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♪ Soft tense music ♪
[Serj] [sighs] Okay.
[indistinct background chatter]
[interviewer] So I wanna begin with a... with a simple question:
You've been pursuing justice all your life,
you've been singing about justice all your life.
Right.
[interviewer] So, can music change the world?
♪♪♪
[Serj] In 2015, System of a Down played our first show in
Armenia.
We were so excited to perform for our people.
[crowd cheering]
But there was something that was really gnawing at me.
I knew that Armenia's government was corrupt to the core and
needed to change.
And the country's biggest square was filling up with people
waiting to hear what we had to say.
[crowd cheering]
Before the show
I had this sense of calmness that is rare.
And I just looked at the guys and it almost felt like we
were... created
to play that night.
We've come a long way, Armenia.
But there's still a lot of fucking work to do.
[crowd cheering]
I didn't know how long it would take for the reversal
of fortunes.
But I knew that it was coming.
We are System of a Down, and it's our responsibility
to tell you these things and to rock you at the same time.
[loud rock music and cheering]
The Armenian hard rockers System of a Down are political
and popular.
They're a damn good rock and roll band!
[man] System of a Down!
[crowd cheering]
[male reporter] The Grammy Award-winning band...
[female reporter] Sold nearly 20 million CDs.
-[female reporter] Propelled by the powerful band,
frontman Serj Tankian...
[male reporter] Serj Tankian has emerged as a voice of
justice for the Armenian people.
My grandfather's a survivor of the Armenian genocide.
[male reporter] Calling on the world to recognize the forgotten
Armenian genocide of 1915, but also taking on Armenia's own
government.
The people are out there, tired of a corrupt regime,
and they want it to change.
[male reporter] And calling on his millions of fans...
[crowd cheering]
To bring down the system.
Continue your path of peaceful resistance and don't fall into
the traps of provocateurs.
[crowd chanting]
♪ Soft unsettling music ♪
This is our living room, and, uh, we're surrounded
by trees and... and love living amongst them.
Because of touring, I... I don't get a lot of time to relax on
the road, so when I come home, I like being in a silent place.
So we've got, uh, a Grammy here.
"System of a Down..."
B.Y.O.B, Best Hard Rock Performance.”
They used to be downstairs in my office but that turned into our
son's room So
now they hang out here.
All right.
So that's the closet.
Music was always important to me.
Um, you know, I listened to music at home as a kid.
Let's see what's in here.
But I've been writing poetry longer than I've been playing
music.
So this is '97.
January 8, '97.
So this is... this must be the year we got signed with System.
Poetry, to me, was very important because it was a way
of reaching the truth without necessarily,
uh, reasonable prose.
I had a habit of writing every night before I went to sleep.
That's why a lot of it, I've converted into lyrics.
Oh, here's... here's a... here's an early System song that no
one's ever heard because we've never released it.
It's called "Friik."
F-R-double I-K.
So it goes, "What's my problem?"
Here's my problem.
My problem is that I'm too visual to be blind,
too audiological to be deaf, too idealogical to be in peace,
too compassionate to be in war, too crazy to be sane,
"too sane to be lazy, too emotional to be you."
[laughs]
It's kind of interesting because when [ first started music,
I had no idea of where I would end up.
♪ Emotional piano music ♪
My own family came here to Los Angeles,
migrated in 1975.
You can see some of the signs, uh,
written in Armenian.
You can see a sign that says "Little Armenia"
here.
Where?
I don't see it.
Um, trust me, it's Little Armenia.
Right in the middle of Hollywood,
the Armenian community had a school,
a church, different cafes, bakeries,
restaurants.
- Hey! - [man] Hey!
- [Serj] How are you, bro? - [man] Hey, Ser;♪.
[Serj] You know, it was... it was a settlement with Armenians
from all over the world.
- How's everything? - Good.
- Good to see you. - Very good!
♪ Traditional Armenian music ♪
You know, the different foods
the smells that you'd get walking on Hollywood Boulevard
or Fountain
I mean, look at this.
It's like heaven.
Gata.
Or the yelling on the streets and... and honking for someone to
come down.
All of those are kind of a really beautiful tapestry in...
In my mind as a child.
Mm.
Wow.
That's good.
That looks good, too.
I'm gonna try the same one.
[Serj] When my parents came here, they had zero money and
they did not neglect our education.
From day one, they put us in Armenian school.
And within that community, I made a lot of great friends.
♪ Soft emotional piano ♪
After graduating high school,
I got accepted to Cal State University Northridge.
At the time, I didn't really know what I wanted to do as a
career, so I thought I'd do business.
It's while I was going to university that I got a small.
Casio keyboard and started playing it as a way to kind of
relieve my senses from my mind always working,
whether it was on studies or what was going on with the rest
of my life at the time.
I was always very rational, very studious,
very... kind of thinking and the studying mind.
But once I started doing music, I realized that the right side
of my brain can really take off.
[random noodling on instruments]
The first band that I ever played in,
uh, was called Forever Young.
I started playing keyboards with them.
♪ Rock riff ♪
The one and only show that we ever played was
at the Armenian Cultural Center in Hollywood.
♪♪♪
It was an interesting start,
'cause first of all, we were doing songs in English and in
Armenian.
"Cause that really was our lives as young
Armenian-Americans growing up in Los Angeles.
You know, we were a part of both cultures simultaneously.
♪ Rock ballad ♪
[Serj] So while in Forever Young,
we... we were sharing a rehearsal space with another band,
ano... uh, a bunch of friends of ours.
And at one point, they brought in a new guitarist,
and that was Daron Malakian.
♪ "Waco Jesus" by Forever Young ♪
The first time we actually worked together was
on a song called "Waco Jesus."
It's a song that we both co-wrote along with the guys
from Forever Young.
♪♪♪
And it's the first song I ever recorded as a vocalist.
And the reason I sang on it was our singer wasn't around to sing
and... and I had written the lyrics already for it.
♪♪♪
So after working on the song with Daron,
we clicked.
Dave Hakopyan was our bassist in both bands,
so he joined us as our bassist.
- [man] Is it recording? - [man] Yeah.
[Serj] And formed a band called Soil.
♪ Why can't you ♪
♪ Look at me... ♪
Soil was around for eight months.
And it's in Soil that I started developing my chops.
I was, like, going for anything.
[man] Why did you guys play it so fast,
man?
I was playing music at nights, but still,
I wouldn't admit to myself that that was my calling.
And after university, uh, started working with my uncle in
the jewelry business in downtown LA.
