{"id":1345,"date":"2025-07-23T22:46:28","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T22:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/?p=1345"},"modified":"2025-07-30T23:09:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T23:09:39","slug":"87-u-s-legislators-press-trump-vance-administration-to-ensure-safe-return-of-armenians-to-artsakh-highlights-swiss-peace-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/?p=1345","title":{"rendered":"87 U.S. Legislators Press Trump-Vance Administration to Ensure Safe Return of Armenians to Artsakh, Highlights Swiss Peace Initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Join Calls Urging Azerbaijan to Release Armenian Hostages<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

WASHINGTON, DC \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) welcomes a powerful bipartisan Congressional call today by eighty-seven U.S. Representatives from across twenty-four states \u2013 representing over 66 million Americans \u2013 calling for the collective and protected return\u201d of forcibly displaced Armenians to their indigenous homeland of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), <\/strong>in line with international law and in support of just and lasting peace in the South Caucasus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis bipartisan Congressional letter<\/a> sends the Administration a clear message: Any path to real regional peace needs to start with the collective, protected return of Armenians to Artsakh \u2013 certainly not the normalization of Azerbaijan\u2019s ethnic cleansing of indigenous Christians from their ancient homeland,\u201d stated ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. \u201cArmenian American voters and our many allies are grateful to the Armenian Caucus leadership and every Member of Congress who stood up today for peace and justice \u2013 a message backed by international law and rooted in human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their letter<\/a>, led by Congressional Armenian Caucus co-chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Brad Sherman (D-CA), and David Valadao (R-CA), lawmakers emphasized: \u201cWe urge you to engage all parties in this unresolved conflict to ensure the collective, protected, and dignified return of forcibly displaced Armenians to their indigenous homeland of Nagorno Karabakh. Taking this action is in direct accordance with international law and in pursuit of a just and lasting peace in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bipartisan letter welcomed Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2019s recent testimony <\/strong>before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which confirmed \u201cU.S. support for a peace process that averts the risk of escalation by Azerbaijan and ensures the release of all arbitrarily detained Armenian prisoners of war and civilian captives<\/strong>,\u201d and also “note[d] and welcome[d] the Final Statement of the International Conference on the Preservation of Armenian Religious, Cultural, and Historical Heritage in Nagorno Karabakh. The conference was held under the auspices of the World Council of Churches on May 27-28,
2025, in Bern, Switzerland, where they urged \u201cgovernments and international bodies, particularly Switzerland, where we are meeting today, to take diplomatic and legal steps based on OSCE and other conventions to prevent further erasure of Armenian cultural heritage, support the return of the people to their land and to work actively towards the liberation of the Armenian hostages in Baku<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joining Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Brad Sherman (D-CA), and David Valadao (R-CA) in cosigning the letter were Representatives: Gabe Amo (D-RI), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), Nanette Diaz Barragan (D-CA), Wesley Bell (D-MO), Ami Bera (D-CA), Don Beyer (D-VA), Nikki Budzinski (D-IL), Andre Carson (D-IN), Greg Casar (D-TX), Sean Casten (D-IL), Joaqu\u00edn Castro (D-TX), Judy Chu (D-CA), Gil Cisneros (D-CA), Jim Costa (D-CA), Danny Davis (D-IL), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Dwight Evans (D-PA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Charles Fleischmann (R-TN), Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX), Vince Fong (R-CA), Valerie Foushee (D-NC), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Laura Friedman (D-CA), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Steven Horsford (D-NV), Jared Huffman (D-CA), Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Young Kim (R-CA), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Nick LaLota (R-NY), Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), John Larson (D-CT), George Latimer (D-NY), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Susie Lee (D-NV), Mike Levin (D-CA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Stephen Lynch (D-MA), Seth Magaziner (D-RI), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Sarah McBride (D-DE), Tom McClintock (R-CA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), James McGovern (D-MA), Rob Menendez (D-NJ), Grace Meng (D-NY), Dave Min (D-CA), Seth Moulton (D-MA), Kevin Mullin (D-CA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), Chris Pappas (D-NH), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Scott Peters (D-CA), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Mike Quigley (D-IL), Delia Ramirez (D-IL), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Luz Rivas (D-CA), Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Janice Schakowsky (D-IL), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Lateefah Simon (D-CA), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Eric Swalwell (D-CA), David Taylor (R-OH), Shri Thanedar (D-MI), Mike Thompson (D-CA), Dina Titus (D-NV), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Paul Tonko (D-NY), Lori Trahan (D-MA), Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), George Whitesides (D-CA), and Nikema Williams (D-GA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Congressional letter is\u00a0available here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

#####<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Join Calls Urging Azerbaijan to Release Armenian Hostages WASHINGTON, DC \u2013\u00a0The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) welcomes a powerful bipartisan Congressional call today by eighty-seven U.S. Representatives from across twenty-four states \u2013 representing over 66 million Americans \u2013 calling for the collective and protected return\u201d of forcibly displaced Armenians to their indigenous homeland of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advocacy","category-english","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1347,"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions\/1347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freearmenianhostages.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}