Pseudo-Scientist Quack Dr Oz Spreads Conspiracies About Armenians of LA

Discredited Doctor Mehmet Oz is a veteran peddler of medical pseudoscience who promoted hydroxychloroquine as a Covid “cure”. Long close to Donald Trump, and questioned over his close ties to the regime of Turkey’s autocratic leader Recep Erdogan, he repeatedly platformed antivaccine conspiracy theories and theorists such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who is now US Health Secretary.

The man once known as “America’s Doctor”, popular for The Dr Oz Show and a former Fox News and Oprah Winfrey Show contributor, was appointed last year by Trump as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The dual Turkish-US citizen, who served in the Turkish military and has refused to recognise the Armenian genocide, is now facing widespread fury after posting videos filmed in California recycling conspiratorial and racist tropes about Armenian Americans in Los Angeles.

Oz released the videos while discussing a federal crackdown on hospice and home-care fraud. Filmed in Van Nuys, an LA neighbourhood with a large Armenian population, the clips repeatedly focuses on Armenian-owned businesses and their signage, treating Armenian language and lettering as implicitly suspicious — and as evidence of a dark criminal conspiracy — rather than presenting evidence tied to specific cases.

Standing outside a bakery, Oz claimed without evidence that “roughly $3.5 billion” in fraud in Los Angeles was run “quite a bit… by the Russian-Armenian mafia,” adding: “You notice the lettering and language behind me is that of the dialect,” as the camera zoomed in on Armenian script. Although Oz later suggested he was referring to a former hospice nearby whose owner had been jailed for fraud, the video itself lingers on the bakery’s sign, visually linking Armenian language and identity to organised crime.

The Van Nuys claims were further amplified when another version of Oz’s video was reposted by Kennedy Jr on his official Heath Secretary accounts, including captions repeating its language about “foreign influence,” fraudsters, and so-called “Russian-Armenian mafia” gangs. Elon Musk has also reposted Oz’s false accusations about a foreign criminal conspiracy.

California Governor Gavin Newsom responded swiftly with a video montage showing multiple medical scams launched by Oz and labeling him “a fraud”. The comments were backed up by American public health physician and analyst Dr Vin Gupta who said of Oz: “No one “doctor” has done more to profit off of his platform and embody what it means to have a conflict of interest than him.”

In a statement released by his press office, Newsom said:

“Our office is reviewing reports that Dr. Mehmet Oz targeted the Armenian American community in Southern California recently — making racially charged claims of fraud outside Armenian-owned businesses, including a popular bakery.

Given the historic sensitivities involved, we are taking these allegations seriously.

Any and all acts of hate have no place in California.”

Moses Bislamyan, the owner of the bakery targeted by Oz, strongly denied any connection to fraud and said the fallout was immediate. Speaking to local media, he said he was “disappointed” that Oz had singled out his business because of its Armenian lettering, adding that sales had dropped sharply and that he now fears for his safety and livelihood.

Armenian American organisations condemned the video as an ethnic smear that treats cultural visibility as evidence of criminality. In reporting by NBC Los Angeles, Garen Janbachian of the Armenian National Committee of America said the outrage stemmed from Oz accusing legitimate businesses of being criminal fronts.

“The store he’s standing in front of is a bakery — a family-owned bakery,” Janbachian said, warning that the video “drives Armenophobia.”

Further criticism came from Armenian community leaders nationwide. Writing on X, Alix Galitsky of the Armenian National Committee of America accused Oz of ethnic scapegoating, adding that such rhetoric echoed past campaigns of collective punishment and came “from a man who publicly denies the Armenian Genocide & proudly served in Turkey’s military.” Some critics noted the similarities between Oz’s defamatory smearing of an entire ethnic community and MAGA-aligned attacks on Somali-American communities in Minnesota.

Oz’s ascent to power is inseparable from his long embrace of quack science and his political alignment with the current US president, who endorsed him during his failed 2022 Senate run and later elevated him into government. As host of The Dr Oz Show (2009–2022), Oz built a mass audience by promoting so-called “miracle cures” that were often fake or fraudulent, and dubious supplements such as green coffee extract touted as a “magic weight-loss cure”. A 2014 British Medical Journal study found fewer than half of his on-air medical recommendations were supported by evidence. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he aggressively pushed hydroxychloroquine and helped normalise vaccine scepticism by repeatedly hosting Kennedy. That relationship is now institutionalised: Oz serves under Kennedy — Trump’s Health Secretary — placing a longtime promoter of vaccine conspiracy theories and medical misinformation at the heart of US public-health policy.

Questions about Oz’s ties to Turkey and his views on Armenian history have followed him for years. During his narrow defeat in the 2022 US Senate race in Pennsylvania, Armenian American leaders criticised Oz for refusing to clearly recognise the Armenian genocide and accused him of echoing Ankara’s denialist and anti-Armenian propaganda — claims Oz disputes but which resurfaced immediately after the Van Nuys video.