During the bad old days of the Soviet Union, a state official could legally shirk punishment by pretending to sick and checking into a hospital. In fact, according to Soviet law, it was illegal to fire someone who was “in hospital.” Born and raised in the former Soviet state of Azerbaijan, Maine state apparatchik Tarlan Ahmadov likely knew this.
Understanding this, it comes as little surprise that as public scrutiny mounted over Ahmadov’s virulently anti-Armenian advocacy, a dubious foreign-paid trip he organized for Maine state lawmakers to the authoritarian, now independent Azerbaijan, and possible shilling for a foreign government, Ahmadov claimed his resignation as director from the newly-formed Office of New Americans was due to health reasons.
Yet quietly, Ahmadov was at the same time re-hired by the Maine Department of Labor (DOL) for a top-paying job for the which the description essentially has him facilitating communications with another state agency, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). What really happened here? The Maine Wire takes a closer look.
Tarlan’s Resignation, Reinstatement and the Lie of ‘Personal Health’ Concerns
In December, Gov. Mills appointed Tarlan Ahmadov as the first director of the Maine Office of New Americans (ONA), the taxpayer-funded state migrant resettlement office aimed at helping the administration attract 75,000 new workers to the state over the next five years.
Tarlan Ahmadov resigned from his position of ONA director on Tuesday, April 2, citing “personal health reasons.”
The Maine Wire obtained a copy of Ahmadov’s resignation letter via a Freedom of Access Act (FOAA), revealing that the “letter” was a two-sentence email sent on April 1 to Hannah Pingree, the director of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF), the department which oversees the ONA.
“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 the email to Pingree. “I wish the office well as it continues its important work.”
Hannah Pingree, daughter of Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, repeated the claim that Ahmadov had stepped down due to health reasons at the first meeting of the ONA’s advisory council earlier this month.
“As we get going, I want to thank Tarlan Ahmadov, who many of you know had to recently step down as the director of the Office of New Americans for medical reasons,” Pingree said during her opening remarks at the meeting.
“Tarlan met with many of you over the course of the last several months, and contributed a great deal to our planning work,” Pingree added. “He is no longer with the office, but we are grateful for his contributions.”
The Maine Wire has now confirmed that Ahmadov, despite his claim of having to resign from the ONA due to health reasons, was rehired to his former position as the Director of the Division of Programs at the Bureau of Employment Services within the Maine Department of Labor (DOL) just weeks later.
An internal DOL email sent by DOL Bureau of Employment Services Director Kimberley Moore reveals that Ahmadov now serves as the “interdepartmental lead” for coordinating refugee services with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, suggesting his exit from the ONA was largely symbolic.
Ahmadov’s swift rehiring raises doubts about the “health reasons” narrative, especially given his controversial background.
Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson contacted Tarlan Ahmadov shortly after news of his resignation became public. Below is a transcript of that phone call with Ahmadov:
Robinson: Hi, is this Tarlan?
Ahmadov: Speaking.
Robinson: This is Steve Robinson from the Maine Wire.
Ahmadov: Yeah.
Robinson: I was calling to pass along well wishes because I saw the press release that the Mills administration put out saying that you were in ill health. I was sorry to hear about that.
Ahmadov: Yes, I am very sick.
Robinson: Yes, so I mean, it sounds like you can talk. Are you able to talk about any of the topics that we’ve been reporting on, like the junket to Turkey and Azerbaijan or the position that you just resigned from at the Office of New Americans? Or are you too sick to talk?
Ahmadov: No. I’m not feeling good to talk about it.
Robinson: Okay.
Ahmadov: Yeah, thank you, and my health is really not doing well.
Robinson: Okay.
Ahmadov: Okay? Thank you for calling me, I appreciate your help.
Robinson: Is there a time, maybe later, when we could talk?
Ahmadov: I don’t know, maybe, but now, at the moment, I’m really under the treatment, I cannot do well.
Robinson: Okay, and what is your choice to resign? Or were you forced to resign?
Ahmadov: I don’t want to answer to this question, sir, I am not in this position to answer at the moment, okay?
Robinson: Okay, and–
Ahmadov: I am very — health wise, I’m very sick.
Robinson: Okay, is there anyone in line to replace you?
Ahmadov: I don’t know anything, so — I am out of my office and I resigned. I just couldn’t answer any questions, sorry.
Robinson: And why was Abdullahi Ali on the junket?
Ahmadov: I don’t know who you are talking about. I don’t know what are you talking, sir, I don’t know what–
Robinson: From Gateway Community Services, Deqa Dhalac’s friend, Abdullahi.
Ahmadov: So sir, I am just saying goodbye to you, I cannot talk, please.
Robinson: Okay, Alright. Well, thank you, have a good evening.
Ahmadov: You too.
While it appears that Hannah Pingree was more than willing to repeat the lie that Ahmadov resigned due to “health reasons” and to praise him in public, in private she indicated she was fully aware of Ahmadov’s bigoted statements towards Armenians.
In a text message to Westbrook City Councilor Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte, an Armenian-American whose family had to flee Azerbaijan as refugees when she was child, Pingree said she would be looking into why Ahmadov was rehired to the DOL position, citing “union and state employee rules.”
“Anna I understand why you might be frustrated about the DOL position. Let me check in with HR to see what I am allowed to share with you about why that happened. There are union and state employee rules that I’m not expert on,” Pingree wrote to Turcotte.
