Gullible Press Herald Falls for Mills Admin Spin on Resignation of Contentious ONA Director

In a textbook case of swallowing government spin whole, the Portland Press Herald on Tuesday published a story on the resignation of Tarlan Ahmadov, the embattled director of Maine’s Office of New Americans (ONA), without so much as a whiff of skepticism.

Ahmadov, who stepped down on Tuesday, cited “personal health reasons” in his resignation letter—a convenient excuse that the Press Herald dutifully parroted while going to great lengths not to mention or attribute the allegations of bias and corruption against Ahmadov to reporting done by the Maine Wire regarding Ahmadov in recent months.

“After careful consideration and due to personal health reasons, I have decided to step down from my role as director of the Office of New Americans,” Ahmadov wrote in his resignation letter. “I wish the office well as it continues its important work.”

The truth? Ahmadov’s exit is almost certainly the result of the Maine Wire investigative reporting that exposed his anti-Armenian bias, questionable foreign ties bearing on his advocacy of outside interests here in Maine, and a stunning lack of vetting by Governor Janet Mills’ administration.

From social media posts denigrating Armenians—calling them “occupants” of the western U.S. and caricaturing the ethically-Armenian Kim Kardashian as a horned devil—to his alleged role as an unregistered foreign agent for Azerbaijan, Ahmadov’s record ought to have been a glaring red flag for anyone tasked with running an office meant to champion diversity and inclusion.

His junket last May to Azerbaijan — including to occupied territories — alongside Democratic lawmakers like Rep. Deqa Dhalac, Rep. Mana Abdi, and Sen. Jill Duson, funded by a regime accused of ethnic cleansing Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, only deepened the scandal.

The Press Herald neatly skirts around the fact that it was the Maine Wire that originally revealed this information about Ahmadov by framing it as allegations from the Armenian Cultural Association of Maine.

In late February, Gerard Kiladjian, the president of the Armenian Cultural Association of Maine sent a letter to Gov. Janet Mills calling for Ahmadov’s resignation, citing his social media posts, the May 2024 trip to Azerbaijan he facilitated and other conduct.

Importantly, however, that letter was only sent after the Maine Wire published two articles on Ahmadov’s social media posts and had forwarded that information to the Armenian Cultural Association of Maine for comment.

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

The Press Herald seems content to let the Mills administration off the hook. Its article on Ahmadov’s resignation repeats his health-related excuse and a bland statement from the Governor’s Office on Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF) spokesperson Jackie Farwell, who in an email to the outlet said the office “respects his decision to resign” and promises an interim director to carry on the office’s “important work.”

Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte, a Westbrook city councilor who is ethnically Armenian and a longtime Democrat, took the Press Herald to task in a comment posted on their website on Wednesday:

“We have tried to get you to report on this hateful behavior for months, Portland Press Herald, but my letter to the editor last May regarding his suspicious trip to Turkey and Azerbaijan … which was slated to be published, suddenly wasn’t being published at the last minute … Own it. When it comes to anti-Armenianism, it isn’t newsworthy to you,” Turcotte wrote.

The contrast could not be starker — while the Maine Wire has been covering Ahmadov’s controversial statements and his ties to Azerbaijan for months, the Press Herald only covered the matter after it had received talking points from the Mills administration.

The Mills administration isn’t talking to the Maine Wire, and why would they? With the Press Herald playing along, they don’t have to. Ahmadov’s Soviet-style erasure from the ONA website and his likely forced exit are embarrassing enough without the governor’s office or the Press Herald admitting the Maine Wire’s reporting raised questions that they found too difficult to answer directly.

Ahmadov’s profile has vanished from the office’s website, and the ONA’s first meeting, originally slated for April 14, was pushed to June 4—a clear sign of internal chaos.

The ONA appears to be limping on with its lone remaining staffer, Ekhlas Ahmed, whose own past comments—like denying the need for immigrants to assimilate and vowing to “fight for Sudan” from Maine—raise fresh doubts about the office’s direction.

The Press Herald’s credulity isn’t just a journalistic lapse; it’s a disservice to Mainers who deserve to know why their tax dollars were funneled to a man with a history of bias and foreign entanglements.

Ahmadov’s resignation isn’t a quiet, health-related footnote—it’s a scandal the Mills administration hopes will fade away. Thanks to the Maine Wire, it won’t. While the Press Herald did run a pro forma piece on Ahmadov’s suspiciously early departure, they didn’t call out the scandal for what it was. Instead, they were content to regurgitate the Mills administration’s official line, paper it over and hope that no one noticed.