Anti-Armenian sentiment

Sketch by an eyewitness of the massacre of Armenians in Sasun in 1894

Part of a series on
Discrimination
show General forms Age Class (Caste) Disability Genetics Hair texture Height Language Looks Mental disorder Race / Ethnicity / Nationality Rank Religion Sex Sexual orientation Size Skin color
show Social Acephobia Adultism Anti-albinism Anti-autism Anti-drug addicts Anti-homelessness Anti-intellectualism Anti-intersex Anti-left handedness Anti-Masonry Aporophobia Audism Biphobia Clannism Cronyism Elitism Ephebiphobia Fatphobia Gayphobia Gerontophobia Heterosexism HIV/AIDS stigma Homophobia Leprosy stigma Lesbophobia Misandry Misogyny Nepotism Pedophobia Perpetual foreigner Pregnancy Reverse Sectarianism Supremacism Black White Transphobia Non-binary Transmisogyny Vegaphobia Xenophobia
show Religious Ahmadiyya Atheism Baháʼí Faith Buddhism Catholicism Christianity post–Cold War era Druze Falun Gong Hinduism Persecution Islam Persecution Jehovah's Witnesses Judaism Persecution LDS or Mormon Neopaganism Eastern Orthodox Oriental Orthodox Copts Protestantism Rastafari Shi'ism Sufism Sunnism Zoroastrianism
show Ethnic/national African Albanian Arab Armenian Azerbaijani Catalan Chechen Chinese Croat Filipino Finnish Fulani Georgian Greek Haitian Hazara Hispanic Hungarian Igbo Indian Canadian and US indigenous peoples Iranian Irish Israeli Italian Japanese Jewish Korean Kurdish Malay Mexican Middle Eastern Mongolian Montenegrin Pakistani Pashtun Polish Quebec Romani Romanian Russian Serb Slavic Somali Tatar Thai Tibetan Turkish Ukrainian Uyghur Venezuelan Vietnamese
show Manifestations Blood libel Bullying online Compulsory sterilization Corrective rape Counter-jihad Cultural genocide Defamation Democide Disability hate crime Dog-whistle politics Eliminationism Economic Education Employment Ethnic cleansing Ethnic conflict Ethnic hatred Ethnic joke Ethnocide Forced conversion Freak show Gay bashing Gendercide Genital modification and mutilation Genocide examples Glass ceiling Hate crime LGBT Hate group Hate speech online Homeless dumping Housing Indian rolling Lavender scare Lynching Mortgage Murder music Native American mascots Occupational segregation Opposition to immigration Persecution Pogrom Purge Red Scare Religious persecution Religious terrorism Religious violence Religious war Scapegoating Segregation academy Sex-selective abortion Slavery Slut-shaming Trans bashing Victimisation Violence against men Violence against women White flight White power music Wife selling Witch-hunt
show Policies Age of candidacy Blood purity Blood quantum Crime of apartheid Disabilities Catholic Jewish Ethnocracy Ethnopluralism Gender pay gap Gender roles Gerontocracy Gerrymandering Ghetto benches Internment Jewish quota Jim Crow laws Ketuanan Melayu Law for Protection of the Nation McCarthyism MSM blood donation restrictions Nonpersons Numerus clausus (as religious or racial quota) Nuremberg Laws One-drop rule Racial quota Racial steering Redlining Same-sex marriage (laws and issues prohibiting) Segregation age racial religious sexual Sodomy law State atheism State religion Ugly law Voter suppression
show Countermeasures Affirmative action Anti-discrimination law Cultural assimilation Cultural pluralism Diversity training Empowerment Feminism Fighting Discrimination Hate speech laws by country Human rights Intersex rights LGBT rights Masculism Multiculturalism Nonviolence Racial integration Reappropriation Self-determination Social integration Toleration
show Related topics Allophilia Amatonormativity Anti-cultural, anti-national, and anti-ethnic terms Bias Christian privilege Civil liberties Cultural assimilation Dehumanization Diversity Ethnic penalty Eugenics Heteronormativity Internalized oppression Intersectionality Male privilege Masculism Medical model of disability autism Multiculturalism Net bias Neurodiversity Oikophobia Oppression Police brutality Political correctness Polyculturalism Power distance Prejudice Prisoner abuse Racial bias in criminal news Racism by country Religious intolerance Second-generation gender bias Snobbery Social exclusion Social model of disability Social stigma Stereotype threat The talk White privilege Woke
v t

Anti-Armenian sentiment, also known as anti-Armenianism and Armenophobia, is a diverse spectrum of negative feelings, dislikes, fears, aversion, racism, derision and/or prejudice towards Armenians, Armenia, and Armenian culture.

