Tarlan Ahmadov, the director of the Maine Office of New Americans (ONA) who has recently faced calls for his resignation over his history of making anti-Armenian comments on social media and for taking several Maine lawmakers on a eyebrow-raising gift trip to Azerbaijan, appears to be vacationing at a ritzy lakeside Italian resort.
[RELATED: Did Janet Mills Hire an Unregistered Foreign Agent to Run Maine’s New Migrant Office?…]
Last Thursday, Ahmadov uploaded a new cover photo to his Facebook account showing a picture taken at Lake Como, Italy, a glacial lake nestled among the Alps in northern Italy renowned as a tourist destination for its luxury resorts and villas, and as a retreat for the wealthy and elite.
In the comments below his post, Ahmadov stated that the picture was taken from the promenade along Lake Como.
Ahmadov doesn’t say when the picture was taken, but it’s first image of the glamorous resort town to ever appear on his Facebook page.
He has diligently avoided responding the Maine Wire’s inquiries about his anti-Armenian comments, his deleted Twitter account, the junket to Turkey and Azerbaijan that he orchestrated, and the allegation from Armenian-American critics that he’s served as an unregistered foreign agent for the Azeri government.
Ahmadov was appointed by Gov. Janet Mills as director of the state migrant resettlement office in December 2024.
Ahmadov, himself an immigrant to Maine from Azerbaijan, is the founder of the nonprofit Azerbaijan Society of Maine, which reported about $110,000 of revenue in fiscal year 2023.
The 2023 tax document Ahamdov filed for the supposed charitable group included, perhaps accidentally, an expenditure list showing how the 501(c)3 groups spent its money, including $15,061 for an event and $12,144 on food.
In May 2024, Ahmadov facilitated a trip to the long-disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan for three Democratic Maine lawmakers, Rep. Deqa Dhalac (D-South Portland), Rep. Mana Abdi (D-Lewiston) and Sen. Jill Duson (D-Cumberland).
[RELATED: The Sinister Side of Tarlan Ahmadov’s Shusha Junket…]
The region had been militarily occupied by Azerbaijan in 2020, and the ethnic Armenians who lived there prior to the Azeri government’s military operation have since become refugees.
The trip was listed as a gift on the legislators’ financial disclosures, paid for by an agency of the government of Azerbaijan.
Joining the Maine lawmakers on that trip to Azerbaijan was Somali-American Abdullahi Ali, director of the nonprofit and LLC Gateway Community Services, Maine.
The Maine Wire recently reported that at the time Ali was receiving tens of millions of dollars in payments through MaineCare via Gateway Community Services, Ali was running for office in Somalia and was boasting of raising funds for para-military forces in Somalia.
State Rep. Dhalac, now a member of the State Legislature’s powerful appropriations committee, worked as assistant executive director at Ali’s Gateway Community Services until at least 2023, according to her financial disclosures.
Prior to heading up the ONA, Ahmadov worked as an employment programs overseer at the Maine Department of Labor making a taxpayer-funded compensation of about $138,881, and before that was the longtime state refugee resettlement coordinator for Catholic Charities Maine.
Although a standalone bill to create the ONA sponsored by Dhalac failed to garner enough support for passage in the last legislative session just over $300,000 to fund the creation of the ONA was appended to the supplemental budget, which was passed.
There are just two staff positions in the office: the director role held by Ahmadov, and a policy analyst position held by Ekhlas Ahmed.
Ahmed, who resettled in Maine through Catholic Charities after fleeing the civil war in Sudan in 2005, said in an April 2024 interview that she vows to “fight for Sudan” with all her capacities and advocated against the assimilation of immigrants.
Ahmed was also present with Ahmadov, Abdullahi Ali and the Maine lawmakers on their trip to Azerbaijan last year.
