The Hungary Helps Agency, in cooperation with the Hungarian Reformed Church Aid (HRCA) and the Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA), provides an emergency fund of altogether 65 000 USD for the rehabilitation and humanitarian support of civilians in Armenia displaced from the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) region due to the armed conflict, announced Tristan Azbej the State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians and the Hungary Helps Program.
‘Hungary is on the side of peace and supports and advocates a solution for the conflict through negotiations’, emphasized Azbej Tristan. The State Secretary added that our human solidarity is universal, therefore we sympathize with all those who suffer innocently.
‘Our humanitarian mission compels us to stand on the side and show solidarity with the innocent, civilian victims of the conflict. Therefore, the Hungary Helps Program, in cooperation with the HIA and the HRCA provides 20 million HUF emergency aid to support the rehabilitation of civilians and innocent citizens in Armenia displaced due to the armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh’, announced Tristan Azbej.
The Hungary Helps Agency is a government agency that functions as a non-profit organization. It provides rapid and practical assistance to victims of humanitarian crises and to persecuted communities. The Agency’s mission is to ensure rapid and practical assistance to the most vulnerable, including victims of humanitarian crises and those who were displaced and are not able return to their homeland. Humanitarian actions financed by the Agency are mutually beneficial for all the members of the local community regardless of race, ethnicity, color, sex, language, religion or belief, political or other opinions, national or social origin, property, birth or another status in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Agency’s prioritizes actions that foster intercultural and interreligious dialogue, local resilience building and strengthen stability and peace by avoiding partiality and respecting the “do no harm” principle.
The Hungarian Reformed Church Aid will implement the project and provide humanitarian aid for the most vulnerable population and victims of the conflict in cooperation of its local partner, the Union of Evangelical Churches in Armenia (UECA). UECA is part of the Union of Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near-East (UAECNE), member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, contracted partner church of RCH and beneficiary of the Hungary Helps project support.
Embracing the position of the World Council of Churches, the Presidium of RCH earlier expressed its concerns about the escalation of the conflict, its condolences to the grieving families and its prayerful solidarity with the Armenian Evangelical Community and the Armenian people so that they are united and look for peaceful solutions in this longstanding conflict.
Hungarian support to Armenia echoes concerns and solidarity expressed by Churches and ecumenical organisations worldwide urging peaceful solution and stressing that “the unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is a gift from the Creator to all nations and people in every corner of the planet. The people of Artsakh are on the forefront to deserve that gift.”. The Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA), recognizing the severity of the thread and the emergency situation has also advanced the Armenia Fund an initial sum of $100,000 with the promise of more.
The AMAA has placed its facilities in Armenia under the disposal of the civilian authorities to shelter women, children and the elderly. „We are called to pray for peace, raise awareness in our surroundings and share our material resources to sustain the people of Artsakh and their land, support the victims of war, care for the wounded and offer an honorable goodbye to the martyrs,” reads further the statement of the Association, member of UAECNE.