SYSTEM OF A DOWN UNDERSTAND THE RIGHT THING TO DO IS SOMETIM

System of a Down’s John Dolmayan gives his thoughts as The U.S. tries to persuade Turkey to recognizing the Armenian Genocide

On the eve of yet another Mideast Peace Conference, this time in Annapolis, Maryland in America, The United States Government will try to broker a deal between many different nations tangled in hundreds of years of war, murder and betrayal. One of the trickier situations happening in the Mid East right now is the current build up Turkey’s troops on the Northern Border of Iraq who are continuously being attacked by rebels taking refuge in Iraq, just across the border from Turkey. As The Bush administration continues it’s appeal for Turkey to not cross the border with their troops and destabilize one of the most peaceful areas of Iraq, the Democratically controlled congress is in the process of trying to pass a measure recognizing the Armenian Genocide brought on by Turkey during World War I. Obviously the timing could’ve been better, but Armenians have been trying for many years to get Turkey to recognize the genocide which saw millions of Armenians slaughtered at the hands of Turkish troops.

In fact, System of a Down, which is made up of four Armenians friends from Los Angeles, Daron Malakian, John Dolmayan, Serj Tankian and Shavo Odadjian whose families were affected by the atrocities of the Armenian Genocide, have put together ‘Souls’ concerts in the past to bring to light how necessary it is for Turkey to finally recognize their past. We caught up System of a Down’s drummer, John Dolmayan, recently to get his thoughts on the current state of affairs as our government continues to pressure the Turkish government about the Armenian Genocide.

“I’m very proud of our role in System of a Down to help people understand and learn about the genocide. I understand America’s policy although I don’t condone it because the bottom line is doing the right thing is always harder than doing the wrong thing. It’s harder to have Turkey admit that the genocide took place and then take steps to make it right by the Armenians that survived it. It’s hard for America to take an ally and piss them off for basically a country that has two million people. There’s more Armenians in America, I think there’s more Armenians in Los Angeles than there are in Armenia at this point.”

Dolmayan also realizes that The U.S. government is a tough position to ask one of their closest allies in the mideast, Turkey, to recognize a genocide hundreds of years ago, but it’s something that must be done.

“It’s hard for Turkish citizens to look at their history, their grandfathers and say they were murderers. They killed innocent children and women and they raped them and butchered them and let them die in the desert. It’s hard to accept that father was a rapist, you wouldn’t want to know about it and you would deny it to yourself because your father gave you love. That’s all you saw from your father. That doesn’t mean your father didn’t make mistakes.”

Dolmayan even talked about having no ill feeling towards Turkish citizens, recognizing that some Turkish citizens risked their lives to help their Armenian neighbors who were being killed.

“We don’t have a problem with the Turkish people. A lot of Turkish people at great risk to themselves helped the Armenians during the genocide. They sheltered us and they probably would have been killed and lost everything that they had if they were found out. But they were our neighbors. You lived with them in the same villages and worked together. So, I don’t know it’s very difficult to understand why genocides and holocausts take place and why we have a tendency to kill each other. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”

Although it’s been a few years since System of a Down put on a Souls Benefit Concert, look for it to be a few years more as the band is on an indefinite hiatus. Dolmayan and Malakian are in the process of finishing up their debut album from their upcoming band Scars on Broadway. Serj Tankian, having just released his first solo album ‘Elect the Dead’ is currently touring Europe before heading back to The U.S. for a more extensive run of shows for 2008. System of a Down’s bassist, Shavo Odadjian, besides helping Wu Tang on some bass tracks for their upcoming album and starting a side project with RZA called Achosen, continues his work with UrSession, bringing an entire community of independent musicians together online. Obviously all the members of System of a Down remain incredibly busy and you can expect the bands hiatus to last a few years more.