The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has criticized Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman for participating in an advertisement for Turkish Airlines.

“Shame on Morgan Freeman for shilling for #TurkishAirlines - a state air carrier that illegally ferries radicalized mercenaries around the world to fight Recep Erdogan’s proxy wars,” ANCA tweeted. The committee paraphrased the advertising slogan that Freeman says in the video, posting the following: “Making war feel close. Bringing fear to here.”

The ANCA also called for boycotting Freeman. At the same time, Armenian publications note that earlier Hollywood actor George Clooney refused a one-day contract with Turkish Airlines for $35 million. “Well, yeah. I was offered $35m for one day’s work for an airline commercial, but I talked to Amal [Clooney, the human rights lawyer he married in 2014] about it and we decided it’s not worth it. It was [associated with] a country that, although it’s an ally, is questionable at times, and so I thought: ‘Well, if it takes a minute’s sleep away from me, it’s not worth it,” he said in an interview with The Guardian.

Faktyoxla Lab. has tried to figure out how the ANCA’s claims to Turkish Airlines are justified and why George Clooney refused to appear in an advertisement for a Turkish company.

Let’s start with the fact that the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) can be called the main pillar of the Armenian lobby in the US. Its main task is to organize and coordinate lobbying activities to promote the interests of Armenia and Armenians, as well as all kinds of opposition to Turkey and Azerbaijan, which is openly announced on their official website. The main source of ANCA’s finances are donations and contributions from Armenians living in the United States.

Everything seems to be clear with ANCA.

Now let’s consider why George Clooney refused to appear in ads, what motivated him. The fact is that George Clooney, who had never been seen in political processes before, joined the Armenian propaganda club. This happened after his marriage to a British lawyer of Lebanese origin Amal Alamuddin (Clooney), who dragged him into the political struggle for Armenian interests. Thus, George Clooney visited Armenia on April 24, 2016, taking part in the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity international award ceremony. In Yerevan, Clooney delivered a fiery speech on the topic of the so-called Armenian genocide.

Amal Clooney herself, as a lawyer, defended the interests of Armenia at the trial in the case of Perinçek vs Switzerland at the ECHR and lost the case. Then Doctor of Science, leader of the Turkish Workers’ Party Dogu Perincek took part in several conferences in Switzerland, where he called the "Armenian genocide" an "international lie." Local Armenian activists tried to bring Perincek to trial. The matter reached the ECHR, where a verdict was issued, according to which Perincek did not abuse his right to freedom of speech, and there is nothing criminal in the fact that he does not consider the events of 1915 "genocide."

Amal Clooney, after losing, trying to somehow justify her fee and relieve herself of the blame for the failure to her employers, tried to prove to them that failure can be considered a victory.

Amal Clooney also lost a case in which she defended Egyptian journalists. They were accused of collaborating with terrorists, as well as spreading false information and working without accreditation. Employees of Al Jazeera, thanks to the "professional" defense of their lawyer, went to prison for three years.

Amal Clooney was even fired from job for incompetence. This happened due to the actions of the Greek government, which turned to Amal with a request to help return four ancient Greek marble bas-reliefs to their homeland. The official who supervised her work reported that Amal was unable to collect sufficient evidence to confirm that the precious works of art rightfully belong to the country.

As for the allegations that Turkish Airlines transported mercenaries, no evidence has yet been presented.

Concerning Karabakh, the topic of recruiting foreign mercenaries from Azerbaijan began to be discussed in the Armenian and Russian media even before the start of the Second Karabakh War. A certain Syrian of Armenian origin Kevork Almasyan was the first to report on the “Syrian mercenaries of Azerbaijan” on September 21, 2020 on his Twitter page.

At the same time, he didn’t refer to any reliable source, but this wasn’t taken into account, and Almasyan’s fake news was immediately distributed. On the same day, Lindsey Snell, posing as an investigative journalist, with reference to Almasyan, said that the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army is sent to Karabakh, and then posted a photo that allegedly captured the soldiers of the Hamza division, as if heading to Baku.

The Guardian, The Times, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and BBC reported about alleged mercenaries in Azerbaijan based on unverified tweets. Moreover, everyone used a similar method, which leads to certain thoughts. Thus, the Wall Street Journal in its report uses information from unnamed sources in Karabakh, ‘obtained through the messenger.’ Both sources speak in almost the same words. The Caspian and Black Sea Analysis Foundation think tank based in Bulgaria conducted research and found that Snell’s tweet served as the primary source for subsequent fake publications.

The information disseminated wasn’t verified by anyone, and apparently no one worried about its reliability. Thus, pictures of the Syrian mercenaries who allegedly ‘fought for Azerbaijan’ were published. So, one of those ‘killed in Karabakh’ - Sardar Temelli, was identified by his uncle Abdurrahman Temelli, who wrote with indignation on social networks that his nephew, whose photo was disseminated by the officials of the Armenian Defense Ministry, actually was killed during the Turkish operation ‘Tiger Claw’ on the territory of Iraq.

The Russian side also rendered great assistance to the Armenian propaganda on the issue of mercenaries. In particular, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the height of hostilities that almost 2,000 foreign mercenaries are in the zone of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. At the same time, neither he nor other officials and experts, raising this issue, have ever indicated who the Syrian mercenaries are fighting for, giving room for the fantasies of the Armenian side.

Meanwhile, Baku at the beginning of November last year handed over to Moscow a detailed list of mercenaries who fought in Karabakh on the Armenian side. In contrast to the unsubstantiated statements of Armenian and Russian sources, Azerbaijan provided detailed information, including the names and surnames, as well as the names of the relevant terrorist organizations.

At that time, the Armenians didn’t succeed in connecting Europe to the slanderous campaign. Everyone is well aware of the answer of Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Foreign Minister of Germany Heiko Maas to the relevant question of the Armenian journalist during the winter session of PACE: “You say that Azerbaijan used foreign mercenaries in hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh? So far, no evidence has been found.”

Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani side has solid evidence of Armenia’s involvement of foreign mercenaries in the war in Karabakh. This process began long before the second Karabakh war. Mercenaries were attracted by Armenia mainly from France, Canada, Lebanon, Spain, Greece and other countries. This is evidenced by foreign passports found on mercenaries killed during the fighting. Thus, the passports of Greek citizen Aren Osipov, Spanish citizen Armen Knyazyan, French citizen Arthur Hovhannisyan, Canadian citizen Christopher Artin, Lebanese citizen Gevorg Hajiyan, Syrian citizen Stepan Keshishyan and many other extremist mercenaries were found.

During the days of the war, the Azerbaijani special services published an audio recording of the radio interception, which contained the talks of foreign mercenaries fighting on the Armenian side. The State Security Service of Azerbaijan reported that it intercepted the radio communications of mercenaries from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party brought to Karabakh from Syria and Iraq.

As for Turkey itself, the officials of this country have repeatedly stated that Turkey has always been and will be next to Azerbaijan.

As for Turkish Airlines, the last time the name of the company was mentioned was in connection with the alleged transportation of migrants from Belarus to Germany.

So, on November 8 last year, the German tabloid Bild reported, citing several sources in law enforcement agencies, that Aeroflot and Turkish Airlines are involved in the transportation of migrants from Belarus to Germany. According to the publication, over the past six weeks they had transported about 6,000 migrants. A day later, Turkish Airlines stated that it was not involved in the illegal movement of migrants, including through Belarus, and called all accusations by the media "groundless." This is where the scandal with Turkish Airlines ended.

Thus, it becomes clear that the Armenian National Committee of America operates with falsified data. There is no evidence that Turkish Airlines illegally transported radical mercenaries around the world.