Three weeks ago, a shooting broke out between Armenian and Azerbaijani infantrymen in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, marking the greatest violence the region has noticed in 26 years. The drone moves while the other inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh responded with counterattacks.
Over the weekend, the most recent series of failed ceasefires was damaged in minutes, and both sides accused the other of reviving a confrontation that has claimed the lives of many people.
More than a century after the Armenian genocide of the Ottoman Empire claimed 1. 5 million lives, nagorno-Karabakh natives, also known as the Republic of Artsaj, and the diaspora of Armenians around the world are beaten and frightened.
For Armenian-American Serj Tankian, the Grammy-winning singer of the heavy steel band System of a Down, war is a test. Tankian, whose grandparents were survivors of the genocide, left Lebanon and went to the United States as a child. the leader has been a political defender of Armenia by pressing for democracy, freedom and peace in this traditionally war-torn country.
“Every day I wake up and pray that the bombs have stopped,” Tankian, 53. “Every day. “
Around the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a war broke out between Azerbaijanis and the natives of the region. Armenia declared independence and then claimed victory in 1994. Since then, the disputed land has operated without Azerbaijan’s control. However, the Nagorno-Karabakh region remains a territory of the country subject to foreign law.
Since 27 September, when the region experienced an unforeseen return to violence for the first time, activists from around the world have taken to the streets to call for a non-violent solution in Nagorno-Karabakh, and despite a ceasefire attempt on Saturday. , the New York Times reports that portions of frames are still on the front line.
In recent weeks, Tankian has talked openly about the confrontation to raise awareness and humanitarian aid, even when the world is involved in the COVID-19 pandemic and the U. S. presidential election.
Tankian then discusses his prospects for the Nagorno-Karabakh clash (which he calls Artsaj), Trump and Biden’s reactions to the crisis, and what intervention he considers mandatory to stabilize the region. This interview took place on Thursday, October 15 and has been reviewed for clarity and extension.
Many Armenians say this is a very traumatic time, how do you feel?Are you sad, or are you in fighting or running away while you’re looking to spread consciousness?
Sometimes you’re in mourning, proud, angry. You go through a glove of feelings like Armenian in the face of this kind of aggression and injustice against your other people, not only through Azerbaijan but also through Turkey. To us, it seems like an existential battle.
I spoke to the German media and I didn’t say it, but I thought, “How would the Israelis feel if Germany had never identified the Holocaust and started bombing Israel now?”That’s exactly how we feel.
It is traumatic for us because the government [of Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan has not yet identified the genocide and rather has vilified us, and with Azerbaijan, it is attacking us. There’s racism, there’s hate.
The other inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh, who became independent in 1994, live peacefully, build churches, schools, cultural centers, businesses and filthy and wealthy communities. Our young people have not learned to hate anyone else, regardless of the past. To the future. This is very painful for the Armenian network around the world.
How would you describe what is now in Nagorno-Karabakh?
It’s a parody of human rights. You indiscriminately bombed population centers and blamelessly killed others with fragmentation bombings across Azerbaijan in other cities of Artsaj. They also bombed Armenia in some places. It’s a violation of human rights. It’s a war crime.
[Note: Azerbaijan also reported civilian casualties on 17 October, when at least thirteen were killed after the attack in Ganja city].
NATO has not arrested them even though Turkey is an ally of NATO. The European Union has spoken out against Turkey’s involvement, but it is time for everyone to start punishing these guys to avoid killing innocent people.
I want others to know that we have wonderful young people volunteering for their families. We want sanctions, we want support. It is vital that others recognize the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in order to download legal information from the network and foreign organizations.
In a 2018 interview, he explained that unfolding in the United States, the Armenian genocide was sometimes ignored. In 2019, the Senate, despite everything, identified him, contrary to Trump’s wishes. Do you think endurance and apathy have contributed to the failure? of a global reaction now that this is an active war zone?
Air-Turkish’s aggressors programmed this so that the foreign network would be mainly distracted through COVID and the US election. This was done on purpose, but that does not mean that we do not take on the challenge and allow other innocent people to die and that injustice prevails, quite the opposite. We will have to know that this is a bad time and act against it as a global network.
How has Trump’s leadership responded to this conflict?
There are members of Congress who are asking the U. S. government to sanction Turkey and Azerbaijan, which is not an easy popularity of the Republic of Artsaj. A solution is recently being presented to the House of Representatives to protect Armenia. Trump’s management is not only absent from any political dispute or negotiation, but has only done one general encouraging either party to reach the negotiating table. If that were the case, there wouldn’t be a fucking war!
As an Armenian-American, I am firmly convinced that Trump has too much respect and love for autocrats like Erdogan, but it is not really necessary. The State Department has become an electoral framework for the president of the United States. It’s sad to see you.
It’s vital that other Americans shudder and say, “No, this is unacceptable. “Let’s raise our voices, from a legislative point of view, from an executive point of view, Trump has the strength to phone Erdogan and tell the f ————— —————– outside if he wanted to, right?I think I could. What does that tell you?
Have you noticed what Joe Biden posted on his crusader website?
I appreciated the fact that Vice President Biden and Kamala Harris told Turkey to step back and tell Azerbaijan, in popularity, that they are the aggressors. That’s the right message. My fear, from someone else’s point of view, is that this is going to explode.
In a report through Vice News of Nagorno-Karabakh, which he shared on Twitter, he shows young men preparing to be sent by bus to fight for Armenia. It shows young mothers taking their children underground to hide from the bombings and discuss when to flee. From your point of view, why do those other people stay and fight, why don’t they run away?Is it simply similar to the identity and history of being Armenian?
First of all, it’s not the first time they’ve been bombed and that’s why they have anti-aircraft shelters, somehow they’re used to it. The war of the 1990s was so severe, if not worse, as Azerbaijan targeted civilian areas.
Secondly, if you’ve lived in your for thousands of years, it’s not easy to leave, whatever the war, the bombing, it’s not easy to leave a position where you lived, your grandparents lived, their grandparents lived. something, you have a farm or a business, it’s hard to leave. Everyone knows it’s hard to get out of war-torn areas. It’s been weeks, it hasn’t been months and years.
Although it’s bad, the bombing is bad. Turkey is the one who encourages it, uses Turkish air power. It’s sad, but it’s hard to leave for those other people. They return the circle of relatives, the most vulnerable. Some other people have moved to safer areas of Armenia, but all need to return. This is his homeland.
If you’re on the map of Turkey right now, cut it in part and the right side is traditionally Armenian land. We had millions of Armenians living in those lands. For six hundred years, we were under Ottoman rule and only left when they massacred us, that’s the only explanation why we left!They slaughtered us! So we can leave [Nagorno-Karabakh], because the Turks are back, see what it looks like?
Azerbaijan uses fashionable war technology. Al Jazeera interviewed men who claim to be Syrian mercenaries paid to fight through the Turkish government. Turkey has denied the accusations, French President Macron has also said it is true. You have what is equivalent to a fashionable defense force looking to combat complicated drone attacks. Don’t you think that’s highly unlikely?
And yet they did! They have defended their land, they will die to do it, it is a war between David and Goliath, but look, we have been protecting those lands for a long time, the defensive positions are bigger than the offensives, we fight for our families Who are behind us, they fight, who the hell knows what?This human spirit is a ratio of ten to one.
Has this clash presented the hounds in a precarious position?
They allow hounds from foreign countries to come [to Azerbaijan], unless they are from Turkey. In some cases, they have made exceptions, but most of the time allowed. Armenia, on the other hand, and Artsaj, are open to any journalist who wishes.
Here’s a massive comparison that no one even talks about: Armenia is a fashionable progressive democracy, especially since the nonviolent velvet revolution of 2018; Azerbaijan and Turkey then imprison their other people and their hounds; Turkey kills the Kurds and puts the Gulenists in jail. Azerbaijan has hounds and warring parts in prison. There are opposition demonstrations in Azerbaijan today the war. “Where’s my son, you’re not reporting anything!We know you’re a liar with us!”
These guys [Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan] are corrupt thugs, who borrow from their other people and they will get theirs. But in the meantime, we don’t need to be sacrificed.
The global has replaced many things since the ceasefire in 1994. Now there are social networks on the front line and everyone has a video camera. However, because COVID-19 has global blocking, news seekers review this data and perceive what is genuine and what Internet propaganda is. Have you noticed how severe this extra layer of confusion is?
Yes, that’s why we’re going back to the basics of investigative journalism. You send someone there or something from Reuters, this has to be verified. We got a lot of fake news from the Azeri side, from the Turkish side. Even though Congress, President Macron, Putin and other regional actors have intelligence that it appears that Syrian mercenaries went to Azerbaijan to fight Armenians.
And yet they ask President Erdogan, he says, “No, we don’t have mercenaries from Syria. “These are whole lies, but what do you expect from a genocide denier?If you can say, “This never happened” to a million and a part of other people who die in their own country, do you expect them not to lie now?This is no wonder to us.
But we’re waging a data war. The first week took time to get the media to perceive that this is an aggression through Turkey and Azerbaijan, it is anything that began Armenia. We protect our homeland.
Truth and justice are on our side, we are united and we are vocal. We’re raising money. But the foreign network will have to intervene, especially with regard to Turkey, because Turkey’s influence destabilizes the region, which can create the third global war.
Are you in favor of Azerbaijani civilians?
Absolumento. Me feel bad for any human being who has to go through war. I was seven years old when I heard bombs drop in Lebanon in Beirut and I couldn’t go to school. I don’t forget to kiss my brother in our room while the bombs fell on him. I say, “If you’ve heard bombs drop, you’ll never have to sell them to anyone. “You’ll never let your passing government do that. It’s a terrible experience. I hope there’s a resolution.
In the best world, what’s the favorite result here?Does Napassrno-Karabakh fit into an independent country?
It depends on the other people who live there. But I think they will give in to one or the other and will not live under foreign domination. There’s no way they’re going to do it.
But the vital thing is to prevent confrontation now, prevent bombs from falling, prevent people from being dead, to return to the negotiating table. Armenia, for years, has been encouraging the mediation agency, the OSCE Minsk Group, to send instructors and firearms generation to necessarily show who is breaking the ceasefire, which Azerbaijan has not accepted for 26 years, since 1994, when the ceasefire was maintained.
Your band’s drummer, John Dolmayan, is your brother-in-law. Lately he’s been very publicly in Trump’s favor. Is it frustrating for you since he’s Armenian?
He’s Armenian. He’s my brother-in-law and drummer, is it frustrating to politically oppose your own drummer and brother-in-law?P-yes. Of course, it’s frustrating. But it has to do with American politics. As far as Armenian disorders are concerned, we are precisely on the same wavelength. We know what injustice is happening, we paint in a combined country. We hold auctions and paintings in a combined country on many fronts. The Armenian country is united, whether they vote for Republicans, Democrats or none.
But I was a supporter of Bernie [Sanders], I still am. I feel like it would have been the most productive selection in the future. But I agree with the Biden. Me that you have made that statement. Elections are coming and I’m usually very vocal, yet this war and the daily death toll have occupied my total spectrum of concentration.
Kim Kardashian has also been very eloquent about the conflict. Who would ever have thought that you would be leading the voices to the conscience of an active war?It’s a very 2020 moment.
Moment 2020, actually! [laughs] I’ll tell you anything about Kim, I respect her very much. When it comes to justice, it’s been great. When it comes to raising awareness of the desire to recognize the Armenian genocide, what is happening now in Artsakh, of the revolution that happened in Armenia, of which no one in the United States knew. She’s been amazing. I’ve seen her several times.
Are you a System of a Down fan?
I didn’t ask. [laughs] Honestly, the only time we talked about Armenia and it was great.
Do you have any recommendations for Armenians and the diaspora around the world who feel powerless right now?
I feel powerless. I paint day and night on it in every way possible. I feel powerless. I feel depressed because I never feel like I’m doing enough, so I guess what I’d say is you put every single thing into it, give more than you can, more than you should, until it hurts and more, whatever your talent. dedicate it now to justice and others, which is when your country wants you. We’ll get there, we’ll survive, we have to be strong, we’ll have to be united.
If you need to make a donation to help Armenia, is there an organization to which you send it?
Armenia Fund. Il is an American non-profit organization 501(c) (3). We appreciate any donation with humanitarian aid.
Follow me on Twitter at @DerekUTG.
My musical writing gave the impression on Noisey through Vice, Vulture and more. I worked as a manufacturer at E! News /NBC, Consumer Reports, People and SiriusXM. I have a master’s degree
My musical writing gave the impression on Noisey through Vice, Vulture and more. I worked as a manufacturer at E! News/NBC, Consumer Reports, People and SiriusXM. I have a master’s degree from CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.