US senators call for funding for Artsakh amid humanitarian disaster

US Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) sent a bipartisan letter to Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate's State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee on Appropriations, urging them to explicitly allocate robust funding in the final FY21 appropriations bill to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the South Caucasus.

The humanitarian situation in the South Caucasus is dire as a result of fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh, reads a statement on Senator Portman's official website.

“The humanitarian situation in the south Caucasus is dire, and it will only grow worse as winter approaches,” the senators wrote, describing how, against the backdrop of COVID-19, the recent conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia has wreaked long-term infrastructural damage on the region and has displaced more than half of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population, including 90 percent of the region’s women and children. “The fighting may have stopped, but the damage it caused will continue to cost lives without robust action by the international community.”

“The United States must continue our longstanding tradition of funding humanitarian aid for those who need it most, like the thousands of ethnic Armenians displaced from their homes or otherwise affected by the violence. We urge you to appropriate a robust amount of funding specifically to help these populations, which would highlight your commitment to that longstanding tradition,” added the senators. “We urge you to include a specific appropriation for clearing mines and unexploded ordnance in the final FY21 appropriations bill as well as robust funding for rehabilitation services in Nagorno-Karabakh. The use of cluster munitions, rockets, and other such weapons in the recent conflict has only increased the need for this funding, and we urge you to include an appropriation of at least $1.5 million for demining, in the final State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs appropriations bill.”