STARBUCKS OFFENDS ARMENIAN-AMERICANS WITH NEW AD — SHOWS ARMENIAN WOMEN UNDER THE SYMBOL OF TURKEY

The Inquisitr
March 2 2015

If there is any United States company recognized for supporting liberal
views more so than any other, it is easily going to be Starbucks. The
Inquisitr has reported numerous times on Starbucks, and how they’ve
centralized their working ethic of a progressive stance.

The prominent coffee chain is one of the few businesses outside of
tattoo studios that allow their employees to show off their tattoos.

They also refuse to welcome anyone at their coffee shops who have
guns on them, legal or not.

However, when Starbucks tried to honor people ethnically from the
Middle East, they instead offended them, specifically the Armenians
with their latest ad.

According to Daily Mail, Starbucks tried to utilize a new ad to
appeal to Middle Easterners with posters displaying Armenian women in
traditional clothing under the crescent and star of the Turkish flag.

Many Armenian-Americans found the ad to be offensive because of
what Turkey did to them in between 1915 and 1918. About 1.5 million
Armenians were killed by the hands of Turkish Ottoman forces. The
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) posted a photo of the
ad on their official Facebook page, inquiring why Starbucks would
use such an image.

“Why is Starbucks selling coffee using an image of women, dressed
in traditional Armenian costumes, celebrating a Turkish state that
systematically victimized Armenian women during the Armenian genocide,
and that still denies this crime against all humanity?”

Presently, Starbucks has taken down the poster seen in the Woodland
Hills shop, the one reportedly seen online. Starbucks also made an
official apology through a response to the ANCA on their Facebook page.

“Serving as a place for the community to connect is core to our
business and we strive to be locally relevant in all of our stores. We
missed the mark here and we apologize for upsetting our customers
and the community.”

According to another article by The Guardian, several people on
social media have claimed they saw the posters up at other places
around Los Angeles, a city that is home to 446,000 people of full or
partial Armenian ethnicity. Even the ANCA are preparing for possible
backlash from the community for the ads.”

“It became very clear very quickly that this was a very serious
issue for the entire community, because we started getting a flood
of concern.”

The reason why there is such concern is because this year marks
the 100th year anniversary of the tragedy, which is recognized as
genocide in 43 of the 50 states here in the U.S., and in more than
twenty countries, including Germany and Russia. Therefore, this year’s
commemoration will be far more important than previous years. Yet,
despite the “flood of concern,” ANCA did go on record to state that
Starbucks responded to the situation “very appropriately.”