Over 100 members of Congress—26 Senators and 75 Representatives—have called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to withhold US military assistance to Azerbaijan, reports the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

They cited Baku’s sentencing of unlawfully detained Armenian prisoners, destruction of Armenian Christian heritage, and continued military occupation of sovereign Armenian territory as reasons for their appeal to Rubio.

The ANCA-backed bicameral, bipartisan letter was led by Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Representatives Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ), and garnered support from Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and a number of Senate and House committee and subcommittee leaders.

The letter responds to the President Donald Trump Administration’s decision to extend the waiver of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, reauthorizing US military assistance to Azerbaijan. President Trump first waived Section 907 in August 2025, following a White House summit with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, and notified Congress in July 2026 of his intention to extend that waiver.

In the October 5 letter, lawmakers also cite the destruction of Armenian churches in Nagorno-Karabakh, including the reported demolition in April 2026 of two cathedrals in Nagorno Karabakh capital, Stepanakert, and Azerbaijan’s entrenched military presence on an estimated 241 square kilometers of internationally recognized Armenian territory following illegal incursions in 2021 and 2022. They note that Armenia returned four Azerbaijani enclave villages in May 2024, while Baku has not matched that step with a withdrawal of its own forces.

The signatories urge the Administration to withhold US military assistance unless Azerbaijan takes meaningful steps to release the Armenian prisoners, protect Armenian cultural heritage from further destruction, and withdraw its forces from sovereign Armenian territory.