Your trusted source

In an interview with Asbarez, System of a Down’s lead singer Serj Tankian spoke about the band’s tour to mark the centennial of the Armenian Genocide and some of the key issues coming up in 2015.

“The idea was to take what we had done with the previous concert series, ‘Souls,’ and to project that into a tour for the centennial in 2015,” said Tankian referring to a concert the band staged in 2004 to raise awareness about the Genocide and to challenge then President George W. Bush to honor his campaign pledge to recognize as genocide the events of 1915. 

He said that the tour culminating with a large free concert in Yerevan, where System of a Down has never performed, would be an appropriate commemoration of the centennial.

“We are also looking at televising the show in Armenia for free on the Internet worldwide so everyone can be with us in Republic Square in Yerevan,” he added.

Tankian asserted that “Wake Up the Souls,” is not meant to “just raise awareness [about the Genocide], but to be a conduit for justice.” The call to action, he explained, begins before the tour kicks off on an online community where people have already begun connecting to advance the message of the Genocide and universal justice around the world.

“This is all matched by an online campaign with a heat map of data about the countries that have recognized the Genocide and link to Twitter accounts where people can join the effort—can join with us around the world,” said Tankian.

He has been encouraged by the signs of change among certain segments of Turkish society that “are doing amazing work trying to get recognition for the Armenian Genocide.”

“You’re well aware that as of a few weeks ago there was a resolution going through the Turkish parliament to recognize all past crimes from a female Kurdish member of parliament. Even though the AKP [Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party] controls the parliament and it will probably not pass, but that [the introduction of the resolution] is a good sign. I think we’ve come to expect little from the Turkish government, but I can say it’s up to us as well. There is an organization called ‘Project 2015’ that is encouraging people to go to Istanbul for 2015. I think that’s very interesting to go back to where it all started,” said Tankian about the activism within Turkey.