AZERBAIJANI AUTHORITIES INTERROGATE MUSIC FAN OVER EUROVISION VOTE FOR ARMENIA

Asbarez
horities-interrogate-music-fan-over-eurovision-vot e-for-armenia/
Aug 14, 2009

BAKU-It’s a simple song competition. Or is it?

The Eurovision Song Contest has long promoted itself as an event
where national audiences in Europe and beyond can put politics aside
and enjoy a long night of entertainment performed in the spirit of
friendly competition, if not necessarily musical mastery.

But as Eurovision’s reach has traveled further east, old political
rivalries are muddying the contest’s claim on good clean fun.

Rovshan Nasirli, a young Eurovision fan living in the Azerbaijani
capital Baku, says he was summoned this week to the country’s National
Security Ministry-to explain why he had voted for Armenia during this
year’s competition in May.

"They wanted an explanation for why I voted for Armenia. They said it
was a matter of national security," Nasirli said. "They were trying
to put psychological pressure on me, saying things like, ‘You have
no sense of ethnic pride. How come you voted for Armenia?’ They made
me write out an explanation, and then they let me go."

A total of 43 Azeris voted for the Armenian duo Inga and Anush,
and their song, "Jan-Jan."

Nasirli, like others, used his mobile phone to send a text message
expressing his preference, hardly imagining that his vote would
eventually result in a summons from national security officials.

By contrast, 1,065 Armenians voted for the Azerbaijani team, apparently
without consequence.

The official antipathy can frequently trickle down to personal bias
among ordinary Armenians and Azeris. But not always.

In the case of Eurovision, Nasirli said he preferred the Armenian entry
because it sounded "more Azeri" than his country’s own submission, a
duet featuring Arash, a pop superstar born in Iran and based in Sweden:
"I voted for Armenia to protest the fact that Arash was representing
Azerbaijan. Also, the Armenian song was closer to Azerbaijani style
than Arash’s song," Nasirli said.

Some Azeris cried foul when Arash was chosen to partner with a
relatively young and unknown Azerbaijani singer, AySel, for the
country’s Eurovision entry with the song "Always."

But others saw the decision as a shrewd move that would lend star
power and an international name to the Azerbaijani submission.

In the end, the gamble appeared to pay off. Azerbaijan came in third
place, its highest Eurovision showing ever. Armenia’s Inga and Anush
came in tenth.

Many Azerbaijanis celebrated the results as a victory over Yerevan. The
third-place finish, however, was apparently not enough to satisfy
Azerbaijan’s National Security Ministry, which summoned Nasirli to
its Nasimi district office on August 12.

Nasirli, who was contacted by RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service after
posting a comment about his experience on the station’s website,
said he saw nothing wrong in his vote for Armenia.

"If Azerbaijani parliament members can go to Armenia, then what’s
wrong with voting for the Armenian song in the contest?" he asked. "I
told them, ‘If you don’t want people to vote for Armenia, then why
are you in the same contest with them?’"

‘Police State’

Ministry officials were not available for comment on Nasirli’s
experience, but the case has set off alarm bells in Azerbaijan’s
civil rights community.

Activist Avaz Hasanov called the move "unbelievable" and warned that
Azerbaijan, which has already seen a steady clampdown on civil rights
under President Ilham Aliyev, seems to be moving toward a police state.

"There are no state secrets involved here. It was an open contest. It’s
just people expressing their personal taste," Hasanov said. "It’s
unbelievable that they are trying to keep that kind of control over
people. Limiting people’s choices in such an obvious manner won’t
do any good for the country. If all SMS and phone conversations are
being screened, then this country is nothing more than a police state,
with people being watched all the time."

Some see the ministry’s scrutiny of the Eurovision vote as a bizarre
extension of the government’s preoccupation with gaining the upper
hand in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

Shades of the Karabakh conflict could be detected in the Eurovision
contest itself. The Armenian team sparked a storm of controversy when
the original video backdrop for their performance featured an image
of a memorial in Nagorno-Karabakh that has a profound meaning for
Karabakh Armenians.

Russia, the 2009 Eurovision host, requested the offending image
be removed. But Armenia stoked the dispute further when its 2008
contestant, Sirusho, appeared during this year’s contest holding a
photograph of the same monument.

Elmir Mirzoyev, a commentator on Azeri cultural issues, says some
issues related to Nagorno-Karabakh undoubtedly fall within the purview
of the National Security Ministry. Fueling ethnic hostilities, however,
should not be one of them, he said.

"I have to know what the ultimate goal for our state is-to restore
territorial integrity, or to refuse to accept Armenians as an
ethnicity? Security services are serious organizations. What is their
function? To spread ethnic hatred against Armenians, or to restore
our territory?" he asked.

Mirzoyev continued: "Our government has never declared that Armenians
can’t live in our country, or that those voting for Armenia should
be summoned to the National Security Ministry."