ANCA Advocates Take Armenian American Strategic Priorities to Capitol Hill
— Release of Armenian hostages, return of Artsakh refugees, security for Armenia among top community aims on the eve of November mid-term elections
WASHINGTON, DC – Armenian American advocates from more than 30 states visited all 435 U.S. House and 100 U.S. Senate offices over September 14 and 15, holding over 150 Congressional policy consultations during Strategic Advocacy 2026, a two-day mobilization organized by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) National Headquarters, ANCA Eastern Region, and ANCA Western Region.
“Congress can’t keep underwriting Azerbaijan – subsidizing a corrupt Aliyev government that holds Armenian hostages, bulldozes Christian churches, occupies sovereign land, and blocks the return of Artsakh refugees,” said Aram Hamparian, ANCA Executive Director. “That message was delivered loud and clear – enforce the Section 907 ban on U.S. tax-dollars to Baku, then upgrade the U.S.-Armenian security partnership to meet the regional threats Armenia continues to face.”
The Armenian American Agenda
Advocates from Alaska, Florida, Maine and Texas to Wyoming, Arizona, and Rhode Island carried a seven-point agenda into those meetings.
They pressed Congress for the release of the Armenian hostages held in Baku, among them the presidents, foreign ministers, and parliamentary leaders of Artsakh. They called for the return of Artsakh’s 150,000 forcibly displaced Armenians to their homes under international protection, as the International Court of Justice has already ordered. Both demands are written into the ARMENIA Security Partnership Act (H.R.6840), which would bar the President from waiving the ban on U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan until Baku frees the hostages, withdraws from Armenian territory, and recognizes the right of return.
They urged lawmakers to confront Azerbaijan for its genocidal ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, the ongoing occupation of over 100 square miles of sovereign Armenian territory, and a campaign against Armenian Christian heritage that resulted in the demolition of two Armenian churches in Artsakh’s capital, Stepanakert in recent weeks. Advocates urged passage of the Azerbaijan Sanctions Review Act (H.R.5369), requiring the Departments of State and Treasury to assess Global Magnitsky sanctions against Azerbaijani leaders responsible for war crimes and grave human rights abuses.
Advocates also sought justice for the Armenian Genocide through federal support for teaching about this crime in American classrooms through the Armenian Genocide Education Act (H.R.2585), the surest safeguard against a crime that Turkey still denies and Azerbaijan has now repeated. They raised humanitarian assistance for Artsakh’s refugees, Congressional oversight of U.S. military sales to Turkey, and the protection of Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter. The full slate of Armenian American policy priorities is available at anca.org/priorities.
Enforcing the Ban on Military Aid to Azerbaijan
Running through every meeting was a single argument: that the U.S. policy of appeasement has emboldened Baku at each step, and that Congress has the standing to stop it. Advocates pressed lawmakers to cut off American arms and aid to Azerbaijan, to hold Azerbaijani war crimes to account, and to build out the security relationship with Armenia that the region’s stability now depends on.
The most immediate of those asks was a bicameral, bipartisan letter led by Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Representatives Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ), calling on the Administration to withhold U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan until demonstrable progress has been made toward the release of all Armenian hostages, the protection of Armenian Christian heritage, and the withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces from Armenian territory. The letter follows news of the Trump Administration’s extension of the waiver of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, issued despite Azerbaijan’s sentencing of the hostages, its destruction of Armenian churches, and its entrenched military presence inside Armenia’s internationally recognized borders. The letter remains open for signature, and the ANCA is working to expand the count in both chambers. Armenian Americans can urge their Senators and Representative to sign at anca.org/enforce907.
Fifty Days to November
Strategic Advocacy 2026 landed 50 days before the November 3rd mid-term elections, when Members of Congress are at their most attentive to the voters who will decide their races. Advocates used that leverage to press their Senators and Representatives for commitments that will carry into the 120th Congress.
“Our advocates walking into these offices made Artsakh real for our elected leaders,” said Gev Iskajyan, ANCA National Grassroots Director. “The empty houses. The churches standing without their congregations. The families who have waited three years for a door to open. What Baku hoped would stay distant and stay silent, our advocates put on a desk on Capitol Hill. That is real power.”
“Wyoming and Alaska sent advocates to Washington this week, and so did Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington State, alongside our California delegations,” said Oshin Harootoonian, ANCA Western Region Chairman. “Armenian American voters in every one of those states are organized, informed, and paying attention to how their Member votes. Every office our delegations met with knows where this community stands going into November, and knows we will hold them to account.”
Those commitments, and the records behind them, feed directly into the ANCA’s electoral work. The ANCA tracks the performance of every incumbent Senator and Representative across a broad range of pro-Armenian legislative metrics, scores and grades each one, and circulates fact-driven, merit-based Report Cards and Endorsements each election cycle as a public service to voters weighing Armenian American concerns among the criteria they bring to the ballot box. Report Card grades and general election endorsements will be released in the coming weeks.
The Next Generation Leads
Students and young professionals made up the bulk of the delegation, drawn from across the ANCA’s programs, including the ANCA Rising Leaders Program, the Leo Sarkisian and Maral Melkonian Avetisyan Internships, the Kasparian Summer Academy, and the Hovig Apo Saghdejian Capital Gateway Program. The Armenian Youth Federation Eastern Region and Western Region actively encouraged student leaders from chapters across the country to take part.
“Our students and young professionals led these meetings,” said Michael Tatevossian, ANCA Programs Director. “Alumni of our programs came back and brought classmates with them, and the AYF Eastern and Western Regions turned out student leaders from chapters across the country. Congressional offices met energized, well-informed young voters who know the legislation, know their Member’s record, and intend to hold it up against how they vote this November.”
Making the Case on Capitol Hill and Beyond
Strategic Advocacy 2026 opened on September 14 with an afternoon of briefings and small-group preparation sessions led by ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian, Policy Director Alex Galitsky, National Grassroots Director Gev Iskajyan, Programs Director Michael Tatevossian, and ANCA Eastern Region Executive Director Nairi Diratsouian. Advocates worked through the legislative landscape, sharpened their asks, and collected the packets they would deliver the following morning.
Advocates worked the two days with the ANCA Advocacy Day Connect app, launched for this mobilization and developed by ANCA Chief Technology and Innovation Officer Nerses Semerjian with the ANCA legislative team. The app gave each advocate a live schedule of their Congressional meetings, backgrounders on every Member they would meet along with that Member’s record on Armenian American issues, and a direct channel to report outcomes and commitments as they came out of each office. The ANCA will build on the platform for future Advocacy Days and fly-ins throughout the year.
“The work we did on Capitol Hill this week does not end when our advocates fly home,” said Dr. Ara Chalian, ANCA Eastern Region Chairman. “They are already setting up follow-up meetings in their district offices, continuing the conversation — expanding the pressure — until our Armenian hostages are home, until Artsakh’s people can return, and until Armenia’s sovereignty and security are assured. We are not the beginning of this work and we are not the end of it. We continue.”
Accountability | 2026
The two days closed with “Accountability | 2026 – Artsakh: Justice. Freedom. Right of Return,” a Capitol Hill program marking three years since Azerbaijan’s genocidal ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, where a dozen Members of Congress joined advocates, clergy, and international legal experts in demanding the release of Armenian hostages and the protected return of Artsakh’s indigenous population.
Video of the program is available here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
