Outcry Follows Use of U.S. Flag to Honor Armenians

A lingering debate over lowering the American flag has fanned underlying ethnic tensions in Glendale, forcing city leaders to reconsider how to mark a solemn day observed by the city’s large Armenian American community.

The debate began last year when the mayor ordered the American flag flown at half-staff at city-owned buildings on the Armenian Day of Remembrance. Controversy sharpened after the flag was lowered April 24 for the same occasion, despite a yearlong campaign against the gesture.

Now these differences are inspiring action. A recall effort has begun against Mayor Gus Gomez as the City Council tries to find a less controversial way to acknowledge the Armenian genocide next year.

As the debate simmers, it offers insight into the increasing political clout of the Armenian American community in Glendale, and how it is being received by others.

The city is home to so many Armenian emigres that they were allowed to vote in the 1998 Armenian presidential election from a local polling place. Glendale has the world’s largest concentration of Armenians after the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

“People are using this issue to whip up the anti-Armenian feelings in the community,” said City Councilman Rafi Manoukian, though he believes only a small but vocal portion of the community shares those ideas. “Maybe they are not racist, but they harbor some ill feelings toward Armenians.”

Though Armenians are grateful for the city’s recognition of their past, other Glendale residents oppose it. They say it is inappropriate to lower the American flag to commemorate the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in a faraway land almost a century ago.

Inside the dark bar at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1614 in hilly La Crescenta recently, patrons smoked and drank and accused city leaders of ignoring flag protocol--a transgression these patriots compare to other activities they consider un-American such as burning the flag.

From his seat near the beer taps, Bob Wallis was quick to defend his views. “No one else has ever asked us to do this. I don’t think we should honor one country above another,” he said, noting that the United States does not lower the flag to remember the Jews who died in the Holocaust.

“It’s not a function of racism,” insisted Wallis, 66, a former Navy pilot during the Korean War. “It’s a function of reality. Let’s not start a precedent.”

Lowering Flag Is ‘Too Controversial’

Last month, as the Armenian community honored its dead, Joe Mandoky was collecting more than 300 signatures from people who want to remove Gomez from office for allowing the flag to be lowered that day. Mandoky is a Glendale real estate agent but is better known for carrying a giant cross around town as part of his Christian street ministry.

He has offered to drop the recall effort, which is in its early procedural stages, if Gomez promises not to lower the flag next year for the remembrance day.

“It’s too controversial to lower the flag,” Mandoky said. “Let’s come up with something else.” On Tuesday, the City Council is scheduled to consider alternatives, such as building a monument to victims of all atrocities against ethnic groups, not just Armenians.

Gomez, who was selected mayor by his council peers last month, has not spoken publicly about the recall effort. But in a written answer to Mandoky’s petition, filed May 2 with the city clerk, he said the recall was “an abuse of the laws that were established to protect taxpayers against fraud and corruption.” He did not address the flag controversy.

Three of the city’s other four councilmen backed Gomez’s flag decision at the time, but only the mayor has the power to sign the proclamation to lower it.

For the past year, the flag issue has dominated and sometimes disrupted the public comment period at the city’s usually staid weekly council meetings, which are televised on the local cable channel. The debate also has been aired in more than 100 letters to the editor in the local newspaper.

Those who opposed the flag lowering, like gadfly Emzy Veazy III, have persuaded the American Legion and other veterans groups to write letters questioning the propriety of the gesture, which has added some credibility to the critics’ efforts. At the same time, Veazy has asked neighboring city councils to “execute social, political and economic sanctions” against Glendale for one year for its disrespect to the flag. The requests have been ignored.

City Councilman Bob Yousefian predicted that ethnic tensions will rise if the recall goes forward. “When you start balkanizing this city,” he said, “it’s not going to be good.”

He compared Glendale to other American cities that experienced influxes of immigrants in the last century.

“It was no different when the Irish went to Boston, the Italians went to New York, the Jews went to the Bronx,” said Yousefian, an Armenian American elected to the City Council last month. He said there is the attitude: “These are the newcomers. They are taking over.”

About 30% to 40% Are Armenians

Over the past decade, the number of people in Glendale of Armenian ancestry has increased significantly, from 17% of the population in 1990 to about 30% to 40% today. New census data are not yet available by ethnicity, but school officials estimate that 30% of their students are of Armenian descent.

Manoukian helped build the political power now being flexed by the Armenian community. Some of the problems, he said, are “the growing pains of Glendale.”

After nearly two decades of immigration into the city, Armenian Americans have gained significant clout. Two years ago, they added about 50% more voters to the rolls and got almost half of them to the polls that year, according to Manoukian, who led the effort as president of the local chapter of the Armenian National Committee of America.