You know, uh, doing trade shows and being on the calls,
taking orders.
And a few years in, I was... I was really disgruntled.
I'm like, "This IS not my vision.
This is not my path."
After a long day of work downtown,
I drove to Long Beach, uh, to take these Kaplan classes to,
uh, learn how to take the L-SAT, and I realized I had zero
enthusiasm for the legal field, even though I thought I could do
it, you know?
And I remember going once or twice and it was horrible.
I... I... I didn't know what I was doing there.
I was fuckin' depressed.
It was really late at night, raining like crazy,
and I had an epiphany, I just
I got overwhelmed.
My subconscious literally took over.
I slammed on the... on the brakes.
I started hitting my dashboard and going "I wanna fucking do music.
Fuck all this shit."
And from there, my life changed.
♪ Ambient drone ♪
[man] 603, take two, common mark. [Clap]
Ouch. [Laughter]
I was playing in a band
off of Verdugo in Burbank at Nightingale Studios where Serj
was at, so that's where I met Serj.
I kind of saw him as a keyboard player.
He was always, like, the elder and he had businesses and he was
doing other things.
He's always done too many... a lot of things.
[laughs] I said "too many."
He's always done a lot of things.
♪ Soft piano music ♪
Two weeks later, I get a call from their bass player,
Dave, and he's like, "You know, I'm not gonna be in the band
anymore.
I don't know if... I think they want to play with you."
And I'm like, "What do you mean 'play with me?"
A couple of days... a couple of weeks passed and
we talked and we said, "We're gonna do a different band."
We're not doing Soil.
We're not continuing Soil.
Soil is... Soil was what it was.
We're gonna go somewhere else with me.
"And we'll find a drummer."
So, it was on.
[Serj] Daron's always been a great songwriter.
I was bringing in the lyrics, Shavo would bring in a riff or two.
But I can tell you, I remember the day when John first played
with us.
System of a Down's sound went from this
to this.
Praise the Lord!
Pass the ammunition!
God wants you to go to war.
♪ "War" by System of a Down ♪
[John] Being that we're all Armenian,
it is pretty unique, you know?
Um, not too many people knew what Armenians were,
especially in the United States at that time.
Uh, there were no Kardashians yet.
[Beno] It wasn't just a band playing music.
It was a musical cause taking the stage.
And Serj came with a chip on his shoulder.
Once you're onstage, I've called it the "truth serum" in a
way, because I don't think about what I'm going to say,
how I'm going to say it.
I just open my mouth and it comes out.
[crowd cheering]
But all of it comes from a personal place.
♪ "Bari Aragil" by Rouben Matevosyan ♪
One of the songs that I remember from my childhood very
vividly is a song that my dad used to always sing.
A song called "Bari Aragil."
[Serj] As a kid, I didn't know what the lyrics meant.
"Bari aragil," uh, literally translated means "kind stork.”
And the stork is known as the bird that returns home.
And so, um, it's been used as a symbolism for Armenians that
want to return home because most Armenians are diasporan
Armenians.
Most Armenians have lived outside of the homeland.
♪ Emotional piano music ♪
The reason that the Armenian community is spread
around the world is because of the genocide.
During the first World War, the Ottomans committed their
atrocities, there was a genocide,
one-and-a-half million people were killed,
and those that escaped... you know,
the orphans and whatnot... Made it all the way to the.
Middle East and different parts of the world.
When we were at an age where we could actually understand and
speak about these things, my grandparents explained to us
their family story and how they survived the genocide.
After witnessing the murder of his father and going blind from
hunger, my grandfather eventually ended up in an
orphanage in Lebanon.
So I was actually born in Beirut.
But a civil war in 1975 forced my family to escape again,
this time, to Los Angeles.
The continued denial of the genocide by the government of
Turkey has further fueled this trauma.
And it doesn't help the US government being a NATO ally for
political expediency or to sell them more Apache helicopters or
different economic reasons.
[male reporter] Congress has once again failed to recognize
the Armenian genocide, presumably fearing repercussions
from Turkey.
A sour note for the Armenian community.
- [laughing] Hey, wow. - How are you?
- Such a long time, how are you? - I know, good seeing you...
In other words, we're dealing with a country that has
committed genocide that is not admitting that they've committed
genocide.
And we're treating them like a close ally.
And that is wrong in anybody's book.
You guys are the generation to come up with new ways and new
interesting, uh, empathetic ways of,
uh, having people understand not just the Armenian genocide but,
because of our history and what we've experienced,
having people understand the scourge of genocide in general.
[cheers and applause]
We have a surprise for you.
- [Serj] Okay. - And we really hope you like it.
Okay.
Oh, wow.
A musical number.
[Serj] For me, the recognition of the Armenian genocide has
always been a personal quest.
Amazing, wow.
Before my grandfather passed away,
I made a promise that I would do my best to take this issue to
the forefront of whatever I do in my life.
Wow.
[cheers and applause]
You guys are awesome.
[speaking Armenian]
That was beautiful.
That's awesome, thank you.
♪ Rolicking rock music ♪
[Beno] A lot of the labels were scared of them.
They didn't get it.
How do you market four Armenian guys that are not scared to
speak their mind, that can polarize people by speaking
about the lack of recognition of Armenian genocide,
about... about politics, about corruption.
-[Serj] Free-thinkers are dangerous!
♪ "Mind" by System of a Down ♪
[Beno] And that's one of the things that people really
latched onto as fans.
And so through time, that uniqueness became their biggest
power.
♪ Need the ones you love and ♪
♪ Love the ones you bleed... ♪
[Serj] By the time that we actually played the Viper Room,
our manager mentioned that he'd love to have Rick Rubin hear our
band.
And we were like, "What?
Rick Rubin might come to see us play?
Wow."
Like, we were blown away.
From Def Jam to, you know, Slayer to everything he had
done, the Chili Peppers and, you know,
it's... we just thought it would be perfect.
So we started playing, and we see Rick Rubin walking in
and sitting right there.
♪ It'll be all right ♪
♪ soft mellow music ♪
-[both] Hey! [laughter]
[Rick] The Viper Room was packed.
I can remember where I was sitting in the booth.
Sitting up on the top of the booth because it was... you
couldn't ♪... everybody was so wild that you had to be up high
to be able to see anything.
And I remember watching the show and just laughing.
- [laughs] - And I... it was so
extreme and different than anything that I saw before that
the... the only reaction was to laugh.
What it sounded like to me was a combination of ancient folk
music mixed with heavy metal, and I'd never heard that
combination.
