US Embassy comments on MP

  17 December 2014    Read: 953
US Embassy comments on MP
The U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan commented on the statements regarding the U.S. assistance to the separatist regime in Nagorno-Karabakh made by MP Zahid Oruj at the Azerbaijani Parliament on December 16.
The embassy told that the U.S. assistance levels reflect a number of factors and are determined by Congress in the context of our overall assistance goals worldwide: “Future assistance levels are still under discussion. That said, we have historically implemented our assistance programs in cooperation with Azerbaijan to support development across a range of areas, from economic and democratic reform to regional security.

Our assistance programs are a reflection of our ongoing commitment to partnering with Azerbaijan to achieve the brightest possible future for both our countries.
With this in mind, we would like to set the record straight on U.S. assistance to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

At the direction of Congress, since 1998, the United States has provided humanitarian assistance to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, but it does not provide any assistance to the unrecognized separatist regime in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Since 2002, the U.S. government has spent approximately $2 million per year for humanitarian projects in NK, which included demining, housing and school repairs, primary health care, and agriculture. Recent funding has focused almost exclusively on demining projects and is always allocated directly to the implementing organizations.

USG humanitarian assistance has also focused on relieving the suffering of vulnerable groups in Azerbaijan, especially the large number of internally displaced persons uprooted from their homes by the unresolved conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Since 1993, the United States has provided over $115 million to respond to the needs of refugees and internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan.

MP Zahid Oruj stated that the U.S. Congress had allocated $75 million to Georgia, $25 million to Armenia, and $23 million to Azerbaijan. “In the recent years, the aid allocated for Armenia has been $2 billion and that for the Karabakh separatists over $83 million”.

The MP said that if the U.S. cuts this aid, it will help the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem: “I call on the European Union and the U.S. to halt their aid to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh and prohibit the deputies’ visits”.

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