For Immediate Release
Thursday, August 19, 2021
Media Contact: Vic Gerami
310.880.8563
vic@truthandaccountabilityleague.org.
TAAL Launches Website as a Resource for Journalists, Policymakers, Academics, and Activists
Truth And Accountability League (TAAL) launches a comprehensive website and media room for journalists, elected officials, intelligentsia, academics, and activists researching Azerbaijan’s, Turkey’s assault, and ethnic cleansing against the Armenians of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)
LOS ANGELES—As the first anniversary of Azerbaijan’s, Turkey’s genocidal attack and ethnic cleansing against the Armenians of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) approaches, TAAL launches its website to serve as a resource for journalists, academics, policymakers, intelligentsia, and activists.
A few months after activating an informal task force addressing Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s sudden, violent, and unprovoked genocidal assault and ethnic-cleansing attack against Armenians in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Armenian-American journalist, radio host, and activist Vic Gerami set out to amplify the impact of his own and his news-media and entertainment-industry colleagues’ efforts to shine a brighter light on aggressor nations’ war of propaganda, Armenophobia, and disinformation by launching the TAAL.
The persuasiveness of Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s high-priced lobbying and public relations firms, which are now working nonstop in the US and European capitals to protect both government’s public images despite their aggressive and harmful actions, make TAAL’s work a moral urgency.
While Azerbaijan and Turkish interests are being advanced daily in Washington DC by powerful lobbyists, both nations' carefully crafted public images are only made possible by a deadly blind spot in the global community’s collective consciousness and a void in too many individuals’ consciences. That’s precisely where TAAL aims to establish a beachhead with its work to build awareness and foster concern for the plights of Armenian children, women, and men suffering the genocidal impulses of a deadly alliance.
“TAAL aims to be an information hub for anyone who wishes to examine all the facts and evidence, not tarnished with Azerbaijan’s oil money and caviar diplomacy which directly or indirectly influences the media narrative,” TAAL founder Vic Gerami said.
“In the weeks leading up to the September 27 attach on Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Azerbaijan had ramped up its deceptive public relations campaigns—employing no fewer than six of K-Street’s heaviest-hitting lobbying firms, including the Livingston Group, Stellar Jay Communications, BGR, The Podesta Group, and DLA Piper,” Gerami continued.
Gerami further notes that last year, the southwest Asian country spent $1.3 million on lobbying and that the previously mentioned Washington DC firms have worked aggressively to distort facts and to convince media outlets to report false narratives and distortions that favor the dictatorial Azerbaijani government.
“TAAL combats this war of disinformation,” Gerami said. “We need those who believe in peace, democracy, and human rights to step up to the plate and help us be effective in our work.”
The mission of TAAL is to stop the defamation of the Armenian people; achieve worldwide recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-16; advocate for the free exercise by the Armenians of Artsakh their right to self-determination; attain universal recognition of the Independent Republic of Artsakh—and to secure justice and fair treatment for all people.
Now more than ever, Artsakh and Armenia need people of good faith to stand up for and with them as they face existential threats from bully nation-states like Azerbaijan and Turkey. TAAL helps members of the media, human rights advocates, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders better understand complex issues surrounding the genocide now underway in Artsakh. TAAL also advocates for a secure and stable democratic Artsakh and Armenia.
Interested parties can learn about Artsakh and Armenia, and its challenges through a host of now-developing TAAL resources, including a website, blogs, and other resources focused on history, geopolitics, and current events.
Since its launch, TAAL has already accomplished a great deal. TAAL’s Vic Gerami co-produced the celebrity Public Service Announcement (PSA) awareness campaign, ‘I Stand with Artsakh & Armenia.’ Its PSA features Kim Kardashian, Serj Tankian, Congressman Adam Schiff, Ed Begley Jr., Sally Kirkland, Lawrence Zarian, Andrea Martin, and several other major stars.
Gerami granted several TV interviews to discuss the campaign, including The Immigrant Magazine’s TV program, Bionic Buzz, BEONDTV, Buy Armenian, and Brave New Hollywood to discuss the dire situation in Artsakh. Urgently compelled to shed greater light on the genocide, Gerami has likewise published multiple articles about the assault on Artsakh in The Blunt Post, Desert Daily Guide, and GoWeHo.
At the same time, Gerami continues advancing TAAL’s mission by interviewing on his radio show and elsewhere leading members of Congress, other high-profile elected officials, and dignitaries from all over about the situation in Artsakh, thus putting their support on record. You can listen to all Gerami’s interviews here.
Recent guests include Senator Bob Menendez, Congressman Adam Schiff (10.19.20), Congressman Adam Schiff (3.30.20), Congresswoman Jackie Speier, Congressman Brad Sherman, Congresswoman Katie Porter, Congressman Tony Cardenas, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and Congresswoman Judy Chu, Congressman Mark Takano, Congressman Jim Costa, Congressman Gil Cisneros, Congresswoman Norma Torres, Congresswoman Grace Napolitano, Congressman Raul Ruiz + Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, Congressman Alan Lowenthal,
Gerami asked Lindsay Carlson, president of the Heart of LA Democratic Club to include the Los Angeles County Democratic Party’s resolution condemning Azerbaijan in its membership newsletter. Similarly, he asked Jon Katz, president of the Santa Monica Democratic Club, to post a statement on behalf of the organization.
