Senior Biden administration officials to arrive in Armenia – Reuters
YEREVAN, September 25. /ARKA/. Senior Biden administration officials were to arrive in Armenia on Monday, Reuters reported.
The visit by U.S. Agency for International Development chief Samantha Power and U.S. State Department Acting Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasian Affairs Yuri Kim would be the first by senior U.S. officials to Armenia since a ceasefire last week.
Power will meet with senior government officials and will “affirm U.S. support for Armenia’s democracy, sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity and commitment to address humanitarian needs stemming from Nagorno-Karabakh,” the official said.
Power will be the first USAID Administrator to go to Armenia, the official said, and will affirm the U.S. partnership with the country and “express deep concern for the ethnic Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh and to discuss measures to address the humanitarian crisis there.”
“The United States is deeply concerned about reports on the humanitarian conditions in Nagorno-Karabakh and calls for unimpeded access for international humanitarian organizations and commercial traffic,” the official said.
On September 19 Azerbaijan launched an "anti-terror" operation in the region demanding that Karabakh's forces raise a white flag, disband their armed forces and dissolve their "illegal regime".
After 24-hour fierce fighting the ethnic Armenian authorities in Stepanakert gave in. Under the terms of the truce, outlined by Azerbaijan and the command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent on the ground, Karabakh armed forces must commit to being completely disbanded as well as disarmed.
According to the Nagorno-Karabakh human rights defender’s office, more than 10 thousand people have been evacuated from the communities seized by Azerbaijanis, several thousand cannot find their missing relatives -women, children and elderly people.
As of 21:30 September 20, the number of casualties stood at 200, including children, the number of wounded at more than 400.
Azerbaijani officials and Karabakh’s Armenian representatives had two meetings for "re-integration" talks in the Azerbaijani towns of Yevlakh and Shushi. -0-
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