Modern anti-Armenianism is usually expressed by opposition to the actions or existence of an Armenian state, aggressive denial of the Armenian genocide or belief in an Armenian conspiracy to fabricate history and manipulate public and political opinion for political gain.^[1]

Turkey[]

Of this photo, the United States ambassador wrote, "Scenes like this were common throughout the Armenian provinces, in the spring and summer months of 1915. Death in its several forms—massacre, starvation, exhaustion—destroyed the larger part of the refugees. The Turkish policy was that of extermination under the guise of deportation."

Armenian genocide and its denial[]

Although it was possible for Armenians to achieve status and wealth in the Ottoman Empire, as a community they were never accorded more than "second-class citizen" status and were regarded as fundamentally alien to the Muslim character of Ottoman society.^[2] In 1895, revolts among the Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire led to Sultan Abdül Hamid's decision to massacre tens of thousands of Armenians in the Hamidian massacres.^[3]

During World War I, the Ottoman government massacred between 0.7 and 1.5 million Armenians in the Armenian genocide.^[4][5][6][7] The Turkish government has aggressively denied the Armenian genocide. This position has been criticized in a letter from the International Association of Genocide Scholars to – then Turkish Prime Minister, now President – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.^[8]

Contemporary[]

argues that anti-Armenian attitudes in Turkey "are no longer constructed and shaped by social interactions between the 'ordinary people' ... Rather, the Turkish media and state promote and disseminate an overtly anti-Armenian discourse."^[9] According to a 2011 survey in Turkey, 73.9% of respondents admitted having unfavorable views toward Armenians. The survey showed an unfavorable stance toward Armenians was "relatively more widespread among those participants with lower levels of education and socioeconomic status."^[10] According to Minority Rights Group, while the government recognizes Armenians as a minority group, as used in Turkey this term denotes second-class status.^[11]

The included a documentary, accusing the Armenian people of slaughtering Turks, with its paid tourism advertisements in the June 6, 2005 edition of the magazine Time Europe. The magazine later apologized for allowing the inclusion of the DVDs and published a critical letter signed by five French organizations.^[13][14] The February 12, 2007, edition of Time Europe included an acknowledgment of the truth of the Armenian genocide and a DVD of a documentary by French director Laurence Jourdan about the genocide.^[15]

Hrant Dink, the editor of the weekly bilingual newspaper Agos, was assassinated in Istanbul on January 19, 2007, by Ogün Samast, who was reportedly acting on the orders of Yasin Hayal, a militant Turkish ultra-nationalist.^[16][17] For his statements on Armenian identity and the Armenian genocide, Dink had been prosecuted three times under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code for "insulting Turkishness".^[18][19] (The law was later amended by the Turkish parliament, changing "Turkishness" to "Turkish Nation" and making it more difficult to prosecute individuals for the said offense.^[20]) Dink had also received numerous death threats from Turkish nationalists who viewed his "iconoclastic" journalism (particularly regarding the Armenian genocide) as an act of treachery.^[21]

İbrahim Şahin and 36 other alleged members of Turkish ultra-nationalist Ergenekon group were arrested in January, 2009 in Ankara. The Turkish police said the roundup was triggered by orders Şahin gave to assassinate 12 Armenian community leaders in Sivas.^[22][23] According to the official investigation in Turkey, Ergenekon also had a role in the murder of Hrant Dink.^[24]

Accounts of hate speech towards targeted groups in Turkish news outlets with Armenians shown as being targeted the most according to a January–April 2014 Media Watch on Hate Speech and Discriminatory Language Report.^[25]

In 2002, a monument was erected in memory of Turkish-Armenian composer Onno Tunç in Yalova, Turkey.^[26] The monument to the composer of Armenian origin was subjected to much vandalism over the course of the years, in which unidentified people had taken out the letters on the monument. In 2012 Yalova Municipal Assembly decided to remove the monument. Bilgin Koçal, the former mayor of Yalova, informed the public that the memorial had been destroyed by time and that it would shortly be replaced with a new one in the memory of Tunç.^[27][28][29] On the other hand, a similar memorial stays in place at the village of Selimiye, where an aircraft had crashed; and the people in the village of 187 expressed their protest about the vandalism claims regarding the memorial in Yalova, adding that they paid from their own funds to keep up the maintenance of the monument in their village against the wearing effect of natural causes.^[30]

