SYSTEM OF A DOWN STORM CONGRESS
Story by: Matt Pullman

CMJ.com
ay_article.php?id=11047242
April 6 2006

System Of A Down members Serj Tankian and John Dolmayan will travel
to DC for a three-day campaign for the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide. The members, whose families have been personally affected
by the genocide, will urge Speaker Of The House Dennis Hastert and
other members of Congress to pass a vote on the legislation needed
for recognition. The campaign begins on the evening of April 24,
where the band will lead a demonstration outside the Turkish Embassy.

The following day the band members will be conducting interviews and
will host a Congressional screening of Screamers, a documentary about
the band’s worldwide campaign. On their final day in DC, Tankian and
Dolmayan will meet with members of Congress directly, and then will
participate in the annual Capitol Hill Armenian Genocide commemoration
event, now in its 11th year. The event brings together diplomats,
community leaders, human rights activists, Armenian Americans and 30
members of Congress.

“It’s important for people to be aware of the Armenian Genocide,”
Tankian states in a press release. “Those actions continue to
be covered up by the Turkish government, the US State Department,
Turkey’s allies in the defense and oil industries, and by our present
US Administration. Had the Armenian Genocide been acknowledged as
a Crime Against Humanity as it was, Hitler might not have thought
he could get away with the Jewish Holocaust. History does and will
repeat itself, unless we stop that cycle.”

Both Tankian and Dolmayan campaigned in Hastert’s hometown of Batavia,
Illinois last year to allow the vote on the legislation.

Hassert has the power to allow the recognition of the 1.5 million
Armenians murdered by Turkey between 1915 and 1923. The campaign has
seen its fair share of controversy over the years, with Hassert taking
the bill off the floor minutes before a vote in 2000, rejecting it
again in 2004 and also denying accusations of accepting bribes from
the Turkish government in 2005.