Leaked files reveal anti-ANCA campaign by London PR firm with  Azerbaijan ties - ANCA

ArmInfo.The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is demanding full transparency from Apollo Strategic Communications, a London-based public relations firm with documented ties to Azerbaijan and its Caspian energy partners, after the firm was exposed for secretly circulating a media advisory to U.S. journalists targeting the ANCA for its advocacy on behalf of Americans of Armenian heritage.

The March 2, 2026, email - sent by Apollo's Daniel Blake-Martin and  leaked by a number of news agencies that received it - invited  American editors to write hit pieces against the ANCA, recycling  false arguments regularly advanced by Azerbaijani and Turkish  government interests against pro-Armenia advocates in Washington. The  firm's memo offered American journalists access to four  off-the-record sources - including an unnamed congressional staffer,  an Armenian ruling-party MP, and figures from academic and think-tank  circles - to place stories damaging to the ANCA.

ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian described it as "a scripted  hit-piece against the ANCA sent in stealth to American journalists -  a blueprint for slander, enlisting the anonymous backing of Armenians  from Garo Paylan to Maria Karapetyan, MP - to punish the ANCA, not  for our vices but for our virtues," in a published op-ed responding  to the campaign. "Assaulted for standing foursquare for the security  of Armenia, the return of Armenians to Artsakh, the end of  Azerbaijani occupation, the protection of Christian holy sites, and -  perhaps most 'unforgivable' of all for Baku and its BP patrons -  accountability for Azerbaijan's crimes against the Armenian people."

One of those sources, Garo Paylan, has since publicly disavowed the  campaign on X, writing that "messages were sent to journalists on my  behalf regarding Armenia that I did not authorize." Since the leak,  Apollo deactivated its X (formerly Twitter) account and removed  Blake-Martin from its website.

The ANCA is pressing Apollo for answers to four key questions: Who  hired Apollo to pitch hit pieces against the ANCA, and how much were  they paid? If Apollo acted on behalf of a foreign principal in  America, against an American organization, why has it not registered  with the Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration  Act (FARA)? How and why did Apollo enlist Maria Karapetyan, Nzhdeh  Hovsepyan, and Garo Paylan in this covert campaign? And what  connections does Apollo's parent company, RSK Group, have to  Azerbaijan, the Aliyev family, and Caspian energy companies?

California Courier publisher and columnist Harut Sassounian, whose  weekly column scrutinized the Apollo memo in detail, raised the  prospect that the operation may constitute a FARA violation. "The ASC  memo was sent to the American media by a UK, not U.S., PR firm,  possibly intending to circumvent" federal foreign lobbying disclosure  requirements, Sassounian wrote - adding that Apollo failed to respond  to multiple requests for comment, "resulting in a PR firm doing  negative PR against itself."

As Sassounian reported in the California Courier, RSK Group, Apollo's  parent company, maintains a wholly owned subsidiary - Azerbaijan  Environment and Technology Centre Ltd. - with an in-country office  and active project work in the Caspian region. Apollo itself has  operated under multiple names since its registration in 2009,  previously known as "Red Public Relations Limited" and "Apollo Public  Relations Limited."

"The ANCA publicly shares our work - enlisting our community via open  calls to activism, press releases, and national townhall meetings,"  Hamparian wrote. "Apollo's involvement, by contrast, would have  remained entirely unknown had their emails not been leaked. All that  remains is for Apollo now to reveal who exactly is paying for this  anti-ANCA defamation - the terms of any contracts, and the dollar  amounts involved."