Okay Deprem, a self-styled Turkish journalist known for spreading pro-Kremlin narratives, is behind 40% of the false claims used in a vast Russian influence operation aimed at discrediting pro-Western Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
One of Russia’s largest influence campaigns against a foreign government relies heavily on the contribution of a Turkish citizen named Okay Deprem. NewsGuard found that approximately 40% of the false claims spread as part of a disinformation operation targeting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections on June 7, 2026, originated from Deprem.
Deprem, who describes himself as a freelance journalist, apparently travels between Russia, Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, and Turkey. According to a NewsGuard analysis, he is the author of 17 of the 43 false claims against Pashinyan spread as part of the Russian influence operation known as Storm-1516. These include claims that Pashinyan’s government has banned abortion, that the prime minister’s wife is having an affair with a Turkish actor, and that Pashinyan is planning to remove all references to the “Armenian people” from the country’s constitution.
Other false claims spread by Deprem and later picked up by Storm-1516 describe Pashinyan as a “traitor,” claiming that the Prime Minister is giving in to the demands of hostile neighbors, such as Turkey and Azerbaijan, to the detriment of Armenian interests. The accusations include the alleged sale of Armenian strategic infrastructure to Turkey and the construction of luxury residential complexes for Azerbaijani citizens on Armenian soil.
Contrary to Storm-1516’s usual strategy of creating fake news websites to spread its narratives, Deprem’s articles are published by real outlets, mostly Turkish nationalist and pro-Russian. This gives his claims a greater appearance of credibility, facilitating their diffusion in the broader media debate. (More on this tactic below.)
Okay Deprem, the man posing as a Turkish journalist whose false information is being spread by a Russian influence operation and who frequently appears in pro-Kremlin media. (Image from FakeObservers.org)
Deprem, 45, says he entered journalism for “humanitarian reasons.” He has remained a little-known figure outside his region, and NewsGuard’s analysis represents the first investigation by a Western media outlet into his role in the Storm-1516 disinformation campaign against Armenia.
Deprem did not respond to four email requests for comment from NewsGuard (his phone number could not be reached). NewsGuard also attempted to contact Deprem through some of the outlets that published his articles, but received no response.
ARMENIA’S UNENVIABLE PRIMACY
Russia has long considered Armenia, a landlocked country of about three million people located south of Russia and east of Turkey, to be part of its sphere of influence. After attempting to sway the vote in elections in Hungary and Moldova last year, the Kremlin is now stepping up efforts to oust Pashinyan, who during his time in power brought the former Soviet republic closer to the European Union and the West. Pashinyan, who came to power in 2018 following massive anti-government protests, has formally declared Armenia’s goal to join the EU and has called for European support to counter Russian electoral interference.
According to a NewsGuard analysis, with the crucial parliamentary elections of June 7, 2026, looming, Armenia has overtaken Ukraine as the primary target of Storm-1516’s influence operations. In the year leading up to the vote, between April 2025 and May 2026, the disinformation campaign spread 43 false claims against Armenia and Pashinyan, compared to 37 targeting Ukraine during the same period. Furthermore, as NewsGuard reported in November 2025, Russia began targeting the Armenian election much earlier than it had in previous campaigns targeting other countries.
Russia’s concerns appear well-founded. A recent poll by the International Republican Institute, a US-based think tank, shows that Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party maintains a clear lead ahead of the June 2026 elections. However, the outcome of the vote remains uncertain: 43% of respondents said they were undecided or did not indicate a preference in the poll.
“Russia is desperate to prevent Pashinyan’s re-election,” Ani Mejlumyan, an Armenian journalist based in the Netherlands who covers disinformation operations in the region, told NewsGuard in a phone interview. “They have a huge network in Armenia… The battle to win over undecided voters is very intense.”
Deprem appears to be one of the main disseminators of the false claims used in the Russian operation. Mejlumyan told NewsGuard that he believes his role is part of a Kremlin strategy that reflects a disinformation operation “more comprehensive and sophisticated than those observed in other European countries in recent years.”
