“Genocide should never be used as political capital to appease an ally in this way,” Serj Tankian, solo artist of the group  System of a Down, told the authoritative American newspaper SPIN in an interview, talking about his Wake Up the Souls tour in recognition the 100th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide.

“We were given the opportunity to play in Armenia for the first time for the 100th year commemoration of the Armenian Genocide and use the opportunity as a chance to educate people about the atrocity, Turkey’s shameful denial, and the need to attain justice for past crimes. The Nuremberg trials, the U.N. Genocide Convention and scores of political action committees around the world have not been sufficient to stop genocide in our lifetime. There are no executable mechanisms for isolating such a regime from its allies, etc. There is much work to be done,” Serj Tankian said.

He said that he was not raised in a politically outspoken family, and engaged into activism “as a result of the hypocrisy of a well known democracy (U.S.) using the genocide of the first World War as political capital in its dealings with Turkey. That opened my eyes to other injustices around the world.”

According to the musician, “Turkey uses its clout and money to perpetuate its shameful denial and evade responsibility to avoid handing out reparations or the return of property to the [Armenian Genocide] victims.”