System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian has hit out at the Israeli government for formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide of 1915, accusing it of hypocrisy and of exploiting Armenian history for political gain while, in his words, carrying out atrocities of its own in Gaza and Lebanon.
The Armenian-American singer — who, along with his bandmates, has spent decades campaigning for international recognition of the genocide — made clear he did not welcome the move, delivering a blunt, profane rebuke in a video statement.
On Sunday, June 28, Israel’s cabinet voted unanimously to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide, the Ottoman Empire’s mass killing and deportation of Armenian Christians during World War I. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who brought the resolution forward, called it a “moral and historical duty” and said “it is never too late to do the right thing.” The decision still requires ratification by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to become official policy.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that between 664,000 and 1.2 million Armenians died as a result of the Ottoman campaign between spring 1915 and autumn 1916. With the vote, Israel joins more than 30 countries, including the United States, France and Germany, that have recognized the killings as genocide. The move is widely seen as further straining Israel’s already frayed relationship with Turkey, which rejects the genocide label and branded the recognition “politically motivated.”
In a video shared on the social media, Tankian argued that Israel had spent years working against recognition before reversing course, and accused its government of weaponizing Armenian suffering.
He said (via theprp): “For many years, Israel’s government used AIPAC to lobby the US Congress to not recognize the Armenian genocide, to prevent Congress from recognizing the Armenian genocide, due to their relationship with Turkey, their intelligence sharing with Turkey, et cetera.”
“Today, the Netanyahu cabinet decided to recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915 — a genocide that led Hitler thinking that he could do what he could do to the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s.”
“The fact that this government is already committing genocide in Gaza and Lebanon decided to recognize the genocide of my grandparents is the worst f**king thing that they could have done to Armenians — by using our history, our genocide, our pain to their political advantage.”
“F**k you.”
Tankian‘s anger centers on the timing. Israel had long declined to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide, a stance several reports have linked to its desire to preserve ties with Turkey. Those ties have deteriorated sharply since the war in Gaza began, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan becoming one of Israel’s loudest critics.
The accusations Tankian levels are themselves heavily contested. A United Nations commission concluded last year that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and a separate UN inquiry this month accused Israel of deliberately targeting children there. Israel has firmly rejected both findings, describing them as attempts to “delegitimise and demonise” the country and calling the latter a “libellous sham.” Israel launched its military campaign in response to the Hamas-led attack of October 2023, in which roughly 1,200 people were killed. According to figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which the UN regards as reliable, tens of thousands of Palestinians have since been killed.
For Tankian and System Of A Down, the Armenian Genocide has been a defining theme throughout their career. The band’s activism around their shared Armenian-American heritage has long served as a unifying force, even amid differing political views among the members. That commitment led to a landmark homecoming concert in Yerevan, Armenia in 2015, and in 2020 the band broke a years-long studio silence to release two new singles that raised $600,000 for the people of Artsakh during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
The video isn’t the first time Tankian has spoken out recently. During the band’s headline set at the Sick New World festival in Las Vegas this April, he performed the traditional Armenian prayer “Der Voghormia” in memory of genocide victims, telling the crowd: “The problem is that genocide still occurs today, around the world. We have not learned our lesson of people over profits”
System Of A Down are currently touring Europe with support from Queens Of The Stone Age and Acid Bath, having opened the run with a 29-song set at Strawberry Arena in Stockholm on June 29. The band is scheduled to play Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on July 13 and 15.
