Azernews.Az

The United States does not back either side in the political stand-off that followed Armenia's February 19 presidential poll, deputy spokesman for the State Department said.
Tom Casey stressed that the White House had not forwarded a letter congratulating Armenia's prime minister Serzh Sarkisian on winning the election.
He said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza was in Yerevan to seek ways of launching dialog between the sides involved in post-election stand-off.
Thousands of Armenian demonstrators protested for 10 days after the election that they said was rigged. The protests were marred by heavy clashes.
Casey said Washington's key goal was to achieve stabilizing the situation in Armenia and canceling the state of emergency announced over the unrest in the soonest time possible.
Bryza told the press upon completing his meetings in the Armenian capital that the U.S. had urged all the sides involved to put an end to violence and restore stability. He said the best way to ease the tensions was to launch political dialog. "This requires lifting restrictions on local mass media and restoring freedom of speech."
Bryza said the police and courts should investigate the clashes that took place during the mass protests.
He added that the United States' future cooperation with Armenia depended on the plight of democratic institutions in the country.