San Francisco: Azerbaijani Muslims vandalize Armenian school, set fire to Armenian church

Wrong victims. Doesn’t fit the narrative. If the roles were reversed, which they would not be and should not be, this would be the focus of screaming international headlines.

“Rising hate crimes against Armenians serve as a warning,” by Stephan Pechdimaldji, San Francisco Examiner, January 6, 2021:

Over the past year the number of hate crimes committed against the Armenian-American community has been on the rise. In the San Francisco Bay Area alone, there have been four hate crimes committed against the Armenian community over the last six months including a local Armenian School being vandalized with hateful and racist graffiti, which was followed by an arson attack on St. Gregory Armenian Apostolic Church. There are about 2,500 Armenian-Americans living in the San Francisco Bay Area, so these crimes per capita is a very high number given how small the community is. For a region of the country that prides itself on its progressivism, diversity and acceptance of all cultures, these latest attacks should be a warning sign that hate, and violence can rear its ugly head irrespective on where you may live.

While the timing of these latest incidents might be circumspect, they both occurred right before Azerbaijan, with the help of Turkey, launched an attack on Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in September. The vandals at the Armenian School in San Francisco spray-painted the colors of the Azerbaijan flag and used threatening language in Azerbaijani. In many ways, these latest hate crimes, coupled with the resurgence of hostilities in the South Caucasus, are a continuation of the Armenian Genocide that is now finding its way to the San Francisco Bay Area.

It is often said that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. We are clearly seeing these prophetic words come to life for Armenians in the San Francisco Bay Area who have fought for decades for recognition of the Armenian Genocide. As victims of oppression, Armenians see these latest attacks as an extension of Turkey and Azerbaijan’s denial of the 1915 Armenian Genocide and a threat to their very existence….