No progress in Turkey's stance on Armenian Genocide: Serj Tankian

PanARMENIAN.Net - System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian has in a recent interview weighed in on his continued efforts for recognition of the Armenian Genocide and what progress has been made, LoudWire says.

Tankian scored the music for an Armenian Genocide documentary, "Intent to Destroy", and says thatit was a very kind of unusual way that he got to score the film.

"I was asked to be in the film as a talking head talking about genocide denialists, and what do I think about them with all of my kind of work having to do with the awareness of the Armenian Genocide. What do I think of genocide denialists, and what's their kind of angle, and all of this stuff. So, I sat down for an interview with Joe, and he's interviewing me on camera for the film, and as we're talking and I'm like, "Who's scoring this film? This is a really interesting film because it's not just talking about a genocide from a hundred years ago. It's talking about something happening today which is millions of dollars being spent on disinformation, denial, case lobbying firms, and all this nefarious sinister shit that the government of Turkey is doing in denying the Genocide, and all of this stuff." I'm like, "This is really interesting. Who's scoring this?" So, we had a little conversation, and I definitely was very excited at the prospect of scoring it, so I got the gig," he said.

According to the artist, there's progress in terms of awareness about the Genocide:

"Of people on the planet, there is zero progress having to do with the government of Turkey writing it's wrong having to do with its own history and so forth. Especially having to do with a dictator like (Turkish president Recep Tayyip) Erdogan in charge. I don't call him a dictator as an emotional response, I call him that because he puts people in jail based on whether they're in the opposition. He just put a cultural icon named Osman Kavala in jail who is trying to bridge the gap between Kurds, Turks and other minorities, Armenians. As it is with the government now, I don’t see any progress having to do with Turkey's recognition of the Genocide. And ultimately that's what needs to happen."

"But the good news is, more people are aware of it because of all the efforts of amazing people spreading it, you know. In 2015 at the centennial of the Armenian Genocide the Vatican and the Pope officially recognized it. Many more countries have officially recognized it whereas 100 years ago, it was a few diplomats like Woodrow Wilson fighting for, not just recognition of the Armenian Genocide but justice for the Armenian people and those that had suffered under the Ottoman rule. Now it’s a lot more people in the world thanks to the efforts of all of us telling the truth.