10.18.2020 | 11:30 AM | NEWPORT BEACH – President Donald J. Trump visited southern California to attend a fundraiser and was met with crowds of supporters along with Armenian-Americans urging him to sanction Turkey and Azerbaijan for funding war crimes, Sunday afternoon.
The president arrived in Orange County on Air Force One around noon to attend a private fundraiser ahead of the upcoming 2020 Presidential Election. The event at tech mogul Palmer Luckey’s estate on Lido Island in Newport Beach was previously slated for October 6th but had to be postponed when the President contracted COVID-19.
A large number of supporters gathered to show their support and cheered on as the presidential motorcade passed to and from the event. The president’s appearance at the fundraiser lasted just under just under two hours.
One group of well over a thousand Armenian-Americans – many also supporters of President Trump – rallied at Lido Park calling for the president to intervene after recent aggression by Turkish-backed Azerbaijani forces in the Nagorno-Karabakh region has left hundreds dead.
Armenian-Americans like Fred Tatlyan said the purpose of the rally was to urge President Trump to sanction Turkey for the country’s efforts funding Azeri assaults using redistributed U.S. aid. Tatlyan noted Turkey’s past genocide against Armenians and explained, “We don’t want to send U.S. troops over there, we don’t want the U.S. to meddle in the businesses over there. But we do want the United States to stop funding terrorism across the seas.”
Leaders across the southland have called for an end to the violence but a ceasefire between Azerbaijan and Armenian, the second in recent history, lasted only hours before being violated on Sunday.
Armenian officials said Azerbaijani forces initiated artillery shelling and missile strikes despite the supposed humanitarian truce.
