Irvine Mayor Under Fire from Armenian Community over Association with Genocide Denier

But others thought Kirlikovali’s comments were aimed at Armenian people and not the candy.

To view the full clip which was posted by Beyaz Gazete, a Turkish news outlet, click here.

The Armenian National Committee of America’s Orange County branch reposted the video last Tuesday, adding subtitles, calling it “unacceptable and (the video’s) contents hurtful.”

On Wednesday evening, Khan released a statement on her personal Twitter page calling the video “proof that my political opponents will do whatever it takes.”

“This video purposefully mistranslates a conversation about candy through fake captioning to create this despicable attempt at distorting my views,” Khan wrote. “My record of calling out racism, acts of hate, and making it easier for victims of hate to report crimes stands on its own.”

To view the statement and her recorded response, click here.

Kirlikovali didn’t back down after Khan’s first video, posting multiple invitations on the Committee’s Twitter page inviting for people to debate him over the genocide’s existence in the comments.

“Lies, slanders, deceiving, falsifying, threats, harassment, bullying, terrorism, screaming, begging. Have I covered all Armenian traits?” Kirlikovali posted. “Oh yeah, and backstabbing and assassinating. Have I said fraud?”

While Kirlikovali’s Tweet is no longer posted in that thread, there is a note from Twitter where it was in the thread that a tweet was removed for violating the site’s content rules.

After that, the Committee sent out a statement calling on their supporters to “take action against this hate speech and hold Mayor Khan accountable.”

Following that post, Khan sent out a second video message, this time from her mayoral account, saying she had “learned a lot and wanted to offer this apology.”

“I apologize to the Armenian community for things that were said, that were felt. My intentions were never to hurt the community,” Khan said in the video. “My door is open to learn more and build on the trust we need to move forward.”

Khan said she knows the genocide happened, and committed to “cut all ties with those who deny the Armenian genocide.”

However, Khan’s statement didn’t address her relationship with Kirlikovali.

Eric Neshanian, a frequent critic of Khan’s, has spoken out at multiple city council meetings and in emails to the city criticizing Khan’s ties to Kirlikovali, including photos of Twitter posts that showed Khan at multiple events with Kirlikovali, including a meeting of her Mayor’s Advisory Council.

While Voice of OC could not find those posts since Khan’s page only holds Twitter posts back to April 2021, she hasn’t publicly disputed those photos displayed by Neshanian during city council meetings.

Following Neshanian’s February 22 public comments that included photos from Khan’s Twitter page, Khan offered a short statement from the dais.

“Mr. Neshanian is an Islamaphobe who feels ok to attack me and no other elected officials. Other elected officials at the same events, meeting the same people are never targeted. That’s sad, and that’s embarrassing,” Khan said.

Many of the comments under her recent apology video still called for her to resign, pointing to her earlier statement of it being a political attack as evidence she only backtracked after pressure.

Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC Reporting Fellow. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.