Recently, a tense situation has been seen between the two former Soviet states of Armenia and Azerbaijan. The two countries are currently in a ceasefire. In the meantime, the speaker of the country’s House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has visited Armenia with the promise of US support. During the visit, he condemned Azerbaijan’s ‘illegal’ border incursion into Armenia. Al-Jazeera news.
In a speech in the Armenian capital of Yerevan on Sunday, Nancy Pelosi said her visit was particularly important because of the “illegal and deadly invasion of Armenian territory in Azerbaijan” that killed more than 200 people.
Pelosi said it was clear that the Azeri attack on Armenia sparked the border war and that the chronology of the conflict should be clarified. We strongly condemn this attack. It started with the Azaris and it must have recognition.’
Regarding US support, Pelosi said Washington had heard about Armenia’s defense needs and wanted to support the country as a ‘global struggle between democracy and dictatorship’.
Meanwhile, Baku criticized Pelosi for unilaterally blaming Azerbaijan. They said the border conflict started by Baku, such “unsubstantiated and unjustified” comments are a serious obstacle to peace efforts.
The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, ‘Pelosi’s unsubstantiated and unfair accusations against Azerbaijan are unacceptable. Pelosi is known as a pro-Armenian politician. This is a serious blow to efforts to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.’
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Sunday called on Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to uphold the ceasefire agreed with Armenia after the violence.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement after a call between the two officials, “He (Blinken) urged President Aliyev to abide by the ceasefire, disengage the military and work to resolve all outstanding issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan through peaceful negotiations.”
A senior Armenian official expressed displeasure with the Russian-led military coalition’s response to Yerevan’s request for help last week.
“We are certainly very unhappy,” the country’s parliamentary speaker, Alain Simonyan, told national television, according to the Interfax news agency. Our expectations were not properly assessed.’
Farid Shafiev of the Center for Analysis of International Relations told Al Jazeera from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, that Pelosi’s visit was to secure American-Armenian votes for re-election in the upcoming midterm elections.
Because his constituency in California is heavily influenced by Armenian voters. He called Pelosi’s visit a complete political ploy.
35 of the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 100 seats in the Senate will be contested in November’s midterm elections.
(September 19)