New York Turkish Americans protest against the mayor
A group of Turkish Americans living in New York protested against Zehran Memdani due to his statements at the Armenian genocide commemoration ceremony as well as developments in Karabakh.
The rally took place in New York’s Times Square. Participants objected to the content Memdani had posted on social media on April 24.
On the social media platform X, on the occasion of the 1915 events, Memdani wrote that Azerbaijan and Turkey attacked the Armenians of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2020. He also claimed that more than 100,000 Armenians were expelled from the region in 2023.
In a statement, the protesters called the mayor’s description of recent Karabakh developments inaccurate and warned that his statements, as the mayor of a city with diverse cultures and ethnicities, could offend the communities he is responsible for serving.
Turkey does not recognize the events of 1915 as genocide, describing them as a tragedy in which both sides suffered losses. Ankara has repeatedly proposed establishing a joint commission composed of Turkish and Armenian historians as well as international experts to examine the issue.
