Tweet
Raw Story, MA
Oct 12 2007
Rock band documentary shines light on Armenian genocide
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Friday October 12, 2007
CBS News reported Wednesday on a documentary called Screamers which
follows the Grammy-award winning band System of a Down in its
campaign to raise awareness of the Armenian genocide.
As many as 1.5 million Armenians were said to be massacred in Turkey
during World War I. The band members are all grandchildren of
survivors of the massacres and would like to see them acknowledged as
genocide by the Turkish government, which has consistently downplayed
them as merely the result of ethnic violence.
A committee in the House of Representatives has just voted to declare
the killings genocide, but President Bush has promised to veto the
measure for fear of losing access to Turkish military bases. Similar
resolutions have been introduced roughly every ten years, with the
most recent having been withdrawn in 2000 at the urging of President
Clinton.
Serj Tankian, lead singer of System of a Down told CBS about how his
grandfather's father and uncles were taken away to labor camps and
never seen again. "We're all lucky to be here," he said of the band.
"We all know the truth of what it means to feel genocide on your
skin. ... It makes it easier for us to empathize with other injustice
around the world."
Earlier this year, New York Post film reviewer Kyle Smith slammed the
band for calling attention to a "nonissue," but the House
resolution's backers warned the issue could not be ignored as they
drew parallels to the Holocaust and the present-day bloodshed in the
Sudanese region of Darfur.
The following video is from CBS's Early Show, broadcast on October
10, 2007
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Rock_band_docum entary_to_shine_light_1011.html
Oct 12 2007
Rock band documentary shines light on Armenian genocide
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Friday October 12, 2007
CBS News reported Wednesday on a documentary called Screamers which
follows the Grammy-award winning band System of a Down in its
campaign to raise awareness of the Armenian genocide.
As many as 1.5 million Armenians were said to be massacred in Turkey
during World War I. The band members are all grandchildren of
survivors of the massacres and would like to see them acknowledged as
genocide by the Turkish government, which has consistently downplayed
them as merely the result of ethnic violence.
A committee in the House of Representatives has just voted to declare
the killings genocide, but President Bush has promised to veto the
measure for fear of losing access to Turkish military bases. Similar
resolutions have been introduced roughly every ten years, with the
most recent having been withdrawn in 2000 at the urging of President
Clinton.
Serj Tankian, lead singer of System of a Down told CBS about how his
grandfather's father and uncles were taken away to labor camps and
never seen again. "We're all lucky to be here," he said of the band.
"We all know the truth of what it means to feel genocide on your
skin. ... It makes it easier for us to empathize with other injustice
around the world."
Earlier this year, New York Post film reviewer Kyle Smith slammed the
band for calling attention to a "nonissue," but the House
resolution's backers warned the issue could not be ignored as they
drew parallels to the Holocaust and the present-day bloodshed in the
Sudanese region of Darfur.
The following video is from CBS's Early Show, broadcast on October
10, 2007
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Rock_band_docum entary_to_shine_light_1011.html