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Anti-Armenian sentiment, also known asanti-Armenianism andArmenophobia, encompasses a wide-ranging spectrum of hostile attitudes and expressions of negative feelings (e.g., fear, aversion, derision, suspiciousness, dislike, etc.), as well as overt racism, harmful stereotypes, and/or prejudice towardsArmenians,Armenia, andArmenian culture.
Historically, anti-Armenianism has manifested itself in several ways, ranging from expressions ofhatred or ofdiscrimination against individuals of Armenian ethnic background toorganized pogroms by mobs or state-sanctioned genocide. Historically, the most destructive and lethal instances of Armenophobia include theHamidian massacres (1894–1897), theAdana massacre (1909), theArmenian genocide (1915), theSumgait pogrom (1988), andOperation Ring (1991).
Modern anti-Armenianism frequently consists of expressions of opposition to the actions or existence ofan Armenian state, implicit or explicitdenial of the Armenian genocide, or belief in an Armenianconspiracy to fabricate history and manipulate public and political opinion for political gain.[1] Anti-Armenianism has also manifested asextrajudicial killing or intimidation of people of Armenian heritage and destruction of cultural monuments.
Although in the time of theOttoman Empire's occupation of historically Armenian lands (alongside other territories throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe), Armenians who lived across the empire's territory were, in practice, able to achieve relatively high social status and significant personal wealth as members of the community, they were never consideredde jure equal to the majority Turkish citizens, having their social status limited to "second-class citizens," including being regarded as fundamentally alien to the predominantly Muslim (Turkish) character of Ottoman society.[2] In 1895, several revolts among the Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire in pursuit of equal treatment led toSultan Abdül Hamid deciding to respond by indiscriminately targeting the empire's Armenian population, which eventually resulted in the notoriousHamidian massacres, during which between 100,000 and 300,000 Armenians were murdered.[3]
During and afterWorld War I, the Ottoman government, led by theCUP triumvirate, perpetrated a massacre of between 1.2 and 1.8 million Armenians, in one of the greatest atrocities in history, known asArmenian genocide.[4][5][6][7] The Turkish government continues to aggressively deny the Armenian genocide. This position has been criticized in a letter from theInternational Association of Genocide Scholars to – then TurkishPrime Minister, nowPresident –Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.[8]
Cenk Saraçoğlu 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 toMinority Rights Group, while the government recognizes Armenians as a minority group, as used in Turkey, this term denotes second-class status.[11]
The new generations are being taught to see Armenians not as human, but [as] an entity to be despised and destroyed, the worst enemy. And the school curriculum adds fuel to the existing fires.
Hrant Dink, the editor of the weekly bilingual newspaperAgos,was assassinated in Istanbul on January 19, 2007, by Ogün Samast, who was reportedly acting on the orders ofYasin Hayal, a militant Turkish ultra-nationalist.[15][16] For his statements on Armenian identity and the Armenian genocide, Dink had been prosecuted three times underArticle 301 of the Turkish Penal Code for "insulting Turkishness."[17][18] (The law was later amended by theTurkish parliament, changing "Turkishness" to "Turkish Nation" and making it more difficult to prosecute individuals for the said offense.[19]) 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.[20]
İbrahim Şahin and 36 other alleged members of the Turkish ultra-nationalistErgenekon group were arrested in January 2009 inAnkara. The Turkish police said the roundup was triggered by orders Şahin gave to assassinate 12 Armenian community leaders inSivas.[21][22] According to the official investigation in Turkey, Ergenekon also had a role in the murder of Hrant Dink.[23]
In 2002, a monument was erected in memory of Turkish-Armenian composerOnno Tunç inYalova, Turkey.[24] 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, the 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.[25][26][27] On the other hand, a similar memorial stays in place at the village ofSelimiye, 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.[28]