Once plagued by low voter turnout, Armenian Americans came out strong for Manoukian, who in 1999 succeeded Larry Zarian, the first Armenian American council member.

In that election, Armenian Americans--who now comprise more than 10,000 of the city’s 90,000 voters--cast more than 5,500 votes, Manoukian said, a significant increase over the fewer than 1,200 ballots they once cast in city elections. “It was a turning point,” he said.

Soon after being elected, Manoukian asked then-Mayor Ginger Bremberg to order the American flag lowered for the Armenian Day of Remembrance, and she did it. Outside the Armenian community, few noticed. There was no public opposition.

But two years later, the mood has changed. Some say it’s because the Armenian American community has become a visible force in the city--not only changing the ethnic landscape but also threatening the traditional power structure.

Others, like Manoukian, disagree that politics has made a difference. He said he ran on a platform to represent the entire city, not just the Armenian community.

As a group, Armenian Americans have gathered enough political clout to demand greater attention from candidates of all ethnicities. In Glendale, Armenian Americans hold seats on the school board and community college board; a second one was elected to the City Council.

Yousefian said it’s not coincidental that the flag debate accelerated in an election year. “When the flag was lowered three years ago, there was not a peep,” he said. “It became a political issue. The message is these outsiders should go home.”

As a candidate, Yousefian said, he had doors slammed in his face when he introduced himself to potential voters using both his first and last names, a slight he attributes to his easily recognized Armenian surname. He said he found greater success using just his first name until he had a chance to find common ground with the resident.

2 Reasons for Opposing the Idea

The flag debate is more complex, however. Opponents are split between those who believe it is wrong to lower the American flag to mark an event that took place long ago on another continent, and those who blame the influx of Armenians for increased crime, traffic congestion and other problems.

Last summer, three alleged members of an Armenian gang were charged in the fatal stabbing of a Latino teenager outside Glendale’s Hoover High School in one of the city’s few homicides, raising concerns about potential violence among ethnic groups. Since then, school and city officials have sponsored student retreats and community meetings to try to keep campuses and neighborhoods safe.

City officials and others say just a few people seem to be fanning the flames of anti-Armenian sentiment.

“A segment of the population in Glendale used the flag as a springboard to express some racist ideas,” said Alex Sardar, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America’s regional office. “Some people wrap themselves in red, white and blue and give themselves permission to say all kinds of things.

“I think a segment of the community feels partly threatened by what’s going on in Glendale,” Sardar said.

But others offer more persuasive arguments against lowering the flag, from the propriety of the gesture to the sheer divisiveness of the issue.

As mayor, Dave Weaver ordered the flag lowered in 2000, but opposed doing it again this year. His flip-flop took place just days after he was reelected to the City Council. His campaign included a promise to lower the flag.

“It’s a very divisive type of issue because you can’t lower the flag three-quarters,” Weaver said. “There is no way to compromise on the flag.”

‘They Didn’t Spill No Blood for This Country’

At the VFW post, all the patrons were firmly in Weaver’s camp.

“There are certain criteria for the flag to be raised or lowered; I don’t know what they are, but that’s not one of them,” said Alan Allmon, 63, who called the mayor to protest even though he lives in nearby Tujunga. “They didn’t spill no blood for this country.”

Another patron, Sam Wallis, is a lifelong Glendale resident who feels uncomfortable with the changes she has witnessed during her 58 years. “I can’t go downtown anymore,” she said. “It’s like a foreign country. I don’t speak the language anymore.”

“Where did the balance go?” asked her husband, Bob, the former Navy pilot.

Yet they don’t blame Gomez for his decision. They understand that local politicians must consider the wishes of their growing Armenian American constituency to get elected.

Across town at Maple Park in southern Glendale, where gray-haired men speaking Armenian huddle around concrete picnic tables to play backgammon, there is overwhelming support for Gomez and his decision.

“The mayor is a very clever and very nice man to let the flag be lowered,” said Diran Garabet, 63, translating into English the thoughts of his friends at the park.

He said they don’t encounter ethnic tensions in the community because they socialize and conduct as much business as they can among themselves.

Armen Babayan, 27, represents a younger generation. He has watched Armenian friends start businesses, work hard and make enough money to buy expensive homes in the hills.

“People get jealous because they see us drive nice cars,” he said, defending the successes in his ethnic community. “We’ve done a lot for this city.”

Babayan says city officials should commemorate the 1915 genocide out of respect for their Armenian neighbors. He opposes recalling the mayor.

“The poor guy respects his community,” Babayan said. “What’s the bad thing?”