Serj Tankian performing “Artsakh” (Photo: screen capture from rollingstone.com)
LOS ANGELES (Agence France Presse)””A year after Armenians launched a generous new peace prize, the frontman of rockers System of a Down sees more to come in the country ”” including perhaps a music festival.
Serj Tankian, singer of the chart-topping California hard rock band, composed a theme song for the Aurora Prize, which was inaugurated a year ago in the Armenian capital Yerevan.
The award, backed by Hollywood A-lister George Clooney, is presented on behalf of Armenians who survived the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
The second edition of the award was presented on May 28 to Tom Catena, the sole doctor in Sudan’s conflict-ravaged Nuba Mountains who has cared for thousands of people, treating everything from war injuries to measles.
Catena, an American and Catholic missionary, will receive $100,000 plus an additional $1 million which will feed charities of his choice.
Tankian, who congratulated Catena in a video appearance at the ceremony as the band prepared for a European tour, said the Aurora Prize showed gratitude to those who helped survivors.
“Any group of people that have suffered immensely, whether it’s genocide or any other type of human-created catastrophe, should embody compassion and an understanding of that pain better than anyone else,”