Dr. Oz accused of targeting Armenian-Americans
Dr. Mehmet Oz, appointed by Trump as the administrator of U.S. healthcare services, is being accused of racially targeting Armenian-Americans after sharing a social media video regarding a federal healthcare fraud investigation.
Oz, the administrator of America's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), implied in a video filmed Tuesday in an Armenian neighborhood in Los Angeles that certain businesses with Armenian signage could be linked to fraud.
In the video, Oz stated that his comments referred to the owner of a nursing home in the area who had previously been imprisoned for medical fraud. However, while making this statement, he pointed to the Armenian sign of a bakery he was passing, claiming the characters were written in the Cyrillic alphabet and that this was evidence of the "Russian-Armenian mafia" controlling the region.
As the cameraman zoomed in on the bakery’s sign, Dr. Oz said, “Here in Los Angeles, we’ve learned that there is approximately $3.5 billion in fraud occurring in nursing homes and home care services. By the way, a significant portion of this is run by the Russian-Armenian mafia. You’ll notice the writing and language behind me belong to that dialect, which underscores the fact that this is the work of an organized crime mafia.”
The bakery's owner, Moses Bislamyan, strongly denied the fraud allegations, saying he was "disappointed" that the former reality TV host had baselessly targeted his sign and location due to the Armenian writing. Bislamyan told local news outlet ABC7 that he had seen a 30% drop in sales and was now afraid to come to work.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is Turkish-American, has previously expressed that he does not recognize the Armenian Genocide. Following these statements, Armenian-American voters in Pennsylvania played a key role in his defeat during the contentious 2022 U.S. Senate race, where Oz refused to explicitly recognize the mass killings of Armenians in 1915.
The vast majority of comments on Oz’s video suggested that rather than addressing the issue from a broader perspective, he was attempting to settle a historical feud by targeting Armenian businesses. As a Turkish-American, Mehmet Oz's refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide led to Armenian-American voters in Pennsylvania playing a significant role in his loss during the closely contested 2022 U.S. Senate race.
Throughout his election campaign, Oz refused to recognize the Armenian massacres carried out by Turks and Kurds in 1915. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office stated they are reviewing reports that Oz "made allegations containing racist rhetoric" and are taking the claims seriously "given the relevant historical sensitivities."
Observers suggest that Oz’s blatant social media investigation may have been inspired by a popular video filmed by 23-year-old YouTuber Nick Shirley, who investigated the misuse of state funds by visiting Somali-American childcare centers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Nick Shirley’s video caught President Donald Trump’s attention, subsequently accelerating U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities in the city, which ultimately led to the shooting deaths of two protesters in separate incidents.
Governor Newsom’s Communications Director, Izzy Gardon, referred to this parallel in a post on the X platform, writing: “The Trump administration is targeting the Armenian community in California now, just as they treated the Somalis in Minnesota. Disgusting!”
Armenian-American lobby groups were quick to respond. The Washington D.C.-based Armenian Assembly of America, in a letter sent to Oz, stated that it "categorically condemns targeted attacks against ethnic minorities and the Armenian community." While the letter acknowledged the administration’s responsibility to combat waste, fraud, and abuse, it noted that Oz’s "selective targeting" of Armenian-Americans was a "source of deep concern" and constituted a "great injustice to Armenian-Americans who have served this nation and their communities with pride and distinction."
Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), echoed this sentiment, condemning Oz for "smearing the entire Armenian-American community by lumping all Armenians together due to the alleged crimes of a few individuals." Hamparian continued: "This effort to ethnically scapegoat Armenian-Americans is as poisonous as it is dangerous."
This confrontation comes just weeks before Vice President J.D. Vance’s planned visit to Armenia, adding a geopolitical dimension to the controversy. In the face of the backlash, Oz did not back down, posting a tweet on Wednesday stating that his agency will continue to "go after fraudsters."
(Source: Civilnet)
