Amid the situation in the Middle East, the Office of Armenia’s High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs has received around 20 calls from compatriots through its hotline, spokesperson Nelli Ghulyan told Sputnik Armenia.
The Commissioner’s Office has launched a hotline (077 998123, 010 589155) to provide necessary assistance to Armenians in the region.
“At this point, we have no information about casualties among Armenians. Most of the calls came from our compatriots in the United Arab Emirates. The majority of inquiries concerned air travel,” Ghulyan said.
According to her, the office has already provided the necessary information, while also urging citizens to follow official statements from the Foreign Ministry, which is also operating a hotline.
“We are trying to maintain the most intensive communication possible with our communities, especially now as the situation has escalated. In some areas there are communication problems, including internet outages, but we continue to monitor developments,” Ghulyan said.
She added that the requests received are also related to Armenian citizens wishing to return home, as many are in the region for study, work or other reasons. She noted that no decision has yet been made regarding a visit to the Armenian-Iranian border to assess the situation on the ground.
U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that the United States has launched a large-scale operation against Iran, stating that Washington will not allow Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons and that this remains firm U.S. policy.
Israel, for its part, carried out a preemptive strike on Iran “to neutralize the threat,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said, declaring a state of emergency across the country. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has launched retaliatory strikes against U.S. military facilities in the Middle East.
