“Don’t let him fool you. This isn’t genuine concern about fraud. This is blatant racism and the same vitriol the Armenian community has faced for generations,” Councilmember Nazarian said in a post on Instagram.
In his video, Dr. Oz points to businesses with signs in Armenian and Russian, including a bakery and a dentist’s office, and suggests that they are somehow involved in a long-closed case of Medicare fraud.
“Medical fraud is serious. No one is denying that,” said Councilmember Nazarian. “Why zoom in on Armenian businesses? Couldn’t the point about one fraud case have been made without dragging an entire community into it?”
“Oz even randomly labeled buildings as ‘hospices,’ then leapt to claiming California’s hospice system is run by some so-called ‘Russian Armenian mafia’ with zero evidence, but that seems to be standard operating procedure for the Trump Administration.”
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“Armenians know exactly what this is when we see it. It’s propaganda. And coming from Mehmet Oz, it’s no surprise. He’s proudly tied to Turkey, refused to give up his Turkish citizenship, and has repeatedly denied the Armenian Genocide — a slap in the face to the millions who were killed, wounded, or displaced.”
“So this doesn’t feel accidental. Especially when we’ve seen this playbook before: so-called fraud investigations used to target communities, like the crimes currently being committed against Somalis in Minnesota.”
Councilmember Nazarian ends his post with a question. “So which is it, Oz?
Are you really trying to protect Americans from fraud? Or are you pushing a racist, disgusting narrative about Armenians, while helping make Genocide denial acceptable in this country?”
Councilmember Adrin Nazarian