And it was thrilling.
♪ Balearic beat ♪
[both] [gibberish]
[Serj] This is Rick's house's studio.
Look, we've got machinery, we've got animals...
Molly!
[Serj growling]
♪ Heavy metal music ♪
So when the record was ready, we went on tour with Slayer.
We are in System of a Down's dressing room.
Serj, the resident terrorist.
And that was like bootcamp, to learn how to deal with a Slayer
audience.
There was this one show where we played the first song and no one
reacted to it.
And I think it was Daron's idea to just play the song again.
We're System of a Down.
And whether you like us or you hate us...
They're gonna kill us!
I'm like, "I'm so glad you loved that song.
We're gonna play it for you again."
We played it again and we got their respect.
[cheering and loud music]
That experience basically prepared me
for a touring career.
See, you can play a lampshade and consider yourself an artist.
If you do it right, it there's lights going on and off and on
and off and on
[Shavo] I'm so lucky to be playing music with three of
my best friends in the world.
That's my life, you know?
I don't have to play... 'cause if I had a 9-to-5 job at a bank
like I used to or delivering flowers,
I'd still go home at night and play my guitar.
[Serj] Those first two and a half years of touring is what
solidified System permanently.
Created that one-on-one interaction with people that
became the early System fans.
System of a Down, man!
Wooh!
[Serj] They're the ones that spread the gospel.
We are having our say and we are having our voice on... on
political issues, but they're putting it into music,
which is getting out to loads of people across... across the
world.
♪ Why'd you leave the keys upon the table? ♪
♪ (You wanted to) ♪
♪ I don't think you trust... ♪
We were writing our second record,
in the studio recording the song "Chop Suey."”
So we were writing, you know, the... the lyrics but that
middle, the breakdown part, I was stuck.
[Rick] We went to the library of my house and I said,
"Just pick a book randomly" and you picked a book randomly,
and I said, "Open it up randomly and just point to a phrase."
I couldn't believe it when I put my finger and I read it.
[Rick] The universe is conspiring on our behalf all the
time if you're... if you're open.
And that ended up being the first line of the bridge.
"Father, have you forsaken me?
Father, have you forsaken me?"
♪ Father! (Father!) ♪
♪ Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit ♪
♪ Father, into your hands, why have you forsaken me? ♪
♪ In your eyes forsaken me ♪
♪ in your thoughts forsaken me ♪
♪ I cry ♪
♪ When angels deserve to die... ♪
[Beno] "Toxicity' was released September of 2001."
And the day before, we were gonna have a show in Hollywood
to obviously set up the record.
It was a free show.
And I don't think anyone knew how big the band was.
[Serj] As were about to play the show
we're told that there are too many people.
This was supposed to be a free concert by the group System of a.
Down, and it did go downhill fast.
Police on horseback...
The fire marshal won't let us on the stage to play.
-[female reporter] Breaking down barricades,
fans tipped over speakers onstage,
took off running with expensive equipment,
and vandalized anything...
[Shavo] They didn't know who the riot was about,
what was happening.
Like, what?
This is all about a band?
[male reporter] Like wildfire, through the crowd and then the
streets of Hollywood...
The newswire circulated nationwide on the eve of our
record release.
[male reporter] Are System of a Down fans taking the message of
political rebellion too far?
I mean, who the hell thought System of a Down,
four Armenian kids, misfits that came together and made music
that never should have been popular,
now we're on CNN and there's a riot because of us?
And that was it, man.
That was the spark.
♪ When angels deserve to die ♪
And then, it was like two weeks later and [shaps].
[female reporter] It is beautiful outside,
perfect September day with lots of sunshine.
Oh, would you look at...
[female reporter] This just in.
You are looking at, obviously, a very disturbing live shot there.
That is the World Trade Center and we have...
[female reporter] Oh, my God.
Another plane has just hit.
[female reporter] Oh, another one just hit!
[female reporter] Oh, my God.
[Serj] It was fucked up.
Like, everything felt out-of-control.
Everything felt like there was no one in charge.
I saw smoke coming out and everybody started running out
and we saw the plane on the other ♪... side of the building
and there was smoke everywhere and people were jumping out the
windows... over there!
They're jumping out the windows
[Serj] I was so depressed by what was going on that it made
me really look into the causes.
What can cause something like this?
[echoing] "Understanding oil, September 13, 2001."
So I wrote an essay...
[echoing] "Why did these people do this horrific act of violence
and destruction?
To be able to understand the answer to this,
we must first look at our US Mid-East policy"
I kind of analyzed what type of dictators and despots have the
US supported over the last 50 years.
[echoing] "What everyone fails to realize is that the bombings"
are a reaction to existing injustices around the world,
generally unseen to most Americans...
The wars waged by our government have landed smack in the middle
"of our living room..."
So I posted it to the band's website.
And I didn't think anything of it.
And then all hell broke loose.
[John] Serj, without discussing it with anybody in the band,
put up something that was really...
It wasn't... it wasn't untrue.
But you don't go to somebody that just had a death in the
family and talk about how shitty that person was to them.
And it certainly didn't represent the way the rest of us felt.
I was really pissed.
The way it came off is "Fuck you",
America.
It's your fault that this happened to your people.”
And that was uncool.
We got banned everywhere, you know?
For the first month of our record release.
♪ Melancholic ambient music ♪
Clear Channel sent out a bunch of titles of songs that they
wanted removed from the playlists.
One of them was "Chop Suey."
"Trust in my self-righteous suicide," the... the main lyric
in the chorus.
[Stern on radio] The lead singer of System of a Down
is gonna call in, Serj, because
-[Quivers on radio] Oh, wonderful.
[Stern on radio] He wants to explain himself.
That he's just a man of peace and love and he's getting
I remember being in a hotel room,
having to wake up at 4AM to get on the Howard Stern Show and
defend my words and... And... and explain that,
"Look, I'm just trying to understand what's going on.
Everything I've said is factual.
And... and I'd be happy to talk about it."
But I also felt scared.
We were getting personal death threats.
The band pulled me into a room, sat me down,
and goes, "What the fuck are you trying to do to us,
get us killed?!"
And I'm like, "Guys, I'm so sorry,
I'm just... it's... Honestly, it's the truth!"
Like, I was so naive that I thought that because it was the
truth, that it was okay to say it.
[Stern on radio] Did we deserve to be bombed...?
-[Serj on radio] Oh, absolutely not.
[Stern] I think people think that maybe that's what you're
saying, that we deserved to be bombed.
