Yerimyan testimony to Senate Appropriators backs Artsakh’s right of return, expanded U.S. security aid to Armenia
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) submitted testimony to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee calling for the immediate release of Armenian hostages, the right of return for Armenians forcibly displaced from Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh), stronger security support for Armenia, and new restrictions on U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan – all as part of the Fiscal Year 2027 appropriations bill.
ANCA Government Affairs Director Tereza Yerimyan’s testimony to the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, arrives as Armenian hostages in Azerbaijani custody surpass 1,000 days of unlawful detention, and as the Administration’s reckless extension of the Section 907 waiver continues to draw scrutiny from Congress.
Read the full testimony at:
https://anca.org/assets/pdf/063026_FY27_SFOPSOWT_Testimony_ANCA.pdf
“Nearly three years after Azerbaijan’s September 2023 military assault forcibly displaced the entire indigenous Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) – an act of ethnic cleansing that emptied the region of more than 150,000 Armenians – the consequences of that campaign, and of Washington’s continued unwillingness to hold Baku accountable, remain acute,” Yerimyan told the Subcommittee.
Securing the Right of Return for Displaced Artsakh Armenians
The testimony requests not less than $100 million for humanitarian, resettlement, and recovery assistance for the more than 100,000 Armenians displaced from Nagorno Karabakh in 2023, joining tens of thousands displaced by the 2020 Artsakh War. Yerimyan urged that any assistance strategy “explicitly affirm and support the right of displaced Armenians to return to their homes in Nagorno Karabakh, with their safety guaranteed through a permanent international monitoring mechanism.”
Bolstering Armenia’s Security
The testimony calls for not less than $50 million to support Armenia’s security and sovereignty, citing Azerbaijan’s continued occupation of more than 240 square kilometers of sovereign Armenian territory even as the two countries have held more than a dozen rounds of border delimitation talks.
“Armenia – a NATO Partnership for Peace member and historically one of the highest per capita contributors of peacekeepers to U.S.-led deployments – continues to face an acute security threat from Azerbaijan’s ongoing occupation of its sovereign territory and Baku’s continued military buildup along the border, even amid border delimitation talks,” the testimony states.
Conditioning Azerbaijan Aid
The testimony calls on the Subcommittee to prohibit U.S. military or security assistance to Azerbaijan until the President certifies that Baku has released all Armenian detainees, withdrawn its forces from Armenian territory, protected Armenian cultural and civilian property, and recognized the right of displaced Armenians to return home. Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA) submitted similar language to the House as an amendment to H.R. 8595, the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2027. Yerimyan urged the Senate to adopt the certification standard directly into the FY27 bill.
“This certification requirement reflects precisely the kind of enforceable, results-oriented standard that Section 907 was designed to provide, and which the Administration’s waiver has failed to deliver,” Yerimyan said. “The waiver of Section 907 has not induced Azerbaijan’s good-faith engagement on the release of POWs, the withdrawal of its forces from Armenian territory, or the protection of Armenian cultural and civilian property in Artsakh.”
The testimony also urges Congress to rescind the President’s unilateral authority to waive Section 907, restoring the statutory prohibition on U.S. military and security assistance to Azerbaijan absent certification.
Demanding Release of Armenian Hostages
Armenian hostages held in Azerbaijan’s custody marked 1,000 days of unlawful detention on June 23, 2026. In February, Azerbaijan sentenced sixteen Armenian detainees, including former political and military leaders of Nagorno Karabakh, to terms ranging from fifteen years to life in prison, in trials that international human rights organizations, legal experts, and the European Parliament have condemned as a miscarriage of justice. Yerimyan called on the Subcommittee to direct the Secretary of State “to engage at all levels with Azerbaijani authorities to make clear the importance of adhering to their obligations, under the November 9, 2020 statement and international law, to immediately and unconditionally release all remaining prisoners of war and captured civilians.”