| “We in Los Angeles are happy to welcome all nations participating in the World Cup to root for their teams and enjoy all that Los Angeles has to offer. However, at least one visitor is abusing our hospitality to promote a political agenda that is repugnant to large segments of our population, and should be unacceptable to all Americans who cherish peace and democracy.
“The Republic of Turkey, in a shocking display of bad taste and worse manners, has erected a large installation in Grand Park, directly facing our City Hall, festooned with banners in the blood-red color of its flag, proclaiming ‘Türkiye Is Here!’ This is offensive for many reasons.
“Never more than a fragile democracy at best, Turkey has once again relapsed into dictatorship and is pursuing an aggressive foreign policy, destabilizing an entire region with its support for Azerbaijan’s brutal aggression against Armenia, along with its continued occupation of Artsakh and its illegal detention of Armenian prisoners.
“The Erdoğan dictatorship continues to brutally suppress its ethnic Kurdish population, denying their very existence as a people. It continues to occupy territory of the sovereign Republic of Cyprus, maintaining by military force a puppet regime recognized by no other nation on earth.
“The Turkish government continues to deny the incontrovertible historic reality of the Genocide committed by its predecessor regime, the Ottoman Empire. In a crime that shocked the world, that regime’s actions led to the death of an estimated 1.5 million ethnic Armenians, along with Greeks, Assyrians, and members of every other Christian community under its rule. The Turkish regime continues to deny these facts and to prosecute those who dare to speak the truth.
“Words mean something. For a nation that still denies the fact of the Genocide to proclaim they are ‘Here’ in the midst of the largest diasporan community of the people they tried to annihilate is a bitter irony.
“A word to our friends in the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration who control our Grand Park: You need to reconsider your approach to future partnerships and not allow yourselves to be used as pawns by a foreign dictatorship pursuing its own agenda.
“Turkiye is Here? No. The City of Los Angeles is here, and we extend no welcome to Genocide deniers or advocates of lawless aggression. We welcome athletes and their supporters as our guests, but our guests should leave their dictator’s propaganda at home and get it out of our park.” |
