Serj Tankian, the renowned musician and lead singer of the famous American Armenian rock band System Of a Down, has called out the fact that several popular entertainers have performed in Azerbaijan, which he views as a method of helping to "whitewash this fascist racist dictator's image" in the eyes of the world.
Tankian was responding on Twitter to one fan who had posted video of a French report from ARTE noting popular artists that had performed for dictators in certain countries around the world. At one point in the video, Jennifer Lopez is seen singing "Happy Birthday" to the president of Turkmenistan, while Rihanna concert footage from Azerbaijan and Kanye West concert footage from Kazakhstan are also posted.
“I am really disheartened seeing fellow artists and sports leagues being used to whitewash Azerbaijan’s war crimes, human rights record and oppression. This fascist, racist oligarchic family run oil dictatorship does not deserve the F1 or artists like badgalriri [(Rihanna)] to make them look good around the world,” Tankian wrote.
“Every one of these events and artists are responsible for further human rights violations [in Azerbaijan],” he added.
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