System of a Down vocalist Serj Tankian has as soon as once more known as out Think about Dragons for enjoying a live performance in Azerbaijan final September. Responding to the band’s current protection of the present, Tankian went so far as evaluating the gig to enjoying Nazi Germany.
Final month, Tankian stated Think about Dragons had been “not good human beings” for enjoying Azerbaijan, prompting the band’s Dan Reynolds to reply in an interview with Rolling Stone: “I feel that’s a extremely slippery slope,” he stated. “I feel the second you begin to try this, there’s corrupt leaders and warmongers all around the world, and the place do you draw the road?”
On Thursday (July 4th), Tankian answered Reynolds’ query in a prolonged social media assertion. “Respectfully, I draw the road at ethnic cleaning and genocide,” he wrote. “Azerbaijan’s dictatorship with common assist was already right into a nine-month hunger blockade of Nagorno-Karabagh certified as genocide by former [International Criminal Court] prosecutor [Luis Moreno Ocampo] after they determined to play Baku.”
He continued, “Would they play in Nazi Germany? Why don’t they wish to play in Russia? As a result of it’s not common? They assist Ukraine however not Armenians of Artsakh? The one ‘slippery slope’ is the farce ethical equivalency on the coronary heart of this hypocritical perspective. I’ve nothing towards this man nor his band. I simply hate artists being taken benefit of to whitewash Genocidal dictatorships.”
Tankian has been constant together with his criticism of Think about Dragons for enjoying Azerbaijan, penning an open letter to the band prematurely of the live performance accusing the nation of “crimes towards humanity” for his or her navy actions, which he described as a looming “genocide.”
It’s value noting that every member of System of a Down is of Armenian descent. In 2020, they reunited for his or her first new songs in 15 years to boost cash for the “severe struggle being perpetrated upon our cultural homelands of Artsakh and Armenia” by Azerbaijan.