Kane County Chronicle
September 28, 2005
Rock band leads rally at Hastert’s office
By ERIC SCHELKOPF
BATAVIA – Batavia High School senior Julie Allen is
not a big fan of the rock band System of a Down.
But Allen said she appreciates that the band takes a
stand on social issues. That is why she attended a
rally Tuesday in front of U.S. House Speaker Dennis
Hastert’s district office.
System of a Down lead singer Serj Tankian and drummer
John Dolmayan urged Hastert to call for a vote on the
pending Armenian genocide legislation, which would
recognize that Turkey murdered 1.5 million Armenians
between 1915 and 1923.
“I think it is awesome what they are doing,” Allen
said.
Allen said she is concerned about the 1994 genocide in
Rwanda and recent genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
“I am concerned that genocide keeps reoccurring,”
Allen said.
The Armenian National Committee of America, Axis of
Justice and the Armenian Youth Federation also
sponsored the rally.
System of a Down’s four band members are of Armenian
descent. Tankian’s 97-year-old grandfather survived
the Armenian genocide.
“This is not just political, it is personal. If my
grandfather hadn’t survived, I wouldn’t be here,”
Takian said to crowd of about 125 people. “I really
believe there are a lot of good people in Congress who
are going to do the right thing.”
The rally was peaceful and no one was arrested.
“Everything has gone great,” Batavia Police Cmdr. Greg
Thrun said.
Tankian and Dolmayan gave Batavia police a letter
addressed to Hastert, who in turn gave the letter to
Hastert’s staff. The speaker was in Washington, D.C.,
on Tuesday presiding over Congress.
Hastert in October 2000 withdrew the Armenian Genocide
resolution from consideration shortly before it was to
reach the House floor.
“President Clinton asked the speaker not to bring the
resolution to the floor,” Hastert spokesman Brad Hahn
said. “He was concerned about how it would affect the
situation in the Middle East and how it would affect
diplomatic relations.”
The House’s International Relations Committee on Sept.
15 approved two resolutions that denounced the deaths
of Armenians early last century as genocide.
However, the State Department said in a letter to
committee members that the “resolutions could
undermine efforts to rebuild a partnership between the
United States and Turkey in pursuit of America’s broad
national security interests in the eastern
Mediterranean, Caucasus, Central Asia and the Middle
East.”
“Discussion is going on. No vote is scheduled.
(Hastert) is taking a step back and letting the will
of the House work its way through the process,” Hahn
said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress