101 Members of Congress Urge Rubio to Cut U.S. Military Aid to Azerbaijan Until It Frees the Armenian Hostages in Baku ➖➖➖ 101 members of the U.S. Congress, from more than 25 states, have urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to enforce Section 907 and withhold U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan unless Baku takes meaningful steps to release the Armenian hostages it unlawfully holds, protect Armenian cultural heritage from further destruction and withdraw its forces from sovereign Armenian territory. The October 5 letter cites Azerbaijan's sentencing of 16 Armenians to terms of 15 years to life, the demolition of Armenian churches, and its occupation of an estimated 241.4 square kilometers of Armenian territory. It is signed by 26 senators and 75 representatives from both parties. Senators Gary Peters and Adam Schiff and Representatives Gus Bilirakis and Frank Pallone led the letter, which drew support from Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and a number of Senate and House committee and subcommittee leaders. The man receiving it once pushed for the same thing. Rubio co-led the Armenian Protection Act of 2023 with Peters, a bill to repeal the president's authority to waive Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act. The Senate passed it by voice vote on November 15, 2023, after discharging the Foreign Relations Committee by unanimous consent. The House received it 2 days later and held it at the desk, and it never became law. Peters is now writing to Rubio to ask him to enforce the restriction the two of them championed together. "Despite the issuance of the waiver, we urge your administration to withhold U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan if they continue to jeopardize the success of negotiations," the lawmakers wrote. Section 907 bars U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan until it takes demonstrable steps to end blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). Congress gave the president annual waiver authority in 2002, and every administration used it until Biden enforced the restriction in 2024, following the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh and sustained bipartisan pressure that included the Senate's passage of the Armenian Protection Act. Trump waived it again in August 2025 after a White House summit with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, and notified Congress in July 2026 that he intended to extend the waiver. "It is clear that the decision to waive Section 907 has not induced Azerbaijan's engagement on ensuring the release of POWs," the lawmakers wrote. "As a result, we are concerned that Azerbaijan's inconsistent behavior jeopardizes the prospect of a just and long-lasting peace in the region, and that the continued waiver of Section 907 without a commitment to addressing these concerns will only further encourage destabilizing actions." The 16 Armenians were sentenced in February 2026, following trials that international human rights organizations, legal experts and the European Parliament condemned as a miscarriage of justice. They are the political and military leadership of Artsakh, held since Azerbaijan's 2023 military assault. They have been subjected to torture and abuse in custody and denied fundamental legal rights. June 23, 2026 marked the 1,000th day of their unlawful detention. Azerbaijan expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross in September 2025. It was the only independent organization authorized to visit the prisoners. The lawmakers write that the sentencing is consistent with Azerbaijan's practice of denying fundamental due process and rule of law, and note that Baku also imprisons scores of its own journalists, opposition leaders and activists on politically motivated charges. They cite the continued destruction of Armenian churches in Artsakh, including the reported demolition in April 2026 of two cathedrals in the Artsakh capital, Stepanakert. The 241.4 square kilometers follow Azerbaijani military incursions into Armenia in 2021 and 2022. That presence inside Armenia's internationally recognized borders creates asymmetry in the border delimitation talks, the lawmakers write, and they note that Armenia returned 4 Azerbaijani enclave villages in May 2024 while Baku has not matched it. "We call on the administration to engage with Azerbaijan to secure the release of detainees and encourage the removal of Azerbaijani military forces from sovereign Armenian land," the letter states. "If meaningful steps are not taken, we urge your administration to withhold U.S. military assistance in order to demonstrate the United States' commitment to ensuring all parties take the peace process seriously." ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian said the waiver has made things worse. "President Trump's waiver of the Section 907 statutory restrictions on U.S. arms and aid to Baku sets back the cause of peace, emboldening Ilham Aliyev to double down on his abuse of Armenian hostages, destruction of Christian churches, occupation of Armenian territory, and refusal to allow the safe, collective, and protected return of refugees to their indigenous Artsakh homeland." He also pointed to the vote that preceded the letter. "In the wake of the overwhelming 44-7 House Foreign Affairs Committee vote demanding Azerbaijan release Armenian hostages, over 100 legislators from more than 25 states today called on the Trump Administration to enforce Section 907 and stop U.S. arms and aid to oil-rich Azerbaijan," Hamparian said. "Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act has stood for more than three decades as a principled provision of law, ensuring that U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan reflects its conduct toward Armenia and the Armenian people," said Armenian Assembly Congressional Relations Director Mariam Khaloyan. "We thank Senator Peters and Representative Bilirakis for their leadership and the 101 Members of Congress, from both parties and both chambers, who have reaffirmed the principles behind Section 907, as the Armenian hostages held in Baku mark more than 1,000 days in captivity," Khaloyan said. Azerbaijan's September 2023 military assault on Artsakh forcibly displaced 120,000 Armenians in an act of ethnic cleansing.

Armenia Puts The 19 Armenian Hostages Unjustly Held By Azerbaijan On The UN Record As An Urgent Humanitarian Issue 🇦🇲 ➖➖➖ Armenia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Paruyr Hovhannisyan, has raised the 19 Armenian hostages unjustly held by Azerbaijan as an urgent humanitarian issue in his statement to the UN General Assembly's Third Committee, the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the UN announced. Hovhannisyan spoke during the general debate of the Third Committee at the 81st session of the General Assembly. The Third Committee is the body of the General Assembly that handles human rights, social, and humanitarian issues. Hovhannisyan said that as efforts to consolidate peace continue, a number of urgent humanitarian issues remain to be addressed. He raised the continued holding of 19 Armenians in Azerbaijan, the need to clarify the fate and whereabouts of missing persons, and cases of enforced disappearances. He said resolving these humanitarian issues would contribute to strengthening peace, building trust, and supporting reconciliation in the region. He also reaffirmed Armenia's support for further strengthening the UN human rights system to prevent human rights violations and ensure accountability. Hovhannisyan outlined Armenian efforts on human rights mechanisms, gender equality, the rights of children, and the prevention agenda. The 19 Armenian hostages are held at the Umbaki Penitentiary Complex in the Qaradag district of Baku. 16 have been sentenced after sham trials in the Baku Military Court. 8 are former Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) political and military leaders, seized by Azerbaijani forces in September 2023 as they fled alongside more than 120,000 Armenians forcibly displaced from their ancestral homeland in Azerbaijan's documented ethnic cleansing of occupied Artsakh. On February 5, 2026, the Baku Military Court sentenced former Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan, former Foreign Minister David Babayan, former National Assembly Speaker Davit Ishkhanyan, former Defense Army commander Levon Mnatsakanyan, and former deputy commander Davit Manukyan to life imprisonment. Former Artsakh Presidents Arkadi Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan received 20-year terms. Former State Minister Ruben Vardanyan was tried separately and sentenced to 20 years on February 17, 2026. Civilian hostages Madat Babayan and Melikset Pashayan received 19-year terms, Garik Martirosyan received 18 years, Davit Alahverdyan and Levon Balayan received 16 years, and Erik Ghazaryan, Gurgen Stepanyan, and Vasil Beglaryan received 15 years. Amnesty International called the verdicts a travesty and a mockery of justice. Hovhannisyan's statement comes after a series of recent disclosures from inside the Umbaki prison. On October 1, former Foreign Minister David Babayan released an audio statement describing the Baku appellate court's ruling as 99.9 percent copy-pasted from the first-instance verdict and documenting that Azerbaijan censored his counter-arguments from the appellate record. On September 16, Ruben Vardanyan recorded a public appeal to Azerbaijan's Human Rights Commissioner Sabina Aliyeva documenting specific violations of Azerbaijan's own legal code in the treatment of the 19 hostages, saying "However long we still spend in Umbaki, please comply with your own laws." On September 4, attorney Siranush Sahakyan disclosed in a press briefing that Armenian Christian hostages have had their cross tattoos burned off their skin through torture and been forced to read the Quran. Sahakyan said the hostages are also held in absolute isolation from other prisoners and have arrived at proceedings with fractures from beatings. Azerbaijan expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross in September 2025, ending the last independent access to the Armenian hostages. Former International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo published a legal opinion in August 2023 concluding that the nine-month Azerbaijani blockade of Artsakh that preceded the September 2023 ethnic cleansing constituted genocide under the Genocide Convention. The International Court of Justice ordered Azerbaijan on November 17, 2023, by 13 votes to 2, to ensure that Armenians who left Artsakh after September 19, 2023 could return in a safe, unimpeded, and expeditious manner. Azerbaijan has never complied.