Sputnik News Service
September 9, 2018 Sunday 12:43 PM UTC


Armenia, Russia to Carry Out Joint Humanitarian Mission in Syria -
Prime Minister


MOSCOW, September 9 (Sputnik) - Armenia and Russia will carry out a
joint humanitarian mission in Syria, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinyan said on Sunday following his meeting with Russian President
Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

"I can already declare officially that the Republic of Armenia will
carry out a humanitarian mission in Syria, Aleppo, and the main goal
of the mission will be to provide help to Aleppo's Armenian community
and to Syria in general. I am happy that our countries [Armenia and
Russia] have made this joint decision, and the representatives of the
Armenian Defense Ministry's humanitarian mission will act under the
flag of the Republic of Armenia," Pashinyan told reporters.

He expressed hope that other representatives of the international
community would also engage in the Russian-Armenian mission.

"Armenia is especially interested in this issue, as there is an
Armenian community in Syria, and it is especially large in Aleppo. We
consider it important to provide humanitarian aid. In this case, we're
talking about humanitarian mine clearance and health care delivery,"
Pashinyan said.

He pointed out that this would be an exclusively humanitarian mission,
with no military component.

Before the crisis broke out in Syria, the Armenian community was
considered as one of the country's largest diasporas, as it included
around 110,000 people, with most of them living in the province of
Aleppo and in the country's capital of Damascus. However, over 90,000
Armenians have reportedly left Syria since the beginning of the civil
war.

In October 2017, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said that the country
had accepted over 22,000 Syrian citizens since the beginning of the
conflict.