Janet Mills Recognizes Armenian Genocide After Appointing Anti-Armenian Activist to State Migrant Office

Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) on Thursday signed a proclamation recognizing the Armenian genocide just months after appointed a now-resigned anti-Armenian activist to run her state migrant resettlement office.

In December, Gov. Mills appointed Tarlan Ahmadov as the first director of the Maine Office of New Americans (ONA), a taxpayer-funded migrant resettlement office which the Mills administration has said is aimed at helping the administration attract 75,000 new workers to the state over the next five years by facilitating the incorporation of immigrants into the workforce.

Ahmadov, himself an immigrant to the U.S. from Azerbaijan, founded the nonprofit Azerbaijan Society of Maine, and previously worked as the state refugee coordinator with Catholic Charities Maine.

Ahmadov resigned from his position as ONA director in early April. Although he cited personal health reasons for his departure from the office, his resignation came after scrutiny and calls for his resignation over his anti-Armenian social media activity and ties to Azerbaijan uncovered by The Maine Wire.

In now-deleted posts to X, Ahmadov referred to  Armenia as an “Occupant and Aggressor” with a map showing the Armenian flag covering the western seaboard of the U.S., an area of the country with a large Armenian-American diaspora population, suggested that celebrity Kim Kardashian is a terrorist for making a donation to an Armenian organization and called former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick “turkophobic” for making a statement in support of Armenia against Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Ahmadov also facilitated a trip to Azerbaijan  — including to areas recently subject to military occupation by Azerbaijan — funded by the Azeri government last summer alongside state lawmakers Rep. Deqa Dhalac (D-South Portland), Rep. Mana Abdi (D-Lewiston) and Sen. Jill Duson (D-Cumberland).

Despite claiming that his resignation was due to health reasons, Ahmadov was quickly reinstated to his previous role at the Maine Department of Labor as the Bureau of Employment Services Division Director of Programs, where he will be the interdepartmental lead for work coordinated with Maine’s DHHS on refugee services.

Gov. Mills issued the proclamation on Thursday, April 24, which is observed as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day by the Armenian diaspora.

“[T]he State of Maine joins the Armenian-American community in Maine in commemorating of the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, to remember tragic loss of life and land, and to recognize the human rights of Armenian people,” the special recognition from the governor reads.

“[B]e it resolved that I, Janet T. Mills, Governor of the State of Maine, do hereby recognize April 24, 2025 as a day of remembrance for the Armenian Genocide, in memory of the victims and to honor the survivors and their descendants, and I urge all citizens of Maine to join in this solemn remembrance,” it reads.