U.S. House Passes Artsakh Aid Amendment

The US House has passed the Artsakh aid amendment, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) reported.

Thursday’s vote represents a powerful rebuke to the Azerbaijani government-driven, State Department-supported effort to end Artsakh’s de-mining program, despite its remarkable record of having removed tens of thousand of landmines and saving countless lives, ANCA said.

The bi-partisan Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) aid amendment to H.R.7608 was adopted as part of a larger “en bloc” group of amendments backed by the House majority.  As is often the case in the U.S. House, this “en bloc” was approved on a party line vote.

The Artsakh amendment calls for $1.4 million in U.S. aid for the continuing life-saving de-mining efforts of The HALO Trust.

Through U.S. assistance, The HALO Trust has been de-mining in Artsakh since 2001. Since then, they have cleared 61,000 landmines and explosive hazards and transformed 62,000 acres of former minefields into land available for productive use and recreation. Just as importantly, U.S. assistance has provided mine risk education to each student in Karabakh since 2003.

Artsakh aid has been long under attack by Azerbaijan’s Aliyev regime, and over the past two years, aggressively targeted by the Trump Administration, even as it ramps up U.S. defense and security aid to Baku.