The massive, 3,050-square-meter pop-up with large, red signs and balloons was visible from the sky when NewChopper4 was overhead.

While the nation of Türkiye may be successfully showing off its sports diplomacy skills during the 2026 World Cup, the team’s visit to Los Angeles has triggered painful memories and provoked historical grievances from Southern California’s Armenian community.

This week, Türkiye rented Gloria Molina Grand Park to set up the “Türkish Vibe Zone,” which was meant to create interactive fan experience and promote its national soccer team, especially for the historic match with Team USA Thursday. (Team Türkiye stunned the world Thursday evening by defeating the United States.)

The massive, 3,050-square-meter pop-up with large, red signs and balloons was visible from the sky when NewChopper4 was overhead. While the installation under the slogan “Türkiye is here” may seem harmless, Armenians in Los Angeles expressed anger and frustration, with some calling it a blatant provocation.

LA Councilmember Adrin Nazarian, one of the Armenian officials in LA, said what Türkiye set up at Grand Park is shocking and politically motivated, accusing the country of “abusing” LA’s hospitality.

“Turkiye is Here? No. The City of Los Angeles is here, and we extend no welcome to Genocide deniers or advocates of lawless aggression,” Nazarian, who is of of Iranian-Armenian descent, said. “We welcome athletes and their supporters as our guests, but our guests should leave their dictator’s propaganda at home and get it out of our park.”

The gesture is especially more offensive since LA is known to be home to the largest Armenian diaspora with a Armenian Genocide memorial set up at the very downtown LA park, Nazarian’s office told NBC Los Angeles.

Armenians’ animosity toward Türkiye stems from the 1915 Armenian Genocide, during which the Ottoman Empire systematically killed an estimated 1.5 million Armenians.

The deep historical trauma continues to reverberate as Armenians believe Türkiye has not taken accountability for the genocide amid ongoing border disputes in the region, according to Dr. Benjamin Radd, political scientist and senior fellow at the Burkle Center for International Relations at the UCLA International Institute.

“(There is) a lack of any proper, formal recognition, acknowledgement and accountability of what Türkiye historically had done,” Radd explained. “And then, in the present day, the conflict Armenia has had with Azerbaijan — and Türkiye siding with the Azerbaiijanis as sort of ethnic kinfolk — has exacerbating tension.”

However, Radd believes Türkiye’s Grand Park display may have more to do with its own diplomatic ambitions, not the purpose of provoking the Armenian community in LA, largely because of the ongoing war in Iran.

“There’s a tension on Türkiye as possibly being the next phase of diplomacy between the United States and Iran, between Israel and its partners,” Radd said. “It’s at an interesting political and diplomatic crossroads where it can play these multiple roles.”

Türkiye, which should be aware of the existence of a large Armenian community in LA, may also be sending a signal to the Iranian diaspora and Jewish-Americans.

“If the Türkish government is trying to basically give a diplomatic show of force, it has arrived now as a diplomatic power, as an international player that is to be respected,” the political scientist said. “It wouldn’t be surprising that it’s using a very large and public venue like what we’re seeing here as the place to showcase its arrival on the global stage, not necessarily as a slight to the Armenian community.”

The nine-day pop-up at the downtown LA park was expected to wrap up on Friday.

NBCLA reached out to Music Center, which operates Gloria Molina Grand Park, to see whether county officials discussed the conflict between Türkiye and Armenian people in LA before renting out the space but did not receive a response.

NBCLA also attempted to speak with officials at the Türkish consulate in Los Angeles.

Yerevan (TDI): The Asian Development Bank has signed a $15 million financing deal with Yerevan-based Converse Bank, directing funds toward small businesses, women-owned enterprises, and sustainable lending in a country where the financing gap for small firms tops $2 billion.

The package, announced on Friday, combines a $13 million ADB loan with a $2 million contribution from the Canadian Climate and Nature Fund for the Private Sector in Asia (CANPA), a trust fund managed by ADB and backed by Can$360 million from the Government of Canada.

Of the $13 million, $11 million will be channeled to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, with at least 20% of that earmarked for women-owned businesses.

The remaining $2 million, paired with the CANPA contribution, will support sustainable lending that delivers measurable natural hazard mitigation outcomes for both MSMEs and households.

The deal targets a structural weakness in Armenia’s economy. MSMEs account for nearly 70% of employment and more than 65% of gross domestic product, yet a financing gap exceeding $2 billion continues to restrict their growth.

By funneling longer-term capital through Converse Bank, the ADB hopes to loosen that constraint and enable businesses to expand and hire.

ADB Armenia Country Director Lyaziza Sabyrova said the project would help expand access to finance for MSMEs including women-owned businesses while accelerating sustainable investments, adding that longer-term financing and stronger institutional capacity would support private sector growth, job creation, and the country’s transition to a more resilient economy.

Despite strong potential, sustainable lending remains limited in Armenia, and the project is expected to contribute to reduced greenhouse gas emissions and increased adoption of energy-efficient solutions by supporting investments in green technologies and resilient activities.

CANPA, established in 2024, builds on two earlier Canadian-backed funds and aims to support private-sector projects across Asia and the Pacific focusing on climate and nature-based solutions while also promoting gender equality.

Converse Bank, established in 1993 and headquartered in Yerevan, is one of Armenia’s leading commercial banks, with a particular focus on MSME financing and financial inclusion.

The partnership gives the bank access to the kind of longer-duration funding that is difficult to source domestically, and that small businesses typically need to invest in equipment, expand operations, or weather economic shocks.

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Iraq has named Iraqi Armenian diplomat Krikor Der-Hagopian its new ambassador to the United States in a decision that signals both Baghdad’s desire to deepen ties with Washington and the country’s rich history of religious and ethnic diversity. 

Der-Hagopian, a veteran Iraqi diplomat who has worked in diplomatic and political posts for many years, is a key advisor to Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi.

If the United States confirms him, he would be Iraq’s first non-muslim ambassador to Washington in decades.

The nomination is part of a wider Iraqi push to broaden ties with the United States beyond security problems, with greater attention on commerce, investment, energy, and economic collaborations, regional officials said.

The nomination is also a symbolic victory for Iraq’s Armenian minority, which has been part of the fabric of Iraqi society for almost a century.

During and after the Armenian genocide in the early 20th century, thousands of Armenians sought refuge in Iraq, settling in such towns as Baghdad, Mosul, Basra, and Kirkuk.

Through centuries, Iraqi Armenians built churches, schools, companies, and cultural institutions and were important to the country’s social, economic, and cultural life while maintaining their language and customs.

Today, Iraq’s Armenian community is one of the oldest in the Middle East, and many analysts say Der-Hagopian’s nomination reflects the role Iraq’s different groups have played in the country’s growth and public life.

The nomination comes as Baghdad and Washington are looking to deepen bilateral collaboration.

In recent conversations, the security links that have traditionally bound Iraq and the United States have also come to include investment, energy, technology, and economic growth.

If approved, Der-Hagopian would be the first person of Armenian descent to represent Iraq in one of its most significant diplomatic posts and would also serve to underscore the country’s diverse character and the involvement of its minority populations in public service and national institutions.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has said he will bring a resolution before the Israeli government to recognise the Armenian Genocide, in a move that comes amid worsening ties with Turkiye and is likely to fuel criticism that Israel is turning Armenian suffering into a political weapon.

Sa’ar said on X that he would bring “a proposed resolution for the official recognition by the Government of Israel of the Armenian Genocide” before the government at its next meeting.

“Recognising the genocide perpetrated against the Armenian people in the final years of the Ottoman Empire is both a moral and historical duty,” he said, adding that Israel must also condemn “any denial, minimisation, or distortion of the historical truth.” The resolution would then be brought before the Knesset for a vote.

The announcement comes as relations between Israel and Turkiye have deteriorated sharply over Gaza, Syria and Israel’s confrontation with Iran. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly condemned Israel’s assault on Gaza, while Ankara has restricted trade with Israel and positioned itself as one of the strongest regional critics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Israel has also increasingly cast Turkiye as a strategic threat with Ankara increasingly described in Israeli discourse as the “next Iran”. Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard suggested that Turkiye and Egypt could become Israel’s next military targets, echoing a growing Israeli narrative that casts Ankara as the “new Iran” and a future strategic enemy.

The timing of Sa’ar’s proposal is likely to be met with cynicism. Israel has for decades stopped short of formally recognising the Armenian Genocide, a position critics say has been shaped less by historical fact than by political interest, including the desire to preserve ties with Turkiye and Azerbaijan.

Read: Turkish top diplomat says Netanyahu seeking to designate Turkey as a new enemy

Critics are likely to argue that the sudden push for recognition, at a moment of open confrontation with Ankara, risks turning Armenian suffering into a political tool in Israel’s dispute with Turkiye.

The Armenian Genocide refers to the mass killing, deportation and persecution of Armenians during the final years of a weakened Ottoman Empire, when secular nationalists from the Young Turk movement and the Committee of Union and Progress held state power.

Many historians say the campaign formed part of a nationalist project to remake the empire from a multi-ethnic order into a more homogeneous Turkish state. Around 1.5 million Armenians are estimated to have been killed. Turkiye rejects the genocide label, acknowledging mass deaths during the First World War but denying that the killings formed part of a systematic extermination campaign.

Israel’s record on the issue has long drawn criticism from Armenian communities and human rights advocates. Parliamentary efforts to recognise the genocide have repeatedly failed or stalled, often amid concerns that doing so would damage relations with Turkiye or Azerbaijan.

For Turkiye, the move is likely to be viewed as a hostile political gesture. For Armenians, it may raise a different concern: that long-denied recognition of their suffering is being advanced only because it is seen as being useful in Israel’s feud with Ankara.