Sevag Balikci, a Turkish soldier of Armenian descent, was shot dead on April 24, 2011, the day of the commemoration of the Armenian genocide, while serving in the military inBatman.[30] It was later discovered that killer Kıvanç Ağaoğlu was an ultra-nationalist.[31] Through hisFacebook profile, it was uncovered that he was a sympathizer of nationalist politicianMuhsin Yazıcıoğlu and Turkish agent/contract killerAbdullah Çatlı, who himself had a history of anti-Armenian activity, such as theArmenian Genocide Memorial bombing in a Paris suburb in 1984.[32][33][34] Furthermore, his Facebook profile also showed that he was aGreat Union Party (BBP) sympathizer, a far-right nationalist party in Turkey.[32] Testimony given by Sevag Balıkçı's fiancée stated that he was subjected to psychological pressure at the military compound.[35] 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."[35][36]
On February 26, 2012, on the anniversary of theKhojaly Massacre, theAtsız Youth leda demonstration in Istanbul that contained hate speech and threats towardsArmenia andArmenians.[37][38][39][40] 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."[37][38]
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.[41]
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Anti-Armenian sentiment exists inAzerbaijan on institutional[42] and social[43] levels. AnECRI report found thatArmenians are the most vulnerable group in Azerbaijan due to racism and racial discrimination, adding that they are sometimes described as "second-class citizens."[44]
Throughout the 20th century,Armenian andTurkish-speaking Muslim (Shia and Sunni; then known as "Caucasian Tatars," later asAzerbaijanis)[a] inhabitants ofTranscaucasia have been involved in numerous conflicts.[46] From 1918 to 1920, organized killings of Armenians occurred in Azerbaijan, especially in the Armenian cultural centers inBaku andShusha.[47]
Contemporary Armenophobia in Azerbaijan traces its roots to thelast years of theSoviet Union, when Armenians demanded thatSoviet authorities transfer the mostly Armenian-populatedNagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) in theAzerbaijan SSR to theArmenian SSR.[48] In response, Azeri nationalists carried out pogroms against Armenians inSumgait,Kirovabad, andBaku. From 1988 through 1990, an estimated 300,000-350,000 Armenians either fled under threat of violence or were deported from Azerbaijan, and roughly 167,000 Azeris were forced to flee Armenia, often under violent circumstances.[49] The rising tensions between the two nations eventually escalated into two wars in and aroundNagorno-Karabakh.[48][50] In a November 2020 alert, Genocide Watch reported that Armenians in Azerbaijan are dehumanized, being called “terrorists”, “bandits," "infidels," "leftovers of the sword" (a reference to the 1915 genocide[51]).[52]
The Azerbaijani government has executed anti-Armenian policies inside and outside the country, which include propaganda of hate toward Armenia and Armenians, alongside the destruction ofArmenian cultural heritage.[53][54][55] According toFyodor Lukyanov [ru], editor-in-chief of the journalRussia in Global Affairs, "Armenophobia is the institutional part of the modern Azerbaijani statehood and Karabakh is in the center of it."[56] Both theEuropean Commission against Racism and Intolerance and theUN Committee Against Torture have expressed concerns that discriminatory statements by Azerbaijani officials, foster an environment that heightens the risk of violence against individuals of Armenian national or ethnic origin,[57][58] After reviewing incidents of hate crimes and discrimination, the UN CAT stated that it regrets that "incitement to violence" was not criminally defined by the committee’s jurisdiction.[58]
According to historianJeremy Smith, "National identity in post-Soviet Azerbaijan rests in large part, then, on the cult of the Alievs, alongside a sense of embattlement and victimisation and avirulent hatred of Armenia and Armenians."[59][60]
In the European Parliament's resolution of 10 March 2022 condemning the destruction of the Armenian heritage in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh),[61] the parliament stated:
European Parliament ... Acknowledges that the erasure of the Armenian cultural heritage is part of a wider pattern of a systematic, state-level policy of Armenophobia, historical revisionism and hatred towards Armenians promoted by the Azerbaijani authorities, including dehumanisation, the glorification of violence and territorial claims against the Republic of Armenia.”[62]
In March 2023, the European Parliament issued another resolution which condemned Azerbaijan'sattacks on Armenia and called for Azerbaijan to lift itsblockade of Artsakh.[63] In response, Azerbaijani PresidentIlham Aliyev described the resolution as "beyond doubt...originat[ing] from Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora, long since a cancerous tumour of Europe."[64]
Anti-Armenian hate crimes committed by Azerbaijanis have also occurred internationally beyond the country of Azerbaijan. One of the most shocking acts took place in February 2004, in Hungary, when, in Budapest, at theNATO's Partnership for Peace program, Azerbaijani Lieutenant ColonelRamil Safarov decapitated an Armenian army LieutenantGurgen Margaryan, while the latter was sleeping.
