Dr. Oz’s war on Armenian medical fraud

As Gangs of New York showed us, those who’ve settled in America have a tendency to bring Old World grudges over with them. Judging by a recent video put out by Dr. Mehmet Oz – now serving as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services – one of these ancient feuds may now be playing out at the highest levels.

American politics has been rocked by evidence of medical fraud to the tune of billions being committed by, inter alia, Somalis in Minneapolis. Naturally, the good doctor was sent to investigate. Then he made a second stop. Oz and his staff descended on the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles to investigate a similar fraud allegedly being perpetrated by Armenian gangsters.

L.A. County has become an epicenter for health care fraud in America. Criminals have corrupted the system so much that fraud is now almost expected. President Trump has made it clear: we will not tolerate the patient harm or taxpayer funded theft any longer. More to come. pic.twitter.com/JOp8ltimq8

— DrOzCMS (@DrOzCMS) January 27, 2026

Dr. Oz makes much of his Turkish background, and so this is where students of history may start to raise an eyebrow. Medical fraud, as we now know, is a serious issue, and California is supposed to be the epicenter of it. But Cockburn wonders. Is Oz’s expedition here merely the latest episode in the thousand-year blood feud between the Turks and the Armenians? In his video Oz gestures toward a sign written in Armenian advertising a sham hospice, which he pointedly refers to as a “dialect.” The status of Armenian is a longstanding bone of contention between the two ethnic groups.

If so, he wouldn’t be the first to slip some light Turkish nationalism in places where it didn’t quite belong. The hosts of The Young Turks Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian are known for making some quite abrupt pro-Turkish asides on their show. On the flip-side, the Kardashian family – prominent Armenians – are active in promoting Armenian causes.