While NewsGuard is unaware of any evidence proving a formal relationship between the Kremlin and Deprem, it is well documented that Russia has a long history of recruiting foreign influencers, commentators, and public figures to support its influence operations. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged that employees of the Russian state broadcaster RT funneled $10 million through intermediary companies to pay Western influencers to produce viral content on divisive issues and promote “Russian interests.”
CONVEYING THE KREMLIN’S NARRATIVES
Deprem has been writing about Russia-related topics for at least a decade. In 2018, he published a book in Turkish titled “Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin: The Leader Who Elevated Russia.” According to the biography on the publisher’s website, Deprem was born in Ankara and studied sociology in Turkey, later specializing in East-West relations in Germany.
In 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and pro-Russian forces took control of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, Deprem moved to the area, according to his own statements in interviews with pro-Russian media. Explaining his decision to move there in a 2022 video interview with the pro-Kremlin outlet Diplomat.ru, Deprem said: “Independence and freedom are part of my character. Therefore, when I feel something is necessary, regardless of the reasons or circumstances, I feel obliged, obligated, and determined to carry it out.”
Deprem regularly gives interviews to Russian state media and pro-Russian outlets, including Channel One (pictured left) and Ukraina.ru (pictured right). (Screenshot from X.com and VKVideo.ru)
According to the website of the pro-Kremlin journalistic organization Investigator.Org.Ua, in 2016 Deprem obtained citizenship of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic, the self-proclaimed state established by pro-Russian forces after a referendum never recognized by the international community. In an interview at the time at the nearby Luhansk State Pedagogical University, Deprem stated: “I have been working as a journalist and correspondent since the late 1990s. I started my work at a youth magazine. After the Maidan [political revolution] began in Kiev, I decided to return to journalism for humanitarian and moral reasons.”
According to the European Platform for Democratic Elections, a European non-governmental organization that monitors what it calls “fake election observation missions,” Deprem himself—a testament to his value to Russian interests—served as an observer in the illegitimate 2018 elections in the Donetsk People’s Republic, a Russian-backed separatist entity. The elections were not recognized by Ukraine, the United States, and the European Union, among others.
Deprem’s activities have not gone unnoticed by the Ukrainian authorities. In 2019, the Kiev government imposed sanctions on him for his role in observing elections in Donbas and for spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda in Turkish media. “He is not an expert, but a propagandist posing as a journalist to create the illusion of international support,” the National Resistance Center, an organization affiliated with Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces, stated in 2025.
A SYSTEM TO GIVE CREDIBILITY TO FALSE NARRATIVES
As noted, unlike Storm-1516’s usual strategy of creating fake news sites to spread its narratives, nearly all of Deprem’s articles were initially published by real news outlets, including Turkish sites Oda TV, Veryansın TV, and DikGazete. Once published, these stories are reposted by pro-Kremlin accounts on X and often by the Pravda network, which consists of approximately 280 sites that republish pro-Kremlin content. They are subsequently picked up by Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, and Turkish media outlets.
Themes of Storm-1516’s false claims targeting Armenia since April 2025
Storm-1516’s false narratives against Armenia primarily focus on relations with Turkey and alleged allegations of misconduct and corruption against Pashinyan. (NewsGuard graphic)
The three Turkish outlets where Deprem’s articles regularly appear share an editorial line characterized by Turkish nationalist, anti-Western, and anti-Pashinyan positions. According to data from the traffic analysis platform Exploding Topics, OdaTV is the tenth most-read news site in Turkey and is owned by prominent Turkish journalist Soner Yalçın. Veryansın TV has a smaller audience and is controlled by the Ankara-based media company İlkan Medya Reklam Ticaret. DikGazete also has a relatively small readership, but it does not disclose its ownership, and NewsGuard has been unable to identify its owners.
As previously noted, none of the three outlets responded to NewsGuard’s requests for comment regarding Deprem’s false claims in the articles. OdaTV abruptly ended a call after requesting comment on the false claims about Pashinyan published on its website, while the other two outlets could not be reached by phone. It is unclear whether Deprem was compensated for his articles or what his sources of income are. Deprem also published two articles containing false claims about Pashinyan for CGTN Türk, the Turkish-language version of the Chinese state broadcaster CGTN. This outlet also did not respond to NewsGuard’s requests for comment.
