Many lived in luxury in their former countries, and more easily handled multilingualism, while retaining aspects of traditional Armenian culture. Armenians in Lebanon and Iran are represented in the parliaments as ethnic minorities. The Armenian communities in these Middle Eastern countries were well established and integrated, but not assimilated, into local populations. The 15-year-long Lebanese Civil War that started in 1975 and the Iranian revolution of 1979 greatly contributed to the influx of Middle Eastern Armenians to the US. See also: History of the Armenian Americans in Los Angeles In 1988 up to 3,000 Iranian Armenians were scheduled to arrive in the Los Angeles area. Over the years, the Iranian community expanded across Southern California, with large numbers settling in Beverly Hills, the San Fernando Valley, Irvine and greater Orange County, as well as the Inland Empire. A person quoted in Translating LA stated that Iranians in Los Angeles had "a wish to be invisible, which may have stemmed from the anti-Iranian feeling during the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and seized hostages who were held for 444 days. In November 1979, Iranians stormed the U.S. The "landscape, the car culture, the mountains" was similar to what was found in 1970s Iran, says Dr.
Los Angeles was ideal for Iranians because it reminded them of home. Many Iranian immigrants, including Muslims, Christians, and Jews, originated from the upper classes. As the 1979 Iranian Revolution unfolded, large numbers of Iranians fled Iran. Iranian immigrants began arriving in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Tehrangeles is the other famous name among Iranian people in Iran and even in the Los Angeles because of the Iranian population in Los Angeles area. Southern California is also distinct from Northern California with its larger presence of Armenian Iranians and Iranian Jews and Iranian Muslim. The Iranian diaspora in Los Angeles includes those who fled the 1979 Islamic revolution, the increased immigration after the 2009 Green Movement, people who immigrated to the United States by winning Diversity Visa Program and those who were born in the U.S. With population estimates of 700,000, Southern California boasts the largest concentration of Iranians in the world, outside of Iran. The Iranian population in Los Angeles is diverse with many ethnic subgroups like Iranians of Jewish descent and Iranian Armenians. Los Angeles is also notable for its very large Iranian Jewish communities in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Encino, and Calabasas. Los Angeles (and Southern California in general) is home to a large Iranian-American community.