The Committee on Appropriations reports the bill making appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2017, said a message posted on the committee’s website.

In the bill, the Committee recommends assistance for victims of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in amounts consistent with prior fiscal years, and for ongoing needs related to the conflict.

“The Committee urges a peaceful resolution of the conflict. The Committee recognizes that Nagorno-Karabakh has a per capita landmine accident rate among the highest in the world, and that mine clearance programs have been effective where implemented. The Committee is concerned with territorial restrictions on demining activities in the region and recommends continued funds for, and the geographic expansion of, such programs”, said the bill.

The Committee recommends assistance in the amount of $10,935 for Azerbaijan, while $24,112 for Armenia.

In the document, the committee recommends assistance in the amount of $600,000 for Azerbaijan for international military education and training.

Also in the bill approved by the Senate making appropriations for the fiscal year 2016, the Committee recommended assistance for Nagorno-Karabakh. However, in the law which entered into force since 18 December 2015 upon the Congress’s approval, no provision included any assistance to the Azerbaijan’s occupied territories (Nagorno Karabakh).

Since the fiscal year 2014, the final law on appropriations adopted by the Congress doesn’t include any assistance to the Azerbaijan’s occupied territories. The laws adopted by the Congress for 1998-2013 fiscal years or its annex included a paragraph intending the US financing of various projects implemented in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in Dec.1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.

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