Metal Anarchy

System Of A Down vocalist Serj Tankian recently blasted Imagine Dragons for playing a show at Baku Olympic Stadium in Azerbaijan. Now, during an interview with Rolling Stone, Imagine Dragons singer Dan Reynolds responded by saying he does not “believe in depriving fans who want to see [them] play because of the acts of their leaders.”

Tankian initially said the following:

“Now it has to be said.

A few months ago, it came to my attention that @imaginedragons had planned a show on Sept 2nd in Baku Azerbaijan. I was sure they were unaware that Azerbaijan’s petro-oligarchic dictatorial regime was starving 120k people in Nagorno-Karabagh which is now being called a Genocide by the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo.

So through representatives, I sent them a kind letter urging them to reconsider playing their show in Azerbaijan as it would help whitewash the dictatorial regime’s image there. I included various articles including one by Amnesty Int’l who I was told they have worked with in the past. There was no response. No answer, no response.

As the humanitarian crisis worsens in Nagorno-Karabagh with starvation already being recorded I am forced to publicize this letter and their disregard for this humanitarian catastrophe. Maybe they felt they had a legal liability to play the show, maybe they just don’t care. My whole life I have been an advocate for genocide recognition and have always said there has to be a price to pay for Genocidal regimes or deniers. Another genocide is looming by Azerbaijan and while this happens they get to enjoy an American band from LV. Fuck that!
That’s not right.

Go to my profile to sign a petition to the band on change.org if you care to sign and you can see my letter to the band on my Facebook page.

Thanks for reading. Serj“

He also discussed the situation with Metal Hammer:

“I don’t know these guys, but who are these people? “I don’t understand that type of thinking.

Very close thereafter, Azerbaijan attacked the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and 120,000 people left their historical homes.

Look, I’m not a judge for people to tell bands where to play, or where not to play. You have other artists playing in very questionable kingdoms, run by one person, where people don’t have a lot of human rights, and I get that they’re doing it for money, that they’re artists, that they’re entertaining, all of that.

But when there’s a government that’s about to commit ethnic cleansing, when Azerbaijan was starving the 120,000 Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, and not allowing any food or medicine in… you know, as an artist, if I found that out, there is no fucking way I could have gone and played that show. But some artists do. And I don’t know what to say about those artists. I don’t respect them as human beings. Fuck their art, they’re not good human beings, as far as I’m concerned.

If you are that blind to justice that you will go play a show in a country that’s starving another country, illegally, according to the International Court of Justice, according to what Amnesty International is saying, what Human Rights Watch is saying… If you still go and play that country, I don’t know what to say about you as a fucking human being. I don’t even care about your music. If you’re a bad human being, I don’t give a fuck. So that’s where I’m at with that. I have zero respect for those guys.”

“It’s not about my ego. I just wanted to make positive change. I wanted those guys to know that what they’re about to do is going to have bad repercussions. I was warning them for their own sake, for their own morality.

I’ve been warning different organisations against using Azerbaijan as a venue because, again, if you allow them to have international links in a way where they feel like they’re legitimate, they’re going to continue their bad behaviour.

You have a dictator who is doing ethnic cleansing, and he’s getting more contracts, Formula 1 racing and rock shows, then he’s going to think that it’s okay to kill people. That’s not okay. So you’ve got to break that link, you’ve got to let people know.”

As for Reynolds, he told Rolling Stone the following about performing in Azerbaijan and Israel:

“No. I don’t believe in depriving our fans who want to see us play because of the acts of their leaders and their governments. I think that’s a really slippery slope. 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?”

He also added the following when asked about Tankian specifically:

“I think I just said it. It’s a slippery slope, and I’m never going to deprive our fans of playing for them.”

[via The PRP]