Soviets Discipline 2,500 Officials Over Azerbaijan Strife

MOSCOW —  More than 2,500 Communist Party members and government officials have been disciplined over ethnic conflict in Soviet Azerbaijan, the official Tass news agency reported Monday.

Many were fired from their jobs and expelled from the party and the Komsomol, the party’s youth organization, as part of a major reshuffle in the republic, Tass said.

Those affected were either actively involved in demonstrations, assisted them or failed to take measures to stop them, the report said. It did not give any names.

Tass said some officials had ordered food, tents and blankets--”most of which was stolen from the state”--delivered in November and December to protesters in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan. The protesters opposed Armenian demands for control of the Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.