[Serj] Oh, no, man, absolutely...
[Quivers on radio] That we brought it on ourselves.
- [Stern] Right. - [Serj] No, absolutely not...
When I hung up that phone, I remember feeling like shit.
I was playing a line where I was defending myself,
but I couldn't really get into the main issues and kind of
really fight for my words.
And that made me feel really bad.
If... I felt constrained.
I felt
I felt like I couldn't say what I wanted in a well-known
democracy.
[Stern on radio] I don't know what Serj said. Believe me...
[Quivers on radio] He wasn't gonna say what he said.
[Stern] Yeah, I don't know... I don't know what kind of
guy Serj is so, you know, I gave Serj the opportunity to speak
and... and what the hell, you make your own conclusions.
[Rick] That's the true artist's role in society.
That's why we're here.
The things you're talking about are reflecting what's really
going on.
A lot of people just don't want to talk about it.
Not talking about it doesn't make it go away.
So it is... it is our responsibility to push back.
♪ Soft ambient music ♪
-[female reporter] Despite controversy,
"Toxicity' has hit number one on the Billboard 200."
System of a Down has arrived.
System of a Down officially announced that they're going to
release 'Steal This Album, a collection of
previously-recorded...
So at the time there was the whole build up to the Iraq War
movement.
Simply stated, there is no doubt
that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.
Alliances with terrorists could allow the Iraqi regime to attack.
America
without leaving any fingerprints.
[Serj] I remember having a meeting with the band and
management.
And they were like, "Okay, well, we're gonna release this other
record.
You know, we should pick a single."
And I'm just holding... Holding my breath going,
"I know everyone's gonna hate what I say now,"
you know?
Kind of thing.
And I said, "I think we should make a video for the song."
"'Boom" which talks about bombing people and the adverse
effects of war, uh, and I think Michael Moore should direct it.
Let's just make a statement.”
♪ "Boom" by System of a Down ♪
As a Vietnam vet, I do not believe that war should be
fought in America's name.
It's the most ridiculous thing
I'm here because my brother is in the Navy and we want him to
come home alive.
[crowd cheering]
I don't understand why dropping bombs on children is the best
way to achieve peace.
♪ Why must we ♪
♪ Kill our own kind? ♪
♪ Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! ♪
[Tom] I went to...
I... I think it was an Ozzfest.
I was outraged that there were a I... it was in San Bernardino and
there were a lot of, like, Nazi and white power tattoos in the
audience.
And onstage, almost every band had at least one non-white
member in it.
And I just thought, "That's like a... that's just... that's not
right.
And somebody needs to do something about that."
And I had the idea to form an organization called Axis of.
Justice.
[man] They preach out to a community and to an audience
[Serj] Tom said, "Look, would you be interested in... in... in
talking about this?"
And I said, "Fuck yeah."
[Tom] I think the very first time we met was at an action.
Santa Monica had outlawed people feeding homeless people,
and we were... in defiance of this ordinance,
we were going to feed all the homeless people in sight.
Stewart Copeland goes over to Travis Barker,
taps him on the shoulder and goes
- [laughs] Oh, no way!
No way!
That's awesome!
I had only known Serj as like sort of the painted sort of
hysterical shaman of... of Armenian,
you know, death metal.
Uh, and he was the gentlest soul
maybe in the history of rock and roll music.
This is the Axis of Justice...
Radio Network.
I'm Tom Morello.
I'm Serj Tankian.
And for the next hour, we are going to be spinning rebel jams
of various genres and revealing dangerous truths.
Very dangerous.
[Tom] And that's how we very much saw ourselves,
as... as being social justice warriors and really moving the
goalposts for what ideas could be discussed in popular music.
[Serj] Press gravitated toward us earlier on because of our
political message, and that's fine and that's totally cool.
But one of the reactions that I always got,
especially from the other guys is,
"They're only talking about, you know,
our two, three songs out of the 12."
It takes people like System of a Down to get the word out.
And I think they do a good job of it.
Without them, there would be nobody out there that does that.
We didn't want to, uh, pigeonhole ourselves as purely a
political band.
And we also didn't want the politics to be more important
than the music.
Yeah, we had to have some talks about that and just say,
"Look, let's not alienate half our audience every night."
[Serj] We've got Axis of Justice,
we've got Amnesty International, Darfur Action Committee,
uh, each with their own booths to pass out,
uh, information about causes that people wouldn't necessarily
see at a rock event.
[John] But if you know Serj, he's a... a little bit of a
stubborn guy.
If he thinks he's right, if the entire world thinks the
opposite, he's still right in his head and that's that.
[Serj] One thing our band always did agree upon is,
you know, pursuing recognition for the Armenian genocide
because all our grandparents are survivors of the genocide.
Tonight is not just the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide.
[crowd cheering]
It's also time to break down all the walls of
hypocrisy around the world with all genocides known and
unknown
accepted or not accepted...
It's time to make the Turkish government
pay for their fucking crime!
[crowd cheers]
♪ Ignition ♪
I was making a documentary, um, for British television,
and I had a colleague at the time who said,
"Hey, do you know about this Armenian band,
System of a Down?"
And I said, "Well, sure, but, you know,
I'm working on human rights, political documentaries.
Why would I be interested in that?"
♪ A whole race, genocide ♪
♪ Taking away all of our pride ♪
♪ A whole race, genocide ♪
♪ Taken away (Watch it all fall down) ♪
In 2004, you had a movement in Congress to get the
genocide recognized.
- All in favor, say "Aye." - [multiple] Aye.
- Opposed, "nay." - [multiple] Nay.
The ayes have it.
[Schiff] We're over a very difficult,
important hurdle.
We haven't had a, uh, victory in this committee for half a
decade.
But now we're up, uh, against just as difficult,
uh, opposition in getting it scheduled for the House floor.
Uh, this committee received, last night,
a letter from the State Department opposing these
resolutions.
So we're gonna have to fight to get this done.
[Serj] Hello?
At one point, I remember being in Chicago for a show and,
uh, we realized that it's the hometown of Dennis Hastert,
who at the time was Speaker of the House.
We found out that it's back to Dennis Hastert's hands,
the Speaker of the House, to... you know,
it's... it's under his power to... Whether he's gonna allow it to
go to a full house vote or not.
And there's all these claims about him taking hush money from
different Turkish sources.
Yeah, we just decided to ramp up the process.
[laughs]
Hey, way to keep it medium-level,
Serj.
You can't deny the truth!
