

The recording of “Fire” was made on the train from Tbilisi to Baku, April 2009. Seeing the stamps of the Republic of Armenia on our passports, the Azeri officers rejected our entry to Azerbaijan and accused us of being American agents; collected our maps/newspapers/books, and erased the pictures they found of Armenia in our cameras. I don’t recall how, but we convinced them we were only artists, and could manage to pass the border. As the train embarked, the conductor and the hostess were aroused with anger and performed the recorded dialogue on genocide. I was exposed to their anger; however I could understand only parts of what they said…
Conductor: They use you.
Hostess: He says, ‘Armenians use you’.
Conductor: You translate for me...
Hostess: They sell you this stuff (mentioning the carts, maps/newspapers/books) and they use you. They do it so you decry Azerbaijan. .
Conductor: I have nothing baneful to speak about the Turks. I respect, and I would never make a false statement. They committed genocide against the Turkish people, that of what I heard. But we don’t have any of the names.
Hostess: Turkish youth are faithful and patriotic. You have the duty! You the youngsters...
Conductor: I see the Armenian name on my land in your map! (mentioning the Karabagh region…)
Conductor: I know the genocide in Turkey. And is this how you react to this? Armenians killed the Azeri people, they killed the Turks. I respect the victims of the genocide… A nation was nearly ceasing to exist! Think about it! The Armenians dream of doing the same to the Azeri people.
Conductor: Do you know how they killed the Turks? At night, the Armenians killed the Turks… The time of genocide… Do you know what genocide is? Look around yourself, look around…