CC: How Armenia and Azerbaijan Are Lobbying for Influence in Washington, D.C.

In Washington, D.C., Ezra Friedlander, a lobbyist for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, spent the past year trying to make it easier for Baku to get foreign aid from the United States.

He wanted Congress to vote for repealing Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, passed almost 25 years ago, during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, restricting U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan. While American presidents in both parties have waived the provision citing the need to counter terrorism and ensure security, the law has long been a target of the Baku government.

Throughout 2025, Friedlander, a former staffer for several New York politicians, contacted members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. For his efforts, Azerbaijan pays him $500,000 a year to lobby the U.S. government and curry favor aligned with Baku’s interests.

At the end of 2025, U.S. Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a hard-right conservative Republican from Florida, introduced legislation to repeal Section 907. While the bill has not progressed, Friedlander sees the move as an important first step.

The push is just one sign of how related lobbying efforts have changed in America since President Trump took office. Since his re-election, a mix of government, opposition, and diaspora actors tied to Armenia and Azerbaijan have worked with ten lobbyists [First International Resources, Skyline Capitol, Friedlander Group, Stellar Jay Communications, Sovereign Global Solutions, Mercury Public Relations, Teneo, First Channel America, Plurus Strategies, McKeon Group] whose contracts were worth more than $4 million in 2025 alone.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are taking different paths to curry favor. Baku’s lobbying in the U.S. is done mainly through its embassy, its state-owned petroleum industry and its foreign ministry. Armenian-related lobbying is mainly through diaspora groups in the U.S. that are unaffiliated with any governmental groups.

Lobbying efforts by the Armenian diaspora helped pave the way for Vice President J.D. Vance to visit Yerevan, the highest-ranking U.S. official to ever visit the country. Separately, it also led to a March 2025 post on X by then-U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, calling for the release of Armenian prisoners of war held by Azerbaijan.

For the Armenian government, the state-owned Public Television of Armenia filed lobbying statements revealing that it hired First Channel America, Inc. in December 2024 to place advertisements and produce cultural, educational, and entertainment programming in the U.S. for Armenia.

For Azerbaijan, lobbying efforts have included, not just a first step to remove a loathed legal provision, but also a U.S.-backed transit route [TRIPP] aimed at bolstering trade.

Under American law, those who represent foreign governments, government agencies, politicians and political groups are required to register as foreign agents with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Those lobbyists are supposed to declare their goals, their meetings with government officials and how they orchestrate media campaigns for their cause.

The rules are different for diaspora groups that are based in the U.S. and not formally aligned with a government. Instead, they go through a separate process and file lobbying records with Congress.

EVN Report analyzed filings in these two separate repositories to better understand how the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments and their diaspora groups are lobbying the Trump administration.

New Playbook by Armenian Lobbyists Targets Trump Administration Access

To better understand how lobbying has shifted since Trump took office, consider the effort by U.S.-based nonprofit Global ARM, which seeks “a secure future” for Armenia

Tim Jemal, CEO of Global ARM, said that in 2023, leading up to the 2024 presidential campaign, the group hired two separate lobbying firms: Plurus Strategies to engage Democrats, and the McKeon Group, led by Howard “Buck” McKeon, a former California congressman, to engage Republicans. Their vision is to target both Democrats and Republicans across the aisle on Armenian interests, while being able to secure access to the executive branch, regardless of which political party holds power in Washington.

“When the Trump team came in, we monitored the transition closely, who we knew, the mid-tier and senior staff who would be stepping into agencies critical to this issue,” said Adam Raezler, a vice president at the McKeon Group, who works on Armenian issues on behalf of Global ARM.

“We knew we were going to have very strong advocates and friends coming into this administration,” Raezler explained. “Even the vice president, we know he’s a vice president that is guided so deeply on his conviction of his Catholic faith. So we knew that there was going to be a great opportunity to draw that parallel between Armenia being the oldest Christian nation in the world.”