Sevag Balikci, a Turkish soldier of Armenian descent, was shot dead on April 24, 2011, the day of the commemoration of the Armenian genocide during his military service in Batman.^[31] It was later discovered that killer Kıvanç Ağaoğlu was an ultra-nationalist.^[32] Through his Facebook profile, it was uncovered that he was a sympathizer of nationalist politician Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu and Turkish agent / contract killer Abdullah Çatlı, who himself had a history of anti-Armenian activity, such as the Armenian Genocide Memorial bombing in a Paris suburb in 1984.^[33][34][35] His Facebook profile also showed that he was a Great Union Party (BBP) sympathizer, a far-right nationalist party in Turkey.^[33] Testimony given by Sevag Balıkçı's fiancée stated that he was subjected to psychological pressure at the military compound.^[36] She was told by Sevag over the phone that he feared for his life because a certain military serviceman threatened him by saying, "If war were to happen with Armenia, you would be the first person I would kill."^[36][37]

On February 26, 2012, on the anniversary of the Khojaly Massacre a demonstration took place in Istanbul which contained hate speech and threats towards Armenia and Armenians.^{[38][39][40][41]} Chants and slogans during the demonstration include: "You are all Armenian, you are all bastards", "bastards of Hrant [Dink] can not scare us", and "Taksim Square today, Yerevan Tomorrow: We will descend upon you suddenly in the night."^[38][39]

In 2012 the ultra-nationalist ASIM-DER group (founded in 2002) had targeted Armenian schools, churches, foundations and individuals in Turkey as part of an anti-Armenian hate campaign.^[42]

On 23 February 2014, a group of protestors carrying a banner that said, "Long live the Ogun Samasts! Down with Hrant Dink!" went in front of an Armenian school in Istanbul and later walked in front of the main building of the Agos newspaper, the same location where Hrant Dink was assassinated in 2007.^[43][44]

On 5 August 2014, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in a televised interview on NTV news network, remarked that being Armenian is "uglier" even than being Georgian, saying "You wouldn't believe the things they have said about me. They have said I am Georgian ... they have said even uglier things - they have called me Armenian, but I am Turkish."^[45][46][47]

In February 2015, graffiti was discovered near the wall of an Armenian church in the Kadikoy district of Istanbul saying, "You're Either Turkish or Bastards" and "You Are All Armenian, All Bastards."^[48][49][50] It is claimed that the graffiti was done by organizing members of a rally entitled "Demonstrations Condemning the Khojali Genocide and Armenian Terror". The Human Rights Association of Turkey petitioned the local government of Istanbul calling it a "Pretext to Incite Ethnic Hate Against Armenians in Turkey".^[48][51] In the same month banners celebrating the Armenian genocide were spotted in several cities throughout Turkey. They declared: "We celebrate the 100th anniversary of our country being cleansed of Armenians. We are proud of our glorious ancestors."^[52][53]

On 20 February 2015, the Mayor of Bayburt Mete Memis called the deeds of Turkish soldiers who massacred Armenians a hundred years ago "heroism". He made a congratulatory statement on the 97th anniversary of Bayburt's sacking, in which its Armenian resident were massacred and exiled as part of the Armenian genocide, claiming that 97 years ago, the Turkish soldiers in Bayburt had "written their name in history for defending the homeland."^[54]

In March 2015, the mayor of Ankara, Melih Gökçek, filed a formal complaint on defamation charges against journalist Hayko Bağdat because he called him an Armenian. The complaint petitioned that the statements by the journalist are "false and include insult and libel".^[55] Gökçek also demanded 10,000 liras in compensation under a civil lawsuit against Bağdat for psychological damages, and the lawsuit is now pending.^[55]

During the official state funeral of Turkish serviceman Olgun Karakoyunlu, a man exclaimed: "The PKK are all Armenians, but are hiding. I am Kurdish and a Muslim, but I am not an Armenian. The end of Armenians is near. God willingly, we will bring an end to them. Oh Armenians, whatever you do it is in vain, we know you well. Whatever you do will be in vain."^[56] Similarly, in 2007, a state-appointed imam, presiding over a funeral of a Turkish soldier killed by the PKK, said that the death was due to "Armenian bastards".^[57]

In September 2015, during the Kurdish–Turkish conflict, a video was released which captured police in Cizre announcing on a loudspeaker to the local Kurdish population that they were "Armenian bastards".^[58][59] A few days later, in another instance, the Cizre police made repeated announcements on loudspeaker saying "You are all Armenians."^[12][60][61]

