Soviet troops broke up a mob of up to 1,500 people that had gathered in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku to attack Armenians, official media reported Friday. The Soviet government formed a commission to feed and clothe thousands of refugees from the republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan who had crowded into tents, dormitories and relatives' apartments because of ethnic violence that has killed at least 60 people since February. Baku radio, in a report monitored by the British Broadcasting Corp. in London, said soldiers had prevented a mob from attacking Armenian residents of Baku on Thursday night. ``In the area of the railway station, a mob of up to 1,500 people attempted to beat up citizens of Armenian nationality. Because of the measures adopted, the troops stopped the attempts at hooligan activities,'' the radio said. Soldiers fired warning shots in five instances overnight, and they confiscated nine guns and two knives, it said. A curfew remained in effect in Baku, Yerevan and other major cities in the two republics. At least 80,000 people have crossed the border to their ethnic homelands, Soviet media reported Thursday. The Defense Ministry newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda reported Friday that another 19,000 people had fled across the border the previous day. In a report from northern Armenia, the newspaper Socialist Industry said a resort designed for 300 children and 150 adults was jammed with 700 people who had fled Azerbaijan. ``In tents intended for two people, there are six beds,'' the newspaper said. ``In corridors, halls and entrances, endlessly tired people sit silently, immersed in themselves.'' ``Dozens of people who we listened to here said the same thing: there, where they lived, local authorities warned that they could not answer for their safety, and proposed that they urgently leave the republic.'' ``There was no talk about compensation for their homes, cattle, furniture or belongings,'' the paper said. The Tass news agency said that Boris Shcherbina, deputy premier, would head a Soviet government commission to extend aid to the refugees. Scherbina also headed a special commission 2{ years ago to deal with the Chernobyl nuclear power accident. Refugees ``will be provided with food, housing, medical and other social and consumer services, and given jobs,'' Tass said. Armenia and Azerbaijan previously had set up such commissions on a local level. Official Armenian media have said that the government is confiscating empty homes to house the refugees and is providing food for them. The two southern Soviet republics are locked in a bitter dispute over control of the predominantly Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan. Residents began agitating in February for annexation by Armenia, but the idea has been rejected both by Azerbaijan and the central government in Moscow. Ethnic rioting broke out in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait at the end of February, and 32 people died. The republics remained tense since then, and in mid-November Azerbaijanis began mass demonstrations to protest what they said was an Armenian effort to send settlers to Nagorno-Karabakh to pad the Armenian majority. A national Interior Ministry spokesman told the Communist Party newspaper Pravda in an article published Thursday that the death toll in the latest violence was 28. The Supreme Soviet parliament and the Soviet leadership under President Mikhail S. Gorbachev appealed for calm Thursday, urging Armenians and Azerbaijanis to show restraint.