That outreach, Raezler said, had to be carefully calibrated; a similar theme among both government-backed and diaspora-run lobbying groups.

For the embassy of Armenia, their strategy involved hiring Mercury Public Affairs in March 2025, a lobbying firm noted for its close ties with the Trump administration. Among its former lobbyists is Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff. Mercury was hired for $600,000 to advocate for Armenia in Washington. The contract ended in February 2026 and the firm declined to comment.

“Susie Wiles had put an ironclad lock on candidates who were going up for confirmation in Trump’s cabinet — they had to refrain from engaging, not just with lobbyists, but with the industry as a whole,” Raezler said. “We were very mindful and respectful of the guidelines and the parameters that she had put in place.”

Instead, the strategy for Raezler relied on mapping relationships across Washington, D.C.

“We identified who we knew would be going into the Cabinet and worked our knowledge and relationships throughout D.C. This person is going here… we know these folks from Capitol Hill, from the think tank world, from issue advocacy who are close to them,” Raezler said on early administration-hire-likelies. “There’s a chance they could go in, or that these are just the right people to start the conversation with and build it out from there.”

The firm focused heavily on the Trump administration’s transition to office, briefing incoming officials behind the scenes on why the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict and Armenian interests should be a priority for the U.S.

“We worked really hard to engage the transition team and the names coming out in that first wave of direct hires and appointments, explaining why this conflict between these two states is critical and needs to be addressed, not just on day one, but during the transition,” Raezler said.

Underlying that strategy, he added, is a belief about how Washington operates.

“We know that relationships are the most valuable currency to have in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “We were very fortunate to have very close, long-term relationships with the folks coming in on the Trump team who would be overseeing this part of the world at the State Department and the (National Security Council).”

The offensive strategy is part of a new playbook taken by the Armenian diaspora.

“We had seen over a period of 20 years that the effectiveness of the greater Armenian lobbying effort in D.C. had waned and we felt there was a tremendous need to bridge that gap and form a new organization with a different format and different agenda,” said Global ARM’s Jemal, who noted he has been involved in lobbying efforts for over 30 years.

Lobbying expenditures illustrate the scale of Global ARM’s effort. According to the filings, the nonprofit spent $300,000 on lobbying in 2025 — $160,000 to McKeon and $140,000 to Plurus. In the first quarter of 2026, another $70,000 flowed to the same firms.

Global ARM, based in Southern California where there is a large Armenian diaspora, focuses on strengthening Armenia’s security, fostering economic development and achieving justice for atrocities committed in the South Caucasus. It is not funded by the Armenian government, nor a political entity.

“There’s no specific tie to the Armenian government as far as the organization is concerned,” said Georgette Kerr of the Democrat-leaning lobbying firm, Plurus Strategies. “Global ARM is intentionally founded and structured to be an organization similar to AIPAC.”

AIPAC — the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee — is a powerful pro-Israel lobbying organization.

“I am pro-Armenia, but I am also pro-U.S.,” said Jemal. “We are an American organization. Those two things are sacrosanct.”

Jemal said it’s also important to have contacts with important legislators.

“You have to have access to key decision-makers,” he said. “If you don’t have access as a lobbyist, you have no influence. You have to have influence. You have to deliver a message and a policy platform that resonates with them… Access, influence and messaging all have to go together.”

Over the past year, Jemal said they have met six times with the Trump administration, discussing Armenia’s pivot away from Russia, security cooperation with the Pentagon, the release of prisoners of war in Azerbaijan and economic concerns.

Global ARM has also worked to shape two bills pending in Congress: the Peace Act and the Armenia Security Partnership Act (ASPA).

The Peace Act would tie U.S. support for Azerbaijan to concrete steps toward maintaining peace and the 2025 Armenia-Azerbaijan ceasefire, and help obtain the release of prisoners of war. The ASPA would expand security cooperation between Washington, D.C. and Yerevan, deepening defense ties as Armenia shifts away from Russia and toward the West.

