The Sidonia Kavkasieli Facebook account made a publication in social networks claiming that the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, congratulated Armenia on surrendering Karabakh. In fact, Mr Blinken has made several statements since Azerbaijan started its military operation but has not congratulated Armenia on surrendering Karabakh in any of them.

On 19 September 2023, Azerbaijan started its military operation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The statement of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defence reads: “Local anti-terror measures have been launched to ensure the provisions of the Trilateral Statement, suppress large-scale provocations in the Karabakh economic region, disarm and secure the withdrawal of formations of Armenia’s armed forces from our territories and neutralise their military infrastructure.”

After launching the military operation, the US Secretary of State issued his first statement where he called on Azerbaijan to cease the military actions: “We call on [Azerbaijan] for an immediate end to hostilities and for respectful dialogue between Baku and representatives of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

The US Secretary of State also posted a similar statement on X.

On 21 September 2023 on the occasion of Armenian Independence Day, the US Department of State published a congratulatory message. The statement reads: “The United States supports Armenia’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and remains committed to promoting a durable and dignified peace for the South Caucasus region where the rights of all are respected.”

Therefore, the claim in the aforementioned post that the US Secretary of State congratulated Armenia on surrendering Karabakh is fake.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This article was produced as part of Facebook’s Fact-checkingProgramme. Given the rating, Facebook may impose different restrictions – clickherefor full information. For information on issuing a correction or to dispute a rating, please seehere.