ANATOMY OF A DEFAMATORY CAMPAIGN
In June 2025, Deprem published an article on OdaTV claiming that Anna Hakobyan, Pashinyan’s wife, had spent €101,486.41 on a four-day hotel stay in Turkey. The accusation echoed a recurring theme in Storm-1516’s campaigns: alleged corruption and lavish spending attributed to the relatives of pro-Western leaders. The same pattern had been used against Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was falsely accused of spending $1.1 million on Cartier jewelry in September 2023. The story of the luxury hotel stay was subsequently picked up by three Pravda websites and garnered 3.8 million views on X within five months.
The same claim subsequently appeared on three Armenian-language news sites, 19 Russian-language sites, which is spoken by a large portion of the Armenian population, and 40 Turkish sites. NewsGuard found that many articles published by Turkish sites contained the same error: the use of the Cyrillic letter “а” instead of the corresponding Latin letter. This detail suggests that the content may have been copied and pasted between seemingly independent outlets.
In fact, Hakobyan, who claimed to be in Armenia during the alleged hotel stay in Turkey, has denied the accusation. Furthermore, the hotel invoice purportedly in his name appears to have been falsified.
In another example of a false claim going viral, Deprem claimed in an article published in January 2026 on CGTNTurk.com that Pashinyan had authorized Armenia’s first LGBTQ parade. This narrative is particularly sensitive in Armenia, a conservative and deeply religious society where same-sex marriage is illegal. The claim was reposted by pro-Kremlin users on X, where it garnered 4.2 million views in four months. It was also spread by the social media accounts of 11 major media outlets in neighboring Georgia and reprinted in articles published by two Azerbaijani news sites.
Pashinyan’s spokeswoman, Nazeli Baghdasaryan, denied the allegations in a Facebook post and there is no evidence that such permission was ever granted.
IN THE EYE OF THE STORM
Storm-1516 is believed to be an offshoot of the Internet Research Agency, the Russian troll farm founded by the late Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin. The disinformation campaign’s typical strategy involves spreading articles based on false information, often published on sites that mimic the look and feel of real news outlets. This content is then amplified by users on X and reposted on other platforms. NewsGuard identified 35 legitimate news outlets, including the BBC, Politico, and Deutsche Welle, that Storm-1516 impersonated to make the false claims appear to come from reliable sources.
A key figure in Storm-1516 is John Mark Dougan, a former Florida deputy sheriff and a U.S. fugitive who fled to Russia in 2016 and subsequently joined the Kremlin’s propaganda apparatus. In December 2025, the European Union imposed sanctions on Dougan for his involvement in pro-Kremlin influence operations aimed at “influencing elections, discrediting political figures, and manipulating public debate in Western countries.”
When asked about Deprem’s role in the operation, Dougan responded in a message sent to NewsGuard via Signal on May 28, 2026: “Is he a Chinese spy? I have no idea who you’re talking about.”
AWARDED FOR SERVICES TO THE CAUSE
Deprem often presents his work as a noble mission and himself as a voice of truth. In an interview with Diplomat.ru in 2022, he stated: “I am, first and foremost, a journalist, both by title and by the very nature of my work, without a doubt.”
His work has been recognized on several occasions. In 2023, according to the local news site Lugansk 24, Deprem received an award from the pro-Russian authorities in Luhansk for his “significant personal contribution to spreading the truth about events in Donbas to the international community.” In 2024, he also received an award from the Emil Czeczko Foundation, a pro-government Belarusian charity, for his reporting “on the suffering and immense social, humanitarian, and economic devastation suffered by civilians and the local population in Donbas,” as can be read on the foundation’s website.
As the Armenian elections approach and Pashinyan continues to maintain his lead in the polls, Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric has become increasingly hostile and threatening. During a press conference on May 9, 2026, Putin warned that Armenia’s rapprochement with the West carries the same risks as Ukraine’s European aspirations. “We are experiencing today everything that happened with Ukraine,” Putin said, according to a transcript published on the Kremlin website. “And how did it all start? It started when Ukraine joined, or tried to join, the European Union.”
Taken from Italian Digital Media Observatory, written by Alice Lee on June 5, 2026
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