The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) on April 9, has launched a nationwide grassroots campaign urging former President Donald Trump to block a controversial U.S. Export-Import (EXIM) Bank loan guarantee for the sale of Boeing cargo aircraft to Azerbaijan’s Silk Way West Airlines.
The $339 million loan, approved on March 31, 2025, would support the delivery of dual-use aircraft to the Azerbaijani carrier by spring 2026. ANCA argues that the move risks fueling further militarization by Azerbaijan’s authoritarian regime and could escalate regional tensions.
In a statement, ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian condemned the decision as “dangerous and deeply irresponsible,” calling on Trump to overrule EXIM Bank’s authorization. “The EXIM Bank’s action is not only morally indefensible, it is strategically short-sighted—contrary to U.S. laws, our international obligations, and humanitarian values,” Hamparian said.
Silk Way Airlines, closely tied to the Azerbaijani government and President Ilham Aliyev, has previously been linked to arms shipments to conflict zones, according to investigations by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and The Washington Post. These reports document the airline’s role in transporting weapons during Azerbaijan’s military campaigns against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in 2020 and 2023, the latter culminating in the displacement of over 120,000 Armenians in what observers have described as ethnic cleansing.
The ANCA’s campaign, available at anca.org/exim, mobilizes Armenian Americans and human rights advocates nationwide to demand immediate intervention. The organization warns that the loan could:
- Violate U.S. export control laws, including the Export Administration Regulations and International Traffic in Arms Regulations;
- Contravene U.S. sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and the FREEDOM Support Act;
- Undermine regional peace by strengthening Azerbaijan’s military capacity;
- Enable further ethnic cleansing and cultural erasure in Artsakh;
- Undermine U.S. credibility by associating American taxpayer resources with a regime facing war crimes allegations.
Citing investigative reports, the ANCA notes that Silk Way planes have made multiple arms shipments from Israel’s Ovda Airbase to Baku in early 2025, a pattern seen before prior Azerbaijani offensives. Past U.S. support for the airline also includes EXIM Bank guarantees totaling $420 million in 2014 and $1 billion in 2017—both of which were followed by documented military transport missions.
The organization also raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, pointing to former U.S. generals who later worked with Silk Way following their roles in overseeing military logistics during the Afghanistan war.
“Armenian Americans will not stand by as our government bankrolls the very aircraft used to bomb civilians and erase our ancestral homeland,” Hamparian said. “We call on President Trump to act now—and we call on all Americans to join us in this urgent stand for justice and peace.”
