Interview: System of a Down Talk “Waking Up The Souls” to the Horrors of the Armenian Genocide

By: Daniel Gerichter (@ZenDonut) –

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ystem of a Down have frankly and fearlessly promoted dialogue about a range of topics throughout their 21-year career, but the Armenian genocide has perennially haunted their music. The centennial anniversary marking the atrocity is fast approaching and the band have embarked on their “Waking Up the Souls” tour, a heroic effort to engage global audiences in a dialogue about this terrible crime.

Some background on the Armenian genocide:

On April 24^th, 1915, Ottoman authorities rounded-up members of the Armenian community in Constantinople and murdered 1.5 million men, women and children. The tactics are familiar in 20^th century warfare: isolation into pogroms, property seized, racist propaganda, mass deportations and death marches. Future generations may not bear the blame for the crimes, but the after-the-fact lack of recognition and acknowledgement is wrenching. The Turkish government refuses to recognize the crimes against humanity as genocide, even perpetuating outright denial in response to inquests and protests, many of which have included members of System of a Down.

The message of “Waking Up the Souls” is fundamentally important not just to the Armenian community, but to System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian and drummer John Dolmayan – both children of genocide survivors. On April 23rd, the band will play a concert (their first ever) in Yerevan, Armenia, the date prior to the centennial of the genocide. The Yerevan show is free, Dolmayan says “We didn’t want to profit from this show because it has greater meaning for us.”

They’re not alone in their mission, either: Congressman Adam Schiff (of California’s 28th District) and Professor at Clark University, Taner Akçam and Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), Aram Hamparian joined System of a Down’s Tankian and Dolmayan for a teleconference on April 1^st about the commemoration of the genocide.

During the call, all parties made clear their biggest obstacle – the Turkish government. “Turkey not only denies the truth of the crime, but also obstructs its justice” said Hamparian. Tankian spoke to lengths that the Turkish governmentutilizes strongarm tactics, recalling a 2009 interview with an Armenian newspaper in which he jokingly commited to participating in the Eurovision contest on behalf of Armenia, and that he’d use the opportunity to bring the Armenian genocide to light. According to Tankian, the Turkish government swiftly convinced the Armenian government and Tankian to withdraw this stunt. Read the full story.

Tankian holds a (justifiable) anger towards the Turkish government. “[The genocide] is still with us today and to continue to deny it is a bigger slap in the face each year” he said. But he and his bandmates are not without solutions, nor are they without perspective on the bigger horror of genocides that have occurred since. “What’s important to us is the fact that genocide still occurs today. There is no international, executable agreement irrespective of the Genocide Convention and many ad hoc committees around the world. There’s nothing that all nations have signed.” Dolmayan added a harrowing story passed down to him by his father, who witnessed his father’s murder from Ottoman forces. Like many descendants of genocide survivors, Dolmayan’s family history is cloudy beyond a generation or two: “We don’t have much history beyond our great grandparents because everyone was put to death. We just don’t have the history.”

Despite the struggle, none of the teleconference’s participants were overly pessimistic. All of them noted that Turkish citizens contact them directly, engage with them and (in some cases) even protest every year in Istanbul. “I started working on the Armenian Genocide in 1990. Since then, Turkey has changed and is continuing to change, especially after the assassination of Hrant Dink in Istanbul. People began commemorating the Armenian Genocide in Turkey,” stated Akçam.

Cloudying the issue is the strategic importance of Turkey to Western military and economic initiatives in the region. President Obama’s stance on human rights should require his own commemoration of the genocide, but doing so would almost definitively cause an international incident with the Turks. Congressman Adam Schiff spoke to diplomatic hurdles involved with government, who plans to read names of genocide victims for an entire hour on the floor of Congress on April 22nd. “To read all of the names of the more than 1.5-million people murdered at the time would take many weeks and weeks… in a single hour, I will only be able to read the names of a mere fraction of those who were killed.”

The “Waking Up the Souls” tour represents a major milestone for System of a Down’s legacy: the band advocates for numerous causes, but none are more personal than this. Tankian and Dolmayan also see the escalation of dialogue as a matter of closure for their families. “We’ve had to carry this weight around for our entire lives. Our parents carried it for their entire lives, and our grandparents carried it. It would relieve that weight… and I think in a lot of ways it would relieve the weight off the people of Turkey’s shoulders as well. Coming to terms with something that you’ve run away from for so long is important for your healing process.” said Dolmayan.

Tankian’s interest in this cause is simply to bring information to people. “Don’t depend on what we’re saying or what the government is saying,” he warned, “Seek it out for yourself. That way they’ll be more open to finding a range of different avenues to find the truth.”

Tankian and Dolmayan acknowledged the solemnity of the topic and shied away from promoting their tour or any upcoming music throughout the conference. Dolmayan curtly stated “[the genocide] is more important than the next System of a Down album. This is something that’s far-reaching and it’s actually bigger than the Armenian genocide itself. This is a world issue.”

Wake Up The Souls Tour Dates