Eurovision

[Hellektor]

Attention Siggie!

On a related note, you're complaining about these other users getting personal, etc., however a couple posts up, you insult KanadaHye by asking him if he's a Turk.

Dear Siggie,

Don't mind me replying, just read the posts between me and KanadaHye from the beginning to know why I asked him that, while I very well know calling an Armenian Turk is an insult. I ASKED him if he was (didn't call him), given his constant circumventing the issue and insisting that fake “Azerbaijan's” free and malicious translation of the term Azarbaijan into “Land of Fire” was totally OK, while he called my explanations with ample historical facts nothing but Armenian propaganda (strange coming from an Armenian, don't you think? Even more so coming from one with Hye in their nick) and accused me of “Claiming Azarbaijan means "Land of Atropat" and not "land of fire" for political purposes [thus] misleading”.

I didn't report the abuse to get users banned. If I were a mod, I wouldn't ban anyone which would make me a “bad” mod. I only wanted to kindly ask you not to delete the whole thread. I did this, because this has happened in the past many a time and at least a hundred posts of mine, many of them long and entirely typed, have been lost. No problems with KanadaHye though. Our discussion did not cross the red lines IMHO and was in the limits of civilized yet heated debates.

[KanadaHye]

Re: Eurovision

Don't worry about it Siggie, Hellektor doesn't realize I was just picking his brain. Well, maybe he does now....

I agree with you and I appreciate your spirit.

[Federate]

Re: Eurovision

A summary of the Armenia/Iran-"azerbaijan" information war that took place during Eurovision 2009.
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Politics in Eurovision: The contest is over, but not the debates


Some episodes of backstage life of Eurovision-2009 held in Russian capital Moscow last week can develop into a real political scandal. Last Saturday saw a grand finale of this popular pan-European song contest in which Armenia was voted by the continent’s viewers and national juries into the top ten among 25 finalists.

But the scandal had already burst out with no connection to the outcome of the contest. Not surprisingly, the Armenian-Azerbaijani standoff has stepped onto the show biz domain. Azerbaijan, the eventual third place finisher in the contest, that set the row going.

It started in the buildup to the final when, under pressure from Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, the organizing committee of the contest removed the image of the monument by Armenian sculptor Sargis Baghdasaryan called “We Are Our Mountains”, one of the symbols of Nagorno-Karabakh, from the presentation video preceding the performance by the Armenian duo. The Azeri Foreign Ministry declared that the monument is located in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh ─ “an integral part of Azerbaijan”. The organizing committee of Eurovision, trying to avoid a scandal, immediately accepted Baku’s argument.

Nonetheless, the scandal was inevitable.

The Union of Armenians in Russia made a statement: “For a wonder, that absurd demand was met. Even if we disregard the fact that it is a major violation of the contest rules and infringes upon the contestants’ rights, the mere fact that the organizers were ready to fall so easily for the ridiculous reasoning brought by the Azeri side famous for its Armenophobia (fear of Armenians) is perplexing.”

While presenting the results of the Armenia tele-voting, singer Sirusho was demonstratively holding a clipboard with the image of the monument on its back, which she exposed to viewing several times. During the presentation of the Armenia vote tallies broadcast live from Yerevan, the image of the monument could also be seen on a background screen.

Azerbaijan was quick to react. Political analyst Fuad Akhundov stated: “That monument, installed in 1997, is quite conspicuous by itself. Meant to depict elderly people “grown into earth” who themselves as if have become mountains, but built with rose tufa stone brought from Yerevan is a perfect demonstration of how Armenian ultranationalists have been and are still trying to catch hold of a foreign land and present it as theirs.”

It is noteworthy, however, that the Azeris are winking at a different fact.

It turned out that the presentation video preceding the Azeri participants’ act had a picture of the Mausoleum of Poets in the Iranian city of Tabriz. The Mausoleum of Poets is where many Iranian poets, scientists, visionaries are buried, including Hagani Shirvani, Asadi Tusi, Gatran Tebrizi, Shahriyar. The Mausoleum has an unusual design: it is an underground hall with modernist structure built on top of it. There used to be a traditional dome instead, but it collapsed in consequence of an earthquake. The tombstones with the mosaic depictions of poets are in the underground hall.

