U.S. Senators want relief funds to address Karabakh humanitarian crisis

PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Rob Portman called for allocating budget funds to address a humanitarian crisis in caused by Azerbaijan's aggression against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, December 1, they asked for "robust funding in the final FY21 appropriations bill."

"The humanitarian situation in the south Caucasus is dire, and it will only grow worse as winter approaches," the Senators argued in the letter. "The fighting may have stopped, but the damage it caused will continue to cost lives without robust action by the international community."

They said that the recent Turkish-backed conflict has displaced more than half of Nagorno-Karabakh's ethnic Armenian population, including 90 percent of the region's women and children.

In addition to requesting robust funding for rehabilitation services in Nagorno-Karabakh, Menendez and Portman also asked the Senate to appropriate specific funds for clearing mines and unexploded ordnance in the area.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev on November 9 signed a statement to end the war in Karabakh after almost 45 days. Under the deal, the Armenian side is returning all the seven regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, having lost a part of Karabakh itself in hostilities.