On 9 September 2015, a crowd of Turkish youth rallying in Armenian populated districts of Istanbul chanted "We must turn these districts into Armenian and Kurdish cemeteries."^[62]

In September 2015, a 'Welcome' sign was installed in Iğdır and written in four languages, Turkish, Kurdish, English, and Armenian. The Armenian portion of the sign was protested by ASIMDER who demanded its removal.^[63] In October 2015, the Armenian writing on the 'Welcome' sign was heavily vandalized.^[64] The Armenian portion of the sign was ultimately removed in June 2016.^[65]

In April 2016, Barbaros Leylani, the head of the Turkish Worker's Union in Sweden, referred to Armenians as "dogs" in a public speech in Stockholm, and added: "Turks awaken! Armenian scums must be finished, die Armenian scums, die, die!" (external link of speech (in Turkish))^[66][67] Juridikfronten, a Swedish watchdog organization, filed a report to the police due to an "incitement to racial hatred". Thereafter, Leylani resigned from his post.^[66]

In August 2020 the statue of Komitas in Paris has been vandalized. The inscription "it is false" has been written in red ink on the plinth of the Armenian Genocide Memorial.^[68][69]

Azerbaijan[]

Helmets of deceased Armenian troops and wax mannequins of captured Armenian soldiers of 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war showcased at Baku military park in Azerbaijan. President Ilham Aliyev shown in the first image during a visit to the park.

Anti-Armenian sentiment exists in Azerbaijan on institutional^[70] and social^[71] levels. Armenians are "the most vulnerable group in Azerbaijan in the field of racism and racial discrimination."^[72]

Throughout the 20th century, Armenians and Muslim inhabitants of the Caucasus (Azerbaijanis were called Caucasian or Azerbaijani Tatars before 1918) had been involved in numerous conflicts, including pogroms, massacres and wars. The two ethnic groups intensified "mutual distrust" and the clashes throughout the 20th century "have been significant factors in the shaping of the national self-consciousness of the two peoples."^[73] From 1918 to 1920 organized killings of Armenians occurred in Azerbaijan, including in the cities of Baku and Shusha, the centers of Armenian cultural life under the Russian Empire.^[74][75][76]

However, the current xenophobia in Azerbaijan toward Armenia and Armenians have shaped mostly during the last years of the Soviet Union, when Armenians demanded the Moscow authorities to incorporate the mostly Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast with the Armenian SSR.^[77] In response to Armenian claims, the Azerbaijani nationalists, most prominently the Azerbaijani Popular Front,^[78][79] organized pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait, Kirovabad and Baku. An estimated of 350,000 Armenians left "in two waves in 1988 and in 1990 after anti-Armenian violence."^[80]

The tensions eventually escalated into a large-scale military conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenian forces took control of most of former NKAO and seven adjacent districts outside of NKAO area. A cease-fire was reached in 1994 and is still in effect as the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh is de facto independent, while de jure inside the Azerbaijani borders.

Since then the Armenian side accuses the Azerbaijani government for carrying out anti-Armenian policy inside and outside the country, which includes propaganda of hate toward Armenia and Armenians and destruction of cultural heritage.^[81][82][83] In 2011, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance report on Azerbaijan stated that "the constant negative official and media discourse concerning the Republic of Armenia helps to sustain a negative climate of opinion regarding people of Armenian origin, who remain vulnerable to discrimination."^[84]

Status of Armenian cultural monuments[]

In November 2020, newspaper The Guardian wrote about Azerbaijan's campaign of comprehensive "cultural cleansing" in Nakhichevan:

Satellite imagery, extensive documentary evidence and personal accounts showed that 89 churches, 5,840 khachkars and 22,000 tombstones were destroyed between 1997 and 2006, including the medieval necropolis of Djulfa, the largest ancient Armenian cemetery in the world. The Azerbaijani response has consistently been to simply deny that Armenians had ever lived in the region.^[85]

The most publicized case of mass destruction concerns gravestones at a medieval Armenian cemetery in Julfa–a sacred site of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Charles Tannock, the member of the foreign affairs committee of the European Parliament, argued: "This is very similar to the Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban. They have concreted the area over and turned it into a military camp."^[86]

Russia[]

A 19th-century Russian explorer, Vasili Lvovich Velichko, who was active during the period when the Russian tzarism carried out a purposeful anti-Armenian policy,^[87] wrote "Armenians are the extreme instance of brachycephaly; their actual racial instinct make them naturally hostile to the State."^[88]

