Community members flocked to the Glendale Central Library’s auditorium on Thursday, April 24, for The Truth and Accountability League’s commemoration of the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
Residents across the city united for remembrance this week, showing solidarity and resilience amid the rallying cry of “Never Again, Never Forget” to honor the victims and survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
“One hundred and ten years later we are still fighting very powerful forces for recognition, for justice, for truth and accountability,” said TAAL Founder and Chair Vic Gerami.
TAAL, a nonprofit advocacy organization, was founded in 2020 in response to a spike in racism toward Armenians.
“We monitor and confront bias, disinformation, propaganda and slander of the Armenian people and culture at the media level, including social media, academics, intelligentsia and public policy,” according to the organization.
Gerami said he was inspired to create TAAL in an effort to combat the “campaigns of hate, violence and disinformation” he saw directed toward the Armenian community following the invasion of Artsakh.
At the TAAL REMEMBRANCE and HONORS Armenian Genocide Commemoration and Awards event on Thursday, Gerami said he wanted to acknowledge and celebrate those in the community who are allies to Armenians and “all marginalized minorities.”
District 44 Assemblymember Nick Schultz, UC Irvine professor Kev Abazajian, criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos, Armenian National Committee of American Western Region chair Oshin Harootoonian, author Katia Tavitian Karageuzian, Sam Kbushyan, Executive Director of the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations Robin Toma and L.A. County Assessor Jeff Prang were honored for their contributions to the “Armenian cause.”
Schultz, who represents Burbank, Los Angeles and North Glendale, said he spent the past week attending events across his district, where he reflected on the 1.5 million lives of mothers, daughters, sons, fathers and all of those lost to the Armenian Genocide.
“I think that what I struggle with the most is the cruelty in humanity, the brutality that we sometimes see from the human race. I don’t know I’ll ever understand truly what it takes to target an entire people for extermination,” he said. “Well, what I can’t understand even more is those who, even in this day of 2025, would dare to utter the words that it wasn’t a genocide.”
Prang, who is also a former West Hollywood mayor, said he was watching the news one day when he heard about a protest in Glendale to recall the mayor in response to him wanting to lower the American flags to half staff in recognition of the Armenian Genocide. That year, Prang said, he made sure West Hollywood’s flags were lowered in solidarity on April 24.
In 2001, former Glendale Mayor Gus Gomez’s request that the U.S. flags at city buildings be lowered to half staff for Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day set off a bid to recall him from his appointment.
“I thought shame on these people who are trying… to criticize and to oust a mayor who I thought was doing the right thing by representing their constituency and something that was important to them, [and] also something which is really important to humanity,” he said.