In November 2020, the British newspaperThe 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.[65]
The most publicized case of mass destruction concerns gravestones at a medievalArmenian cemetery in Julfa, a sacred site of the Armenian Apostolic Church.Charles Tannock, the member of the foreign affairs committee of theEuropean Parliament, argued: "This is very similar to theBuddha statues destroyed by the Taliban. They have concreted the area over and turned it into a military camp."[66] The destruction of the cemetery has been widely described by Armenian sources, and some non-Armenian sources, as an act ofcultural genocide.[67][68][69]
European Parliament published a resolution on 10 March 2022, condemning the destruction of the Armenian heritage in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).[61] The resolution read:
European Parliament ... Strongly condemns Azerbaijan's continued policy of erasing and denying the Armenian cultural heritage in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, in violation of international law and the recent decision of the ICJ...[62]
Since 2020, Azerbaijan has attacked Armenian positions in Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh (Second Nagorno-Karabakh War), Armenia (border crisis), and has also imposed ablockade on the Republic of Artsakh. These events have resulted in numerous organizations, including those which specialize ingenocide studies, reporting that Armenians are at risk of being subjected to another genocide.[70][71][72][73] The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention considers Armenians to be "one of the most threatened identities in the world today."[74] Sheila Paylan, international criminal lawyer and legal advisor to the United Nations has warned that "The international community should take its R2P [Responsibility to Protect] commitments more seriously or risk becoming silently complicit in the next Armenian genocide—or ethnic cleansing."[75] Caucasus expert Laurence Broers draws parallels between "the Russian discourse about Ukraine as an artificial, fake nation, and the Azerbaijani discourse about Armenia, likewise claiming it has a fake history", thereby elevating the conflict to an "existential level" for Armenians.[76] A coalition of various human rights organizations also issued a collective genocide warning in response to the blockade: "All 14 risk factors for atrocity crimes identified by theUN Secretary-General's Office on Genocide Prevention are now present."[73]
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A 19th-centuryRussian explorer,Vasili Lvovich Velichko, who was active during the period when the Russian tsarism carried out a purposeful anti-Armenian policy,[84] wrote "Armenians are the extreme instance ofbrachycephaly; their actual racial instinct make them naturally hostile to the State."[85]
According to a 2012VTSIOM opinion research, 6% of respondents inMoscow and 3% inSaint Petersburg were "experiencing feelings of irritation, hostility" toward Armenians.[86] In the 2000s, there were racist murders of Armenians in Russia.[87][88][89] In 2002, an explosion took place inKrasnodar near the Armenian church which the local community believed was a terrorist act.[90]
In Georgia, Armenians are often stereotyped as greedy or dishonest, and public figures, including politicians, have frequently faced accusations of hiding their Armenian background.[91] Georgian philosopher Giorgi Maisuradze stated that Armenophoia is "the oldest form of xenophobia in Georgia."[92]
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, anti-Armenian sentiment was prevalent in both socialist and nationalist Georgian circles. The economic dominance ofArmenians 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." BothIlia Chavchavadze andAkaki 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 toStephen F. Jones. TheSocial 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 theDemocratic Republic of Georgia (1918–21), the independent Georgian government saw Armenians as a potential "fifth column" for their supposed loyalty to theFirst Republic of Armenia and subject to manipulation by foreign powers. TheGeorgian–Armenian War of December 1918 increased anti-Armenian sentiments in Georgia.
Joseph Stalin wrote in his 1913 essayMarxism and the National Question:[93][94]
What exists in Georgia isanti-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.
