Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Serj Tankian, the lead singer of System Of A Down, and his colleagues have long advocated for international acknowledgement of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, as per theprp. Over the years, a significant portion of Tankian‘s and the band’s extensive activity has been focused only on that subject. The promotion of their common Armenian-American ancestry has provided a unifying platform despite System‘s divergent political beliefs. The band’s historic homecoming live concert in Yerevan, Armenia back in 2015 was the result of their shared desire. In 2020, System of A Down broke their decades-long creative impasse by releasing two new tracks that collected $600,000 USD for the people of Artsakh during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
However, Tankian hasn’t fully embraced news that Israel’s government has just taken action to formally acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. Rather, the politically vocal musician, artist, etc., used the occasion to criticise Israel’s government for being hypocritical, claiming that they are acknowledging one genocide while carrying out their own in Gaza and Lebanon.
For many years, Israel’s government used AIPAC to lobby the US Congress to not recognize the Armenian genocide, to prevent Congress from recognizing the Armenian genocide, due to their relationship with Turkey, their intelligence sharing with Turkey, et cetera.
Today, the Netanyahu cabinet decided to recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915 — a genocide that led Hitler thinking that he could do what he could do to the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s. The fact that this government is already committing genocide in Gaza and Lebanon decided to recognize the genocide of my grandparents is the worst f***ing thing that they could have done to Armenians — by using our history, our genocide, our pain to their political advantage.
F*** you.
Upcoming shows of System Of A Down:
