System Of A Down NEVER PLANNED TO PRESENT ARMENIA AT EUROVISION

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.01.2009 16:09 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Turkish media regularly reports false stories
and makes exaggerated claims. The latest example of misinformation is
the Turkish claim of preventing the participation of the world famous
American-Armenian rock band System of A Down (SOAD) in the May 2009
Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Harut Sassounian, Publisher of
The California Courier, writes in his editorial.

The article goes on:

"What are the facts? Last August, in an interview with Asbarez
newspaper, SOAD’s lead singer Serj Tankian said that a Finnish
journalist had asked him if he would be interested in participating in
"a song competition" which would raise "awareness about the Armenian
Genocide." Tankian told the reporter that it was "an interesting
idea." When the reporter asked if he would be interested in
participating in such a song contest, Tankian said, "Maybe, yeah."

Soon after the Finnish interview, Tankian said he was inundated with
media reports that he was "going to take System of A Down to do this
Eurovision thing." He told Asbarez: "It was all a misinterpretation
and a misunderstanding to a point where I had to actually call my
label reps [representatives] in Finland and asked them to please tell
the journalist to retract those statements, since I never said that."

Despite Tankian’s attempts to lay these rumors to rest, the Armenian
and Turkish media continued to report that SOAD would be presenting
a song on the Armenian Genocide on behalf of Armenia in the 2009
Eurovision Song Contest. Armenian public TV officials, who have the
task of selecting Armenia’s official representative to the Eurovision
Song Contest, repeatedly announced that they had received no such
request from SOAD.

Nevertheless, Parliamentarian Akif Ekici, a member of an opposition
Party, speaking in the Turkish Parliament, urged Prime Minister Erdogan
to act quickly to prevent SOAD from presenting a song dedicated to the
Armenian Genocide in the Eurovision Contest. Worried that hundreds
of millions of viewers throughout the world would become aware of
the Armenian Genocide, Ekinci asked Erdogan: "What will happen
if this group wins the contest with its song on [the] so-called
‘genocide?’ Would the world recognize [the] genocide?" Ekinci also
wanted to know if Erdogan had taken any steps in this regard with
the Armenian government.

Having invented a fictional participation by SOAD in Eurovision,
the Turkish media went further in misleading the public. Last week,
Kanalturk proudly announced a decisive Turkish victory, claiming
that as a result of Turkish complaints, the SOAD song on the Armenian
Genocide was left out of the Eurovision competition.

Turkish State Television claimed that Armenia was forced "to withdraw
the SOAD group" from Eurovision because of "the great reaction" of the
media "reaching all the way to the Turkish Parliament." Kanalturk
further alleged that Armenian officials did not find SOAD’s
participation in Eurovision appropriate, at a time when they were
trying to reconcile with Turkey. Regrettably, Lragir, an opposition
newspaper in Armenia, reprinted these false allegations last week,
claiming that Armenia withdrew SOAD from the Eurovision Song Contest
at Turkey’s demand.

To set the record straight, once and for all, this writer contacted
Serj Tankian who stated: "This whole Eurovision thing has been a funny
and interesting phenomenon. It started with a Finnish journalist asking
me if I would ever be interested in participating in Eurovision,
(which I had no idea what it was), and use it as a way to promote
recognition of the Armenian Genocide. I told him I didn’t know what
it was but I’d look into it. He kept on re-raising the issue over and
over, and I said ‘you’re making it sound like a good idea’ so I’ll look
into it. I never said to him or anyone else that I would do anything
regarding Eurovision, let alone get SOAD involved in it. In fact,
after the initial reports I called our Warner label rep in Finland and
asked them to call the journalist and have him retract the statement,
because it’s false. Nonetheless this has spread. I have denied it in
the press numerous times already."

Tankian further noted: "Neither I nor anyone I know has spoken to
the Armenian government about Eurovision. However if the Turkish
government doesn’t fess up to its own history and recognize the
Genocide, it may be something to consider."

It would be highly ironic if Turkish claims of success in suppressing
the dissemination of information about the Armenian Genocide through
music trigger a popular demand for the participation of SOAD in
Eurovision, which would dramatically raise the issue of the Genocide
before a worldwide audience!"