President Donald Trump is being urged to assist safe the discharge of two dozen Christians who advocates say are being held hostage by the federal government of Azerbaijan and observe by means of on his pledged help for “persecuted Christians” on the marketing campaign path.
A coalition of Christian leaders has signed a letter urging the president to take motion on behalf of 23 Christian Armenians and one Azeri Christian convert presently detained in Azerbaijan. The letter, revealed on March 11, was spearheaded by the advocacy group Save Armenia.
Notable signatories embody former United States Ambassador-at-large for Worldwide Non secular Freedom Sam Brownback, Christian artist and missionary Sean Feucht, Nationwide Non secular Broadcasters President and CEO Troy Miller, U.S. Fee on Worldwide Non secular Freedom Commissioner David Curry, Save the Persecuted Christians Govt Director Dede Laugesen and civil rights activist Alveda King.
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Former Rep. Michelle Bachman, R-Minn., who now serves because the dean of the Robertson Faculty of Authorities at Regent College, and Jim Garlow, former pastor of Skyline Church in California, additionally signed the letter.
The leaders expressed gratitude to Trump for exhibiting “help for Armenia and persecuted Christians” throughout his 2024 presidential marketing campaign and praised him for sending “a transparent message to those that would undermine Armenia’s safety and their wealthy Christian heritage as the primary nation within the historical past of the world to embrace the gospel of Christ.”
They consider the scenario can solely be resolved “by a pacesetter of your qualities, a pacesetter feared and revered by different world leaders.”
“Nearly two years in the past, Azerbaijan ethnically cleansed greater than 120,000 Christian Armenians out of their ancestral houses, whereas the Biden administration refused to take motion to cease the ethnic cleaning or punish the perpetrators of that crime,” the Christian leaders wrote. “Since then, the identical regime has been holding 23 Christian Armenian hostages and one Azeri Christian convert, who’re being subjected to routine torture, based on credible studies.”
The leaders harassed that the Worldwide Committee of the Pink Cross, which they are saying was “the one group with entry to test on the well-being of the prisoners,” was lately ordered to depart the predominantly Muslim nation.
Azerbaijan has discovered itself below the highlight by worldwide non secular freedom advocates lately because it has warred with the predominantly Christian nation of Armenia over an space of land often called the Nagorno-Karabakh area, which was beforehand a de facto Armenian-majority state inside Armenia’s borders often called the Republic of Artsakh however has been internationally acknowledged as a part of Azerbaijan.
Final Could, the U.S. Fee on Worldwide Non secular Freedom labeled Azerbaijan amongst its listing of the world’s worst non secular freedom violators. The watchdog warned that non secular freedom violations trended negatively within the aftermath of the Nagorno-Karabakh territorial battle.
Nagorno-Karabakh was principally ethnic Armenian Christians earlier than a mass exodus in 2023, with some specialists accusing Azerbaijan of “ethnic cleaning.”
Azerbaijan secured a spot on the advocacy group Worldwide Christian Concern’s “Persecutors of the Yr” report in 2023.
“Azerbaijan’s finish sport is obvious: to rid its borders of Christianity both by forcing the Armenian individuals and their religion out of Azerbaijan or destroying the individuals and historic websites,” the ICC report said. It cited rhetoric utilized by Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev to explain Armenians, particularly highlighting his characterization of the group as “barbarians, rats, and vandals.”
Of their letter, the Christian leaders informed Trump he’s “the one one who can rescue these Christian hostages.”
“Just a few months in the past, we noticed how Hamas freed the Israeli hostages out of concern of your Administration,” they mentioned, asking Trump to “make the most of the authority of your workplace to face for and with these 24 Christian lives, and as soon as once more ship a message that homicide and persecution of Christians all over the world will now not be tolerated.”
Final 12 months, ICC referred to as on the Biden administration to impose sanctions on Azerbaijan for its therapy of Armenians after acquiring testimony from Christians who have been tortured in captivity. As highlighted on the web site of Save Armenia, Armenia grew to become the primary nation to embrace Christianity in 301 A.D. Roughly 1.5 million Armenian Christians have been killed within the Armenian genocide of 1915-16.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Submit. He might be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
