Armenia Faces Allegations of Antisemitism and Iranian Regime Support

As Israel faces an Iranian offensive, a network of Armenian-based Telegram channels has emerged as a key battlefield in the parallel information war, actively spreading false narratives and antisemitic content aimed at shaping regional perceptions.

A comprehensive review of posts across multiple channels reveals a coordinated stream of disinformation designed to portray Iran as overwhelmingly successful against Israel. These channels have circulated numerous unverified claims, including reports of a “direct hit” on a Mossad base in Glilot, false assertions that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials were “eliminated,” and fabricated accounts of strikes against U.S. military installations in Turkey and Kuwait.

The narrative pattern remains consistent throughout these posts: Iran is winning decisively while Israel and its allies suffer devastating losses. Some channels claim an American warship was struck by Iranian missiles, while others declare the “complete destruction” of a U.S. base in Kuwait—all claims that lack credible evidence or verification from reliable sources.

What makes these disinformation campaigns particularly concerning is their connection to explicit antisemitism. One account identified as “Armenian Radical,” whose symbol incorporates imagery associated with Nazi Germany, regularly posts ethnic slurs against Jews, including the derogatory term “zhids,” alongside enthusiastic praise for Iranian military capabilities and air defenses.

The channels also promote conspiracy theories attempting to link Israel and the global Jewish community to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. In one widely circulated video, an Iranian official appears on state television claiming Iran is fighting people who “either rape children or blow them up”—a clear attempt to demonize Israelis through the most inflammatory accusations possible.

Unlike previous phases of the information conflict, major official Iranian outlets, including those tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have maintained a lower profile in recent days. Much of the material appears to be locally repackaged by administrators who take Iranian source videos and add their own inflammatory captions and commentary.

This disinformation effort intersects with Armenia’s domestic politics as well. Several of the channels pushing anti-Israel content are openly hostile to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, criticizing his moves toward reconciliation with Azerbaijan and opposing the U.S.-backed TRIPP framework—a trade initiative intended to reduce Armenia’s dependence on Russia and Iran.

Similar framing appears on local news sites like Livenews.am, where commentators characterize the conflict as a “great war” between “terror states Israel and the United States” against Iran. This language aligns with the broader anti-Western and anti-Israel messaging observed across the same online networks.

Israeli-Russian writer and travel blogger Alexander Lapshin recently highlighted what he described as a rise in antisemitic discourse in Armenia. In a post quoting an Armenian follower, Lapshin pointed out a stark contradiction: many individuals sharing pro-Iran content online simultaneously dream of relocating to California, particularly Glendale, while expressing solidarity with Iran’s theocratic system—a regime under which women can face severe punishment or death for not wearing a hijab.

The same follower referenced figures circulated by anti-regime channels claiming that more than 30,000 people were killed during government crackdowns on protests in Iran, underscoring the disconnect between the online glorification of the Iranian regime and its troubling human rights record.

It’s important to note that these channels do not represent Armenia as a nation or speak for its people as a whole. However, the reach and impact of these Telegram accounts mixing disinformation with antisemitic rhetoric serve as a stark reminder of how quickly wartime narratives can spread beyond the immediate region of conflict, potentially inflaming tensions and shaping public opinion through coordinated misinformation.

The phenomenon also illustrates the complex geopolitical dynamics at play in the South Caucasus, where information warfare serves multiple strategic objectives for various actors seeking to influence regional alignments and public sentiment.