EUROVISION VOTERS QUIZZED FOR ‘NATIONAL BETRAYAL’

Metro
Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Officials in Azerbaijan take Eurovision so seriously, they have hauled
in for questioning people who had the audacity to vote for a rival
country’s entry instead.

Music fans have been quizzed by police over why they expressed
preference by text for a song representing neighbouring nation Armenia.

Tensions between the two countries have been high for some time,
centring on the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region – cause of a six-year
war between 1988 and 1994.

But cheesy pop music has become the latest frontier, following
Azerbaijan’s third-place finish at this year’s song contest three
months ago.

It is thought that 43 Azeris voted for the Armenian song instead of
doing what was seen as their patriotic duty.

One of the people detained by police was Rovshan Nasirli, who says
he snubbed the Azeri entry because one of its singers was an outsider.

Iranian-Swedish singer Arash accompanied homegrown, 19-year-old R&B
artist Aysel Teymurzadeh on the song, "Always".

Mr Nasirli said: "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."

Amenian duo Inga and Anush Arshakyan only actually finished tenth with
their track, "Jan Jan" – while 1,065 Armenians voted for Azerbaijan.

After being released by his own country’s police, Mr Nasirli claimed:
"They said it was a matter of national security.

"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?’" Police told the BBC voters were "merely invited to
explain" their choice of favourite song.

Norway’s Alexander Rybak won this year’s competition with his song
"Fairytale", while Iceland finished second, Turkey fourth and the
UK fifth.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress