Senators Edward J. Markey and Sheldon Whitehouse have appealed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to demand the unconditional release of all Armenian political prisoners and prisoners of war held by Azerbaijan and to impose Global Magnitsky sanctions on Azerbaijani officials responsible for human rights abuses, warning that Azerbaijan’s two-year campaign of ethnic cleansing and continued U.S. inaction risk enabling further atrocities, and recounting how Azerbaijan’s blockade and its September 2023 assault forced 120,000 Christian Armenians from their ancestral homeland in Artsakh, amid extensive evidence of war crimes including civilian executions, destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, and Armenian cultural sites, while noting that at least 23 Armenian prisoners of war remain illegally imprisoned and subjected to politically motivated show trials targeting them for their Armenian identity—including former presidents, foreign ministers, and parliamentary leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh—as the senators caution that although recent Armenia-Azerbaijan negotiations may offer hope for peace, Azerbaijan’s ongoing hostage diplomacy threatens progress, an initiative broadly supported by Democratic and Independent senators including Chuck Schumer and many others, and welcomed by the Armenian Council of America, which praises Senator Markey’s long-standing advocacy and urges the Trump administration to act swiftly on the letter’s recommendations to ensure accountability, secure the release of Armenian prisoners, and prevent further abuses.