NEW YORK (AFP) ― U.S. rockers System of a Down will play a free show next year in Armenia to raise awareness on the centennial of the World War I-era mass killings.

The California hard rock band, whose four members are of Armenian heritage, announced a performance in Yerevan’s Republic Square on April 23, a day ahead of the country’s main commemorations.

System of a Down has long campaigned for recognition of the 1915 killings as genocide, but the performance will be the band‘’s first in Armenia.

Lead singer Serj Tankian said that the band hoped to raise public consciousness through the performance and previous European dates, on what he called the “Wake Up the Souls Tour.”

“The important thing is also justice. If someone killed my family and burned my house down and I’m running after them for 100 years for them to turn around and say, ‘Sorry,’ what does that mean?” Tankian said in a video message released Monday.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their ancestors were killed in a 1915-1916 genocide by Turkey’s former Ottoman Empire.

Turkey categorically rejects the term genocide and argues that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

System of a Down have had a series of successful albums over the past decade and has often had a political edge, with the song “B.Y.O.B.” notable for its criticism of the Iraq war.

The Beirut-born Tankian recently also wrote a symphonic piece to mark the 1915 killings with New Zealand composer John Psathas.