Embattled Director of Mills Migrant Resettlement Office Tied to Turkish Coup Plotter

As Armenian-Americans in Maine voice their outrage with past anti-Armenian advocacy by Gov. Janet Mills’ (D) newly appointed Director of the Office of New Americans Tarlan Ahmadov, The Maine Wire is taking a deeper look at the controversial state employee’s associations with foreign governments and movements.

Last May, Ahmadov escorted two Maine state lawmakers on a trip to the city of Shusha in Nagorno-Karabakh — the subject of a longstanding conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia which Azeri forces occupied several years ago.

“Our visit to Shusha was unforgettable for me. I especially want to talk about the restoration and reconstruction works carried out by the Azerbaijani government in Shusha, Lachin, and other liberated territories over the past 4 years,” Rep. Deca Dhalac (D-South Portland) said at the time. The Maine state representative then went on to offer her opinion about Azerbaijan’s policies in the contested area:

“Of course, the (Azeri) government is doing its best for the return of internally displaced persons to their homes as soon as possible … I hope that the Republic of Azerbaijan will successfully complete this work.”

[RELATED: Maine ‘Office of New Americans’ Director Faces Backlash, Calls for Resignation Over Anti-Armenian Social Media Posts]

These comments track closely with official Azeri state policy focused on legitimizing the country’s war-time gains and control of the territory. The democracy and human rights watchdog group Freedom House ranks Azerbaijan as “Not Free” and a “Consolidated Authoritarian Regime.” Why Portland area legislators were conducting a field trip there is mildly mystifying, but then again so are many things about Portland.

More intriguing still is a venture Ahmadov spearheaded more than ten years ago to establish a charter school in Lewiston. According to corporate records, Ahmadov was the registered agent and director of Lewiston-Auburn Academy Charter School, Inc., the corporate entity that attempted to establish a controversial Islamic charter school in Maine in 2013. While that effort was unsuccessful, and dogged by accusations about misrepresentations of who in Lewiston really supported it, much has come to light in the intervening years about the group on whose behalf Ahmadov sought to found and operate the charter school.

[RELATED: Lewiston Mayor, City Council ask Charter School Commission to reject application over alleged misrepresentations]

In an 800-page application, the prospective Lewiston-Auburn Academy Charter School drew heavily in its inspiration from the Harmony Charter Schools, according to an education watchdog group monitoring events at that time. The Harmony schools were one of a number companies operating almost 200 charter schools across America within the network of a recently-deceased Turkish cleric named Fethullah Gülen.

Gülen, who died on his reclusive compound in the Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania late last year, was widely believed to have been the organizer of a 2016 attempted coup d’etat in Turkey.

Associated investigations from 2017 to the present have led to the criminal indictment of Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) for acting as a foreign agent for Azerbaijan, and conviction of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan for corruption. Both Cuellar and Madigan participated in multiple trips to Azerbaijan and Turkey organized by Gülen’s network.

In addition to concerns about Gülen’s role in the failed Turkish coup, questions have swirled in the years since Ahmadov’s unsuccessful charter school application in Lewiston about what appears to be a coordinated and concentrated effort by the Gülen network to engage and even financially support U.S. politicians and officials at the local, state and federal levels, forcing many to actually return contributions in the year following the abortive LAACS application.

While nothing in the Office of New Americans program descriptions advocates ties with foreign governments or movements, the past ventures of its first director only compound concerns about disparaging comments he has publicly made about Armenia and its citizens. Ahmadov’s background also raises questions about how closely the Mills Administration vetted the Azeri nationalist — as well as other staffers in the office — prior to putting them in charge of migrant resettlement in Maine.