In response, Azerbaijani leaders and top Kremlin officials said Moscow must move quickly and firmly to end the growing Armenian civil disobedience.

The Central Asian and Azerbaijani leaders, for their part, saw little economic perspective for the future, outside union with the Slavic republics.

Azerbaijani nationalist leader, anti-communist politician and former president Abulfaz Elchibey was also a member of the Azerbaijan Communist Party.

Each people claims historical and cultural ties to the land, and Azerbaijani leaders in the capital city, Baku, balked at the reunification of Nagarno-Karabakh with Armenia.

Kevorkov was considered as subserviently loyal to Azerbaijani leaders in Baku and was resented by the Armenian community.

A Smaller Role for Russia In a blow to Moscow, Western oil companies and Azerbaijani leaders plan to deliver most oil from Baku through Turkey.

Mustafa Mahmudov was an Azerbaijani political leader who was instrumental in the nation's independence moevement in the early 1900s.

The hope springs from an agreement this week between Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders settling a fierce dispute in the ethnic enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The communique committed the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders to return to their republics, explain the accord and try to bring about a truce by Feb. 15.

Previous efforts to bring the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders together have failed.