Soviet Troops Enter Ethnic Fray

MOSCOW — Troops and tanks blockaded the capital of Armenia today and flooded the streets of a disputed city in Azerbaijan in an effort to quell ethnic unrest in two southern Soviet republics.

Tass said police and soldiers arrested people suspected of burning down homes in Nagorno-Karabakh, where the majority Armenian population wants Armenia to annex the region from Azerbaijan. Troops confiscated guns, knives and other weapons. The official press agency said that a general strike continued in Stepanakert, main city of the mountain enclave, but that a curfew and a ban on public meetings and marches imposed Wednesday were lessening the tension.