In post-Soviet Georgia, the government has engaged in cultural cleansing against its Armenian population through state-backed closure of Armenian cultural centers and schools, enforced Kartvelization (forced usage of the Georgian language) of churches, pressured name changes, propaganda portraying Armenians as outsiders, and economic suppression of Armenian-populated regions.[95] The first presidentZviad Gamsakhurdia, an outspoken nationalist, viewed Armenians, along with other ethnic minorities, as "guests" or "aliens" who threaten Georgia's territorial integrity.[96]
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 newspaperSakartvelos Respublika 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 fromArmenians 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 monkTariel Sikinchelashvili vandalised the graves of patrons of artMikhail andLidia Tamamshev.[100] The Armenian Church ofNorashen inTbilisi, built in the middle of the 15th century,[99] has been desecrated and misappropriated by theGeorgian 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 inAkhaltsikhe 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 2011,Georgia's Culture MinisterNika Rurua sacked directorRobert Sturua as head of the Tbilisi national theatre for "xenophobic" comments he made earlier this year, officials reported. "We are not going to financexenophobia. 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 2014, the ArmenianEjmiatsin 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]
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]
Between the 1920s and the 1960s, some houses in theRock Creek Hills neighborhood ofKensington, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., included anti-Armenian language in racial covenants that were part of property deeds. One deed in Rock Creek Hills declared that homes in the neighborhood "shall never be used or occupied by...negroes or any person or persons, of negro blood or extraction, or to any person of the Semitic Race, blood or origin, or Jews, Armenians, Hebrews, Persians and Syrians, except...partial occupancy of the premises by domestic servants."[109]
In Anny Bakalian's bookArmenian-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.[110]
American historianJustin 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 hisdenial of the Armenian genocide[111] to anti-Armenianism, as he holds anhonorary doctorate of the TurkishBoğaziçi University and he is also a board member of theInstitute of Turkish Studies.[112][113]
On April 24, 1998, during a campus exhibit organized by theArmenian Students' Association 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 spat at them. Following the incident members of the Armenian Students' Association filed a report with campus police calling for an investigation.[114] 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".[115] 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.[115]
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.[116]
In April 2007, theLos Angeles Times Managing EditorDouglas Frantz blocked a story on theArmenian 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,[117] 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 inIstanbul, Turkey.Harut Sassounian, an Armenian community leader, accused Frantz of having expressed support fordenial 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.[117] Frantz resigned from the paper not long afterward, possibly due to the mounting requests for his dismissal from the Armenian community.[118]
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.[119]
Another incident that received less coverage was a series ofhate mail campaigns directed atPaul Krekorian, a city council candidate forCalifornianDemocratic Primary, making racist remarks and accusations that the Armenian community was engaging invoter fraud.[120]
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.[121]
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.[122]
In the4th episode of Season 3 of theCBS sitcom2 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 whostole 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" byAsbarez Editor Ara Khachatourian, who criticized CBS for promotion of racial stereotypes in their shows.[123]
In the January 9, 2018, episode of theComedy Central late-night programThe Daily ShowTrevor 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.'"[124] 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 other offensive racial epithets, 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 forThe Daily Show and Trevor Noah to issue a retraction and an apology.[125] TheArmenian National Committee of America (ANCA) also called for an apology.[126]On October 29 and December 12, 2019, theU.S. House of Representatives and theU.S. Senate officially recognized the Armenian genocide.[127][128]In July 2020 theKZV Armenian School and its adjacent Armenian Community Center inSan 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 byAzerbaijan.[129] The messages contained curse words and appeared to be connected to increasedtensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia.[130] TheSpeaker of the United States House of RepresentativesNancy 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 AttorneyChesa Boudin andSan Francisco MayorLondon Breed also condemned the hate act.[131]On April 24, 2021, U.S. PresidentJoe Biden officially recognized the Armenian genocide.[132]On September 24, 2021, the St. Peter Armenian Church inFernando Valley, California, was vandalized. The suspect broke eight very rare stained glass windows of the church with a baseball bat. The ANCA-WR Executive Director Armen Sahakyan said “This act of vandalism is especially concerning as we recently marked one year since the Armenophobic hate crimes that took place inSan Francisco.”. The Los Angeles Police Department continues its investigation on this crime.[133]
In the2022 Los Angeles City Council scandal,Nury Martinez referred to Areen Ibranossian, an advisor to councillorPaul Krekorian, as "The guy with one eyebrow." Martinez wasn't able to recall the last name and Cedillo replied "It ends ini-a-n, I bet you."[134] Ibranossian said, "This type of depiction of Armenians is not uncommon and is too often tolerated." Growing up inTorrance, California, he was called "towel head" and "camel jockey."[135]
In 2023, theConsumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) orderedCitigroup to pay $24.5 million in fines and $1.4 million in restitution to Armenian Americans, alleging that the bank had illegally discriminated against members of the ethnic group and had unjustly denied them credit cards for which they had applied in a period beginning in 2015 and ending in 2021.[136][137] According to the CFPB, Citigroup employees used the presence of-ian or-yan in applicant surnames as an indicator that a customer should undergo enhanced screening processes, while also deciding to avoid making mention of this screening method in emails.[136] (The suffixes-ian and-yan are frequently found in Armenian surnames.)[138]
Israel-Armenia relations have been complicated throughout history, resulting in anti-Armenian sentiments in Israel.
