Armenians protest Kobe's endorsement deal

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Armenian-Americans said they'll boycott Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant if he doesn't back out of an endorsement deal with Turkish Airlines.

Bryant has a two-year deal with Turkish Airlines for a series of television, billboard, online and print advertisements scheduled to begin early next year to publicize the beginning in March of non-stop flights from Istanbul to Los Angeles with the basketball star, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

The protesters say they have been trying for years to get the U.S. government to condemn as genocide early 20th century slayings of approximately 1.5 million Armenians in what was then the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish government has rejected the term.

"Many of them are fans of the Lakers and fans of Kobe, at least until now," said Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America of the approximately 650,000 Armenians in California.

"This is not a matter of a private company that Kobe has signed a deal with. It's a state carrier with a heavy government affiliation," Hamparian said of the airline.

Fans have protested the deal on social media sites and radio, and have threatened to boycott Bryant merchandise and Lakers games, said Caspar Jivalagian,the Armenian Youth Federation's Western region executive member.

Some Armenians want Bryant to use his celebrity status to urge U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Cailf., to schedule a vote on House Resolution 252, which would recognize as genocide the Armenian deaths.