Foul…complain some of LA star basketball player Kobe Bryant’s latest endorsement.
He has endorsed Turkish Airlines, which announced plans to fly between Istanbul and LA starting next march. Bryant will appear in a film for the airline and get paid for the use of his image.
“But the large Armenian population in Los Angeles – many of them who happen to be Lakers fans – are furious over the endorsement and urged Bryant to drop the deal,” reports the New york Daily News
Armenian groups and many scholars argue that Turkey committed genocide by targeting the ethnic group during what they said was a massacre in 1915. Today, The Turkish government refuses to officially admit the genocide took place, which has been a source of tension between it and many of its Western allies – including the United States.
Some Turkish groups want Bryant to drop the deal.
Bryant said in a press release he had never actually visited Turkey, but called it "a country rich in natural beauty and thousands of years of cultural history."
By David Wilkening
