After border hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan resulted in more than 200 fatalities this week, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said on Friday that she will make an emergency trip to Armenia.
Pelosi confirmed that she will be traveling with two members of Congress who identify as Armenian Americans, but she would not provide any other information about the trip, which she described as being “very unplanned.”
She stated during a summit of the Group of Seven (G7) nations in Berlin that “we will be visiting Armenia tomorrow because we have consistently received an invitation from the Armenians.”
Politico was the first outlet to report on the visit. Pelosi refused to go further, saying that lawmakers “don’t like to be a target” when they travel.
She said, in conversation with the speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, that Russia must be held responsible for the crisis and that Russia must lose the war with Ukraine.
The bloodiest battles between them since a six-week war in 2020 that claimed thousands of lives is the latest fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh area, which is being blamed on both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is recognized by the international community as being a part of Azerbaijan but was previously populated and ruled by ethnic Armenians, has raged for decades between the two sides.
Beyond Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia claims Azerbaijani forces this week attacked and captured towns there. The Armenian side, according to Azerbaijan, had been “provoking” them.
The most recent combat came to a stop late Wednesday night thanks to a ceasefire mediated by Moscow, but the situation along the border is still tense.
Russia, an Azerbaijani ally and military supporter of Armenia, declared it would exert pressure on both nations to withdraw its soldiers to the positions they held prior to the outbreak of this week’s hostilities.
