This is Los Angeles, not Turkey; a park is no place for dictatorial propaganda: Adrin Nazarian

Adrin Nazarian, Los Angeles City Council member, issued a statement in response to a display installed by the Republic of Turkey in Grand Park.

“Los Angeles welcomes all peoples participating in the World Cup to cheer on their teams and enjoy everything our city has to offer. However, at least one visitor is abusing our hospitality by advancing a political agenda that is repugnant to a significant portion of our population and should be unacceptable to all Americans who value peace and democracy.

The Republic of Turkey, in a striking display of poor taste and even poorer conduct, has erected a large installation in Grand Park, directly across from our City Hall, featuring posters in the blood-red color of their flag and bearing the words ‘Türkiye Is Here!’ This is offensive for a number of reasons. Turkey, which at best has never been more than a fragile democracy, has once again reverted to dictatorship and is pursuing an aggressive foreign policy that destabilizes the entire region, supporting Azerbaijan’s brutal aggression against Armenia, continuing the occupation of Artsakh, and unlawfully detaining Armenian prisoners of war.

The Erdogan dictatorship continues to brutally suppress the Kurdish population, even denying its existence as a people. It continues to occupy the territory of the sovereign Republic of Cyprus, maintaining by military force a puppet regime that is recognized by no other state in the world. The Turkish government continues to deny the undeniable historical reality of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire. This world-shaking crime claimed the lives of approximately 1.5 million ethnic Armenians, as well as Greeks, Assyrians, and members of other Christian communities. The Turkish regime continues to deny these facts and to persecute those who dare to speak the truth. Words matter. For a state that still denies the Genocide, the declaration ‘we are here’ in a place home to one of the largest diasporas of those it sought to destroy is a bitter irony.

I call on our friends at the Los Angeles County Administration, which oversees Grand Park: you should reconsider your approach to future partnerships and not allow yourselves to be used as a tool of a foreign dictatorship pursuing its own agenda. ‘Türkiye Is Here?’ No. What is here is the City of Los Angeles, and we do not welcome genocide deniers or proponents of unlawful aggression. We welcome athletes and their fans as our guests, but guests must leave their dictator’s propaganda at home and remove it from our park,” the statement reads.