Armenian Bar Association accuses US federal official Mehmet Oz of lying and denigrating Armenian community
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Mahmed Oz, who is the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), has claimed that healthcare fraud in Los Angeles County is linked to "foreign influence," including "Russian- Armenian mafia." Many observers attribute Oz's statement to his direct work for the Turkish lobby to denigrate the Armenian community in the United States. In a statement, the Armenian Bar Association, a leading international nonprofit representing lawyers of Armenian descent, said Mehmet Oz is abusing his position by recklessly attacking an entire community.
"Oz has underhandedly framed an entire, respected ethnic community with bogus, ad hominem attacks with his sweeping and unconscionable statements tying alleged hospice fraud in Los Angeles to a diverse Armenian-American community. This is the same community which has given this country its fair share of state governors and Supreme Court Justices, federal, state and local legislators, public servants, university presidents and professors, business leaders and health-care innovators, pioneering astronauts and award- winning artists, and one-million law-abiding residents. These are the same families which have, for generations, faithfully served this country, both as enlisted service-members and as responsible citizens," NGO's statement reads.
The Armenian Bar Association demands Oz's course correction and apology, and requests that the L.A. Times consider making further inquiries into Oz's flagrant malfeasance which trespasses probity and tramples truth, all under the convenient cover of office.
The Armenian National Committee of America-West (ANCA-WR) recently issued a statement on this matter. The statement emphasized that fraud is a crime, and every proven fraudster-regardless of background-must be investigated and prosecuted under the rule of law. However, the rule of law requires individualized suspicion and evidence, not insinuations based on language, culture, or ethnicity. The statement from the community organization also noted that for Armenian Americans-whose families carry the living legacy of the Armenian Genocide and over a century of denial, erasure, and dehumanizing propaganda-this kind of messaging is not an abstraction. "It mirrors patterns historically used to stigmatize Armenians as an "other," justify exclusion, and incite hostility. When such rhetoric comes from a federal official, tasked with safeguarding public health programs, it is especially dangerous: it risks converting a legitimate public integrity effort into a vehicle for stereotyping and collective blame and scapegoating. Such rhetoric-especially when amplified by a senior federal official-undermines civil rights norms and fuels a climate of Armenophobia."