According to a 2012 VTSIOM opinion research, 6% of respondents in Moscow and 3% in Saint Petersburg were "experiencing feelings of irritation, hostility" toward Armenians.^[89] In the 2000s there have been racist murders of Armenians in Russia.^[90][91][92] In 2002 an explosion took place in Krasnodar near the Armenian church which the local community believed was a terrorist act.^[93]

Georgia[]

Unrooted Armenian gravestones in a church yard in Velistsikhe, Kakheti, Georgia

In the late 19th century and early 20th century anti-Armenian sentiment was prevalent in both socialist and nationalist Georgian circles. The economic dominance of Armenians in Tbilisi fueled verbal attacks on Armenians. Droeba, an influential journal, described Armenians as people who "strip our streets and fatten their pockets" and "but the last piece of property from our indebted peasant families." Both Ilia Chavchavadze and Akaki Tsereteli, two major literary figures, attacked Armenians for their perceived mercantilism. Tsereteli portrayed Armenians as a flea sucking Georgian blood in one fable. Chavchavadze denounced Armenians for "eating the bread baked by someone else or drinking that which is creating by another's sweat." Chavchavadze's newspaper, Iveria, depicted Armenians as "sly moneylenders and unscrupulous traders", according to Stephen F. Jones. The Social Democratic Party of Georgia (Georgian Mensheviks) attacked the bourgeoisie and imperialism to liberate Georgia from both Russian imperialism and perceived Armenian economic exploitation. During the existence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918–21), the independent Georgian government saw Armenians as a potential "fifth column" for their supposed loyalty to the First Republic of Armenia and subject to manipulation by foreign powers. The Georgian–Armenian War of December 1918 increased anti-Armenian sentiments in Georgia. In post-Soviet Georgia, first president Zviad Gamsakhurdia, an outspoken nationalist, viewed Armenians, along with other ethnic minorities, as "guests" or "aliens" who threaten Georgia's territorial integrity.^[94]

Joseph Stalin wrote in his 1913 essay Marxism and the National Question:^[95][96]

What exists in Georgia is anti-Armenian nationalism but this is because there is an Armenian big bourgeoisie which, by crushing the small and as yet weak Georgian bourgeoisie, thrusts the latter towards anti-Armenian nationalism.

Around the time of the 2007 parliamentary elections in the breakaway region of Abkhazia, the Georgian media emphasized the factor of ethnic Armenians in the area.^[97] The Georgian newspaper predicted that much of the parliament would be Armenian and that there was even a chance of an Armenian president being elected.^[98] The paper also reported that the Abkhazian republic might already be receiving financial assistance from Armenians living in the United States.^[98] Some Armenian analysts believe such reports are attempting to create conflict between Armenians and ethnic Abkhazians to destabilize the region.^[98]

A policy of desecration of Armenian churches and historical monuments on the territory of Georgia has actively been pursued.^{[99][100][101]} On November 16, 2008, Georgian monk vandalised the graves of patrons of art and .^[100] The Armenian Church of Norashen in Tbilisi, built in the middle of the 15th century,^[99] has been desecrated and misappropriated by the Georgian government despite the fact that both Armenia's and Georgia's Prime-Ministers have reached an agreement on not to maltreat the church.^[100] Due to no law on religion, the status of Surb Norashen, Surb Nshan, Shamhoretsor Surb Astvatsatsin (Karmir Avetaran), Yerevanots Surb Minas and Mugni Surb Gevorg in Tbilisi and Surb Nshan in Akhaltsikhe is unknown since being confiscated during the Soviet era.^[102] Armenians in Georgia and Armenia have demonstrated against the destruction. On November 28, 2008, Armenian demonstrators in front of the Georgian embassy in Armenia demanded that the Georgian government immediately cease encroachments on the Armenian churches and punish those guilty, calling the Georgian party's actions "white genocide".^[103]

In August, 2011, Georgia's Culture Minister Nika Rurua sacked director Robert Sturua as head of the Tbilisi national theatre for "xenophobic" comments he made earlier this year, officials reported. "We are not going to finance xenophobia. Georgia is a multicultural country", Rurua said.^[104] Provoking public outrage, Sturua said in an interview with local news agency that "Saakashvili doesn't know what Georgian people need because he is Armenian." "I do not want Georgia to be governed by a representative of a different ethnicity", he added.^[104][105]

In July 2014, the Armenian Ejmiatsin Church in Tbilisi was attacked. The Armenian diocese said it was "a crime committed on ethnic and religious grounds."^[106]

In 2018 the Tandoyants Armenian church in Tbilisi was gifted to the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate. The Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Orthodox Church in Georgia stated that the church was "illegally transferred" to the Georgian Patriarchate. According to the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center, Tandoyants is not the only historic Armenian church the Georgian Patriarchate has targeted. There are at least six others the Patriarchate has its sights set on.^[107]

United States[]

There has been historic prejudice against Armenians in the United States throughout various times, at least beginning from the early 1900s.

In early 1900s Armenians were among the group of minorities who were barred from loaning money, land, and equipment particularly because of their race. They were referred to as "lower class Jews". Moreover, in Fresno, California, among other minorities Armenians lived on one side of Van Ness Blvd., while the residents of European white origin lived on the other side. A deed from one home there stated, "Neither said premises nor any part thereof shall be used in any matter whatsoever or occupied by any Black, Chinese, Japanese, Hindu, Armenian, Asiatic or native of the Turkish Empire."^[108]

In Anny Bakalian's book Armenian-Americans: From Being to Feeling Armenian, various groups of Armenians were polled for discrimination based on their identity. Roughly 77% of US-born Armenians felt they were discriminated in getting a job while 80% responded positively to a question whether they felt discriminated in getting admitted to a school.^[109]

American historian Justin McCarthy is known for his controversial view that no genocide was intended by the Ottoman Empire but that both Armenians and Turks died as the result of civil war. Some attribute his denial of the Armenian genocide^[110] to anti-Armenianism, as he holds an honorary doctorate of the Turkish Boğaziçi University and he is also a board member of the Institute of Turkish Studies.^[111][112]

On April 24, 1998 during a campus exhibit organized by the at UC Berkeley, Hamid Algar, a Professor of Islamic & Persian Studies, reportedly approached a group of organizers and shouted, "It was not a genocide but I wish it was—you lying pigs!" The students also claimed that Algar also spit at them. Following the incident members of the Armenian Students' Association filed a report with campus police calling for an investigation.^[113] After a five-month investigation the Chancellor's office issued an apology, though no hate charges were filed as incident did not create a "hostile environment".^[114] On March 10, 1999 the Associated Students of University of California (ASUC) passed a resolution titled, "A Bill Against Hate Speech and in Support of Reprimand for Prof. Algar", condemning the incident and calling for Chancellor to review the University decision not to file charges.^[114]

In 1999, after Rafi Manoukian got elected to Glendale City Council, one resident attended the council's meetings every week to "tell Armenians to go back where they came from." Manoukian campaign had made a point to galvanize Glendale's large Armenian American electorate.^[115]

In April 2007, the Los Angeles Times Managing Editor Douglas Frantz blocked a story on the Armenian genocide written by Mark Arax, allegedly citing the fact Arax was of Armenian descent and therefore had a biased opinion on the subject. Arax, who has published similar articles before,^[116] has lodged a discrimination complaint and threatened a federal lawsuit. Frantz, who did not cite any specific factual errors in the article, is accused of having a bias obtained while being stationed in Istanbul, Turkey. Harut Sassounian, an Armenian community leader, accused Frantz of having expressed support for denial of the Armenian genocide and has stated he personally believed that Armenians rebelled against the Ottoman Empire, an argument commonly used to justify the killings.^[116] Frantz resigned from the paper not long afterward, possibly due to the mounting requests for his dismissal from the Armenian community.^[117]

In March 2012 three of five Glendale Police Department's officers of Armenian origin filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Glendale Police Department claiming racial discrimination.^[118]

In 2012 surgeon's assistant Ani Chopourian, a graduate of UCLA and Yale, was awarded $168 million in punitive damages for racial and gender discrimination by her co-workers.^[119][120]

Another incident that received less coverage was a series of hate mail campaigns directed at Paul Krekorian, a city council candidate for Californian Democratic Primary, making racist remarks and accusations that the Armenian community was engaging in voter fraud.^[121]

In 2016, during a race between Glendale City Clerk Ardy Kassakhian and Glendale Council Member Laura Friedman for the 43rd District Assembly seat, Kassakhian's campaign faced numerous threats and criticism based on the candidate's ethnicity. At one point in the campaign Kassakhian's office was evacuated after receiving a phone call that threatened the safety of employees and volunteers.^[122]

On April 20, 2016, Armenian genocide denial propaganda appeared in the sky over the Hudson River between Manhattan and Northern New Jersey. The skywriting featured messages such as "101 years of Geno-lie", "BFF = Russia + Armenia", and "FactCheckArmenia.com". The aerial stunt was part of a campaign by the website Fact Check Armenia, an Armenian genocide denialist site. The writing could be seen from roughly a 15-mile (24 km) radius. The media attention from the incident resulted in an official apology by the skywriting company.^[123]

