was arrested in March on charges of fomenting “ethical unrest.”

This week Moscow ordered him stripped of his citizenship and expelled from the country.

Oakley could not confirm reports that Airikyan wants to come to the United States, but said, “Should he request to come here, we would view his request sympathetically.”

In Moscow today, the organizers of strikes and protests in Armenia came under heavy fire from the Kremlin, three days after the government ordered a crackdown on disturbances over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Tass press agency denounced 12 leaders of the Karabakh Committee and said four other men had been arrested during the Nagorno-Karabakh unrest. A Soviet newspaper named two more Armenians jailed for possession of firearms.

The Karabakh Committee was formed in February to support demands for the Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh to be transferred to Armenia. It has organized mass demonstrations and, this month, a two-week general strike in Armenia.