Genocide Denial to Diaspora Targeting: Why Armenians Say Oz’s Video Crossed a Line

Armenian American leaders and California officials are condemning a video released this week by Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), accusing him of unfairly targeting Armenian neighborhoods in Los Angeles while discussing healthcare fraud — a move critics say stigmatizes an entire community and fuels ethnic discrimination.

Oz, a Turkish-American dual citizen and former television personality, posted a video Tuesday showing him driving through the Van Nuys area of Los Angeles, home to one of the largest Armenian diaspora communities in the world. In the video, Oz points to medical offices and small businesses with Armenian-language signage, repeatedly linking the area to what he describes as a large-scale hospice and homecare fraud scheme.

“So you can see these are medical buildings. They’ve got Cyrillic writing,” Oz says in the video, incorrectly identifying Armenian script. “You see Russian, Armenian writing.”

At another point, filmed outside a strip mall that includes Kilikia Art Studio and Tigranakert Lavash — a bakery with Armenian signage reading “fresh bread” — Oz suggests the presence of Armenian language indicates organized crime activity.

“It’s run, quite a bit of it, by the Russian–Armenian mafia,” Oz says, as the camera zooms in on the bakery sign.

Community advocates say the video amounts to racial profiling, using ethnicity and language as proxies for criminality without presenting evidence linking the specific businesses or individuals shown to fraud.

“There is no public interest served by singling out Armenian neighborhoods and implying criminal behavior based solely on language or culture,” said Alex Galitsky, head of the Armenian National Congress of America. “This is dehumanizing rhetoric, and we’ve seen how similar claims have harmed other communities.”

Galitsky compared the video to past allegations that broadly targeted Minnesota’s Somali community in fraud investigations, warning that such narratives can lead to collective blame rather than accountability based on evidence.

Los Angeles County is home to an estimated half-million Armenians, many of them descendants of genocide survivors who fled the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. Armenian Americans have long been integral to the cultural, economic, and civic fabric of Southern California, particularly in neighborhoods such as Hollywood, Glendale, and the San Fernando Valley.

Critics say the optics of Oz’s video are especially painful given his background. Oz is of Turkish descent, served in the Turkish military, and has previously declined to explicitly recognize the 1915 Armenian Genocide — a position widely criticized by Armenian advocacy groups. Turkey continues to deny that the mass killings and deportations of Armenians constituted genocide, a stance that remains a source of deep historical trauma for Armenians worldwide.

“Given that history, it’s impossible for Armenians not to view this through a lens of discrimination,” said one Armenian American media editor in Los Angeles. “When a senior U.S. official points to our language and our neighborhoods as evidence of crime, that fear is not abstract — it’s lived experience.”

California officials also weighed in. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s communications director, Izzy Gardon, accused Oz of smearing the Armenian American community and attempting to take credit for enforcement actions that predate his tenure.

“Our office is reviewing reports that Dr. Mehmet Oz targeted the Armenian American community in Southern California — making racially charged claims of fraud outside Armenian-owned businesses,” Newsom wrote Tuesday on X. “Given the historic sensitivities involved, we are taking these allegations seriously. Any and all acts of hate have no place in California.”

Oz’s video comes amid a broader federal investigation into suspected hospice fraud in California. Federal officials say they are probing an estimated $1.3 billion in questionable billing tied to hospice care, with investigations involving the Department of Justice, FBI, and CMS.

Oz has argued that fraudulent hospice enrollment harms vulnerable patients. “People are dying because they can’t get care — because they were falsely tricked into being on hospice,” he said at a recent briefing, noting a sharp increase in hospice enrollment across the state.

While law enforcement officials acknowledge that organized healthcare fraud exists and that some past cases have involved individuals of Armenian descent, critics stress that Oz’s video failed to present any evidence connecting the businesses or neighborhoods shown to illegal activity.

“There is a critical difference between investigating crime and publicly implying guilt based on ethnicity,” said a civil rights attorney familiar with healthcare fraud cases. “The latter undermines trust and invites prejudice.”

Oz has faced credibility questions in the past, including criticism from medical professionals for promoting unproven treatments during his television career. During his unsuccessful 2022 U.S. Senate campaign in Pennsylvania, Armenian American groups also criticized him for avoiding clear condemnation of the Armenian Genocide.

For journalists and community leaders alike, the concern extends beyond one video.

“As audiences increasingly consume news through short-form video, the damage from racially charged messaging is magnified,” Galitsky said. “When it comes from someone in government, the stakes are even higher.”

Armenian advocacy groups are now calling for accountability, urging federal officials to clarify that fraud investigations will be conducted based on evidence — not ethnicity — and warning that rhetoric linking crime to cultural identity risks deepening divisions in an already polarized country.

“This is not about denying that fraud exists,” Galitsky said. “It’s about ensuring that justice does not come at the cost of dignity.”

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