Dr. Oz’s anti-Armenian smear in LA fits a pattern
By Stephan Pechdimaldji
San Francusco Chronicle
Earlier this week, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, sent shock waves through Southern California’s Armenian American community when he engaged in a blatant act of ethnic profiling.
Touring Van Nuys, Oz casually told reporters, “There’s roughly $3.5 billion of fraud taking place here in Los Angeles, in hospice and home care. It’s run, quite a bit of it, by the Russian Armenian mafia, you notice the lettering and language behind me.” Oz then gestured to the Armenian-language signage behind him, including one advertising a family bakery.
As part of the Trump administration’s efforts to combat health care fraud and recoup billions of dollars in misused public funds, Oz’s startling suggestion that a sign with Armenian letters was itself proof of corruption runs counter to American ideals. By conflating language and culture with criminality, he has employed dangerous, broad-brush thinking.
The most egregious aspect of his statement was the reckless way a federal official could stigmatize an entire ethnic group. Instead of targeting individuals based on specific evidence, Oz, a Turkish American who holds dual citizenship, put forward the worst kind of stereotype.
“Our office is reviewing reports that Dr. Mehmet Oz targeted the Armenian American community in Southern California recently — making racially charged claims of fraud outside Armenian-owned businesses, including a popular bakery,” Newsom wrote in a statement posted to X, later adding that the state was filing a civil rights complaint
against Oz.
In many ways, Oz’s comments are a textbook example of ethnic scapegoating and follow a disturbing pattern by the Trump administration, which has made a habit of attacking immigrant, brown communities. When a government official tells the public that Armenian script on a building is itself a sign of criminality, they are inviting harassment and discrimination against that community. Put simply, this was yet another bigoted smear that has no place in civil society.
It is also important to consider that Oz is not just an ordinary run-of-the-mill administrator. He has a long, well-documented history of refusing to recognize the Armenian genocide that occurred during World War I, and has long maintained close ties to the Turkish government.
It was during Oz’s Senate race in Pennsylvania in 2022 when a highly organized and vocal campaign by Armenian Americans played a pivotal role in his defeat. By turning a national election into a local referendum on accountability, genocide and foreign influence, the Armenian American community helped secure a crucial victory for Democrat John Fetterman in a race decided by razor-thin margins.
Armenian Americans pressed hard for Oz to address the Armenian genocide question on the campaign trail. All they got were meaningless statements from Oz saying that he “opposed genocide” and that “the evils of World War I should be commemorated.” These are the kinds of euphemisms and verbal gymnastics the Turkish government has long used to deflect attention from its crimes.
Oz was also pressured to explain his questionable ties to Turkey and why he served in the Turkish military and voted in the 2018 Turkish presidential election but not the 2018 American elections. Oz also met and dined with Turkey’s autocratic leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on multiple occasions and has never fully answered questions about his relationship with that regime.
When someone has actively participated in the denial of historical atrocities against a people and now acts as a gatekeeper of law and order against that same group, questions of retaliation arise.
Oz’s actions have caused significant distress, reputation damage and financial harm to members of the Armenian American community in the Los Angeles area. Oz falsely implied that a family-owned bakery, “Tigranakert Lavash,” was involved in criminal activity. Since then, it has seen a drop in sales.
If Oz were truly interested in cleaning up fraud, he would rely on investigations, evidence and prosecution, and not make a blanket and unverified accusation. Instead, he has chosen to turn the focus on the community itself, using his platform to promote an “us vs. them” narrative.
From former Gov. George Deukmejian to Cher to the rock group System of the Down, Armenian Americans in California have been integral to the economic and cultural fabric of the region. They deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
Oz’s actions in Los Angeles are a stark reminder that when those in power choose to demonize a minority group, it is the community that pays the price. This is not about fighting fraud or “draining the swamp.” It is about using the unchecked power of the federal government to harass and intimidate a vulnerable yet proud minority group by stoking “Armeniaphobia.”
Bigoted comments like the ones Oz made in Van Nuys are irresponsible and dangerous, and every American should condemn them.
Stephan Pechdimaldji is a communications strategist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a first-generation Armenian American and the grandson of survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