[crowd] You can't deny the truth!
[man through megaphone] Recognize it now!
[crowd] Recognize it now!
It just so happens that people gravitate more towards the
political aspect of the band.
And when it concerns this, this is,
for us, a personal issue.
- [Serj] How are you? - I'm fine, nice to see you.
- I'm Serj, how are you? - Good.
I'm... I'm from the band System of a Down.
- From where? - From the band System of a Down.
- Oh, yeah, right. - Yeah.
Yeah, great, very good.
We came to your office to give you to a letter.
Oh, excellent.
Yeah.
Did you happen to get it?
Not... I haven't looked at it yet,
"cause I've been
- I'm sure you're very busy. - One of those days, yeah, right.
I'll look at it... I do that usually in the evening.
Well, we've been here meeting members of Congress and some
senators, talking about the Armenian genocide resolution...
Okay.
And the importance to pass it, you know,
regarding our history and the Armenian community and,
you know, how important it is to all of us to face a historical
reality and help get over this with with Turkey.
And everyone's been very receptive and...
That's good.
It's been going great and, you know,
we know that it's in your hands and [inaudible].
I'll take a look at your letter.
Okay.
- Thank you very much. - Thank you.
Before System of a Down came onto the scene,
we had artists who happened to be Armenian but who did not wear
their Armenian identity on their sleeves,
like Cher, for example.
And suddenly, you see these guys,
who are heavy metal rockers, who are having a huge impact.
I think Armenians in the diaspora craved somebody to have
the power of celebrity to get real political change.
♪ Joyful music ♪
[crowd cheering]
- [man] Brains! - Brains!
Brains!
[Serj] Touring was always fun.
[groaning]
[Serj] Going from city to city and meeting different people...
[male reporter] System of a Down is filling stadiums,
sweeping awards...
System of a Down!
[man] System of a Down!
[crowd cheering]
[male reporter] And changing the world.
[man] Talk to me a little bit about your grandfather.
Your grandfather miraculously somehow survived this holocaust
in
-[male reporter] Just this year, Canada,
Russia, Argentina, and a dozen other countries have recognized
the Armenian genocide.
The Armenian genocide is recognized by a number of
nations in the world already, and eventually,
the US will have to do it as well.
[crowd cheering]
Whe... when you do it for a long period of time,
it... it wears on you, you know?
♪ Soft unsettling music ♪
"Claustrophobia."
Losing sight of the eternal garden could be devastating at
best.
What drives me insane are the catastrophic perplexities of
those close souls with whom I have drunk from the pure
fountain of harmony.
"As long as there is a way..."
The whole concept behind bands staying together and,
uh, continuing a long tradition of something is,
uh, I think it's commercially motivated.
And I don't think anything, uh, in life and especially art
should be, uh, put in that much of a format,
you know?
So I personally don't think bands should exist forever,
to be honest with you.
I'm gonna quit the band after this interview.
[laughter]
[Serj] The way I think Daron always saw this band and... and
maybe even the other guys, I gotta say,
is that we each had a role, like a sports team,
is... is how it's been described before.
And that we should each kind of excel at that role and then
bring the unit together as a team to score.
Like, if you want to use sporting,
uh, terminology.
And that's fine if you think of it that way.
And there's some truth to that.
But I've always thought as an artist as more than
just... playing a guitar or, you know,
I'm only supposed to write lyrics or... you know,
as you grow as an artist, you have more to give.
And for me, that's what it was.
I felt artistically stifled.
"The enigmatic loss of vision and its accompanying diverse
avenues of existence caused this lockdown hysteria.""
I told the guys that, "Look, after the next record,"
which turned out to be two records, 'Mesmerize'/
'Hypnotize, ' "I want to do my own thing, take a hiatus."
[male reporter] The announcement has sent shockwaves
around the rock world.
With two number one albums and a Grammy just this year,
System of a Down is stepping off the stage.
♪ Playing melodica ♪
From the rainmaker sound to, uh,
a baby Chinese accordion... [laughs]
Splaying accordiond.
Working on my first solo record, 'Elect the Dead, ' was a lot of
fun, 'cause it was a whole different process.
Okay, uh, kalimba.
♪ Playing kalimba ♪
I'm making a rock record without a rock band.
Splaying instrumentdd.
So it... it doesn't sound great without really being
hooked up.
You throw a little delay pedal on there and... and some phaser
and stuff and it sounds phenomenal.
It's great for composing, really...
Now, I'm writing every aspect of it.
I'm writing, you know, the rhythmical patterns for the
drums, the bass lines...
That's the pianos.
So I started with that, with just the pianos.
♪ Piano riff ♪
And... and most of the songs are written either on
acoustic guitar or piano with vocals,
uh, to start with.
And then just building up.
And then brought in the vocals.
♪ Pretentious attention ♪
♪ Dismissive apprehension ♪
♪ Don't waste your time on coffins today... ♪
And just, you know, tracking the whole thing and
then bringing live musicians to replace some of the stuff that
I've performed on.
♪ Don't waste your time on coffins today... ♪
It's... it's... it's invigorating.
It's emancipating.
♪ Desolate and full of yearning ♪
♪ Dying of anticipation ♪
♪ Choking from intoxication ♪
♪ Don't you see their bodies burning? ♪
I remember that there was this one point in the recording
studio by myself, listening back to some of the tracks.
I was, like, running around and, like,
really amped into it by myself, which probably would look
ridiculous if you saw someone doing that.
Insane.
But that's when I really knew that the music would connect.
And rock is a unique delivery mechanism for rebellion.
♪ Don't you see their bodies burning? ♪
♪ Desolate and full of yearning ♪
♪ Dying of anticipation ♪
♪ Choking from intoxication ♪
♪ Don't you see their bodies burning? ♪
♪ Desolate and full of yearning... ♪
"Empty Walls" actually, you know,
had a lot of radio play and we made this incredible video.
There was a reenactment of 9/11 with kids and the Abu Ghraib
situation.
♪ Taunt you to see from behind those empty walls ♪
♪ I want you to be left behind... ♪
And then, I got an offer to do something with an
orchestra and I... I was bewildered by that.
I was like, "Wow, that could be really interesting."
So, uh, I was able to rearrange my music from 'Elect the Dead'
and create a symphonic version of it.
And it turned into 'Elect the Dead' symphony.
