President Donald Trump is being urged to help secure the release of two dozen Christians held hostage by the Azerbaijani government and to support persecuted Christians.
A coalition of Christian leaders has signed a letter pushing the president to act on behalf of the 23 Christian Armenians and one Azeri Christian convert currently detained in Azerbaijan. This letter was spearheaded by the advocacy group Save Armenia.
Signatories include Sam Brownback, former United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom; Christian artist and missionary Sean Feucht; Troy Miller, President and CEO of National Religious Broadcasters; David Curry, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Commissioner; Dede Laugesen, Executive Director of Save the Persecuted Christians; and civil rights activist Alveda King.
Additionally, former Rep. Michelle Bachman, R-Minn., now the dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University, and Jim Garlow, the former pastor of Skyline Church in California, also signed the letter.
The coalition expressed gratitude to Trump for showing “support for Armenia and persecuted Christians” during his 2024 presidential campaign, praising him for sending “a clear message to those who would undermine Armenia's security and their rich Christian heritage as the first country in the history of the world to embrace the gospel of Christ.”
They believe that the situation can only be resolved “by a leader of your qualities, a leader feared and respected by other world leaders.”
In their letter, the leaders highlighted that almost two years ago, Azerbaijan engaged in the ethnic cleansing of over 120,000 Christian Armenians from their ancestral homes, while the Biden administration failed to take action to prevent these atrocities or punish those responsible.
They stated, “Since then, the same regime has been holding 23 Christian Armenian hostages and one Azeri Christian convert, who are being subjected to routine torture, according to credible reports.”
The coalition also stressed that the International Committee of the Red Cross, which they stated was “the only organization with access to check on the well-being of the prisoners,” has recently been ordered to leave Azerbaijan, a predominantly Muslim country.
They noted, “A few months ago, we saw how Hamas freed the Israeli hostages out of fear of your Administration,” urging Trump to “utilize the authority of your office to stand for and with these 24 Christian lives, and once again send a message that murder and persecution of Christians around the world will no longer be tolerated.”
Azerbaijan has come under scrutiny from international religious freedom advocates in recent years due to its conflict with predominantly Christian Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which was recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan but was previously a de facto Armenian-majority state known as the Republic of Artsakh.
In May 2024, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom identified Azerbaijan as one of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom, and in 2023, the country was included in the International Christian Concern’s “Persecutors of the Year” report.