The Jerusalem Post reported in 2009 that out of all Christians inJerusalem's Old City Armenians were most oftenspat on byHaredi andOrthodox Jews.[139] In 2011 several instances of spitting andverbal attacks on Armenian clergymen by Haredi Jews were reported in the Old City.[140] In a 2013 interview Armenian Patriarch of JerusalemNourhan Manougian stated thatArmenians in Israel are treated as "third-class citizens".[141] In 2019, it was reported that 60Armenian Church students attempted to lynch two Jewish men on the eve ofShavuot in Jerusalem, further increasing tensions between the religious groups.[142]
In 2023, Al Jazeera reported that anti-Christian violence, coinciding with anti-Palestinian violence, is becoming more widespread and normalized, especially by fundamentalist and right-wing Jews. Various anti-Christian laws were made, including limiting the amount of worshippers who can enter the Holy Sepulchre. 30 graves in Mount Zion were vandalized, and the Armenian quarter was spray-painted with the words "Death to Arabs, Christians and Armenians."[143]
Israel has long refused to recognize theArmenian genocide, mainly to avoid harming its relations withTurkey. FormerPresident andPrime Minister of IsraelShimon 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."[144] Other major figures and organizations in Israel have also propped up Turkey's genocide denial. In particular, theTurkish Israeli andAzerbaijani Israeli communities have encouraged genocide denial in Israel.[145] TheKnesset Committee on Education, Culture and Sports recognized the Armenian Genocide on August 1, 2016.[146] When visiting the Israeli President theArmenian 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.[146] Recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Israel remains to be an extremely contentious issue influenced heavily byAzerbaijan-Israel Relations.[147]
Israel's strategic alliance withAzerbaijan and Armenia'salliance withIran have both resulted in hostility between the Israeli and Armenian governments and the subsequent deterioration ofArmenia-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.[148] Many Israelis have also sympathized with Azerbaijan due to Azerbaijan's long and peaceful historical relations with Jews. Because of strong relations between Israel and Azerbaijan, pro-Israeli lobbying groups such asAIPAC have defended and lobbied for Azerbaijan against Armenia.[149]
With the breakout of theSyrian Civil War and subsequent rise ofDaesh, Armenians, alongside Assyrians, Alawites and Shia Muslims, were some of the groups persecuted in areas occupied by Daesh militants. Armenian sites were targets of Daesh' infamous cultural destruction. After occupyingRaqqa, Daesh fighters destroyed the Church of the Martyrs, an Armenian Catholic church.[150]
More infamously, Daesh fighters destroyed theArmenian Genocide Memorial inDeir-ez-Zor,[151] culturally significant to Armenians, as Deir-ez-Zor was the last destination before Armenians in 1915 would reach theSyrian Desert, with many dying along the way.
As Daesh began taking control of many cities, towns and villages, thousands of Christians were forced to flee, either abroad or to other, safer areas in Syria.
