***The coup against Gorbachev was an attempt to thwart the Union Treaty that greatly increases the economic and political power of the republics. An additional reason for alarm among the Kremlin hawks was the growing influence of Islam among the 60 million Muslims in the Soviet empire's southern frontiers.

THE coup fn Moscow the day before the Union Treaty was to be signed was more a result of domestic problems rather than for foreign policy considerations. The Treaty would strengthen the republics at the expense of the centre.

The coup leaders said that they had changed the leadership to overcome "the profound and comprehensive crisis, political, ethnic and civil strife that threaten the lives and security of the Soviet Unions citizens and its sovereignty and territorial integrity-

Kremlin hardliners were alarmed by moves by the 15 republics to take control of their resources.

Senior officials from all the republics met in July to work out the deal by which Soviet diamonds, gold and hard currency reserves would be divided among themselves.

And the democratically-elected president of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, said on a visit to the main oil-producing region of Tyumen tn early August, that oil and gas Industries tn Russia should come under the Jurisdiction of the Russian Federation before August 20.

While the Soviet Union was undergoing the "Second Russian Revolution," the Southern Soviet republics were quietly speculating about the possibility of an Islamic revolution.

There are 60 million Muslims in the Soviet Central Aslan republics and Caucasus — regions absorbed by the Russian Tsars in the 19th Century. That figure 1s increasing with the highest birthrate among the Soviet people.

After 70 years of religious suppression, when only a handful of "official" mosques were allowed to exist in the country, perestroika has made possible a revival in Islamic culture and religion.

Since the dawn of glasnost, thousands of mosques have been built tn the area. Students are encouraged to learn Arabic and Korans are freely available.

Although Central Aslan governments are dominated by Communist party hardliners loyal to the Kremlin, at the popular level there is much antl-Moscow feeling.

Moscow's violation of its treaty with Iraq during the Gulf War by passing intelligence to the US on the weapons it sold to its former ally was deeply resented by Soviet Muslims, as were recent moves to establish 'diplomatic relations with Israel.

The hardliners in Moscow saw in the Union Treaty fuel for nationalist tendencies. In the southern Soviet Union the opposition to Communism takes the form of the "Party of Islamic revival."

In spite of being banned several times and harassed by Soviet authorities. It has grown in rural areas and claims 35,000 members in most Muslim regions of the Soviet Union.

Influenced by the cross-border cultural currents, the Islamic republics look for guidance not to the West, as do the Baltic republics, but to countries such as Iran and Turkey.

In recent months, Muslim nationalists have called for a new unified Central Asian State of Turkestan.

In addition, they want the Central Aslan languages, currently written in the Russian Cyrillic script, to be written in Latin, as Is done in Turkey.

The Communist party leadership was Justifiably worried that pan-Turklsm could fuel ethnic violence. In July 1990, 300 people were killed in ethnic violence between the Uzbek and Kirghiz communities, and 140 people died In tnter-religious fighting in the AJerbaiJani capital of Baku.

For the Soviet Right. Gorbachev had to be deposed because he was seen to be receiving orders from the West.

It is ironic that Time magazines "Man of the

Decade" and a Nobel Peace Prize winner was let down by the West, by ignoring his desperate pleas for financial help to revitalise the ailing Soviet economy. — GEMINI NEWS.

Daya Ktahan Thussu, an Indian researcher and Journalist. is currently Development Editor at Oemint News Service.