European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 20, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                 azerbaijanis Comfort each other it the burial of one of the victims of escalating ethnic violence Between armenians and azerbaijanis in the Tren caucasus Region of the soviet  War in Transcaucasia by Esther Schrader Cox news service when they came or her Savad avanessian was cowering behind a wardrobe m her Home in Baku the Caspian sea port capital of soviet Azerbaijan they broke in her door tearing away the wires and furniture she had pushed in front of the entranceway As Protection they beat her broke both her arms with clubs she said then they raped her. Five of them taking turns while other women looked on Quot it was brutality that i Cou in t imagine the 71 year old ethnic armenian refugee from Azerbaijan whispered Between sobs from her Hospital bed m Yerevan in neighbouring soviet Armenia they left me there on the floor stole everything i had and went away what what have i Ever done to them0 avanessian feeble and still Bike dog was one of the first of the 45 victims of the anti armenian violence in Baku to be hospitalized Between sunday and thursday morning in Yerevan More than 4,000 other refugees from the azerbaijani capita Are being sheltered m Yerevan officials said More planes arrive every hour carrying thousands More a mostly old people a some with terrible wounds and Many with terrifying stories to Tell of Rhrou final Days m Baku avanessian said she was t surprised when the crowd came for her but when she sow that among term More than 20 people streaming into nor House brandishing knives broken bottles and Metal pipes were women she said she could t behave her eyes White men held her on the floor beating her across the face and neck women opened sacks and began filling them with vases and jewelry she said the women told her they had 10 children among them and every one of them deserved a House such As hers left naked and bleeding on the floor of her Home avanessian was found by her russian neighbors they gave her clothes she said treated her wounds As Best they could and brought her to a ship to Cross the Caspian sea away from the City where she was born Samuel Avakian. 61. Was packed to leave Baku with his family when 40 people who said they were from the azerbaijani National front knocked on his door when ethnic armenian said to have been tortured by azerbaijanis arrives in Yerevan capital of soviet Armenia along with other refugees fleeing the civil War and deepening extremism engulfing the Region. He refused to open it they broke through with  pipes he said and threw a tear Gas canister on the floor with Gas pouring into the room he said they began to beat him with wooden planks to i Stag Hgt sarm until it was bruised and broken then they started by atm his wife and three teenage children he sat a they tied their hands behind their backs with Sharp wire he said and threw him and his family into waiting cars when they got to a deserted Street they stopped he said stole everything they had on them and left them lying on the cold Street when they finally made it on Cut arid bleeding fact to the port of Baku sailors beat them again they said before they finally boarded a ship that took them away from Baku remembering our history the genocide the persecution we knew that one Day it would happen. Avakian said Quot we were just about to escape from those animals m Baku but we could t m time armenian victims interviewed in Yerevan said that months of intense anti armenian sentiment had been building m Azerbaijan before last weekend brutal events Lucia Vanian. 75, lived alone in Baku and worked in a drugstore until last August then she said the contempt and hatred of her from her azerbaijani co workers became  great that she resigned since then she has been at Home venturing out Only occasionally when the Street was quiet and a atm food brought to her by russian friends a i was always scared a she said All of us to wore All the time depressed we Felt that someday something terrible could happen Quot but Vanian said she could t have imagined what happened to her on saturday night a crowd of Young azerbaijanis broke into her neighbor House she a d and when she saw Thorn breaking  and furn Etc i she ran by them and out  the Street in the Garden beside  apartment  Vanian said a crowd was pouring , on  tying them together and homing them  Varnau said she hid and watched the flames Unm Trie crowd went away they Are beasts Vanian s., hey wore killing burning of. It is just too terrible to remember officials in Yerevan say they estimate there were 22 000 armenians living m Baku before this week Lovence began now. They say virtually every sur or of the bloodshed is m or headed toward Yerevan most pm passenger flights from Kras Novosk and the Northern caucasus where they fled to escape the it is crowded a Youman of a a a already held thousands of refugees loft nameless by last year devastating earthquake but hundreds of armenians come to the Airport every Day. Offering Beds and food to their countrymen fleeing Azerbaijan there is plenty of space m Yerevan hospitals to care for the refugees Nealton officials said but with the City under economic blockade by Azerbaijan and fuel and construction materials in severely Short Supply there is virtually no permanent housing available for the refugees the government has to think where will these people live0&Quot said Sevak Avakian chief of inc department of foreign relations at the armenian ministry of health Quot they have to work they have to have lives they can t go Back there we won t let More armenians be killed Quot saturday january 20, 1990 the stars and stripes Page 13