House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a congressional delegation to Armenia this weekend, which her office said made her the highest-ranking US official to visit the country since its independence in 1991.
The trip was meant to underscore the United States’ “firm commitment to a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Armenia and a stable and secure Caucasus region,” the California Democrat said in a statement Saturday.
Pelosi was joined by Democratic lawmakers she referred to on Twitter as “proud and longtime champions of Armenia”: Reps. Frank Pallone of New Jersey and Jackie Speier of California, co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Affairs. and Rep. Anna Eshoo of California, a member of the caucus. Both Speier and Eshoo are of Armenian heritage.
The visit follows deadly clashes earlier this week along the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The two former Soviet states are locked in a decades-long dispute over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The violence this week has led to concerns that the two nations could be on the verge of rekindling their conflict, but a senior Armenian official said late Wednesday that a truce had been agreed with Azerbaijan.
Speaking at a joint press conference Sunday in Yerevan with Alen Simonyan, speaker of the Armenian National Assembly, Pelosi condemned Azerbaijan’s “unlawful and deadly attacks” on the border with Armenia. He also expressed the commitment of the United States to support a sovereign Armenian state.
“We strongly condemn these attacks — we, in our delegation, on behalf of Congress — that threaten the prospect of a much-needed peace agreement,” said Pelosi, who also noted that the visit was planned before the current round of hostilities.
Pelosi said Congress would “soon” adopt a resolution condemning “Azerbaijan’s unprovoked military attack on Armenia.” The resolution was introduced in Congress last week and referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
President Joe Biden last year became the first US president to officially recognize the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as genocide.
Both the US House and Senate in 2019 passed a resolution that would “commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and commemoration” of the “murder of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923.”
Turkey argued that the killings did not amount to genocide, saying it was a time of war and there were casualties on both sides. Turkey also disputes the death toll, putting the number closer to 300,000.
“It is everyone’s moral duty to never forget: an obligation made more urgent as atrocities are committed around the world, including by Russia against Ukraine,” Pelosi said in her statement on Saturday.
Earlier in the week, Pelosi attended the G7 parliamentary chairmen’s summit in Germany, where she spoke Friday of a “continued and unified response” to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
He recently made another high-profile trip abroad, visiting Taiwan in August to show support for the self-ruled island — a move that greatly angered Beijing and added strain to the US-China relationship.
In response to Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, China announced sanctions on the speaker and her family, suspended cooperation with the US on many issues, including climate change talks, and held several military exercises across the island.
China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party considers Taiwan part of the country’s territory, even though it has never controlled it, and has long vowed to “reunify” the island with the Chinese mainland, by force if necessary.
This story has been updated with additional reaction.
