ANCA calls for expanded U.S. efforts to end Azerbaijan’s hostage diplomacy
Azerbaijan must not be granted cover or impunity for its ongoing detention and abuse of Armenian prisoners
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is calling for increased U.S. efforts to secure the immediate and unconditional release of at least 19 Armenian prisoners of war who remain in Azerbaijan’s unlawful detention, following today’s release of four Armenian hostages in exchange for two convicted Syrian mercenaries.
“Today’s hostage swap demonstrates Azerbaijan’s continued use of hostage diplomacy to extract political concessions from Armenia. At least 19 Armenians remain captive in Azerbaijan, where they continue to face torture and abuse, are denied their fundamental legal rights and are subjected to sham trials based on their Armenian identity. Azerbaijan must not be granted cover or impunity for its ongoing detention and abuse of Armenian prisoners,” noted the ANCA in a statement issued earlier today. “The ANCA calls on the Trump Administration to expand efforts to secure the immediate and unconditional release of all remaining Armenian prisoners, and urges Congress to pass the ARMENIA Security Partnership Act (H.R.6840) and the Azerbaijan Sanctions Review Act (H.R.5369) to hold Azerbaijan accountable for its war crimes and human rights violations.”
On Jan. 14, 2026, Azerbaijan released four unlawfully detained Armenian prisoners of war in exchange for two Syrian mercenaries captured while fighting for Azerbaijan in the 2020 Turkey and Azerbaijan war against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh).
The four Armenian prisoners — Vagif Khachatryan, Vigen Euljekjian, Gevorg Sujyan and Davit Davtyan — were non-combatants held unlawfully by Azerbaijan, and faced up to 15 years in prison on politically motivated charges.
Vagif Khachatryan had been detained since 2023, after being abducted by Azerbaijani forces during an ICRC medical evacuation from Nagorno-Karabakh. Vigen Euljekjian, a Lebanese national, had been in Azerbaijan’s detention since 2020, captured following the 2020 ceasefire while transiting through the Lachin Corridor. Gevorg Sujyan and Davit Davtyan were captured by Azerbaijani forces a day after the ceasefire agreement that ended the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War was signed. Both were non-combatants and founders of a charitable NGO.
In exchange, Armenia released two Syrian mercenaries — Muhrab Muhammad al-Shkheri and Yusef Alabed al-Hajin — who were captured by Armenian forces in November 2020. Both men admitted to serving as mercenaries during their trial and were sentenced to life imprisonment by an Armenian court in 2021. The mercenaries testified that they were ordered to spare no one’s life, and given explicit instructions and material reward for beheading Armenian captives.
In 2020, Turkey recruited and deployed over 2,000 mercenaries from northern Syria to fight for Azerbaijan during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War. Many mercenaries had documented ties with terror groups, including ISIS.
At least 19 Armenian prisoners of war remain in Azerbaijan’s unlawful detention, where they continue to face torture and abuse. This includes eight former Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) officials: Ruben Vardanyan, former State Minister (2022-2023); Arayik Harutyunyan, former President (2020–2023); Bako Sahakyan, former President (2007–2020); Arkadi Ghukasyan, former President (1997–2007); Davit Ishkhanyan, Speaker of the National Assembly; David Babayan, former Foreign Minister; Levon Mnatsakanyan, former Minister of Defense; and Davit Manukyan, former Deputy Minister of Defense.
Armenian detainees continue to be denied their fundamental legal rights, including access to legal counsel of their own choosing, and subjected to sham trials where they face politicized charges on the basis of their Armenian identity and their advocacy for the right to self-determination of Artsakh’s Armenians in the face of Azerbaijan’s aggression.
In September 2025, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced it had ended its operations in Azerbaijan, at the request of the country’s government. The ICRC was the only entity authorized to visit Armenian prisoners, and their expulsion gravely endangers the well-being of detainees.
Despite ongoing peace talks with Armenia, Azerbaijan has refused to release Armenian detainees as part of a peace agreement. Azerbaijan has also demanded that Armenia withdraw its international legal cases against Azerbaijan as part of the peace agreement, which would close vital legal avenues to pursue the release of remaining Armenian detainees.
Under international law, and as ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Azerbaijan is obliged to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all remaining Armenian prisoners, hostages and civilian captives.
Azerbaijan has a history of engaging in hostage diplomacy, prolonging the detention of prisoners to use as bargaining chips to extract concessions from Armenia. Azerbaijan also has a track record of using the symbolic release of prisoners as cover for its unabated repression and human rights abuses.
The ANCA is urging the immediate passage of H.R.6840 — the ARMENIA Security Partnership Act — a bipartisan bill that would strengthen U.S.-Armenia security ties, and prohibit U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan until it has taken steps to release unjustly detained Armenian prisoners, withdraw its military forces from sovereign Armenian territory and recognize the fundamental right for Nagorno-Karabakh’s forcibly displaced Armenians to return to their homes.
Additionally, the ANCA is calling for the adoption of H.R.5369 — the Azerbaijan Sanctions Review Act of 2025 — a bill that would direct the Departments of State and Treasury to review the applicability of targeted Global Magnitsky Act sanctions against Azerbaijani officials responsible for war crimes perpetrated against Armenians during the 2020 Artsakh War and the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh in 2023.
Let’s not forget when there was no independent Armenia, Armenian Diaspora organizations like ANCA lobbied and advanced Armenian national interests on their own. Under the quisling and soon-to-be Turkish/Azerbaijani satrap Pashinyan, who betrayed Armenian national interests, Armenian patriots and Artsakh by throwing them under the bus, in order to appease the Turkish/Azerbaijani gang and prepare Armenia for economic exploitation by them and turn it into their puppet state, it has reverted to the situation of Armenian lobby groups having to go it alone to fight for Armenian national interests.
The Armenian traitor-in-chief Pashinyan neither cares about Armenia nor about the worldwide Armenian Diaspora. He very clearly and publicly stated recently that he is only the “prime minister” of Armenia and not of any Armenian Diaspora. He dismantled his fake “ministry of Armenian Diasporal affairs” soon after taking power. He is a delusional loser who thinks we have to give up everything to keep what little we have. He talks about our racial enemies as if he just met them. He is a true embarrassment to our nation and a colossal liability to everything Armenian. The Armenian Diaspora has gone it alone in pretty much every endeavor they have taken on. Expect nothing from this incompetent sorry excuse for a prime minister. Let’s keep our fingers crossed the year 2026 will mark the end of his primitive corrupt and dictatorial rule and power and the beginning of a new patriotic era for Armenia.
The upcoming elections in June 2026, will be the most fateful election of Armenia since independence, and it will indeed be a choice between democracy or a full-blown Pashinyan dictatorship and puppet state status. There is a very high probability that Pashinyan will rig the elections, because he has no chance of winning the elections fairly and squarely anymore. He knows that he will have to face justice for the treason and corruption he has committed, if he loses power. If he indeed rigs the elections and declares a fait accompli, only a peoples’ uprising can and should bring him down, because this will likely be the only way he can be gotten rid of. A coup d’état looks unlikely, with a military which has been weakened, purged and demoralized by Pashinyan, though a coup d’état to get rid of him, is desirable as well. Armenia needs to have a revolution to get rid of this traitorous trash.