CSI Backs Swiss Peace Initiative for Nagorno Karabakh in DC

Eibner Joins Swiss Parliamentarians and ex-Armenian Foreign Minister for Congressional Briefing

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, July 3, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Next week, CSI’s President John Eibner will join two Swiss members of parliament - Erich Vontobel and Lukas Reimann - and ex-Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian in Washington DC to present the Swiss Peace Initiative for Nagorno Karabakh.

On July 8, the delegation will present the Swiss Peace Initiative in a Congressional Briefing on Capitol Hill, at 3:00-4:00 pm in Room 2044 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Nagorno Karabakh (or Artsakh) was home to 120,000 Armenian Christians – one of the oldest Christian communities in the world – until the entire population was expelled during an Azerbaijani military operation in September 2023, following a nine-month blockade.

In March of this year, the Swiss parliament mandated the Swiss government to hold a peace forum within one year, where representatives of the expelled Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh will be able to meet with representatives from Azerbaijan to prepare their safe return to their homeland.

“The Swiss Peace Initiative is the most significant effort undertaken by any Western nation to promote the safe return of Armenian Christians to their homeland,” said John Eibner. “If the United States were to lend its support, it could make a crucial contribution to peace and prosperity in a dangerously unstable region and offer hope of saving one of the world’s oldest Christian communities from disappearing.”

Five days before Azerbaijan began its attack on Nagorno Karabakh in September 2023, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Yuri Kim testified to Congress, “We will not tolerate any attack on the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Nevertheless, the U.S. tacitly accepted the destruction of Nagorno Karabakh, with President Biden smiling for a photo-op with the Azerbaijani foreign minister just two days after the Azerbaijani attack began.

In the 2024 electoral campaign President Trump declared: “120,000 Armenian Christians were horrifically persecuted and forcibly displaced in Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh)… When I am President, I will protect persecuted Christians, I will work to stop the violence and ethnic cleansing, and we will restore PEACE between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

John Eibner says, “The Swiss Peace Initiative provides the United States with an opportunity to make good on that pledge. That is why we are coming to DC next week.”

Joel Veldkamp
Christian Solidarity International
+41 76 258 15 74
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