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US to help Karabakh refugees, USAID head says

YEREVAN, September 25. /TASS/. Head of USAID Samantha Power said at a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Yerevan that the US is ready to help people who had to flee Nagorno-Karabakh, the press service of the Armenian Cabinet of Ministers reported.

"During the visit, certainly we are focusing on the specific crisis, the humanitarian needs of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and of the people who have fled Nagorno-Karabakh. It seems that about 5,000 people crossed the border into Armenia today, and we do take very seriously our responsibility to focus resources to support local governments to find places to live and other means of support, as well as to encourage other countries to do the same," she said.

Power also noted that the US will continue to work with both Armenia and Azerbaijan to achieve lasting peace between the countries. The head of the US Agency for International Development handed a letter from US President Joe Biden to the Armenian Prime Minister. The sides also discussed the further development and expansion of cooperation between Yerevan and Washington.

On September 19, tensions flared up again in Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku announced it was launching what it described as "local anti-terrorist measures" and demanded the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the region. Yerevan, in turn, said there were no Armenian forces in Karabakh, calling what was happening "an act of large-scale aggression." Russia called on the parties to end the bloodshed and return to efforts to resolve the issue diplomatically. On September 20, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced that an agreement on the suspension of the anti-terrorist measures in Karabakh had been reached through the mediation of Russia’s peacekeeping mission.

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