♪ I want you to be left behind those empty walls ♪
♪ Taunt you to see ♪
♪ Left behind those empty walls ♪
♪ Taunt you to seed ♪
♪ From behind those empty walls ♪
♪ From behind those fucking walls ♪
♪ From behind those... ♪
[male reporter] System of a Down's frontman Serj Tankian and
his Serjical Strike Records have hit a little smooth sailing.
So next year, Serj and his label will release several projects,
including Kittens for Christian and avant-garde goth art punk
band...
[Serj] We had signed this amazing band called Fair to.
Midland out of Texas.
Serj says he'll put out five albums a year and continue to
sign bands that inspire him.
[claps]
And there were a number of record companies interested,
and through Atlantic, uh, the head of Atlantic Records at the
time, I got a, you know, unexpected visit with,
uh, the old, uh, co-chair, you know,
the old CEO, Ahmet Ertegun, who was Turkish.
So we sat down and had a great conversation about music and...
And how much I appreciated the bands that he had signed like.
Zeppelin and... And Ray and, like,
all this stuff.
And then, on my way home, I just... something... there was an
inkling feeling inside of me that I needed to kind of ex...
Uh, figure out what it was and I typed his name,
Ahmet Ertegun, and I put the world "genocide" behind it and.
Googled it, and I realized that he had paid for a lot of foreign
policy think tanks and trusts that were encouraging Congress
not to recognize the Armenian genocide.
He had also paid for chairs at universities that had encouraged
scholars, uh, so-called scholars,
uh, that would deny the Armenian genocide.
Now, this became a big problem, uh,
for me personally, uh, and for the band ultimately.
And then, you know, at that time,
I got news from a very reliable source that there possibly could
be Turkish intelligence sources looking at me to assassinate me,
uh, because of my activism against Dennis Hastert.
Art can be very dangerous, um, which is why tyrants and
tyrannical states love to clamp down on artists.
Um, in February...
There are many situations in life where you don't expect,
you know, something that... that is political or that is social
to interact with the business that you do or with the other
work that you do.
And somehow, it pops up and it challenges your kind of... the...
The narrative of your moral compass.
In the end, we ended up not working with Ahmet Ertegun.
I wanted to talk to you about the latest in terms of genocide
recognition in the US.
Both the Senate and the House introduced new legislation.
It's not just US recognition of the genocide,
it's also a matter of prevention of...
- Right. - Of just genocides in general.
I want us all to put up our right arms in protest,
and I want us all to say...
[all] As President, I will recognize the Armenian genocide!
As President, I will recognize...
[male reporter] Barack Obama has joined a long line of.
Presidents who broke their campaign promise to recognize
the Armenian genocide.
♪ Pensive electronic music ♪
Social media has given unadulterated access for
artists, uh, directly to their fanbase,
which didn't exist before.
That's one of the positive aspects for me about it.
But it also allowed me, as an activist,
to express myself.
[echoing] "We have a lot to learn from the Chilean students
protesting here in Santiago"
"I hope the Occupy Wall Street movement truly turns into a
political force"
"I support the Global Zero movement to eliminate all
nuclear weapons by 2030"
I was thrilled to see the impact I was making on so many issues
across the world.
[echoing] "I'm appalled by Obama's closeness to this
hypocrite named Erdogan, Turkey's Prime Minister..."
Of course, there was the other side of this,
loo.
♪ Emotional piano music ♪
As time went by and System of a Down didn't make a
record, there was a, uh, growing disgruntlement,
uh, among fans to get a new System record.
[laughs]
I love the fact the he represents the entire metal
community, or she.
♪♪♪
I don't want to come across that I know everything
and... and... and whatnot, but, you know,
whatever statement I make is based on an injustice occurring
somewhere that I want to rectify.
And whether I'm right or wrong to do it is... is... is another
factor.
But I need to do it.
It's... it's... it's the truth.
Like, it's gotta come out.
And same with justice.
I feel like the environmental balance that is,
you know, that we're seeing in... in... in climate change is,
uh, also indicative of the human imbalance that is existing due
to wars, profits over people, and all of this stuff.
We have to change our ways in every way for us to survive.
[laughs]
Uh, both in the spiritual world and in the
physical world.
They're all mirrors of each other.
♪ "Harakiri" by Serj Tankian ♪
[Reagan] We are at war with the most dangerous enemy
that has ever faced mankind in his long climb...
[Serj] With 'Harakiri, ' I took on a whole new set of
political issues.
[Reagan] There's no place to escape to.
This is the last stand on Earth.
[Serj] From corporate greed to climate change.
♪ We're the day birds ♪
♪ Deciding to fly against the sky ♪
♪ Within our dreams... ♪
But a voice for justice always needs to evolve.
So, I began to experiment.
I did 'Orca, ' which was my first symphony.
"I did 'Jazz is Christ," a jazz record,
with a bunch of really amazing musicians.
♪ Jazz noodling on keys ♪
I did a musical called 'Prometheus Bound.'
And I also started painting for the first time.
All of my paintings are musically scored,
like a film.
For example, the first piece that I ever did,
you can actually read the music of the first measure.
And it's a piano piece.
It's a beautiful, haunting piano piece.
And I've always thought, like films,
how would one score a series of paintings?
So I started [clears throat] inserting speakers and MP3
players within the actual, uh, painting.
So you've got two speakers on the sides,
stereo speakers...
And I got lost in that world and it became another new artistic
expression.
Doing all this stuff and coming into my own and feeling
confident of myself as a songwriter,
uh, as a composer...
That sounds much better.
Uh, it really kind of changed the way that I looked at System
again, to a point where, when there was that opening for us to
discuss touring together again, I was way more open to it and...
And be like "Okay, well, I've done all these things and I'm
gonna continue doing all these things,
but if you guys wanna play some music together,
I think that might be really fun."
Hello.
Just want to say hi.
Hi.
- [Serj] Serj. - Michael, nice to meet you.
[giggling]
[cheering]
We are [inaudible]!
We're System of a Down!
[inaudible]!
[crowd cheering]
So I shot everything.
[man] Whoa.
[woman] Yo, watch out!
[laughter]
[Serj] I strapped a camera on my head
I just blinded you with science.
[man] ♪ She blinded me with science ♪
[Serj] I had spy glasses...
These are skinny mirrors.
If you are skinny, you will be skinnier.
How are you, man?
- How are you? - Everything cool?
- [Serj] Good to see you again. - Sounds good in the house.
-[Serj] Great, thank you. Thanks for everything.
I... I think the reason that I wanted to shoot all of that
was because, irrespective of feeling confident coming back to
the System camp, there was still some lingering insecurities
and... and fears.
You fuckin' fuck.
