Armenian demonstrators prevent Turkish Ambassador from participating in California even

Today, the University of Southern California hosted the Turkish Ambassador to the USA, Hasan Murat Mercan, who spoke on the topic of public diplomacy in Turkish Foreign Policy. He was joined by the former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and Turkey, James F. Jeffrey and Azerbaijani Consul General.

Before the conference started, the Armenian duduk was playing in the background and the Armenian gata was offered to the guests.

Despite numerous calls from Armenian and non-Armenian students alike to immediately cancel this event and refrain from platforming a genocidal regime that has yet to recognize its own crimes-both historical and ongoing-the USC Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism chose to double-down instead. A large group of Armenian protesters gathered inside as well as outside of the venue to protest USC’s decision to give the floor to a well known genocide denier, such as Mecran.

Many people with Armenian last names were denied entry. Those who managed to get in, were escorted out not even 15 minutes into the Ambassador’s speech. The group kept protesting outside of the building until about 3 pm PT.