Armenian Lobbyists Highlight Faith As a Strategic Tool in D.C.

Geographically wedged between predominantly Muslim nations, Armenia’s identity has long been shaped by its status, dating back to 301 A.D., as the world’s first Christian nation. Its legacy has helped bind the Armenian national identity to Christianity — a connection that has endured through foreign rule and genocide.

In March 2025, Armenia’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA), an opposition political group, contracted Jacqueline Halbig von Schleppenbach at the lobbying firm Sovereign Global. She is a Washington-based government relations consultant who previously served in senior roles in the Bush administration and is active in conservative Catholic circles.

FARA filings reveal that she promotes portraying Armenia as a Christian bulwark under threat and the NDA as a political party holding the ideological line of defense. It sees the August 2025 White House deal as a betrayal of Christian allies.

“Armenia is particularly interesting because they were persecuted (by outside actors), but now they’re actually also being persecuted from within… The government itself is repressing the (church),” Halbig von Schleppenbach said.

NDA board member and a former Armenian Ambassador to Canada, Ara Papyan, said the NDA switched to Sovereign Global on the advice of longtime Washington contact and fellow NDA board member, David Gregorian.

He said the firm has close ties to the Department of Defense and the vice president’s office, noting that it is “logical to shift to another group who has closer relations with the new administration.”

In November 2025, Halbig von Schleppenbach organized a Capitol Hill briefing aimed at congressional staff, human rights and international religious freedom advocates, and the Armenian diaspora. According to FARA filings, 35 guests, including Hill staffers, civil society leaders, and religious leaders, attended the meeting.

“Lobbying and communication are the two major things that we do,” Halbig von Schleppenbach said. “One of the objectives has been to educate people on what is happening inside (Armenia).”

She also conducts one-on-one meetings with members of Congress and their staff. Halbig von Schleppenbach notes her team hasn’t pushed forward any specific legislation, but often reaches out to members of Congress when there is a vote that matters.

Armenian groups are not alone in citing religious connections in lobbying efforts.

Friedlander’s information materials include writing to his contacts that, while Azerbaijan is a predominantly Muslim nation, they are inclusive toward their minority religions, and shared how Christmas is celebrated in Azerbaijan. Up to 4% of the Azerbaijani population comprises Christians, Jews and other religious groups.

The Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan hired Jacob Kamaras of Stellar Jay Communications for media consulting. That has included placing pro-Israel and pro-Azerbaijan op-eds in a variety of publications, including Israel365, JewishLink, TimesofSanDiego, and JPost

Azerbaijan’s Lobbying in Washington Faces Scrutiny

Azerbaijan’s lobbying efforts have drawn scrutiny. In 2024, federal prosecutors indicted U.S. Representative Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, for allegedly accepting bribes tied to Azerbaijan-linked interests, a case that underscored longstanding concerns about how Baku pursues influence in America.

“Azerbaijan has never had a problem fighting dirty, and by that I mean they seemingly never had a problem pursuing illicit influence in the U.S., and they’ve never really been chastised for it,” said Ben Freeman, Director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

“You have instances like Congressman Henry Cuellar caught up in one of these illicit Azerbaijan schemes,” he said. “The OCCRP investigation into caviar diplomacy was loaded with examples of Azerbaijan doing all sorts of shady things that Azerbaijan itself was never really held to account for.”

Prosecutors alleged that between 2014 and 2021, the Cuellars accepted roughly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani state-owned oil and gas company and a Mexican bank. According to the indictment, Cuellar used his political position to advance Azerbaijan’s interests by inserting favorable language into legislation and official reports, delivering pro-Azerbaijan speeches on the House floor and attempting to influence U.S. foreign-policy decisions.

The payments were allegedly funneled through shell companies and disguised as consulting contracts. Three Cuellar associates previously pleaded guilty to charges associated with the case, though they are reportedly not being held in prison.