[laughter]
[inaudible] over your head.
[Serj] So I think by having a camera in the middle to be able
to look through kind of gave me the perspective that I needed to
more comfortably and unemotionally reconnect with my
past and with my band.
[crowd cheering]
That was a such a great show.
That felt like a badass fucking show.
Woo!
My girlfriend Ang was on tour with me.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
Okay, got it.
[Serj] And George, my manager.
I tried to come here two hours late.
I only got here an hour late. [Laughter]
I'm so disappointed.
You know, it was just like
w... we just... we were having so much fun.
♪ Joyful music ♪
[inaudible].
Look at that view of Jordan.
And I also filmed my family as we went back to Lebanon.
We visited the orphanage that took in my grandfather after the
genocide.
We went back to the home we lived in before moving to Los
Angeles.
And I even got to have a concert there with my dad and sing the
song he taught me so long ago.
[cheers and applause]
The Armenian homeland was destroyed by the genocide in
1915.
But a small part of Armenia actually did survive.
After two years of independence, it became part of the Soviet.
Union, until finally regaining its independence in 1991.
I had been to Armenia in 2005, and at that time,
I was starting to get more interested politically.
♪ Emotional strings ♪
The more I visited Armenia,
the more I started to see some of the injustices occurring in
Armenia, mostly having to do with the ruling elite,
a very corrupt ruling elite, post-Soviet oligarchic ruling
elite, that felt that they could do whatever they like,
uh, with impunity.
There was a depopulation occurring,
people were leaving the country, they were voting with their
feet, as it's called.
Because they couldn't find jobs.
They didn't have, uh, justice in the courts.
They weren't able to provide a great comfort and security and...
And... and lifestyle for their children.
Now, this was taboo in the Armenian community in the
diaspora because diasporan Armenians,
they didn't really want to talk about the injustices in Armenia.
When you're going to Congress asking for the recognition of
the genocide, it's not cool for you to mention that there's
corruption in Armenia, there's some bad shit happening in
Armenia that need to be resolved as well.
[crowd shouting and chanting]
March 1, 2008 is, uh, kind of indelibly sketched into modern
Armenian history because there were 10 deaths at a protest
protesting the election of Serzh Sargsyan as President.
In Armenia, at least nine people now have died in clashes
between police and opposition protesters.
Outgoing President Robert Kocharyan has imposed a...
[Serj] People were dying, uh, making their voices heard.
[male reporter] The protesters accuse the government of rigging
last month's presidential election.
[screaming]
And I was really, really heartbroken that... that Armenia
is going through this injustice and that,
you know, this... This hold on, you know,
uh, the populace and their destiny was happening by a
handful of el... Elitists, corrupt elitists.
And so I wrote a public letter.
So after writing that public letter to the President,
I... I didn't expect a response, a... actually,
uh, but he did respond, in public,
with his own letter.
2015 was the centennial of the Armenian genocide.
[male reporter] Thursday's vote in the German parliament
recognizing a genocide of 1.5 million Armenians
[Serj] Germany officially recognized the genocide,
the... the Vatican officially recognized the genocide.
[Serj] It was the first time System of a Down ever played
in Armenia, as well.
[crowd cheering]
Here I was, dealing with a government that
was unjust...
[crowd cheering]
That I was really rallying against,
yet I was also
spent my whole life fighting for recognition of the Armenian
genocide, an external injustice.
[crowd cheering]
♪ Singing in Armenian ♪
You know, I... I stayed up for two nights thinking about how
I'm... how am I gonna deal with this?
At the time, it just came to me in the middle of the night,
and I just said, "You know what?"
I'm a fucking musician, I'm an artist.
I'm gonna say everything I need to say from my stage,
from our stage.
"And the rest can fall where it may."
Before the show, we got together with the guys from.
System in the lobby of the hotel we were at before we got
onstage.
I'm honored to be with you guys.
Me too.
This... this, like, even more this time...
[Serj] And we hugged each other.
I had this sense of calmness that is rare.
And I just looked at the guys and it almost felt like we
were... crealted
to play that night.
Now, let's go wait for 20 more minutes.
Where are they?
[Shavo] From day one, we had songs about being Armenian and
the whole cause, you know?
And it was like one head, two head,
three head, four head.
[rolls tongue]
And a whole nation got... heard us.
They're like, "Fuck, they're... They're... those young boys are...
Are... are fucking soldiers."
We were soldiers with a fucking... with a voice to say
something.
[crowd cheering]
[John] It was as poignant moment because all the drama of
the last 20 years, it just went away.
And it was just four guys going onstage and playing for their
people.
[crowd cheering]
♪ Emotional piano music ♪
[Serj] We played an amazing show.
It was raining, it was really dramatic.
And the audience was going crazy.
And I started talking.
The truth serum kicked in.
♪ Ominous guitar riff ♪
For the last few days
I haven't been able to sleep well.
All I can think about is my grandparents.
My grandfather...
My grandfather was five years old when he saw his own father
die.
He lost his sight from hunger.
And I spoke about the hypocrisy of Obama talking about
recognition of the genocide as a senator before he became.
President and not using the word "genocide" because of Turkish
pressure.
So the fact that the US government
picks the wrong word to recognize what we know is
genocide is not only appalling to us,
it's appalling to Americans.
And then I talked about the Armenian government.
We've come a long way, Armenia.
But there's still a lot of fucking work to do.
[crowd cheers]
It is the responsibility of the government
of the Republic of Armenia
to bring in the principles of egalitarian civic society.
[crowd cheers]
Getting rid of the institutional injustice abound...
[crowd cheering]
And stopping the depopulation that is occurring.
[crowd cheers]
I didn't know long it would take for the
reversal of fortunes, but I knew that it was coming.
♪ Unsettling electonic music ♪
In 2017, there were parliamentary elections.
I saw that as the last hope for Armenia to be able to come back
into progressive democracy from this oligarchic decline.
Calm down, man.
Calm down.
It's gonna be okay. [Laughs]
It's gonna be okay.
You're gonna be fine.
You're gonna be just fine.
Just... as long as you vote, you're gonna be fine.
As long as you vote, you're gonna be fine.
As long as you vote.
[Serj] Myself and a number of, uh,
artist friends, we went under the coalition called Justice.
Within Armenia.
Young people, please vote.
Don't block these elections, because this is your only chance
to make your voice heard.
Irrespective of corruption, irrespective of all the
limitations...
Some people in... in the government accused us of being
foreign spies, and to be called a foreign spy in my own,
you know, cultural homeland, you know?
