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It all started in 2023 when Imagine Dragons decided to play a show in Baku, Azerbaijan. At the time, System Of A Down vocalist Serj Tankian criticized the band, saying that the show lended legitimacy to the Azerbaijani regime as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict continued to rage on.

Long history lesson short, in 2022 the Azerbaijan government formed an illegal blockade of the Republic of Artsakh causing a serious humanitarian crisis where the residents of Artsakh went without food, electricity, and medicine for over a year. So you can see why Tankian would be pissed, especially considering System Of A Down‘s stance on the matter in both their 2020 singles “Genocidal Humanoidz” and “Protect The Land”.

In a 2023 statement, Tankian wrote: “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.”

Imagine Dragons played the show anyway, and Tankian proceeded to slam their decision in an interview 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.”

Then in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Imagine Dragons vocalist Dan Reynolds finally broke his silence on the matter saying: “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?”

Which kinda feels a little half-hearted given Tankian‘s sprawling statements, right? Doubly so as Tankian responded in a lengthy Instagram post saying: “Dan Reynolds stated: ‘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?’

“Respectfully, I draw the line at ethnic cleansing and genocide. Azerbaijan’s dictatorship with popular support was already into a 9 month starvation blockade of Nagorno-Karabagh qualified as Genocide by former @icc prosecutor @luismorenoocampo when they decided to play Baku. 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.

“Thanks for reading @nmemagazine @rollingstone @the.independent @metalsucks”