Over a year and a half after the indictments, on Dec. 3, 2025, President Donald Trump pardoned Cuellar, just as the congressman was preparing to stand trial. Cuellar continues to serve in the House of Representatives.

The case was not the only controversy surrounding Azerbaijan’s influence operations. In 2024, Azerbaijan allegedly asked lobbying firms it was seeking to contract to not file under FARA, which requires foreign governments and their representatives to disclose lobbying activities to the Department of Justice.

“Azerbaijan has this sort of insider influence, much better than Armenia does,” said Freeman. “Armenia has a much more powerful and influential diaspora network that is very active.”

Armenian and Azerbaijani Lobbyists Clash Over Section 907 on Capitol Hill

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia and Azerbaijan quickly became embroiled in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War — a nearly 35-year conflict that killed tens of thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

In 1992, the U.S. began providing economic, humanitarian, military and governmental assistance to former Soviet republics to encourage transitions to market economies and democracy.

Azerbaijan’s blockade of Armenia during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War between 1988 and 1994 restricted trade and humanitarian aid, causing massive civilian suffering. In response, Congress passed the law that included Section 907. It barred most U.S. economic, development and security assistance to Azerbaijan, though other post-Soviet states, including Armenia, continued to receive aid.

That restriction changed just months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. For more than two decades since then, U.S. presidents from both parties have waived the Section 907 provision in the name of energy security and financing U.S. counterterrorism cooperation. The only time it was not waived was by President Biden in 2024, following Azerbaijan’s military actions in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Global ARM aims to block Luna’s bill to repeal Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which would ease the flow of U.S. aid to Azerbaijan.

Jemal called it “a stupid, terrible bill that should never get the time of day in Congress. An unnecessary bill at the wrong time for the wrong reasons.”

Opposing the bill in a December 16 Facebook post, Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), the oldest grassroots Armenian-American organization, called on Luna’s constituents to protest the bill that they viewed as sending “American tax dollars to Azerbaijan’s corrupt and genocidal Aliyev regime.”

ANCA and the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) have for decades played a central role in nudging Washington toward Armenia-aligned policies. In May, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved a funding bill for 2027, signaling stronger support for Armenian security against Azerbaijan — including reinforcing Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act. While still needing Congressional approval, it presents a small win by lobbying organizations like AAA to curry favor in Washington amid tensions in the fate of Section 907.

The fight over Luna’s bill is larger than one piece of legislation. It reflects a broader struggle among groups vying to shape how Washington, D.C. defines stability, accountability and leverage in the South Caucasus, particularly under a Trump administration that has taken an untraditional approach to diplomacy.

“Section 907 is waived every year,” said Chris Stewart of Skyline Capitol, which lobbies on behalf of the Embassy of Azerbaijan. “It puts Azerbaijan under a shadow because they’re a sanctioned country, but (the U.S.) waives it every year. And especially after the signing of the peace agreement, it just feels like the time is now. We were really glad to see (Luna) put that forward.”

Eliminating the provision would mark a major symbolic victory for Baku in a long-running diplomatic struggle in the South Caucasus.

According to FARA filings, Friedlander’s lobbying outreach to repeal Section 907 spans years.

Friedlander told EVN Report that Azerbaijan’s lobbying efforts include underscoring why the country is important to America.

“When we explain to members of Congress the vital role that Azerbaijan plays in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, it gives members a much more precise picture of Azerbaijan’s importance to the United States,” he said.

Friedlander wrote a memo to Luna and other members of Congress, stating that “a permanent repeal of Section 907 is needed to align U.S. foreign policy with current realities and strengthen bilateral relations with Azerbaijan — a key ally in regional stability.”

About a month after Luna introduced the bill in December as its sole sponsor, Friedlander sent at least one email to another member of Congress, hoping for a co-sponsor to support Luna’s effort, according to FARA filings.

Lobbying Shapes U.S.-Backed Armenia-Azerbaijan Transit Deal

On Aug. 8, 2025, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a U.S.-brokered deal at the White House, signaling the first steps toward peace. It includes a number of MOUs and a framework for the Trump Road for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP). Although Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to peace in principle, the deal has yet to be finalized.

