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| Nederlands: | Armenië-Azerbeidzjan: Politiek Songfestival... |
As voting for the Eurovision Song Contest gets underway in Moscow, bartlemot tweets that the telephone number to vote for the Armenian entry in Azerbaijan was censored. In a second tweet, the same user says that instead of displaying a telephone number in the lower section of the screen it was instead left blank. Armenia also staged its own action with Twitter reporting that its host purposely showed a photograph of a statue in the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh three times intended to agitate viewers in Azerbaijan. Eurovision is notorious for its political undertones, but with the two countries deadlocked in efforts to resolve the long-standing conflict over Nagorno Karabakh since the May 1994 ceasefire, some feared the worse when both countries today showed up trending on Twitter.
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The reason Sirusho displayed the Tatik-Papik monument is because when each country is introduced there was a little cut scene displaying representations of the country’s culture and sites. One of those for Armenia was the Tatik-Papik monument in Stepanakert- which was designed by Soviet Armenians. Azerbaijan complained and had that scene pulled from the show’s final. In a perfect come-uppance in my opinion Sirusho responded by displaying it anyway. I know it seems slightly petty, but so is whining that the organizers of Eurovision decided to use an Armenian monument to represent Armenia. Also its easier to be petty when you are giving Azerbaijan 1 point along with it- unlike the cheating Azeris.
An extended version of this post is available on the Frontline Club:
http://frontlineclub.com/blogs/onnikkrikorian/2009/05/festering-wounds-overshadow-eurovision-in-the-south-caucasus.html