Pinar Tremblay
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) posted on Feb. 18 a picture of women with traditional Armenian gear, holding a Starbucks coffee cup,
under the Turkish crescent and star flags on their Facebook account.
Under the photo, which was displayed at the Mulholland and Calabasas
stores in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles, ANCA posed
the question: “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?” Starbucks,
known as a rather liberal establishment, promptly issued an apology and
removed the posters, which were displayed in a couple of locations in
Southern California. The photographer responsible for the design of the
poster, Timothy Rose, also issued an apology on his Web page explaining that he had not known the women were Armenian.