“I can tell you I take very seriously why you had concerns with Tarlan and I say with all honestly [sic] that I took your concerns very seriously and to heart. And I absolutely don’t agree with what he’s said or how he’s treated Armenians. I don’t condone his actions. I’m sorry you feel this way and I’d be happy to connect again,” she wrote.
Turcotte wrote in reply to Pingree: “I was sexually assaulted at 11 years old at the height of massacres of Armenians organized by his puppeteer, the government of Azerbaijan. The assault occurred by the same type of smiley Tarlan that you praise in your meetings: shady, hateful and gross. NO union rules or first amendment rights forced YOU to praise him. I’m not frustrated. I’m fearful of what people like him feel they can do to me and my children because people in power play cute politics and afford him unlimited impunity.”
Some of Ahmadov’s past controversial statements were published by the Maine Wire earlier this year, and led to calls for his resignation from prominent members of Maine’s Armenian community.
In now-deleted posts on X, Ahmadov referred to Armenians living in the U.S. as occupants and aggressors, 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.
The Trip to Azerbaijan: Caviar Diplomacy for Maine Democrats, Paltry FOAA Response
There is more to the story of Tarlan Ahmadov then just bigoted social media posts and anti-Armenian activism, however.
Ahmadov is the founder and director of the Azerbaijan Society of Maine, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is part of a network of Azeri diaspora groups, the Congress of Azerbaijani Societies of America (CASA).
In May 2024, Ahmadov facilitated facilitated a trip to 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), as well as Cumberland County probate court judge Paul Aranson.
Also present on the trip was Abdullahi Ali, executive director and nominal head of Gateway Community Services, LLC and the nonprofit Gateway Community Services, Maine.
The delegation included a visit — in between meetings with various Azeri state officials, apparently — to Shusha, a city in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, the area occupied by Azerbaijan in 2020 amid the displacement of over 100,000 ethnic Armenians
Dhalac, Duson, and Abdi all listed the trip on their financial disclosures with the Maine Ethics Commission, with the payor described as “Fund to Support Azerbaijan Diaspora” or “Fund for Support Azerbaijan Diaspora,” a fund directly managed by the State Committee on Work with Diaspora of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which is in turn under the direct oversight of the government of Azerbaijan.
The trip shows all the telltale signs of Azerbaijan’s well-documented “caviar diplomacy,” a strategy of leveraging lavish trips and lobbying to polish its image abroad.
Rep. Dhalac praised Azerbaijan’s “restoration” efforts in Shusha to state-controlled Azeri media, while Sen. Duson expressed interest in solar power cooperation, seemingly unaware of Azerbaijan’s “green-washing” tactics, such as COP 29 in Baku.
The Maine Wire submitted a request under FOAA to the state for all communications between Ahmadov and the lawmakers who went on the trip to Azerbaijan, as well as any communications between those lawmakers and any agents of the Azeri government, whether they be representatives of NGOs or offices of the Government of Azerbaijan.
So far, the state has only responded with just two text messages between Ahmadov and Rep. Deqa Dhalac, which can be seen below.
The Maine Wire also received images of what appear to be screenshots of an itinerary for the trip, which show that Dhalac — and presumably the other members of the Maine delegation — had meetings with Azeri state agencies.
However, a full travel itinerary for the trip was not included in the response to the Maine Wire’s FOAA request.
Also, Ahmadov’s communications with the state legislators following the trip appear to have been omitted from the Maine Wire’s FOAA request. In a follow-on piece in The Bollard about the Ahmadov scandal, however, communications between the trio and Ahmadov are referenced. In these, the legislators reportedly expressed concern about the reaction to the Azeri junket to Ahmadov, who advised them to “ignore it.”
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), a pro-Armenian political advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday posted a call to action for people in Maine to demand Gov. Janet Mills remove Ahmadov from any role within state government.
“Join the Armenian National Committee of Maine and concerned community members in demanding that Governor Janet Mills permanently remove Tarlan Ahmadov from any role within the Maine State Government,” ANCA wrote.
“Ahmadov’s documented record of anti-Armenian bigotry, his coordination with the authoritarian Azerbaijani regime, and his facilitation of a government-funded propaganda trip to Artsakh, where Azerbaijan carried out a genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing, are unconscionable and disqualifying for public service,” they wrote.
Read more of The Maine Wire’s coverage of Tarlan Ahmadov and the Office of New Americans:
- Maine ‘Office of New Americans’ Director Faces Backlash, Calls for Resignation Over Anti-Armenian Social Media Posts
- Governor Mills’ Appointees Fill Out Office of New Americans Council, First Meeting Yet to Be Set
- Resigned ONA Director Tarlan Ahmadov Reinstated at MDOL Despite Claim of ‘Personal Health’ Issues
- Ahmadov Out: Janet Mills’ Migrant Office Director Disappears from State Website Amid Maine Wire Investigation
- The Sinister Side of Tarlan Ahmadov’s Shusha Junket
- Janet Mills Recognizes Armenian Genocide After Appointing Anti-Armenian Activist to State Migrant Office
- Did Janet Mills Hire an Unregistered Foreign Agent to Run Maine’s New Migrant Office?
- Embattled Director of Mills Migrant Resettlement Office Tied to Turkish Coup Plotter
- Gullible Press Herald Falls for Mills Admin Spin on Resignation of Contentious ONA Director