On April 21, 2016 students at Clark Magnet High School, which in 2006 had 60% Armenian student body,^[124] wrote an open letter accusing the school administrators of cultural insensitivity. In the letter students explained that as a day of remembrance students wore black T-shirts. Because of Clark's collar dress code policy school staff browsed through classrooms and gave detention slips to students who wore black T-shirts. They also accused one of the teachers of shaming their actions, who "according to more than fifty Clarkies, one of the faculty members called the students' patriotic actions a "disgrace to America" and stated that she considers them to be "disrespectful to other Americans".^[125]

In the 4th episode of Season 3 of the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls (aired on October 14, 2013) "when a new cappuccino maker is brought into the cupcake store by a co-worker, he says he bought it for a cheap price from a person who stole it but sells it at a profit, adding 'it's the Armenian way.' When the character is pressed that he is not Armenian, he says 'I know. But, it's the Armenian way.'" This scene was characterized as "racist" by Asbarez Editor Ara Khachatourian, who criticized CBS for promotion of racial stereotypes in their shows.^[126]

In the January 9, 2018 episode of the Comedy Central late-night program The Daily Show Trevor Noah stated: "This is, like, really funny. Only Donald Trump could defend himself and, in the same sentence, completely undermine his whole point. It would be like someone saying, 'I'm the most tolerant guy out there, just ask this filthy Armenian.'"^[127] Armenian American organizations criticized Noah for alleged racism against Armenians. In a joint press release the Armenian Bar Association and the Armenian Rights Watch Committee (ARWC) compared "Filthy Armenians" to racial epithets as "Dirty Jew" and "Lazy Nigger", which although "may have been intended to coax a laugh from the audience by ridiculing President Trump's self-proclaimed genius and tolerance", constitutes "affront and slander". The organizations called for The Daily Show and Trevor Noah to issue a retraction and an apology.^[128] The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) also called for an apology.^[129]

In July 2020 the KZV Armenian School and its adjacent Armenian Community Center in San Francisco were vandalized overnight with threatening and racist graffiti. According to San Francisco officials, the attack claimed to support a violent, anti-Armenian movement led by Azerbaijan.^[130] The messages contained curse words and appeared to be connected to increased tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia.^[131] The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi noted that "The KZV Armenian School is a part of the beautiful fabric of our San Francisco family. The hateful defacing of this place of community and learning is a disgrace." San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and San Francisco Mayor London Breed also condemned the hate act.^[132]

Israel[]

Israel-Armenia relations have been complicated throughout history, resulting in anti-Armenian sentiments in Israel.

An early source of hostility between the two was the Lebanese Civil War, when the Marxist-Leninist Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, an ally of Palestinian groups like the PLO, fought against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and cooperated with Israeli adversaries like Hezbollah and Iran. Today, Lebanese Armenian political party Dashnaktsutyun has openly cooperated with Hezbollah and the Syrian government, reflecting a continuous hostility between Israelis and Armenians in the Middle East.^{[citation needed]}

The Jerusalem Post reported in 2009 that out of all Christians in Jerusalem's Old City Armenians were most often spat on by Haredi and Orthodox Jews.^[133] In 2011 several instances of spitting and verbal attacks on Armenian clergymen by Haredi Jews were reported in the Old City.^[134] In a 2013 interview Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem Nourhan Manougian stated that Armenians in Israel are treated as "third-class citizens".^[135] In 2019, it was reported that 60 Armenian Church students attempted to lynch two Jewish men on the eve of Shavuot in Jerusalem, further increasing tensions between the religious groups.^[136]

Israel has long refused to recognized the Armenian Genocide, mainly to avoid harming its relations with Turkey. Former President and Prime Minister of Israel Shimon Peres referred to the history of the Armenian Genocide as "meaningless" and said that "We reject attempts to create a similarity between the Holocaust and the Armenian allegations. Nothing similar to the Holocaust occurred. It is a tragedy what the Armenians went through but not a genocide."^[137] Other major figures and organizations in Israel have also propped up Turkey's genocide denial. In particular, the Turkish Israeli and communities have encouraged genocide denial in Israel.^[138] The Knesset Committee on Education, Culture and Sports recognized the Armenian Genocide on August 1, 2016.^[139] When Visiting the Israeli President the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem on May 9, 2016, Reuven Rivlin concluded his speech by saying that "the Armenians were massacred in 1915. My parents remember thousands of Armenian migrants finding asylum at the Armenian Church. No one in Israel denies that an entire nation was massacred.^[139]