Azerbaijan has always made claims for the northern part of Iran (Iranian Azerbaijan), calling its capital Tebriz “an ancient Azeri city” and by that evoking a hostile reaction from Iranian authorities.

The Armenian side has already turned to the Iranian Embassy in Yerevan inviting its attention to the presence of the Iranian architectural complex in the Azeri participants’ presentation video.

Young people started sending messages to Iranian mass media saying that while blaming others Azerbaijan itself appropriated Iran’s cultural heritage.

The Iranian Embassy has taken interest in that message and intends to ask for explanations from the contest organizers.

It became known that Azerbaijan did not broadcast the Armenian contestants’ number so that nobody could vote for Armenia. And that is a major violation of contest rules.

For example, in 2005 Lebanon’s television networks could not assure that they would broadcast the entire contest, including the Israeli entry, without interruption, citing Lebanese legislation prohibiting the broadcast of Israeli content and decided to withdraw. But they were given a three year ban since they withdrew almost three months after the ‘no consequence’ withdrawal deadline.

According to the head of the voting project of Armenia’s Public TV Ruben Muradyan, “a complaint with a demand to penalize Azerbaijan’s broadcaster has been sent to the organizing committee of Eurovision-2009”. Muradyan says that if found at fault, Azerbaijan will face at least a fine, and possibly disqualification.

Consequently, given the consistent steps on Armenia’s part, Azerbaijan might face sanctions imposed by the organizers of Eurovision.

The repercussions of Eurovision-2009 might still produce a loud political echo in the region…

It should be noted that there were conflicts between the Armenians and Azeri last year as well, when the duet with Samir Javadzadze (native of Nagorno-Karabakh) and El’nur Guseinov was representing Azerbaijan at Eurovision-2008, and Sirusho was representing Armenia.

Right after the end of the contest in Belgrade, where Armenia finished fourth, and Azerbaijan eighth, Javadzadze stated: “The fact that Azerbaijan is four steps below Armenia has upset us most of all. I am from Karabakh. Even if this is just a contest, still, they are our enemies. After the finale, we couldn’t calm down till morning ─ we couldn’t stop crying.”

“Most of all Armenians wanted to infuriate us and get in our way. They were laughing at us, making remarks and even offended one of the members of our delegation during a dinner, but then calmed down. It’s a trait characteristic of their nation, it’s their national peculiarity ─ they are Armenian, that says it all. They have to demonstrate their bad manners in everything.”

It was then that the Azeri structures promised “to gain a victory over Armenia in Eurovision-2009”. El’nur Guseinov openly declared: “I am convinced that next year Azerbaijan won’t be facing this problem anymore. Our country has collected enough information about the contest.”

http://armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&AID=3752&CID=3605&IID=1236&lng=eng

[despina]

Re: Eurovision

Yeaa.. politis in esc! Well we can all beat that politic voters by performing a wonderful song! Art is a great way is to show people that they are wrong, I think.

[Mukuch]

Re: Eurovision

Yeaa.. politis in esc! Well we can all beat that politic voters by performing a wonderful song! Art is a great way is to show people that they are wrong, I think.

Eurovision got nothing to do with art.

[hipeter924]

Re: Eurovision

Eurovision got nothing to do with art.

It doesn't have to. People's hatreds are enough.

[Mukuch]

Re: Eurovision

It doesn't have to. People's hatreds are enough.

Enough for what?

[hipeter924]

Re: Eurovision

Enough for what?

Enough to feel they have to piss others off.

[Mukuch]

Re: Eurovision

Enough to feel they have to piss others off.

So what you say is that the only purpose of Eurovision is to piss people off?
hm....interesting....

[hipeter924]

Re: Eurovision

So what you say is that the only purpose of Eurovision is to piss people off?
hm....interesting....

No. The point of Eurovision is to make a good song.

Its just that Azeri's use the contest as an opportunity to piss people off.