Pelosi arrives in Armenia amid deadly conflict — RT World News

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, landed in Armenia on Saturday after several days of clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers. Pelosi’s office said the trip would help end a border dispute that has erupted into conflict twice in the past two years.

Pelosi arrived in Yerevan on Saturday afternoon and headed straight for talks with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. She was accompanied by Democratic representatives Frank Pallone, Anna Eshoo and Jackie Speier, the last two being of Armenian origin.

According to a press release from his office, Pelosi will meet with government leaders, security officials and members of civil society in Yerevan, and « convey the strong and continued support of the United States » for a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Nagorno-Karabakh region, populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, sought to secede from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. Baku claims the territory as its own, while Yerevan supports its bid for independence. The two countries fought a 44-day war in the region in 2020, which ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire.

However, fighting erupted again on Tuesday, with Armenia accusing Azerbaijan of launching artillery and drone strikes across its border. Baku, meanwhile, claimed it was only responding to Yerevan’s request « provocation. » Dozens of soldiers on both sides were killed over the next two days, until Pashinyan requested assistance from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), after which Azerbaijan offered a truce.

Pashinyan said on Friday the Armenian death toll in the clashes had reached at least 135, while Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said on Friday it had lost 71 soldiers.

Secretary of the Armenian Security Council, Armen Grigory, thanked « International community » to obtain the truce, without further specifying which countries were involved. Along with France and the United States, Russia co-chairs the Minsk Group of Mediators, which has spent decades holding peace talks between Baku and Yerevan.

The United States, and the Pelosi constituency in particular, is home to a large Armenian diaspora, which called on Washington to support their homeland after the latest round of fighting broke out.