Pakistan is the onlyUnited Nations member state that has not recognized the Republic of Armenia, citing its support to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.[152]
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 inDushanbe (which was experiencing acute housing shortage at that time). This led toriots which targeted both the Communist government and Armenians.[153] TheSoviet Ministry of Interior (MVD) suppressed the demonstrations, during which more than 20 people were killed and over 500 were injured.[154]
In 1944, in the town ofKuty in eastern Poland, Ukrainian nationalists from theOUN-UPA massacred (as part of theMassacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia) Armenians and Poles, killing 200 people. Kuty was the largest concentration ofArmenians in Poland.[155][156]
In 2009, an ethnic conflict broke out in the city ofMarhanets 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,[157] accompanied by the burning of houses and cars, which led to exodus of Armenians from the city.[158]
In 2023, Armenian media accusedOleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine'sNational Security and Defense Council, of making anti-Armenian statements.[159]
Uyghur separatist leaderIsa Alptekin spouted anti-Armenian rhetoric while he was in Turkey and claimed that "our innocent Turkish Muslim brothers" were massacred by "Armenian murderers".[160]
Dink had received numerous death threats from nationalist Turks who viewed his iconoclastic journalism, particularly on the mass killings of Armenians in the early 20th century, as an act of treachery.
:Translated from Turkish: "On May 1, 2011, after investigating into the background of the suspect, we discovered that he was a sympathizer of the BBP. We also have encountured nationalist themes in his social networks. For example, Muhsin Yazicioglu and Abdullah Catli photos were present" according to Balikci lawyer Halavurt.
Translated from Turkish: "We discovered that he was a sympathizer of the BBP. We also have encountered nationalist themes in his social networks. For example, Muhsin Yazicioglu and Abdullah Catli photos were present" according to Balikci lawyer Halavurt.
Title translated from Turkish: Doubts emerge on the death of Sevag
Title translated from Turkish: From the fiance: If we were to go to war with Armenia, I would kill you first"
One banner carried by dozens of protestors said, 'You are all Armenians, you are all bastards.'
'Mount Ararat will Become Your Grave' Chant Turkish Students
Армянофобия – институциональная часть современной азербайджанской государственности, и, конечно, Карабах в центре этого всего. "Armenophobia is the institutional part of the modern Azerbaijani statehood and Karabakh is in the center of it."
Due to the conflict, there is a widespread negative sentiment toward Armenians in Azerbaijani society today." "In general, hate-speech and derogatory public statements against Armenians take place routinely.
The unresolved conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh stimulated "armenophobia."
Despite the constitutional guarantees against religious discrimination, numerous acts of vandalism against the Armenian Apostolic Church have been reported throughout Azerbaijan. These acts are clearly connected to anti-Armenian sentiments brought to the surface by the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Армянофобия – институциональная часть современной азербайджанской государственности, и, конечно, Карабах в центре этого всего.
The Committee is concerned about the effect that discriminatory statements made by high-level officials and disseminated in both online and offline media may have in creating an environment that greatly increases the likelihood of the commission of violence against persons of Armenian national or ethnic origin.... The Committee... regrets that article 283 does not criminalize incitement to violence, nor does it expressly include the grounds of colour, language, citizenship or ethnic origin as bases for discrimination.
By analogy, other tragic events or threatening processes are designated today by Armenians as "cultural genocide" (for example, the destruction by Azerbaijanis of the Armenian cemetery in Julfa)...
...another "cultural genocide being perpetrated by Azerbaijan."
Ethnic cleansing is naturally accompanied by the elimination of multiculturalism or, at best, a dramatic reduction in its scope. We can say that the cultural factor plays the role of an 'easy' ethnic-cleansing tool, making the latter indirect and somewhat civilized for the outer world. For example, in the case of the Armenian population of Georgia, ethnic cleansing by cultural means is manifested through indirect government support for closing Armenian cultural centers, including schools, the policy of enforced Kartvelization (forced usage of the Georgian language) of Armenian churches overtly supported by the state, fraudulent searches for Georgian origins in Armenian surnames, and forcing name changes through direct and indirect pressure. This is further reinforced by the propaganda of the 'historical' thesis presenting Armenians as guests, implying they should behave as such, as well as by policies preventing the economic development of Armenian-populated regions. By the way, the latter was practiced during the Soviet era by the Azerbaijani government, and its outcome is well known.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Of all Old City Christians, the Armenians get spat on most frequently because their quarter stands closest to those hot spots.
The knifing death of Sergei Bondarenko (pictured) was followed by anti-Armenian reprisals in a small Ukrainian town.