And... that really pissed us all off.
[singing] ;/ don't give a fuck about the FBI}
♪ I don't give a fuck about the CIA ♪
♪ I don't give a fuck about the KGB ♪
♪ I don't give a fuck about the FSB ♪
Okay, so, [inaudible]...
[laughter and applause]
We wrote all these statements encouraging monitors to come to
Armenia and be eyewitnesses to what's going on.
[Serj] I went to at least 12 polling stations around the
country.
Some guy's writing stuff on a car.
But we realized quickly that the votes were already bought and
paid for ahead of time.
We had a guy who basically was keeping tabs on the voters,
sitting right behind the ballot box.
[Serj] Right in front of the eyes of the OSC,
right in front of the eyes of the European Council of Nations.
[Serj] Right in front of the eyes of all us monitors.
[Serj] I was so disappointed, I couldn't even bring myself to go
speak at the post-election press conference.
[speaking in Armenian]
[female reporter] President Serzh Sargsyan's ruling party is
well ahead in Armenia's landmark election.
This is the first ballot to usher in a new parliamentary
system of government, yet critics see the change as an
effort to prolong his political life.
And with claims of voting fraud multiplying...
[Serj] The Republican Party of Armenia won a huge majority,
and so it seemed like Armenia's progressive democratic future
was doomed.
♪ Singing in Armenian ♪
And I was fucking depressed.
♪ Singing in Armenian ♪
♪ soft melancholic music ♪
Power is always afraid of... of means that can
break out of it: Music, dancing, you know,
anything that can move a soul, you know?
And stir the soul.
[interviewer] So... can music change the world?
Music changes our intuitive hearts.
Like, our... our... our... music changes the way we feel about
things.
How we feel about things can overwhelm our logic.
-[John] [echoing] Four Armenian kids.
And now, we're on CNN and there's a riot because of us?
[Serj] And our logic being a part of the process can change
the world.
[Shavo] [echoing] We were soldiers with a voice to say
something.
[Rick] [echoing] That's the true artist's role in society.
It is our responsibility to push back.
[Serj] But it requires people realizing that they have the
power.
[echoing] Open your eyes, open your mouths,
close your hand and make a fist.
[crowd cheering]
Down with the system.
So it's the end of March and Ang goes,
"Hey, did you check out what's going on in Armenia?"
And she was looking at Facebook.
[Serj] Nikol Pashinyan, who was,
uh, an opposition member of parliament,
started a protest walk.
[Serj] And this little movement was starting.
[Serj] What was really unique about this movement were the
ethos.
[Serj] They said that we want a completely peaceful movement.
[blast, screaming]
[shouting]
[honking and shouting]
[Serj] The only way to describe it is decentralized civil
disobedience.
[shouting]
Police would come and go, "All right",
you gotta unblock this intersection,” and they would
just go on the sidewalk and the police would walk away and
they'd jump, the police would come back
[Serj] I mean, it was like Tom and Jerry!
It was almost funny.
♪ Dramatic music ♪
This was an ingenious way to show the people that they
owned the country.
I want to congratulate you for, so far,
holding one of the most successful civil disobendience
campaigns in all of Armenian history.
You've realized this cultural awakening and decision to pursue
justice is a basic human right.
I can see the love in your eyes and in your hearts like I did
when we played in 2015 with System of a Down from the stage.
[Serj] Finally, the government of Armenia realizes that there
is no way around these protests.
Serzh Sargsyan, the President, says,
"Let's talk about what... What your demands are."
And Nikol says, "We only have one demand..."
[Serj] So at this point, I've got this horrendous flu from
hell.
There's, like, shit running out of my nose,
I've got fever.
But I'm, like, obsessed just watching this 24/7.
[Serj] And then suddenly...
"Serj Tankian, it's time that you come and join your people."
And I'm like...
"Oh, my God." [laughs]
[crowd cheering]
[crowd chanting]
Next thing you know, you see priests,
you see soldiers on the street with the people,
walking arm-to-arm.
[honking and cheering]
♪ Exciting theme music ♪
And the announcement comes that the Prime Minister of Armenia has resigned.
"Serzh Sargsyan has resigned."
[cheering]
[female reporter] An eruption on the streets of Yerevan as
tens of thousands of citizens flood the capital to celebrate
the miraculous resignation of Serzh Sargsyan.
[male reporter] It was a David versus Goliath battle,
as peaceful protests brought down the most powerful
government in the history of this post-Soviet nation.
[cheering]
♪ Uplifting music ♪
[cheering]
[honking]
[Serj] There were so many people on the street greeting us
that we couldn't drive.
[cheering]
I saw thousands of people on the street
with the most joy in their eyes that I've ever seen in my life.
[cheering]
And they were honoring him,
and me, with traditional Armenian gata and cognac and
stuff like that, you know? [Laughs]
It's just so surreal, man.
It's so surreal.
[beep]
[cheering and applause]
[Serj] We, uh, went to have some tea and... and some dessert.
He... he's... he's executed the perfect revolution,
and I'm asking, "So, wh... how many of you were there in the beginning?
And how was it? How did you plan this?
Was that planned? Was that...
Like, he's just, like, answering them and laughing.
And at one point, he says, "Do you realize something?"
He goes, "You realize that Anna and I, my wife and I",
were in the audience in 2015 watching you in System of a.
"Down."
Oh, yeah?
He goes, "I figured, if you guys can bring 50,000 people",
we should be able to bring 50... More... more than 50,000 people
and do a revolution.""
He goes, "That made me feel like this is all possible."
And I was like...
[sighs]
[crowd cheering]
[cheering]
I'm so proud that I come from a nation...
♪ "Bari Aragil" singing continues ♪
All right.
I'm so proud that I come from a nation that created a peaceful
revolution that... that was able to hand people their destiny.
And it's a lesson to the world that positive change can occur
in today's era of division.
And, uh, all this right-wing extremism and all this fucking
shit going on in the world, there is hope.
♪ Soft emotional music ♪
The House voted overwhelmingly to recognize the century-old
- mass killings... - Mass killings of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
[Pelosi] As international observers wrote at the time,
"It was a campaign of race extermination."
One that we, as members of Congress and as freedom-loving
people, have a moral obligation to never forget.
A moment when the House of Representatives refused to be
enlisted in the cause of genocide denial.
[male reporter] The non-binding resolution passed 405 to 11.
The resolution is adopted.
[cheering]
♪ "Electric Yerevan" by Serj Tankian ♪