Anatomy of a Disinformation Attack: Fake Website Targets Armenian Prime Minister and Defense Minister

Hayk Hovhannisyan

Starting September 26, some online reports alleged that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Defense Minister Suren Papikyan were involved in human trafficking and in operating a network providing sexual services involving minors.

The source of this information was a newly created website called "Armenia Daily," which published an article on September 24 claiming that Papikyan runs a "criminal empire" operating under the guise of spa salons in Armenia, a small landlocked country in the South Caucasus region.

Despite the complete absence of evidence, this information quickly spread through Azerbaijani media outlets and then several Armenian news sources. 

#CivilNetCheck has investigated the mechanism behind the spread of this fake news, which appears to be part of a broader disinformation campaign targeting the country's leadership.

How the Disinformation Spread

The armeniadaily[.]org website, presenting itself as an Armenian news outlet, was registered just one day before the publication, on September 23, 2025. Registration details, including ownership information, are hidden through privacy protection services. The website contains no information about its owners, editorial staff, or authors. 

The article is unsigned, and aside from the main fake publication, the site contains only seven other articles republished from legitimate Armenian media outlets. Notably, some articles are backdated to September 19, even though the site was only registered on September 23.

The article's dissemination began two days later, on September 26, when the Azerbaijani outlet Haqqin.az published it, presenting "Armenia Daily" as a credible "Armenian news source." Azerbaijan, Armenia's eastern neighbor, has been in a state of conflict with Armenia for decades over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Subsequently, the story was republished by "Turanian Express" and other Azerbaijani Telegram channels.

That same day, the news appeared in the Armenian media landscape.

AI-generated ‘evidence’

The article also contained a two-minute video in which an AI-synthesized voice read the article's text in Armenian, accompanied by stock images taken from the internet. Additionally, the video featured purported testimony in Armenian from a supposed former spa center employee—again generated by artificial intelligence. It should be noted that neither the article nor the video contains any authentic documents, photographs, witness statements, or other verifiable evidence.

Video from the article on armeniadaily[.]org website

The footage of the woman shown in the video, presented as the owner of spa centers and Suren Papikyan's alleged business partner, was actually taken from an awards ceremony video uploaded to YouTube in September 2016—predating the current political administration by years.

#CivilNetCheck was able to identify this woman. She does indeed own a spa center in Yerevan, Armenia's capital (only one legitimate wellness center, not a criminal network as claimed in the article). The center has been registered and operating since 2010 under proper business licenses (we are not disclosing the name or additional details to protect her from further targeting).

In a conversation with the #CivilNetCheck, the owner stated that the publication is completely fabricated. "The center has operated transparently for many years and has a good reputation in the community. The information published on this unknown website is entirely false and defamatory," she said.

One piece of evidence of the center's legitimate operation is the "International Star for Quality" award it received in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2016, which is granted to companies that meet international quality management standards established by the Business Initiative Directions organization.

The Armenian Ministry of Defense published an official denial on September 26, stating that the allegations "not only bear no relation to reality but are absurd." The ministry also announced that all data had been forwarded to the National Security Service for further investigation and potential criminal charges related to defamation and the spread of false information.

Armenian Authorities as Targets of Hybrid Information Warfare

This is not the first instance of similar accusations and fake news being spread against high-ranking Armenian government officials. About a month earlier, on August 21, an article was published on the "VT Foreign Policy" platform about National Assembly Speaker (equivalent to a parliamentary speaker) Alen Simonyan, titled "The Armenian Jeffrey Epstein," making similar baseless accusations of involvement in sex trafficking.

Armenian fact-checkers at Fip.am had determined that the "evidence" presented was fabricated and that the platform was linked to Russian propaganda networks. Alen Simonyan also addressed this topic publicly, speaking about the hybrid information war being waged against Armenia. This context is significant given Armenia's complex geopolitical position, caught between Russia (its traditional security partner), Turkey, Azerbaijan, and increasing ties with Western nations and the European Union.

Similar disinformation articles have been appearing regularly since the beginning of 2025. In addition to targeting high-ranking leaders, fabricated and false information has been published alleging various nefarious Western activities in Armenia. These include a deepfake video accusing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of pedophilia, fake news about him allegedly purchasing luxury villas in France and Canada, stories about First Lady Anna Hakobyan supposedly embezzling millions of dollars from charitable foundations, fabricated "investigations" claiming European pharmaceutical companies are testing experimental medicines on Armenians without consent, and more.

In all these cases, the same tactical approach has been employed: short-term, anonymous websites have been created or known propaganda platforms used, through which scandalous allegations and fake news have been circulated on Telegram channels and picked up by media outlets without any credible evidence or journalistic verification.

Thus, the scandalous accusations spread against Defense Minister Suren Papikyan and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan are entirely baseless. Unknown actors created them on a newly created website using artificial intelligence technology and stolen photographs of real people who have no connection to the alleged activities.