New controversy in sight? This Friday, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi hinted that on Saturday she would travel to Armenia, which recently faced violent clashes on its border with Azerbaijan.
“Tomorrow we will visit Armenia,” Nancy Pelosi replied to a question during a press conference on the occasion of the two-day meeting of the speakers of the G7 parliaments in Berlin.
Joe Biden, first US President to recognize the Armenian Genocide
She explained that the Armenians had extended an invitation long ago but, for security reasons, “refused to give further details about the visit”. Nancy Pelosi added that the visit was marked by “respect for human rights and respect for the dignity of every person”.
Joe Biden was the first sitting US President to call the deaths of a million and a half Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 “genocide,” angering Turkey.
200 killed in battle with Azerbaijan
The US official’s visit comes as more than 200 people have died in recent fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces, with both sides blaming each other. Those clashes erupted on Tuesday and ended in an international mediation on Thursday evening.
This is an unprecedented escalation since 2020 that threatens to torpedo a fragile peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan, two rival countries in the Caucasus.
Its Caucasian neighbors have fought two wars — in 2020 and in the 1990s — over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan.