System of a Down vocalist Serj Tankian has once again called out Imagine Dragons for playing a concert in Azerbaijan last September. Responding to the band’s recent defense of the show, Tankian went as far as comparing the gig to playing Nazi Germany.
Last month, Tankian said Imagine Dragons were “not good human beings” for playing Azerbaijan, prompting the band’s Dan Reynolds to respond in an interview with Rolling Stone: “I think that’s a really slippery slope,” he said. “I think the second you start to do that, there’s corrupt leaders and warmongers all over the world, and where do you draw the line?”
On Thursday (July 4th), Tankian answered Reynolds’ question in a lengthy social media statement. “Respectfully, I draw the line at ethnic cleansing and genocide,” he wrote. “Azerbaijan’s dictatorship with popular support was already into a nine-month starvation blockade of Nagorno-Karabagh qualified as genocide by former [International Criminal Court] prosecutor [Luis Moreno Ocampo] when they decided to play Baku.”
He continued, “Would they play in Nazi Germany? Why don’t they want to play in Russia? Because it’s not popular? They support Ukraine but not Armenians of Artsakh? The only ‘slippery slope’ is the farce moral equivalency at the heart of this hypocritical attitude. I have nothing against this guy nor his band. I just hate artists being taken advantage of to whitewash Genocidal dictatorships.”
Tankian has been consistent with his criticism of Imagine Dragons for playing Azerbaijan, penning an open letter to the band in advance of the concert accusing the country of “crimes against humanity” for their military actions, which he described as a looming “genocide.”
It’s worth noting that each member of System of a Down is of Armenian descent. In 2020, they reunited for their first new songs in 15 years to raise money for the “serious war being perpetrated upon our cultural homelands of Artsakh and Armenia” by Azerbaijan.