Rocking Denny’s boat
System of a Down rallies outside Hastert’s office
By Matthew DeFour
Staff writer
Sept. 28, 2005
BATAVIA – Politics in music hasn’t changed much since the days when Neil
Young lamented “four dead in Ohio,” but politics in practice has.
Heavy metal rockers System of a Down headlined a political rally at noon
Tuesday outside U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s Batavia office to
bring awareness to the slaughter of thousands of Armenians by the Turks
in the 1920s.
Lead singer Serj Tankian, whose grandfather survived the massacres,
delivered a personal letter asking the speaker to call for a House vote
on two controversial resolutions that would recognize the massacres as
genocide.
“By allowing this vote, and allowing the will of Congress to be freely
expressed, you will be doing the right thing morally and, at the same
time, encouraging Turkey to deal honestly with its past and more openly
with its future,” Tankian read though a megaphone to a crowd of about
125 people, including elderly Armenian descendants of the survivors and
young fans who will see the band perform Friday at Allstate Arena in
Rosemont.
Tankian handed a copy of the letter across a police line to a sergeant
who took it inside to Hastert’s office. Hastert himself was in
Washington and unable to make an appearance, but a spokesman said the
speaker was attentive to the demonstrators’ concerns.
“He’s allowing the House to move through the process and he’s listening
to different viewpoints,” spokesman Brad Hahn said. “As a speaker he has
an obligation to build consensus.”
The question of whether to recognize the atrocity as genocide has
divided Americans of Turkish and Armenian descent for decades, and the
U.S. relationship with Turkey, especially during the Iraq War, has
complicated the matter.
Demonstrators emphasized that Hastert promised the Armenian community in
August 2000 that he would allow the House to vote on a resolution, but
since then he has had two opportunities to do so without result.
In October 2000 and July 2003, separate House committees passed
resolutions that would have recognized as genocide the murders committed
by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. Neither resolution was
scheduled for a House vote before the end of the term.
Hastert has said that both the Clinton and Bush administrations have
opposed the resolutions because of an alliance with Turkey.
Last week, the House International Relations Committee passed a
resolution by a vote of 33-11, calling for Turkey to acknowledge the
atrocity as genocide. Another resolution that passed 40-7 calls on the
United States to do the same.
“On these particular (resolutions) he (Hastert) hasn’t been dragging his
feet – yet,” said Greg Bedian, chairman of the Armenian National
Committee of Illinois. “But three strikes and we’ll see what happens.”
Bedian helped to organize the event along with the Armenian National
Committee of American, the Axis of Justice and the Armenian Youth
Federation, which successfully lobbied Springfield this year to pass
legislation recognizing the atrocities in public education curriculum.
When Tankian finished reading his letter, the audience cheered for him
to give a rallying speech, but he said he would rather meet everyone
individually. As he worked his way through the crowd, taking pictures
and signing autographs, some greeted him in Armenian while others
thanked him for making them aware of the issue.
“Up until a couple days ago, I had heard nothing of this,” 15-year-old
David Gerhard of Downers Grove told Tankian. “But I became outraged that
something like this hasn’t been taught in any of our classes.”
Gerhard, like many of the young people in the crowd, heard about the
event – and the issue – through the band’s e-mail, which wasn’t sent out
until Monday night.
Most of the demonstrators arrived by bus from Glenview and other Chicago
suburbs, though some came from as far away as Minnesota, Wisconsin and
Indiana.
They brandished signs that read “You can’t rewrite history” and chanted
“You can’t buy the truth.”
Read between the lines, that last chant could have been a reference to a
recent Vanity Fair magazine article in which a translator alleged that
Hastert had received campaign contributions from Turkish officials to
stymie the House vote in 2000. But aside from murmurs in the crowd,
organizers never mentioned the article or allegations in their speeches
or as part of the program.
“I think that speaks to the validity of the Vanity Fair report,” said
Hahn, who reiterated Hastert’s position that the article had no
credence.
After about an hour, the event came to an end with Armenian-Americans
young and old singing the Armenian national anthem.
Heratch Doumanian came from Indiana to participate in the event and
honor his grandparents and uncles and aunts who “died in the desert.”
“(The legislation) will prevent future genocide,” Doumanian said. “If
people realize they’re accountable for it.”
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