Sitting together at the long signing table, U.S. President Donald Trump, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev endorsed a peace declaration that gives the U.S. exclusive development rights over a nearly 43-kilometer transit route across Armenia’s Syunik region for up to 99 years.

Under the deal, Armenia will retain sovereignty over the territory, but it will grant exclusive development rights to a joint U.S.-Armenian company to plan, build and operate the transit route connecting mainland Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave. The U.S. would hold a controlling stake (74%) and Armenia would own the remaining share (26%).

No U.S. company has publicly secured a TRIPP contract yet. But ExxonMobil signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Azerbaijan’s state oil company, SOCAR, the same day as the White House deal.

Azerbaijan, a petrostate, has mobilized its own lobbying network to advance its interests involving the TRIPP project. Firms representing Baku have been working to provide members of Congress and administration officials with data, policy briefings and recommendations.

“We’ve worked with a lot of members of Congress and done outreach to the administration, including leadership in the House and Senate,” said Skyline’s Chris Stewart. “We’ve been able to provide them with useful information and we were really glad to see that they’ve taken some action on some of these issues.”

In September 2025, a month after the normalization talks, SOCAR hired a new lobbying firm, First International Resources LLC, based in New Jersey, to “explain to U.S. policymakers and others the strategic role SOCAR plays in a geopolitically important industry.”

Armenians, meanwhile, are adamant that their nation’s sovereignty and security not be diminished.

“Aliyev always looked at Armenia as weaker militarily and economically,” said Raezler. “When we were advising the administration, we knew we had to close that power gap.”

The trade route was initially dubbed the “Zangezur Corridor” by Azerbaijan. Armenian officials and Armenian diaspora groups have long viewed the term as politically loaded, believing it implies Azerbaijani control over a strategic Armenian region.

Jemal and Global ARM encouraged plans for calling it TRIPP, instead of “Zangezur Corridor” — a move the Trump administration was quickly in favor of given President Trump’s desire to hold a legacy of being known as a “peacemaker and unifier,” as he suggests in his second inaugural address.

“Something that is a notable success (for the U.S.) is that this is not, at least as it currently stands, a military engagement by the U.S. at all,” said Artin DerSimonian, a Eurasia research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “Bringing these parties together, securing, hopefully, what will be built as a transit route, but also pipelines and electricity infrastructure, without the U.S. having boots on the ground is an important achievement.”

In addition to peace proposals, Raezler argued that economic leverage is also central to the administration’s approach.

“This is an administration that builds everything off of economics first,” he said, adding that expanded U.S. trade routes through the South Caucasus could serve as a counterweight to Chinese commerce routes if Armenia and Azerbaijan resolve their conflict and TRIPP is implemented.

Taken together, Global ARM, McKeon and Plurus represent a recalibrated diaspora lobbying effort designed, not simply to defend Armenia from legislative setbacks, but to shape U.S. policy.

“We’re in a position as a diaspora organization to advocate for things on the security cooperation front,” said Kerr, noting it’s a space where Armenian interests typically are less prominent.

Global ARM worked closely with Congressmen Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) on the nearly year-long development of the Peace Act, a bill intended to deter renewed violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan as U.S.-backed normalization efforts moved forward.

The legislation focuses on increasing congressional oversight of Azerbaijan’s military actions. But not all Armenian advocates embraced the bill. Some diaspora groups view the measure as too limited, arguing that any breach of peace negotiations should trigger strong, broad penalties.

“(The Peace Act) really showed the lines of division within the Armenian lobbying groups,” said Raezer. “Other groups in the diaspora viewed the Peace Act negatively — they wanted it to solve everything at once.”

Despite divergent viewpoints on the bill, Raezler noted that “the level of support in Congress for violence not being tolerated showcases the enormous success these efforts are having.”