Israel's strategic alliance with Azerbaijan and Armenia's alliance with Iran have both resulted in hostility between the Israeli and Armenian governments and the subsequent deterioration of Armenia-Israel relations. In both the First and Second Nagorno-Karabakh Wars, Israel has supplied Azerbaijan with advanced weaponry. At a protest against Israel's arms sales to Azerbaijan, counter-protesters smashed a protester's car and blocked the road they were driving along.^[140] Many Israelis have also sympathized with Azerbaijan due to Azerbaijan's long and peaceful historical relations with Jews. Because of strong relations between If Israel and Azerbaijan, pro-Israeli lobbying groups such as AIPAC have defended and lobbied for Azerbaijan against Armenia.^[141]

Others[]

Pakistan[]

Pakistan is the only United Nations member state that has not recognized the Republic of Armenia, citing its support to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.^[142]

Tajikistan[]

In early 1990, 39 Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan were settled in Tajikistan. False rumors spread that allegedly up to 5,000 Armenians were being resettled in new housing in Dushanbe experiencing acute housing shortage at that time. This led to riots which targeted both the Communist government and Armenians.^[143] The Soviet Ministry of Interior (MVD) suppressed the demonstrations, during which more than 20 people were killed and over 500 were injured.^[144]

Ukraine[]

In 1944, in the town of Kuty in eastern Poland, Ukrainian nationalists from the OUN-UPA massacred (as part of the Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia) Armenians and Poles, killing 200 people. Kuty was the largest concentration of Armenians in Poland.^[145][146]

In 2009, an ethnic conflict broke out in the city of Marhanets following the murder of a Ukrainian man by an Armenian. A fight between Ukrainians and Armenians started in the "Scorpion" café,^{[citation needed]} and later turned into riots and pogroms against Armenians,^[147] accompanied by the burning of houses and cars, which led to exodus of Armenians from the city.^[148]

East Turkestan[]

Uyghur separatist leader Isa Alptekin spouted anti-Armenian rhetoric while he was in Turkey and stated that innocent Turkish Muslims were massacred by Armenians.^[149]

See also[]

• List of anti-Armenian massacres
• Anti-Oriental Orthodox sentiment

References[]

Further reading[]

• Hilmar Kaiser: Imperialism, Racism, and Development Theories. The Construction of a Dominant Paradigm on Ottoman Armenians, Gomidas Institute, Ann Arbor (MI) 1997
• Onat, Ismail; Cubukcu, Suat; Demir, Fatih; Akca, Davut (2020). "Framing anti-Americanism in Turkey: An empirical comparison of domestic and international media". International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics. 16 (2): 139–157. doi:10.1386/macp_00021_1.
• Suciyan, Talin (2015). The Armenians in Modern Turkey: Post-Genocide Society, Politics and History. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85772-773-2.
• Naydenova, Desislava (2014). "Anti-Armenian Polemics in a Slavic Canon Law Miscellany (Ms. Slav. No 461 from the Manuscript Collection of the Romanian Academy)". Études balkaniques (3): 82–95. ISSN 2534-8574.
• Kolstø, Pål; Blakkisrud, Helge (2013). "Yielding to the sons of the soil: Abkhazian democracy and the marginalization of the Armenian vote". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 36 (12): 2075–2095. doi:10.1080/01419870.2012.675079. S2CID 144252799.
• Kasbarian, Sossie; Öktem, Kerem (2014). "Subversive friendships: Turkish and Armenian encounters in transnational space". Patterns of Prejudice. 48 (2): 121–146. doi:10.1080/0031322X.2014.900208. S2CID 144649549.
• Ihrig, Stefan (2016). Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-50479-0.
• Nefes, Türkay Salim (2021). "The Relationship between Perceived Security Threats and Negative Descriptions of Armenians in Turkish Politics (1946–1960)". Nationalities Papers: 1–15. doi:10.1017/nps.2021.6.
• Nefes, Türkay Salim (2021). "Explaining negative descriptions of Armenians in Turkish parliamentary speeches (1960–1980) via group position theory". Quality & Quantity. doi:10.1007/s11135-021-01108-8.
• Richard Albrecht, «nous voulons une Arménie sans Arméniens». Drei Jahrzehnte Armenierbilder in kolonial-imperialistischen und totalitär-faschistischen Diskursen in Deutschland, 1913–1943 page 625 Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Religions- und Kulturgeschichte 106 (2012)