TAAL’s founder, Vic Gerami, also wrote an open letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein to address her ignoring of California’s 700,000 Armenian-Americans. The letter demanded an explanation for and an end to her deafening silence and her tepid response to Gerami’s previous letter to the senator asking for help on behalf of Artsakh and Armenia. TAAL, Vic Gerami, and the Armenian-American community are still waiting for Sen. Feinstein to say something meaningful about the ongoing genocide in Artsakh
Gerami called out Cher, a fellow prominent Armenian-American, during an interview that he granted to Brave New Hollywood, for being mute about the situation since September 27 and for going to Pakistan during the war, the only country that does not recognize the Independent Republic of Armenia. Pakistan is also one of the countries that supplied jihadist mercenaries to Turkey and Azerbaijan to kill Armenians. Following the airing of Gerami’s interview, Cher finally recorded a PSA of her own.
Gerami also called out the former Presidential Candidate, Marianne Williamson, for her apathy and hypocrisy regarding Artsakh and Armenia with a YouTube video.
Gerami requested that his longtime friend, attorney, and West Hollywood Councilmember Sepi Shyne sponsor a resolution for the City of West Hollywood to recognize the Independent Republic of Artsakh. Gerami’s relationship with all the West Hollywood City Council members, Mayor Lindsey Horvath, helped him convince her to co-sponsor the resolution, which passed on its merits unanimously on Tuesday, January 19, 2021.
Gerami petitioned the City of Burbank to create a resolution to recognize the independent Republic of Artsakh formally. The resolution passed unanimously on March 2, 2021.
Please click on this link for photos. Vic Gerami is available for interviews. Please contact vic@truthandaccountabilityleague.org.
More About Vic Gerami
A noted journalist, and columnist, Vic Gerami is also a radio show host and media contributor who is also publisher and editor of The Blunt Post.
Gerami is the host and producer of his prime-time radio show, THE BLUNT POST with VIC on Independent Radio KPFK 90.7 FM (Pacifica Network). The program covers national breaking and headline news, politics, and current events, and Gerami offers analysis and commentary. He also interviews a high-profile member of Congress on every show. A few of his recent guests include Congressman Adam Schiff, Congresswoman Jackie Speier, Congressman Tony Cardenas, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and Congresswoman Judy Chu, Congressman Jim Costa, Congresswoman Norma Torres, Congresswoman Grace Napolitano, Congressman Raul Ruiz + Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, as well as Marianne Williamson. The program broadcasts LIVE on Mondays, 6:00 a.m. (PT) on KPFK 90.7 FM and Livestream at KPFK.org. You can listen to all the interviews here.
Today reaching national, international audiences, Gerami first built a foundation of knowledge and skills by learning the media industry during his years at Frontiers Magazine, followed by positions at LA Weekly and Voice Media Group. For the second time, Gerami was selected as a finalist in the Los Angeles Press Club’s National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards “Columnist of the Year” category in 2019, having first made the final round of consideration in 2017. Vic was a finalist in record seven (7) categories for the 62nd Annual Southern California Journalism Awards in 2020. His celebrity Q&A column, ’10 Questions with Vic’, is internationally syndicated.
Many celebrities whom Gerami has interviewed include Melissa Etheridge, Paula Abdul, Dan Reynolds (Imagine Dragons), Kathy Griffin, Matthew Modine, Laverne Cox, and Marianne Williamson.
In July 2020, the Los Angeles Press Club announced that Gerami is a Finalist in record seven (7) categories for the 62nd Annual Southern California Journalism Awards. The seven categories in which Gerami is a finalist are a mix of investigative reporting, political coverage, social justice issues, and interviews. He is recognized for his print and online journalism and interviews on his namesake radio show.
On Monday, February 15, 2021, it was announced the Gerami is a finalist for the LA Press Club’s National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards in three (3) categories: Best Radio Anchor/Host, Vic Gerami, KPFK 90.7 FM (Pacifica Network), “The Blunt Post with Vic,” Best Online Commentary Analysis/Trend-TV, Vic Gerami, The Blunt Post, “Binge on GayBingeTV, 24/7 LGBTQIA+ programming,” and Best Entertainment Publication, Vic Gerami, The Blunt Post, “The Blunt Post.”
Gerami is also a contributor to some of the most prominent publications in the nation, including Windy City Times, Bay Area Reporter, Armenian Mirror-Spectator, The Advocate, The Immigrant Magazine, GoWeHo, OUT Traveler, The Fight, and among others.
The Wall Street Journal featured Gerami as a “leading gay activist” in its landmark 2008 coverage of opposition to Proposition 8, the ballot measure that for years denied same-sex couples in California the freedom to marry. In addition to his years of volunteer work as a leading advocate for marriage equality, Gerami went on to serve as a Planning Committee member for the historic Resist March in 2017.
In 2015, Gerami was referenced in the landmark Supreme Court civil rights case, Obergefell v. Hodges, in which the Court held in a 5–4 decision that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process and the Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.es what they do, how long they’ve been at it, and what got them to where they are.
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